early settlers of somerset county pa

And the names of some of these men were John Frazier, John Harris, Rea or Ray, Denning or Dunning, and Ferguson. In some of the settlements the young blades adopted the Indian breech clout, which was a strip of cloth a yard long and eight or nine inches wide passed under the belt, leaving the end flaps dangling before and behind. The Pittsburg & Connellsville Railroad. With the exception of the strip of land now known as Allegheny, Northampton, Southampton, Fairhope, Larimer, and Greenville Townships, the remaining sections of Somerset County were included in this forbidden territory. The man draws reign. As a young man he went to the province of North Carolina, where he gained property, position, and influence. A private journal kept by a man traveling through this territory in 1771 tells of the first settler he came upon, being one Philip Wagerline. ", While Husband and Philson were the only two persons from this district to answer charges of "treasonable proceedings," thirty-one others from Somerset County were fined from five shillings to fifteen pounds each for "assisting and abetting" in setting up a "seditious pole in opposition to the laws of the United States. The prisoners, probably a dozen of them, were all locked in one room together. Online Resources [ edit | edit source] Immigrant Servants Database - Details on more than 2,500 European indentured servants who served labor terms in Pennsylvania They were constructed at strategic points near the summits of the Allegheny Mountains and the Laurel Hills with intervening stockades and entrenchments spaced a few miles apart. North of the Mason and Dixon line the poet tells us that it was at Concord where the "shot heard round the world" was first fired on the 19th of April, 1775. Somerset County, Pennsylvania Genealogy FamilySearch He had come from Hagerstown, his name was Toscape Death, and he was looking for an old friend named Isaac Cox. - Patrick HARVEY was the first settler here, as well as the pioneer of Old Buffalo. In cold weather they were stuffed with deer hair or dry leaves. 1945 THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY TO THE PIONEERS of SOMERSET COUNTY ILLUSTRATIONS Drawn especially for this publication by Kindred McLeary: Somerset Settlement Washington at the Great Crossing General Forbes and the Great Road Fort Stony Creek Harmon Husband, the Insurgent Frontispiece Facing Page 20 Facing Page 24 Facing Page 32 This alertness was reflected in the quality of his weapons. History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Chapter 1 - PAGenWeb "Descending from the Alleghenies, they entered upon a country less rugged, and formidable in itself, but beset with constantly increasing dangers.". "You would never take part in our hunting and sporting expeditions in the settlements. --"Says he wishes to be reborn again, and so they go to the promised land.". The waspish twang of the stone tipped arrow scattered the flocks-leaving one flapping helplessly. The result was rebellion, climaxed by the Battle of Alamance-the first battle of the American Revolution which was fought May 16, 1771. Tryon, the provincial governor of North Carolina, was well versed in the well known, universal, and timeless game of subtraction and division; that is, taxing his subjects to the utmost to maintain himself and his small group of satellites in royal style. The soldiers took possession of everything and some of them put their horses in the barn on top of the oats. Early Somerset County, MD Land Records - Salisbury University Need Help? These cabins were used for military quarters, and for the families of settlers who were frequently driven into the forts during Indian raids. It then highlights the progress and development of the town, its major industries and other aspects of civic life. In 1683, a group of Quakers and Mennonites from the Krefeld region of the Rhineland founded the city of Germantown, the first recorded German settlement in the English colonies. The average Indian mind could conceive little more than immediate revenge against the British for trespassing on the Red Man's ancestral homeland. The young schoolmaster, after surveying and questioning his home spun class for a few minutes dismissed school with the admonition, "Och! Hours of Operation: Wednesday through Saturday: 10am-4pm Sunday through Tuesday: CLOSED. This is a 50th anniversary history of the area of Windber, Somerset County, PA published in 1947. Both have ample proof for their opinions, while all agree that frontier Americans held high the torch of Liberty, and with their squirrel rifles, defended that light to their death. ; Bare feet were the vogue in summertime. In 1763, a Royal proclaimation made it illegal to settle on . Martin was a minister, and in 1770 his congregation numbered seventeen persons, among them were: Henry Roth and wife, Henry Roth, Jr. and wife, and Abraham Gebel. He built his first cabin in 1765, a second in 1769, and a third dwelling was constructed at a later date. It was in 1784 when George Washington stood for the last time on the land that was to be the home of the Frosty Sons of Thunder. The records of the exploits of these early traders have long since vanished. When the traditions of these trails began to be recorded there was a ring of familiarity with these old paths in a new world. Extending across the oceans, the frayed ends, tangled and knotted with the struggles of all mankind against his universe, are again caught up and spun into the web of our every-day lives. Reassured by the following summer that he had made a wise choice in selecting a site for a settlement, Husband purchased claims from the hunters and brought his wife and family to his new home in the autumn of 1772. They returned to their cabins. A small detachment who came over the Braddock Road joined forces with them. A candle was lit at Headquarters. He had, at least, to bring in something tangible for his efforts to save his face. by Kindred McLeary: Church records of Berlin, Somerset County, Pennsylvania : church book of congregations of both Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed (Brothers Valley Township); births, deaths, baptisms, marriages and burials, approximate period covers 1788-1856 FamilySearch Library. Thus was the greeting of Harmon Husband to the Stony Creek Glades by Philip Wagerline and his family in the late evening of June 5th, 1771. In the year 1740--nine years before any white man was positively known to have set foot on the territory of Somerset County-the conversations around the campfires of the traders at the eastern foot of the Allegheny Mountains drifted to speculation on whether or not the French had already gathered the catch of furs from the Indians, and supplied them with guns. The wild turkey and the grouse strutted among the shadows of the thorn berry bushes. They complained of the incoming number of settlers who were drifting into the mountains, and were apprehensive of the western migration of the Indians. These old wives were scarcely one step behind the medical science of the times which prescribed whiskey for rattlesnake bite, pill made from fried toads for small pox, and sow bug tea for fever. In more instances than is comfortable to contemplate it was the Red Man who harried the hunter; tying him to a stake and charring his legs to his knees while the squaws gouged pine splinters under his finger nails, and spat contemptuously upon him. The board of directors of the Lutheran seminary at Columbus have voted to remove it to this place. Remaining with Wagerline throughout the day, Husband started in search for Isaac Cox the following morning. Without sheriff or justice, the thief and the liar were humiliated by public condemnation until the culprit sought peace of mind and body in some distant settlement where his sins could not find him. The seaboard settlements were merely an expansion of the inflexible English design, whereas the settlements west of the Alleghenies were new experiments in empire building. Law and order were maintained in the clearings by adhering to the simple and age old verities that have served as cornerstones for civilized societies in all times. The Red Man saw and was pleased, and gave thanks in his fashion to Manitou, the Great Spirit that ruled over the forests, the rivers, and the glittering stars. Th e county of Somerset was created on April 17, 1795 from the western part of Bedford County and was named for Somersetshire, England. Our parade just now presents a scene of bloody and savage cruelty; three men, two of which are in the bloom of life, and the other an old man, lying scalped (two of them still alive) thereon: Any thing feigned in the most fabulous Romance, cannot parallel the horrid sight now before me; the gashes the poor people bear are most terrifying. Approaching the plume of smoke that arose from the clearing near the headwater of Stony Creek, Husband was hailed in broken English with: "Welcome, broder, where you come? Narrowing down this territory of the Stony Creek Glades to what is now known as Brothersvalley and Stonycreek townships the History of the Brethren Church tells us that George Adam Martin came to Stony Creek in 1762. The rules were: "The undersigned hereby agree to form themselves into an association to encourage the destruction of wolves, by subscribing and paying two shillings for each wolf scalp killed within the settlement or within a circuit of ten miles, Col. Brown's to be considered the centre, but each person bringing in the scalp shall become a member of the company and a joint contributor before receiving the premium on the scalp." The excerpts are taken from military communications of Sir Jeffery Amherst, British Commander-in-Chief, Colonel Henry Bouquet, Captain Ecuyer, and their subordinates. The spinning wheel, hand loom, and the backs of 'coon and deer were sources of material for dress. Other settlers soon arriving on the scene were: Ulrich Bruner, Henry Bruner, George Bruner, Richard Brown, Richard Wells, Michael Huff and John Ferguson. History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Chapter 30 (part 2) - PAGenWeb Fayette County (Pa.) > Genealogy. When the gossips appeared in their doorways, they listened with the usual absorbing feminine inquisitiveness while the mush bubbled in the pot, but discounted every dripping word as child's chatter. James Kennedy, one of Harmon Husband's indentured servants, who was a poor hand at grubbing and picking brush, was chosen to lead, guide and direct the lives of the little children of the Somerset Settlement. Doe skins, smoked and chewed to the softness of velvet, clothed the naked savage when the north wind muffled the long drawn howl of the wolf, and closed the forest aisles with the ever mounting drifts of white rain. The tradition tells us of the Mennonites, Amish, and Dunkards who built their homes on the camp sites of these hunters. 1669 - Earliest French exploration of western Pennsylvania. The following autumn, November 5, 1768, the Penns made another treaty with the Indians, called the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in which all the forbidden lands were purchased from the Red Men for the sum of ten thousand pounds. Judging from the report of the county assessors dated February 16, 1779, with Henry Abrahams and Hugh Robinson from Turkeyfoot and Brothers Valley as two of the members of that body we may be assured that while death may be certain, taxes were not. Although Husband had been released by Judge Peters in response to the urgent promptings of Surgeon General Benjamin Rush and others, he died in a tavern on the outskirts of Philadelphia on his way back to his home, and the Promised Land which his martyrdom had helped bring into being. Cable-Schrock Cemetery Find a Grave. First Settlers - Butler Co., Pa. - RootsWeb Recalling Braddock's overwhelming defeat, Benjamin Franklin observed that the English "gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regular troops had not been all well founded.". (November 27, 1777), "Five people killed by the Indians over against the mountains !" [Source: The History of Bedford and Somerset Counties by Blackburn and Welfley, published in 1906. A list of family names can be found by clicking on the following indexes. Midway between these two points in Somerset County was Fort Stony Creek on the west bank of the stream that bears its name. Several of the horses stagger, and fall with blood spurting from their flanks. It may justly be said of them that they were the first two known white men who came into Somerset county who finally settled in it. These men were the first to glean for themselves the abundant harvest of the woods, and by so doing they found themselves not only at cross purposes with the Penns, but in bold competition with the Indians. Before coming to the Glades Husband had spent his early boyhood days in Chester County, Pennsylvania and Cecil County, Maryland. On the 25th of July, 1763, Bouquet assembled his army at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains. This was two hundred and fifty seven years after America was discovered, and one hundred and forty two years after the first permanent English settlement in the New World was founded; a span of time almost equaling the age of our Nation. Facing Page 24 Growing pains of the infant empire were mistaken by the Old World for more serious maladies. At the time Christopher Gist, George Washington, General Braddock, and General Forbes were pondering over the problem of opening a road through the tangled wilderness across the Allegheny Mountains and the Laurel Hills to the Ohio Valley, Spanish settlements were old; their government buildings, churches, schools, and market places were green with the moss of two centuries, and their halls were filled with ancient intrigue. The . Accordingly John Penn appointed the Reverend John Steele of the Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, John Allison, Christopher Lemes, and James Potter to make known and explain the law to the settlers. Most of this land was marked, "Indian Territory" on the maps and ledgers of the Penns; therefore anyone living here was, according to the provincial authorities, out of bounds, off the record and disinherited. In the role of a reformer he was instrumental in marshalling the forces of the common people in that province. Then with a sigh of relief, they returned to their toasted muffins and tea-assured that "all's right with the world.". Thus they toiled heavily on till the main ridge of the Alleghenies, a mighty wall of green, rose up before them; and they began their zigzag progress up the woody heights amid the sweltering heat of July. Ecuyer to Bouquet. The young bucks who appeared at public gatherings of worship, with bare flanks exposed, added little to the devotional atmosphere of the scene, especially in the section occupied by the tittering young maidens. The Iroquois had proclaimed themselves the Master Race--the Algonquins were squaws. For you and me, looking backward through the mist of a hundred and fifty years of Somerset County's history, the scenes, blending into the distant past, lose their sharp outlines until the exploits of the Spanish Conquistadores may be more sharply etched on our memories than the trials of Braddock, Forbes, or Harmon Husband. Contents 1 County Information 1.1 Description 1.2 County Courthouse 1.3 Somerset County, Pennsylvania Record Dates 1.4 Record Loss More than two and a half centuries passed; seven generations measured by the sun and the moon and the stars, and the births and deaths of the great warriors. OCLC:39673413. The settlers in the Little Cove & Conalloways were Joseph Coombe, John Herrod, William James, Thomas Yates, Lewis Williams, Elias Stillwell, John Meeser, John Newhouse, Rees Shelby, William Lofton, Charles Wood, Henry Pierson, George Rees, William Morgan, John Lloyd, Levi Moore, John Graham, William Linn, Andrew Coombe, John Polk, Thomas Haston. The echoes of Columbus' command, "Westward Ho!" Apple orchards, cleared lands, and military and civil records are fitting monuments for the spirits of these brave pioneers. As early as 1762, a party of settlers had located along the O1d Forbes Road, which had been opened up by Colonel Bouquet, on his expedition to Fort Pitt in 1758. . 1739 and 1749 - More French expeditions to establish fur trade with the Indians. How to Apply Frequently Asked Questions Listed in this table are the qualifying ancestorsthose whose residency in Pennsylvania falls within one of the required time periodsfrom First Families applications approved to date. The long arm of British "Justice" reaches far beyond the last. The elk and the buffalo eyed each other across the glassy pools of the glades, while the white tailed deer stood knee deep in the rippling reflection of the purple spires of the hemlock. And to single out any one particular family and their cabin as being the first settlers in the county would be like naming the first star to appear on a clear winter's evening; they suddenly begin to sparkle on all horizons. The vitriol of female wagging tongues was neutralized by the simple and effective device agreed upon by the more rigid pillars of the settlements. Pennsylvania: Scotch-Irish Centre - Scotch-Irish in America And so it was that George Washington, with his politely worded, but stern message from His Majesty, King George II, safely tucked in the bosom of his hunting shirt, left Fort Cumberland on the 15th of November 1753 with his destination Fort Venango. He struck more terror to the hearts of every man, woman, and child living in the territory that was to be Somerset County, than any man that ever lived. United States Pennsylvania Somerset County Guide to Somerset County, Pennsylvania ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records. Rare albino raccoon rescued in Somerset County - CBS Pittsburgh - CBS News Among them were: William Sparks, John Vansel, John Penrod. Twelve years later, 1762, Jacob Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary, with Charles Frederick Post came over this same route, leaving a written record of their findings. Somerset County PAGenWeb -- Native Americans glades, and the gurgle of the infant rivers. In turn Philip Wagerline informed Husband of the Stony Creek Glades. Wagerline's nearest neighbor was five or six miles away, and there were other settlers farther off in the woods. After acquiring the Indian title the Penns immediately offered this land for sale for five pounds sterling per one hundred acres, and one penny an acre per annum quit rent. None of the names are on the first assessment, but their records assure us that they came shortly after 1768. His force did not exceed five hundred men, of whom the most effective were Scotch Highlanders. Somerset County (Pa.) > Genealogy. Of the remaining five names listed by the Reverend Steele there is no record, except Mr. Speer, who located along the Braddock Road by permission of the military authorities. They who were the promoters of the riots and who set up the liberty poles seem to be in most danger. "This morning a party of the enemy attacked fifteen persons who were mowing in Mr. Croghan's field, within a mile of the Garrison, and news is brought in of two men being killed. Returning to Fort Cumberland on the second of April they prepared their report to Penn which concluded with: "on the thirty-first of March we came to the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny and being informed by one Speer that eight or ten families lived in a place called Turkeyfoot, we sent some proclamations thither-" A postscript adds that the names of the people at the Turkeyfoot were: Henry Abrahams, Ezekiel De Witt, James Spencer, Benjamin Jennings, John Cooper, Ezekiel Hickman, John Enslow, Benjamin Pursley. Henry Abrahams located on a point of land situated between the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Casseleman rivers. In fairness to Husband, who was a Quaker, indoctrinated with principles which would not allow him to fight, he had the courage of his convictions, and when forced to display these inner truths, there was no show of hypocrisy. July 5, 1763. Sparks frowned on the curious nom de plume as being too formal. The history of New Jersey from its earliest settlement to the present time The history of New Jersey, from its discovery by Europeans, to the adoption of the federal Constitution Statler was attached to Bouquet's expedition and remained to brave the hardships of the pioneers at a point near the top of the Allegheny Mountains called the Fields. The extent of the circle of their traplines depended upon the number of steel traps they had in their possession, but the range covered by the hunter himself and his long rifle was limited only by the hunter's physical endurance. As the shadows lengthened, a dank, fishy odor arose from the river. ", Husband hesitated. Being too ill to ride, he was carried on a litter from fort to fort across Somerset County to view for the last time the Great Road that he had built. "The tongues of the panting oxen hung lolling from their jaws; while the pine trees, scorching in the hot sun, diffused their resinous odors through the sultry air. By the spring of 1784 nearly all the settlers had returned. Salisbury Pennsylvania History And so it was that the Mingoes of the Iroquois drank at the same springs with the Delawares and the Shawnees in the Stony Creek valley between the Laurel Hills and the Allegheny Mountains. At Bedford where Husband and Philson were temporarily held in jail, Husband writes: "I have just time to let you know that we who are prisoners here are to be sent off to Philadelphia at 10 o'clock. Archaeology in Black and White Digging Somerset County's Past During the Great Depression By Bernard K. Means This article originally appeared in Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine Volume XXVI, Number 3 - Summer . There were many other settlers living in the Turkeyfoot area in the same period whose names shine forth with equal brilliance.

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