CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Cornell University Library F 157P5 W95 History of Perry County in Pennsylvania 3 1924 028 854 516 olin Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924028854516 : HISTORY Of PERRY COUNTY, IN PENNSTLYANIA, FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME. BY SILAS WRIGHT. LANCASTER, PA. Wylle & Grlest, Printers, Book-binders and Stereotyperg. 1873. He /^jG'i^f^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S72, By SILAS WKIGHT, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtop. Wylie & Grhist, Stereotypers, Lancaster, Fenna. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Perry County Poor-house, ... - Title-page. Map of part of Cumberland County, which is now Perry, in 1792, 10 Newport, -- 36 Perry County Court-house, ... - - 54 Map of Perry County in 1873. - - - - - 153 Millerstown Depot, - 184 CONTENTS. SECTION I.—Introduction. PAGE. Chapter I.—Indians and Early Settlements, ... - 9 Chapter II.—Villages, Towns, and Formation of Perry County, - .......36 SECTION II.—The War Kecord. Chapter I.—The Revolution—1775-1783, - ... 54 Chapter II.—War of 1812-1815, and Mexican War, 1846-'48, 58 Chapter III—The Eebellion, 1861-1865 65 SECTION III.—Education. Chapter I.—School History up to 1854, 131 Chapter II—The Superintendency, 1854-1872, - - 143 Stitistical Table, 150 SECTION IV.—Physical. Chapter I.—The Geology, 152 Chapter II.—The Flora, 160 Chapter III.—The Natural History, 173 SECTION v.—Statistics. Chapter I.— Official Vote from 1820 to 1871, - - - 184 Chapter II.—Census of Districts from 1820 to 1870, - 257 APPENDIX. PREFACE In the summer of 1865, the first data for these pages was gathered. Since that time the work has been pursued with whatever of vigor time and circumstances would permit. Here a fact, and there an incident were jotted, until all the available sources of information were sought out, the old men and women wherever possible were visited, and their narratives heard and noted, all the old and most of the recent files of county- newspapers were ransacked. Letters were written to many persons, not all of which were answered, and the facts of much of the descriptive part of the history first obtained or former versions of them verified from their replies. Valuable aid is hereby acknowledged from the works of Sherman Day, I. D. Rupp, Rev. D. H. Focht, J. ,R. Sypher, Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, Hon. Samuel P. Bates and several series of articles which appeared in the county papers, one under the nom de plume of Philanthus. Since September, 187 1, holidays and leisure time from the routine of daily duty in the school-room have been given to the preparation of this volume until at the end of eleven months of persistent work, the MS is ready to be placed in the hands, of the publishers, and from them the book to be sent forth to be criti- cised and compared with others of a similar kind. Whether it will receive the dictum of good, bad or in- V : Vi PREFACE. different is a question of moment after having finished it one the most ordinary undertaking ; but becomes of much greater consequence when years have been given to its accomplishment, hence it is with no little degree of solicitude that the 'author sends forth this first born of his intellect. Go then, history of my native Perry, and may others have all the pleasure and none of the trials in reading and study- ing your pages that I have had in composing and writ- ing them. No one who has never attempted to collect materials for even a short article of by-gone events, can reckon the degree of difficulty that attends a labor of this kind. Often after the most careful research, from title page to finis, of a large volume of old records, you are not able to add a half-dozen lines to your manu- script. Writing local history is an elegant work for leisure, and cannot be hurried beyond that spended pace. The following special features will doubtless aid the reader in making up his estimate of the merits of the work 1st. The general divisions into sections, each of which again subdivided into chapters, is thought to be the best and most logical arrangement that could have been adopted, because it admits of the treatment of the greatest variety of subjects within the compass of the book. 2d. Especial attention is called to the Educational Statistical Statement, from the fact that some of it has been compiled from data which could not be obtained at Harrisburg. 3d. The Official Vote was compiled at great labor owing to the difficulty of obtaining the different years. PREFACE. Vll It is believed to be a very valuable addition to the work. In the preparation of both the political and war records, Mr. Henry Hopple' s scrap-book was found to be a valuable auxiliary. 4th. The Natural History, Flora and Geology should attract attention and induce somebody to push further investigations into their inviting domains. 5 th. " The War Record" will preserve the names of those who so signally "made and preserved us a nation," as well as give an account of their doings. 6th. The Alphabetical Appendix embodies many short biographical sketches and incidents which could not have been given in any other part of the work. Without the hope of large pecuniary reward, but rather trusting that it may be the means of doing good, this little volume is humbly entrusted to the public by the author. S. W. MiLLERsTowN, July 31, 1872. SECTION I.—INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. INDIANS AND FIRST SETTLERS. Cumberland county, east of the Kittatinny Moun- tains, was organized in January, 1750. It was then believed that a people of a common nationality should locate in the same settlement, and with such instruction from the Proprietary their agents sent the Irislj, Scotch and English settlers to Cum- berland, and the Germans to York county. When organized Cumberland had 807 taxable inhabitants. The country north of the Blue Hills was valued by the Indians as their best hunting grounds, and v/hen in 1740 and '41 their rights began to be in- vaded by German and other squatters who had built cabins in Sherman's Valley, and on the Juni- ata, their complaints caused the Provincial govern- ment to order their immediate removal, and to forbid others following their example. After this nothing of a decided character was done to prevent settlements until a seat of justice was established in the North, or Cumberland Valley. Previously there was no county seat nearer than Lancaster, Lancaster county. Soon after the organization of Cumberland coun- ty, in 1750, it was decided that all persons living on lands north of the Kittatinny Mountains should 9 10 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. be removed. For this purpose Secretary Richard Peters was seat by the Lieutenant-Governor, James Hamilton, to remove all persons from the country north of the Blue Mountain. These people had been warned and advised to leave in 1748, and now, the 23d of May, 1750, Richard Peters, Mat- thew Dill, George Groghan, Benjamin Chambers, Conrad Weiser, Thomas Wilson, John Finley and James Galbraith, Esqrs., accompanied by the under-sheriff of Cumberland county, went to the place where Andrew Lycon, George Cahoon, William Galloway and David Hiddleston had set- tled, where they found five cabins. Taking all the settlers into custody who suffered themselves to be taken, they set fire to the log cabins and pro- ceeded from thence to Sherman's creek, where they found James and Thomas Parker, Owen Mc- Keeb, John M-cClare, Richard Kirkpatrick, James Murray, John Scott, Henry Gass, Simon Girty, andjohn Kilbaugh, whose cabins were also burn- ed. These men were boimd in recognizance of one hundred pounds each to appear and answer for their trespass at the next county court to be held at Shippensburg. In order to prevent settlements in the future, or the return to their former residences of the persons thus driven out, Andrew Monture was licensed to settle and reside in any place he might judge con- venient. He settled on the north side of Sherman's creek, on the Elliott farm, about five miles from George Croghan's, who lived on the present Cum- berland side of the Kittatinny, near Sterret's Gap, HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. jj -Monture's run bears evidence of the location Frederick Starr, a German, with two or three of his countrymen, made settlements on Big Juniata about twenty-five miles from the mouth thereof^ and about ten miles north from the Blue Hills, at a place much esteemed by the Indians as their best hunting grounds Starr's settlement was probably on the flat ground not far from the Penn- sylvania Railroad bridge across Big Buffalo creek, in Ohver township, and was in all probability too close to an Indian encampment of the Six Nations. Lycon, Cahoon, Galloway, Hiddleston and White probably built their cabins in Pfoutz's Valley, not far from Miilerstown, which was then the site of the other of the only two encampments of Indians within the present limits of Perry county. These Indians either willingly quitted their homes, or were forcibly compelled to leave them after the Albany treaty in 1754- They afterward settled in the country of the Ohio. By the treaty of 1754 all the land extending from the Kittatinny Mountains to the Alleghany Mountains was added to Cumber- land county. There are traces of either a long residence at Miilerstown, or probably a fierce battle which was fought between the resident Delawares and the immigrating Shawnese.