Transcribed by: Dolores Carlson. For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.
Link to a sketch of Jackson Township from the Atlas of Butler County, G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1874.
Surnames in this chapter are:
ALLEN, BEAM, BELTZHOOVER, BUHL, COOPER, COVERT, DAMBACH, DONALDSON, DUNN, EICHERT, ENSLEN, FIEDLER, FLEMING, GANSZ, HARPER, HARTZELL, HERR, HOPKINS, KEEFER, KELKER, KNOX, MAGEE, MARBURGER, MARTIN, MORRIS, MULLER, MUNTZ, NIXON, PASSAVANT, RAMSEY, RAPP, SCHONTZ, SCHWARTZ, SCOTT, SEIDEL, SNITZEL, STOKEY, SWAIN, WEISER, WILSON, WISE, YOUNG, ZEHNER, ZIEGLER
JACKSON township was organized in 1854, and is situated in the southwestern part of the county, north of Cranberry and south of Lancaster townships, its western boundary being the Beaver county line. The Pittsburg and Western railway runs through the northern part of the township, from southeast to northwest. Connoquenessing creek flows westwardly through the township, about a mile south of the northern boundary line. Besides being a good [p. 397] agricultural township, it contains the old town of Harmony, where the Harmony Society made their first settlement in America; the boroughs of Zelienople and Evans City, and the villages of Eidenau and Ramsdale. The township abounds in coal, which has been mined from the pioneer days to the present, and in extensive deposits of iron ore and limestone. The people of the township are thrifty, industrious and prosperous.
James MAGEE, a native of Down county, Ireland, located here in 1797, served in the War of 1812, and died in 1846. William MARTIN, also a native of Ireland, came about the same time, cleared some land, one mile west of the present borough of Evans City, and died there in 1850. They were among the pioneers who opened the way to the fertile fields of the lower Connoquenessing valley.
In 1800 came Thomas WILSON, who settled near Evans City; Thomas SCOTT, who located on the site of Zelienople and resided there until evicted by Dr. MULLER; Michael MARTIN, a brother of the pioneer, William MARTIN; John DUNN, an old soldier, who located in the MARTIN settlement, and who was killed while returning to his former home at the forks of the Youghiogheny; David YOUNG, James DONALDSON and Joseph MORRIS. Christian BUHL, a German shoemaker, came in 1802, located at Zelienople, and worked for Dr. MULLER. Morris COVERT had 200 acres of land here in 1803, having made a location that year or in 1802. Philip COVERT had 100 acres, but neither of them had personal property then. MORRIS served in the War of 1812, and died in 1839. His widow died in 1841. Daniel FIEDLER located on the site of Zelienople in 1803. John NIXON, founder of the family in Pennsylvania, came from New Jersey to what is now Jackson township in 1812, then moved to Penn township. John FLEMING, the teacher, came in 1815, also Jacob KELKER and Samuel BEAM. Abraham ZIEGLER settled here in 1815, having purchased part of the Harmonists' property the year before. Jacob SWAIN came from Westmoreland county in 1816, and died here in 1837.
Thomas H. HARPER settled here in 1820, but moved to Cranberry township in 1843, where he died in 1876. Jonas HARTZELL started a wagon shop at Harmony in 1820, but turned his attention toward agriculture in 1832. Lewis GANSZ and Jacob DAMBACH and wife came in about 1832; George MARBURGER, with his father and brother, Henry, came from Prussia in 1839, settling near Zelienople; Henry STOKEY came in 1846, and Dr. Adam WEISER in 1856. Detmar Basse MULLER, the PASSAVANTs, BUHLs, MUNTZs, ZIEGLERs, FIEDLERs, WISEs, ALLENs, and many other pioneers of Zelienople and Harmony are noticed in the chapters devoted to the history of the two boroughs.
[p. 398]
The population in 1860, was 1,117; in 1870---1,137; in 1880, excluding boroughs, 1,264, and in 1890---1,154. The assessed value of real and personal property in 1893, was $323,050; the county tax, $1,292.20, and the State tax, $84.80.
A frame granary, 80 by 40 feet, with four floors and machinery, well adapted to the design of the building.
Two distilleries, one brick, the other stone, each calculated to distill, by steam, 18 bushels of grain per day.
Two grist mills, one first rate, on Big Connoquenessing, with one set of burrs, the other a pair of common stones--a fulling mill, and convenient rooms for two sets of wool-carding machines attached to it. The other grist mill is situated on a run, with two pairs of common stones--an oil mill on Little Connoquenessing, together with a full-[p. 399] ing and hemp mill, and one set of cotton carding machines--two saw-mills--a large convenient tan yard with suitable improvements--a brick yard--potash factory--rope walk--brewery--a smith with four hearths--a nail factory--buildings suited to almost every branch of mechanism--and the town well supplied with water, having 10 wells with pumps, besides three springs.
There are in the town of Harmony 4 large barns with stables underneath, and on the premises 7 large sheep stables, that will hold 5,000 sheep.
Adjacent to Harmony and on the premises are three villages--the first is Ramsdale, half a mile north, containing about twenty log buildings, with convenient barns and stables--the second is Eidenau, one and a half miles east, containing about the same number of houses, barns and stables--the third is Oilbronn, two miles north, eight or ten houses with barns and stables; besides several other single farms with necessary buildings and handsome improvements. There are of the whole quantity of land about 3,000 acres remarkably well improved, and durably fenced; at least 500 acres of which are meadow and of the first quality.
There are two principal orchards, containing about 2,000 bearing apple trees, besides smaller ones in different parts of the farms. Two vineyards, one of 10 and the other of 5 acres, have given sufficient proof of the success of the cultivation of vines; they are made after the European manner, at a vast expense of labour, with parapet walls and stone steps conducting to an eminence overlooking the town of Harmony, and its surrounding improvements.
There have been supported from the improvements and produce of Harmony, annually 3,000 sheep, 600 horned cattle and a number of horses, besides the grain to feed the distilleries, and still affording large supplies to the country. There are quarries of good limestone, building stone and stone coal, and good timber for building and other uses abounding throughout the improved land.
The soil--the most extensive part of it, is of the first quality, on which are a number of good sugar camps, the situation level and rounding so as to form an agreeable variety of surface. The man of capital who may wish to purchase will, upon viewing Harmony and its improvements, at once discover that he can not be better suited, for the purpose of farming, manufacturing and every branch of mechanism.
Should no person or persons be inclined to purchase the whole property on or before the first day of October next, it will then be divided and sold in such lots and parcels as may suit purchasers.
The titles to all the above-described property are indisputable. Possession will be delivered on the first of April next, and the terms made known by application to the subscriber residing at Harmony, Butler county.
GEORGE RAPP
June 15, 1814.
The Economy grist-mill was erected on Scholar's run in 1806 or 1807 under the direction of George RAPP. The big mill at Eidenau, the oil mill, the full-[p. 400] ing and carding mill and the distillery on the Little Connoquenessing, above Eidenau, were early and important industries. In 1837 David ZIEGLER and Arron SCHONTZ converted the great barn of the Economites, northwest of the Diamond, into a steam flouring mill, while later, Jacob ZIEGLER erected a distillery near the big mill, above Harmony.
The Bassenheim furnace was carried on by Ditmar Basse MULLER from its opening, in 1814, to his return to Germany, in 1818, with the exception of the last two years, when P. L. PASSAVANT was really director of the work. From 1818 to 1824, Daniel BELTZHOOVER & Company were the owners, but in the latter year they closed it down, and, by 1826, BELTZHOOVER was the proprietor of the farm on which the ruins of the old furnace stood. Native ore was used and the bellows worked by water power until the dam gave way, after which a steam engine was introduced. John H. HOPKINS, who later became a prominent bishop in the Protestant Episcopal church, was a clerk in the old furnace prior to 1818, and, it is said, served also in P. L. PASSAVANT's store as saleman.
The WILSON salt works, established at Harmony in 1816, were carried on in conjunction with the salt well on Yellow creek.
There were several tanneries in the Harmony neighborhood, as well as distilleries, so that the early settlers of a wide section in Butler, Beaver and even Armstrong counties, made this a point for exchanging the products of the farm for flour, groceries, whisky and leather.
The justices of the peace for Jackson township, from 1855 to 1894 are named as follows: Thomas WILSON, 1855; Frederick ZEHNER, 1855, 1860, 1865 and 1875; Lewis GANSZ, 1860 and 1865; Henry COOPER, 1870, 1875 and 1876; Thomas I. WILSON, 1879; Andrew HARPER, 1880, 1885 and 1890; J. B. KNOX, 1882; S. RAMSEY, 1887; Jacob ENSLEN, 1891; G. W. WILSON, 1890; Charles ZEHNER, 1892; W. G. SWAIN, 1893; J. H. EICHERT, 1893, and Phil SNITZEL, 1894. Prior to 1854 the township formed a part of Connoquenessing and Cranberry townships, and prior to 1804 was a part of original Connoquenessing township.
Eidenau, in 1808-1814, was a town as large as Ramsdale, and there also was the big mill, erected by the Economites, which afterward became the property of Abraham ZIEGLER. On the flats north of the river was an old Indian town, which was practically abandoned in 1792, but tenanted by the women and children of the Red Hunters until the pioneers came into this section.
[End of Chapter 26 - Jackson Township: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]
Previous Chapter 25--Connoquenessing Township
Next Chapter 27--Zelienople Borough Table of Contents
Updated 13 Nov 2000, 19:17
