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The Erection of Centre County
and the Townships Thereof.
A Paper Read by Miss Mary H. Linn Before the Woman’s
Club of Bellefonte. Facts that Every Centre
Countian Should Have at Hand.
white brothers. We have the story ' Miss Potter, the captain’s sister, and
of an Indian trying to decoy Mrs.
Boggs’ son into an ambush by
imitating a wild turkey, but Robert
was wary and shot the Indian.
Peter Grove, living near Eagleville,
neard that an Indian was inquiring
as to his whereabouts. Toward eve-
ning he made a dummy, placed it as
though he were still at work. The
Indian stealthily approached and fired
at the dummy, but Grove’s musket
settled him.
Although Penn's valley was within
it was
there likes the country much bet-
ter. August 7th, he crosses the
Seven Mountains, and if you will
read his description of that ex-
perience you will be reminded of if
every time you do the same thing
in a motor car. Though Mr.
Fithian then passed beyond the
bounds of Centre County it may be
interesting to you to know that he
joined the army as chaplain of a
New Jersey battalion and died of
dysentery at Fort Washington the
In preparing this paper for the
Boe Woman’s Club, I have
done no research work. I have
merely “excerpted” the history of
Centre County written by my
father, John Blair Linn, and publish-
ed by Col. Evarts almost fifty years
ago, hoping that some of you who
have not time to go through the
bulky volume may be interested in
some of the facts of Centre Coun-
ty’s pre-natal history.
Centre County, named from it's
geographical position in the State,
was erected February 13th, 1800.
In the last forty years there has
teen a strong tendency to change
the correct spelling, CENTRE, to
Center. The Century Dictionary,
ize eleventh edition of the Encyclope-
dia Britannica, and even the latest
cdition of the latter, use the in-
correct form. The State Geograph-
ical Board has lately given its’
authorization to the correct spelling,
“Centre,” quoting from the act
passed for the erecting of the coun-
ty. See Bioren’s Laws of Pennsyl-
vania 1789-1802, Vol. 6, p. 85.
Every resident in Centre County is
asked to help in the complete res-
toration of the correct spelling,
CENTRE.
Cumberland County had been
erected in 1750. Its jurisdiction ex-
tended over all lands lying west of
the Susquehanna and northward and
westward of York County, so from
1750 to 1771 all of Penn's Valley
and the western end of Nittany
Valley were in Cumberland County.
(See Scull’s map of 1770 and the
genealogical map of the counties by
John H. Campbell, published 1911,
and revised, 1923.) Bedford County
was erected in 1771. Ferguson town-
ship, part of Harris, the whole of
Benner and Spring and part of
Walker were in Bedford. The ter-
ritory eastward remained in Cum-
berland County until 1772, when
Northumberland County was erected
and all of Centre County was in
it excepting the small portion of
Harris township covered by the
Bear Meadows and the Seven
Mountains. An act passed the
same day, defining the boundaries
of Bedford County, was contra-
dictory, so there was passed six
months later an act which brough the
larger part of the present territory of
Ferguson township, the southern
part of Halfmoon, portions of Tay-
lor and the lower end of Rush with-
in Bedford County. In 1787 Hun-
tingdon County was erected.
Moshannon Creek was made the
division line between Northumber-
land and Huntingdon thus placing
those parts of Ferguson and Half-
moon townships above described in
Huntingdon. 1789, Mifflin was
erected out of Cumberland and
Northumberland and the terri-
tory of the following townships
was in Mifflin from September, 1789,
to February, 1880, when Centre was
erected: Liberty, Curtin, Burnside,
western portions of Marion, Walk-
er, Gregg, and all the county west
of that except parts of Ferguson,
Etc.,, mentioned above. The eastern
portion of Gregg, all of Penn,
Haines and Miles were in Northum-
berland. In 1795 Lycoming County
was erected and a small portion of
Marion and a large portion of
Walker townships were in that
county, We cannot go into the
formation of the organized town-
ships which composed Centre Coun-
ty’s territory at the time of its
erection; it suffices to say that
Bald Eagle and Potter first emerg-
ed from the chaos shortly after the
erection of Northumberland County,
and these with Spring, Haines, Pat.
ton, Miles and Halfmoon, enjoyed a
well-earned state of rest in Centre
County until 1839, when Clinton was
formed from Centre and Lycoming
and a portion was taken from the
north-eastern section of Centre.
The date 1800 marks the emer-
gence of Centre County as an en-
tity, but for its real beginning we
must go back much further, to 1769,
when the first permanent settler,
Andrew Boggs, built his cabin on
the Joseph Poultney tract, surveyed
the same year, situated on the
north bank of Bald Eagle Creek,
just east of the road wheer it turns
northerly, about 100 rods be-
low the mouth of Spring creek.
But behind the settler are the tracks
of the scout and the discoverer,
and still further back we go, to
1757. It was the very severe win-
ter after the building of Fort
Augusta. The river was frozen over
and the path along it so blocked
with snow that the Indians dis-
patched to Chinklacamoose (Clear-
field) for information by Major
Burd, then in command at the fort,
were forced to return. Early in
April Major Burd sent out on the
same errand Capt. William Pat-
terson with ten men. They succeed-
ed in getting as far as Chinklaca-
moose and returned to Fort Augusta
on rafts April 25th, having seen
neither French nor Indian on the
march.
In 1758 Frederick Post, starting on
a perilous mission from the pro-
prietary government to the Dela-
wares of Ohio, took the path along
the east or left bank of the West
Branch, crossed it at Great Island,
the next day forded Beech Creek
and came to the forks of the Indian
path; one branch lead southwest
along the Bald Eagle, past the
“Nest,” (Milesburg), through our
own gap, up Buffalo Run, through
Matternville to Frankstown; the
other lead due west to Chinklaca-
moose, . crossing the . Moshannon.
Post took the. latter . From
Post's journal we find that in 1758
the paths through Centre and Clin-
ton Counties were only war paths
for incursions of hostile Dela-
wares and Shawanese. In 1759, or
possibly a little later, Capt. James
Potter and Capt. William Thompson
came up the West Branch and the
Bald Eagle, took, at Beech Creek,
the south-western branch of the
path which they left on entering
Nittany Valley, striking across the
valley and reaching the top of Nit-
tany Mountain. There Capt. Pot-
ter cried out, “By Heavens, Thomp-
son, I have discovered an empire!”
They came to the spring at the
Old Fort, had a distressing time for
want of food, finally struck John
Penn's Creek and got back to Fort
Augusta. Job Chilloway, a friendly
Indian, was at the forton their ar-
rival and, feeling that the valley
was lost to the Indians, decided he
would profit by it, so he sells Col,
Hunter the right of discovery. Col.
Hunter hurries to Philadelphia and
sells his right to Reuben Haines.
In the meantime Capt. Potter
speeds to the same place to make
application and procure warrants.
Later Haines and Potter compromis-
ed, Haines taking the eastern end of
the valley as far as Spring Mills
and Potter the other end.
Still further we have to go, for
back of the scout and the discover-
er were the Indian occupants. The
Shawanese were the earliest Indians
of whom we have any reliable in-
formation. The Muncy tribe of the
Delaware nation had preceded them,
but as early as 1728 had removed
to the headwaters of the Allegheny,
leaving their name to Muncy moun-
tain. The Shawanese had been ex-
pelled from Florida by the Spaniards
in 1698, and sixty families of them
had come to Pennsylvania. Though
the Delawares and Shawanese had
their own kings, both nations were
tributary to the Iroquois, or Six
Nations, who had their council
house at Onondago (now Syracuse,
N. YY) In 1728 Shikellimy was ap-
pointed by the council to reside
among the Shawanese and he came
to an old Muncy village between
Lewisburg and West Milton. He was
succeeded in 1748 by his son, John
Shikellimy.
In July, 1754, the proprietaries of
Pennsylvania bought from the Six
Nations, whom they always recog-
nized as the owners, land in which
was embraced the greater part of
Centre County, The Indians and
Conrad Weiser who, in 1732, by
special request of the deputies of
Six Nations, had been appointed by
Governor Gordon interpreter, think-
ing the waters of the Juniata, which
were intended to be included in the
purchase, ran much northward of
the mouth of Penn’s Creek, soon
found this would include the waters
of the West Branch and were very
much dissatisfied. You will remem-
ber this was the time of the break-
ing out of the French and Indian
war and this dissatisfaction of the
Indians was likely to have serious
consequences for British interests.
Braddock’s defeat emboldened the
Indians, the Penn’s Creek massacre
occurred just above the present
Selinsgrove and Forts Littleton,
Shirley, Granville and Augusta were
built. The government applied to
the proprietaries to limit the bounds
of the purchase. A commission was
sent from England and, after great
exertion, the difficulty was settled
at Easton in 1758. The boundary,
instead of running north-west to
Lake Erie, stopped at Buffalo Creek,
thence ran almost directly west to
the junction of Spring Creek with
Bald Eagle, now Milesburg; then
southwest, finally terminating at the
Maryland line, between the bounda-
ries of Bedford and Somerset coun-
ties. See the copy of Reading
Howell's map, 1792, in Linn’s Annals
of Buffalo Valley. This also was
the time of the encroachments of
the Connecticut people, the southern
limit of their claim running through
Centre County a few miles north
of Bellefonte.
Bald Eagle and Logan are the
two Indian chiefs whose names
have come down with peculiar in-
terest to the people of this county.
Bald Eagle was a Delaware chief
and spoke English very well. He has
left his name among our valleys,
streams and ridges and the “Nest”
spoken of before, was where he liv-
ed when in Centre County. Logan
was the best known son of the first
Shikellimy, an Oneida, therefore be-
longing to the Six Nations, the
rulers of the Delawares. Shikellimy
named his son for his friend, James
Logan William Penn’s secretary for
the province. He was a faithful friend
to the whites and lived in many
parts of central Pennsylvania. If
Mifflin County has its story of
Logan's kindness to his white broth-
er, Centre County has its counterpart
in a kind act of Logan’s wife. They
were living at Logan’s gap (Hecla)
and she had taken a sack of corn
to the mill on the Juniata. She had
it ground and on the way home,
thinking that Mrs. Boggs might be
out of meal, instead of going home
around by the end of the moun-
tain, (Lemont) crossed into
Bald Eagle valley down to the
Bogg’s. Not finding Mrs. Bogg’s at
home she told her little girl to get
something to put some meal in, and
thereupon emptied out about one-
half; of the meal, threw the sack on
her pony and recrossed Muncy moun-
tain to her home. This was the wo-
man who was so cruelly murdered
in West Virginia in 1774. Hecke-
welder says that Logan took to
drinking and was murdered between
Detroit and his" home at Miami.
Bald Pagle’also ‘was’ murdered on
the Monongaliela. ‘The ans were
not always so gentle ‘with « their
these officers Lieut. Thomas Askey
the purchase line of 1758,
not until after Col. Henry Bouquet
in 1764 on the banks of the Mus-
kungum in Ohio, had compelled the
Indians to give up their white cap-
tives and sue for peace, that settle-
ments were resumed west of the
Susquehanna. The first legal sur-
vey in Penns Valley was made un-
der the deputy secretary, William
Maclay, in 1766. What was called
the “Officers’ Survey” was made
along Bald Eagle creek in 1769.
The officers under. Col. Bouquet, on
their return to Bedford in December,
1764, made an agreement among
next year.
In 1776, certain inhabitants of
Potter township applied for arms
and ammunition for themselves, and
for powder and lead for the Indians
“to nable them to get a living, so
they would not have to go to the
enemy for a supply.” July 15th to
September 28th, the convention
which framed the first constitution
of Pennsylvania met in Philadel-
phia and James Potter was one of
the Northumberland County mem-
bers, In 1777 there were Indian
alarms and in the spring of 1778
Capt. Bell was
themselves to apply to the proprie- | Bald Eagle. It was the terrible
taries for “a tract of land sufficient- | winter of Valley Forge. General
ly extended and conveniently situ- | Potter was there. In May Simon
ated, whereon to erect a compact | Vaugh, one of Capt. Bell's men,
and defensible town, and to accom- | was killed by Indians at “Jonas
modate them with reasonable com- | Davis,” near Milesburg. An ex-
modious plantations, the same to be | press, Richard Moore, who carried
divided according to their several
ranks.” In their application they
propose to embody themselves into
a compact settlement, some distance
from the inhabited part of the prov-
ince, where by industry they might
procure a comfortable subsistence
for themselves and by their arms,
union and increase become a power-
ful barrier for the province. Of
the news to Arthur Buchanan, where
Lewistown now is, stopped at Jacob
Stanfords, three miles east of the
fort, and found the family murdered.
After the massacre at Wyoming, on
July 3rd, occurred the stampede
which is called the “Great. Runa-
way.” All of the inhabitants of
this region joined the rest of Cen-
tral Pennsylvania, (in the best way
they could by water or land) in
their dash down the Susquehanna
to the more settled region of
Cumberland County. On July 12th,
(or Erskine as he wrote it himself)
and Lieut. James Hays were the only
ones who complied with the original
stipulation of the grant: settlement | Col. Brodhead’s regiment, on its
on the land to protect the frontier. | way to Fort Pitt, was ordered to
Lieut. Askey (later Capt.) was in the West Branch; part of Col
Howard township. Lieut. Hays | Hartley's regiment was on its way
lived at Beech Creek which hasbeen |to Sunbury, the militia were order-
outside the limits of Centre County |ed up from Lancaster and Berks,
since 1839. There were other sur- and the people came back to reap
veys in Bald Eagle valley and many | their crops. July 24th a captain
in that same year of 1769 in Nit- | and twenty-four men were sent into
tany valley; the Boggs settlement at | Penn's Valley to protect the reap-
Milesburg, the Griffith Gibbon tract !ers at Gen. Potter's place. Gen.
on which the greater part of Belle- | Potter writes from Penn's Valley;
fonte now stands, also the George
Gabriel, the first on Buffalo Run.
In 1772 the Moravian Indians in
Bradford County received an invita-
tion from the Delawares of Ohio to
settle among them, and in their
journey took the Indian path lead-
ing west from Beech Creek. It was
an exceedingly hard experience, the
migration of a village means the
transportation of people of every
age. One poor cripple, ten - or
eleven years of age, was carried by
his mother in a basket on her back.
When they reached the mountains
of northern Centre County, the
difficulties of crossing, the rattle-
snakes and the “punks” (gnats) al-
most finished them. Some died,
among them the cripple, and one of
them was buried at Moravian run,
where the Indian path crosses, one
mile west of the Big Moshannon,
just beyond the limits of Centre
County,
In 1775 Rev. Philip V. Fithian, a
graduate of the class of 1772,
Princeton College, was sent out as
a supply by Donegal Presbytery.
His very full journal gives delight-
ful glimpses of the country as well
as pleasant reminiscences of the
early settlers of southern and mid-
dle Pennsylvania. The whole journal
is interesting and well worth read--
noon and the people were
ing to all parts
(Northumberland,) Yesterday two
men of Capt. Finley's company
went out from this place on the
of the county
met a party of Indians five
number, whom they engaged.
of the soldiers, Thomas Van Doran
was shot dead, the other, Jacob
Shedacre, ran about 400 yards and
was pursued by one of the Indians.
They attacked each other with their
knives, and our excellent soldier
hard for another Indian came wu
James Alexander, who in after
years farmed the Old Fort farms,
casually picked up a hunting knife
‘So rusted as to indicate that it
might have belonged either to the
Indian or the soldier. (Two stones
were put up to mark the spot one
still there in 1882.) The soldiers were
called off to join Gen. Sullivan's ex-
pedition and the settlements were
abandoned in July, 1779. Armagh
township, then in Cumberland now
in Mifflin County, became
ing. I wish I could give you the frontier. The history of the county
description of his sojourn in the |is a blank until 1784. Then the old
territory of Centre County in its | settlers and a crowd of others came
entirety. It can be found in Linn’s
History of Centre County, from
which. I wish to state, I have taken
almost the entire material used in
this paper. He spends a night at |
the home of Andrew Boggs, on the
Bald Eagle, and says there were no
families to the westward of that place
and but one higher up on the creek.
That must have been Thomas Par-
sons, on the border of Union and
Huston townships. The next morn-
ing, August 1st, at ten o'clock, he
took his leave and this is his de-
scription of Nittany valley: “Crossed
a gap of Muncy ridge, and rode
eighteen miles through wild, barren
woods without any trace of habita-
tion or road other than the blind,
unfrequented path which I tracked
at times with much difficulty. Two
or three forsaken Indian camps, in-
deed, IT saw on the creek bank, and
a little before sunset I arrived at
Capt. James Potter's, at the head
of Penn's Valley. This ride I
found very uncomfortable; my horse
lame with but one shoe, a stony
road, I lost my way in the gap of
the mountains, more than ten miles
of the way I must go and my poor
horse without water. I let him feed,
however, in the woods, where there
is plenty of good wild grass, I fed
myself on huckleberries, In these
woods are very beautiful flowers,
and a great quantity, especially a
large orange-cqlored lily, spotted
with black spots. I saw here the
first sloe; it grows on a small bush
like the hazel, ripens in winter, and
is now like a heart cherry. In
these woods are a great plenty of
wild cherries growing on low spray
bushes, which are just now ripen-
ing.” The next morning he writes
of “an elegant supper, a neat house,
in very rapidly.
I shall now give a short account
of each township in the order of its
erection, giving incidents and names
of only the settlers who were in the
territory by 1800. I have found it
necessary to limit the scope of this
paper to 1800. Most of the town-
ships were erected after that date
but it is convenient to describe
them in the order of their erection.
Potter, first surveyed in 1766;
erected, 1774. John Wilcot was
the first settler in 1772, at what
was later Earleystown; Robert Mec-
Kim, 1777; William King,
After the return of the settlers we
find names of William Kerr,
Christopher Henney, the Sankeys,
the Van Hornes, Johnathan Kears-
ley, John McClean, William Pas-
torius, William Monks (father of
the murderer,) the Hunters, the
Loves, the Rankins, the Greggs, the
Reams, the Rhones, the McEwens,
the Mayes, the Crosthwaites, the
Benners, the Watts. In this town-
ship, as in all others, many promi-
nent families, the Gillilands, the
Kellers, the Irvins, for instance,
came in later. Captain Potter had
built a cabin at the Fort in 1773
and the first house at Potter’s Mills
in 1788. Earleystown was settled in
1795 or 1796.
Spring with the name, Upper
Bald Eagle was erected in 1786,
the name changed to Bald Eagle in
1789 and back to Spring after the
erection of the county. The old
Mr. Kinnear, spoken of as “the
old gentlemen who delighted in wear-
ing knee breeches and silver-buckled
shoes.” He wasa devout Metho-
dist moreover, and whenever he
could get a circuit preacher, would
all expressions of welcome, not a have meetings at his house, to which
flea nor a chinch, as I know of he would personally invite his neigh-
within eighteen miles” so he rises bors. The James Williams farm,
“in part restored from the ruins of bought by Allender in 1783, is prob-
many days’ distress.” He misses the | ably one of the oldest settled places
“shady, pleasant banks of the Sus-|on Logan’s Branch. Pleasant Gap,
quehanna,” noting the absence of {not laid out until 1845, of course
streams in the vicinity of the Old will not be described now,
Fort where Capt. Potter then lived. | Haines Township, surveyed 1766,
He says there are twenty-eight erected 1790. John Motz, 1786,
families in the valley, twenty-two of built a mill on the site of Wood-
whom are subscribers to the fund' ward. Aaronsburg was laid out by
to pay supplies and he received one | Aaron Levy in 1786. In 1789 he
pound, five shillings. He preached deeded to Jacob Stover a lot for a
two sermons on Sunday morning Lutheran Church. We find the
with ten minutes’ intermission. He | names, Wolf, Schneider, Weaver,
describes two rides, one to a black- | Bauer, Hess, Stein, Schreffler, Mus-
smith “who shoes his horse for ser, Bollinger, Bright, Frank, Orn-
nothing. That ' was Daniel Long, : dorff, McBeth. James Duncan was
east” of Penin” Hall. The next day he the first storekeeper in Aaronsburg,
rode down to “Mr. McCormick” (now its first postmaster in 1798 and the
Spring Mills) -on" the invitation of first sheriff of the county. A school
return- ;
mile east of the Old Fort and were |
Mann house was partly built by a |
stationed on the.
two miles east of Aaronsburg was
one of the first in the county.
Patton Township, erected as early
as 1794. The Grays and Hartsocks
settled in 1788, also the Gearharts
and Runks. The Shivery settlement
was made in 1792. In 1790 Peter
Gray arranged for the coming of
Methodist Episcopal circuit riders to
hold services occasionlly at his
house. Isaac Hicks came in just
before 1800.
Miles Township, surveyed, 1772,
erected 1794. Anthony Bierly
settled in 1791, We have the names:
Hetzler, Shenkle, Gast, Buchtel,
Fryburger, Straub, Apple, Brown,
Barger, Frank, Garman, Hoerrner,
Kuchler, Kreamer, Robinson, Straw-
bridge, Schaeffer, Schenck, Pickle,
Spangler, Gramley, Hazel, Schott,
Meyer, Allbright, Berry, Kryder,
Phillips, Wagner, Woolman, Scheury,
Kreiger, Dorn, Kolvey, Waltsmith.
The towns were not laid out until
after 1800. There was an Indian
path across Brush Valley but the
settlers suffered no violence from
the Indians.
Halfmoon Township, erected 1801.
Abraham Elder was the first to
come in 1784, then John Thompson.
George Wilson, the first of the
Friends in 1792 and the Ways, the
Moores, John Spencer and Thomas
Downing followed closely. There
is a long list of Quaker members of
meeting in Halfmoon between 1804
and 1820 the Kirks, the Dewees,
the TUnderwoods, but YT do
not know how many of them came
in within our limit of time and I know
some of them were residents of other
townships. There was Presbyterian
worship at Abraham Elder's not
long after he built his cabin and
Methodist worship at some of the
houses at a very early date.
Ferguson, surveyed, 1766; erected
1801. There we find Thomas Ferguson,
the Meeks, the McWilliams, the Bar-
rons, John Patton, the Glenns, the
Baileys. Near Gatesburg were the
Gates, the Riders and the Rumbar-
gers,
Howard, 1810.
erected David
‘Delong was the first settler. Robert
“The inhabitants of the valley are .
returned and are cutting their grain.
We left Sunbury last Sunday after- '
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Ritchie, Derrick Gunsaulus, Bene-
dict Lucas, Thomas Erskine, Cross-
man, Baker, Gardner, Marsden, Hel-
ford, Leathers, Packer, Schenck, are
names before 1800. The first house
in Howard was built by William
Tipton in 1800.
Walker, erected 1810. The very ear-
ly settlers were Henry McEwen,
. William McKee, at Logan’s Gap,
‘John Harbison, Jacob Miller, John
Snyder, William Petit and William
McKean.
Rush, erected 1814. A large tract
lains, a little bel was owned by two Englishmen,
Pp Slow my fields, abi Phillips and Baker, who had it sur-
One veyed about 1794 by Behe and
Treziyulny. They selected a spot on
the eastern bank of the creek and
called it Moshannon town. To in-
duce settlers to emigrate they offer-
a town lot and four acres to
each of the first twelve. The re-
killed his antagonist. His fate was |duiredtwelve came not one a native
American. They found a howling
and shot him. He and the Indian |Vilderness, the only highway lead-
lay within a perch of each other.” | iD§ there
was a footpath from
Bellefonte. The state road was
opened in 1796. The first house
was built by John Henry Simler.
a Frenchman, in 1797. That year
James and Henry Philips, arrived,
bringing a number of workmen and
they built a house of hewn logs.
Boggs, erected 1814. Besides the
first settler, Andrew Boggs, we
find the names, Bathurst, Antes,
Malone, Miles, Barnhart, Holt, Walk-
er, Fisher, Williams, Lipton, Leath-
ers, Curtin, Shirk, Kreamer, Flem-
Milesburg
was founded 1793 and the Milesburg
Ironworks in 1796. The first post
office in the county was at Miles-
burg, Joseph Green, postmaster.
Before that the nearest post office
was at Northumberland. Roland
Curtin came from Philipsburg in
1799. Philip Antes began to build
| ‘Antes Mill” in 1787. It was a preach.
ing place for the circuit. riders of
Northumberland circuit after its
formation in 1791.
Gregg, erected 1826. George McCor-
i mick, James Cooke, Sebastian Musser,
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1778. | settlers.
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i Ewen brothers near
John Shook, Peter Heckman, George
Woods, John Kuntsman, Christian
Miller, William Long, Adam Sonday
and Archibald Allison were very old
Heckman’s graveyard is a
very old one, and near Penn Hall
is the burial
grave distinguishable, that of Rev.
James Martin, the pioneer Presby-
terian minister who died in 1795,
the year that Huntingdon Presby-
tery was organized in the church
that then stood on the spot.
Harris, erected in 1835. Here
we find the Jacks, the Watsons,
the Galbraiths, the Dales, the Lari-
mers, the Barrs, Rev. Wm. Stuart,
Fergus Potter, the Boals, Barney
Riley, the Chambers and the Irvins
given as the oldest settlers.
Huston, erected 1838. David Kil-
gour not long after 1784 was the
first permanent settler. Jeremiah
Merritt was a very early one. The
Williams’ and Turners came in very
shortly after 1800.
Snow Shoe, surveyed 1773, erect-
ed 1840. There were no permanent
settlements until 1818, but it was
a famous ground for hunters and
the Indian path to Chinklacamoose
ran through it,
Marion, erected 1840. The Me-
Jacksonville,
the first settlers, were driven out
by Indians. Thomas Wilson was the
first permanent settler. Thomas Mec-
Calmont came in 1787 and settled on |
the land of the McEwen brothers.
His son James was the first person
buried at Lick Run. The MecKib-
bens, the Swanzeys, David Lamb,
James Hutchinson, the Mitchells
the Allisons, the Hoys and
the McKinneys were early settlers.
Hugh McClelland, 1795, built the
first grist mill in the county. The
Presbyterian chureh at Lick Run
was organized in 1798.
Liberty, surveyed, 1769. Here we
find the names of Magee, Marsden,
Brown, Ashbridge, Grove, Bechdel
Gardner, Gen. DeHaas, though he
had an officer's grant, never came
to Centre County and his son, John
Phillip, did not come until 1806.
Penn erected 1844, Samuel Hoy
came before 1776, also ‘John Hall
place with .only one
‘and John Livingston. After the
Revolution came the Millers, the
Kreamers, the Everts, the Neeses,
the Swartz’s, the Krapes, the
Kryders and the Hublers. Millheim
was founded in 1797.
Worth, surveyed 1769, erected
1848. Cyrus Cartwright made first
improvement about 1785. The Corn-
planters came through and many
Indian implements have been found,
‘There was little settling before
1800. Early roads were made by
cutting off the trees as close to
the ground as possible, stumps and
rocks were not removed.
Union organized 1850, Thomas
Parsons was the first settler in
1770. The Fishers and Iddings
came in 1800.
Taylor, organized, 1847. It was
“settled by hunters. Billy Birge or
‘Bird was one of the earliest, also
Peter Jackson and Thomas Vaughn
,and Elijah Merryman came in
much before 1800.
: Benner, organized 1853. Logan's
camp was about one mile west
from Pleasant Gap. The old Indian
path from Philadelphia to Pitts-
burgh passed through it. On the
| Shugert farm Daniel Dunlop built
a hotel in 1784. Connelly’s was at
,the Blue Spring, Philip Benner
built the Rock Iron works in 1793,
bringing with him from Chester
| county Waddle, Reamy, Jones and
: Williams, altogether a company of
! ninety people. At Roopsburg Turn-
er’'s Ironworks, also called Spring
Creek forge, were built in 1795.
John Boggs lived up Buffalo Run
on the Henderson farm and was the
first man buried in Bellefonte on the
{lot where Samuel Shallcross now
lives,
Burnisde township had no settle-
ments before 1800.
Curtin township's first settlers
i were the Lucas brothers, who came
from Baltimore about 1800.
On the territory of College town-
ship Robert Moore was the earliest
settler. Jacob Houser came in
1788 and found two squatters on
his land, Lewis and Connely (Tradi-
tion says these were the kin of the
famous robbers) David Whitehill
settled where Lemont now is, and
Christian Dale was one of the
earliest permanent settlers. At Cen-
tre Furnace in 1791-2 Col. Miles
rand Col. Patton built the first
blast furnace in the county. James
Newell was the manager.
Bellefonte was laid out by Col
Dunlop and James Harris in 1795,
on the Griffith Gibbon tract sur-
veyed in 1769. William Lamb had
built a saw mill, (where the Gamble
mill now stands) some years before.
The first lot owners besides the
proprietors were William Petrikin
(the site of the Decker garage),
Adam McKee, (Dr. Dale's lot),
Alexander Diven (Tate plumbing
shop) John Hall (the Foreman lot,
Hugh Gallagher (the Markland).
The first house built was Col. Dun-
lop’s (N. E. corner of High and
Spring). The second was James
Harris’ at Willowbank, Third, Wil-
liam Petrikin’s and the fourth was
Adam McKee’s tavern. John Dun-
lop built Bellefonte Forge in 1797.
In 1800 James Smith built a grist
mill where Gamble’s mill now is.
The miller was Daniel Weaver.
Roland Curtin opened a store where
Hazel & Co. now are. The resi-
dents in 1801 where William Alex-
ander (hatter and hotel keeper.)
Col. Dunlop, Hugh Gallagher (tav-
ern keeper), John Hall, Conrad
Kyler, (weaver), John McCord,
Adam McKee, Geo. McKee, Samuel
Patterson, William Petrikin, Esq.,
William Riddle (mason), Geo. Wil-
liams (carpenter), Dr. William Har-
ris, David Irvine (lawyer), Abraham
Lee, Isaac Lee, John G. Lowery,
(where the Cohen house now is), John
McKee, (shoemaker), Jeshur Miles
(cabinetmaker where Mrs. Showers’
boarding house stands.) John Miles
(lawyer), Robert Stewart (lawyer,)
Land was reserved for the Academy,
the Presbyterian church and the
Court House. When the county was
erected there was great competi-
tion between Milesburg and Belle-
fonte for the county seat. Milesburg
was at the head of mavigation so
had much the advantage. The
tradition is that some Bellefonte
men attached a team to a flatboat,
loaded it with borrowed second hand
furniture and dragged the boat up
Spring Creek to Bellefonte, then
sent to Lancaster a messenger with
affidavit that the first boat of the
season had arrived in Bellefonte.
MARY HUNTER LINN
April 28th, 1930.
PLEASE DON’T RUN DOWN =
HARMLESS BRE’R RABBIT.
“The rabbit playing In the road in
front of your car is enjoying the
age old thrill of a spring time
night. Only a coward kills need-
lessly. Give it a chance”
That was the appeal made to-
day by John J. Slautterbeck, ex-
ecutive secretary of the Game Com-
mission, to autoists who would
rather kill a rabbit than slacken
speed.
Slautterbeck pointed out that im-
proved roads, especially on moon-
light nights, have a great attraction
for rabbits. The needless slaughter
of rabbits by autoists is making it
almost impossible for the Game
Commission to keep sections ad-
jacent to good roads stocked with
the harmless little animals.
The number of other animals
i killed needlessly by speeding cars
in not so large but they also pay
{a needless toll, commission officials
: believe.
! Skunks, while not so plentiful
|as rabbits, also are slow to yield
the right of way to an oncoming
car. When an autoist, not well up
‘on his wood lore, mistakes one of
| them for a rabbit, game officials
| say nature helps to even the score
for the rabbits that have no means
of defense.
! He (at 11 p. m.)—“Did you know
I could imitate any bird yoy can
: name ?"”
| She—“No, I didn't. Can you imi-
tate a homing pigeon ?”—Capper's
Weekly.