Transcribed by: Tina Kinser.
For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.
Link to a sketch of Franklin Township from the Atlas of Butler County, G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1874.
Surnames in this chapter are:
ALBERT, ANDERSON, BAKER, BALPH,BOOK, BOWERS, BOWSER,BRANDON,BRENNAN, CLARK, CLOUSE, COATES, COOK, CRANMER, CRATTY, CRAWFORD, CURRY, DAVIS, DICK, DODDS, DOUBLE, DUNN, DUTTER, ENGLISH, FORRESTER, HAMPSON, HAVEN, HAYS, HENSHAW, HUNTER, JEFFERSON, JONES, KIRKPATRICK, KORNRUMPF, LEPLEY, LOUDON, MARSHALL,MCCALL, MC CANDLESS, MC CLURE, MC CLYMOND, MC COLLOUGH, MC DONALD, MCGINNIS, MC GOWEN, MC GREW, MC KINNEY, MEANS, MILLER, MONTOOTH, MOORE, NASH, NEGLEY, OELTON, OESTERLING, PISOR, POLLOCK, RAY, RIDDLE, ROBB, ROSE, ROBB, ROSE, SALTZMAN, SHANNON, SMITH, SPEAR, STEPHENSON, STEVENSON, STICKEL, STOOPS, STOUGHTON, SULLIVAN, TIBBETT, THOMPSON, WATSON, WEIGLE, WEITZEL, WHITE, WILSON, WOODRUFF, YOUNG
Franklin township, named from the Franklin road which passes through it from south to north, is centrally situated, lying west of Centre and northwest of Butler townships. As first organized, it comprised the eastern half of the original Muddy Creek township. In the township division of 1854 its boundaries were changed so as to take in a portion of Centre township, and later still another change in its boundaries was made and that part of Brady township lying south of Muddy Creek was added to its area. It has no railroads and may be said to be one of the purely pastoral divisions of the county. Manufacturing industries seem never to have been favored by its people, and even the development of its coal deposits has been neglected. The township, however, abounds in well improved and highly productive farms.
The Muddy Creek oil field, in Franklin and Muddy Creek townships, was opened in November, 1891, a mile south by west of the old well of 1861. The first HENSHAW well yielded oil at 1,100 feet in the Berea sand, a local name for a sand above the Hundred Foot. There are fourteen producers in the field, which aggregate a production of from 130 to 140 barrels a day.
The population in 1860, six years after the township was re-organized; was 860, the number of inhabitants in the original township in 1850, being 1,119. In 1870 the population was 1,047; in 1880-1,409, and in 1890-1,333, including the 343 inhabitants then credited to Prospect Borough. The enumeration of school children in June, 1893, showed 139 males and 105 females in the township. The assessed valuation in January, 1894, was $289,033; the county tax, $1,156.13, and the State tax, ninety-nine dollars and eighty-nine cents. The school moneys, appropriated by the State for 1892-93 in the township amounted to $950.12, and the total revenue for schools, to $2,709.65.
Stephen and Joseph CRAWFORD, also Stephen, Jr., and Christopher CRAWFORD, came from Ireland in 1796, when the father began blacksmithing here, and was a landowner in 1803. George BOWERS, John and Peter SALTZMAN, Thomas and William DODDS, Jesse and James NASH, Abner COATES, John THOMPSON, James MCGREW and Edward WHITE entered lands the same year and began the work of clearing the forests. Nathaniel STEVENSON came on an exploring tour in 1796, but did not bring his family hither until 1798.
Andrew MC GOWAN, who owned 400 acres of the Indian camp, where Prospect now stands, was the first settler there. He came , in 1798, from Maryland, where his parents settled after leaving Ireland. Leonard SHANNON, referred to in the history of Connoquenessing, located here, at Jefferson's Rock, shortly after MC GOWAN came, while Thomas MEANS, a soldier of the Revolution, and Joseph MEANS, each a landowner in 1803, came from Westmoreland county. James JEFFERSON, a nomad and a great hunter, was a contemporary of the settlers of 1798, as were William and John DICK and Tobias STEPHENSON.
Adam ALBERT located in Franklin township in 1799, and may be called the pioneer of Lutheranism in this county. Henry SHAFFER, a German, arrived that year with a large family, and set out apple seed.
Jacob HAYS, Robert HAYS, the distiller, William, Isaac and Benjamin DAVIS, were here in 1800. In 1799 William SPEAR, a soldier of the Revolution, and John SPEAR, arrived to link their fortunes with the settlement. John KENNEDY, who was buried near Muddy Creek; Samuel MC CALL and Cadwallader BAKER, were also among the pioneers.
Matthew MC COLLOUGH and his father-in-law, William HUNTER, located here in 1803. The latter bought four hundred acres of land, fifty of which he gave or sold to MC COLLOUGH, a part of which is now included in the site of Prospect. William BRENNAN, an Irishman, came in 1803: William FORRESTER in 1808; John MONTGOMERY and family, with a foster boy--Samuel LOUDON--arrived in 1818, and John ANDERSON, from Down county, Ireland, in 1833. Other families, including the MC CLURES, JONES, KIRKPATRICKS and RIDDLES, came in between 1800 and 1833, many of whom have been identified with the township history, [p.588] such as Samuel RIDDLE, who came into the county in 1800; but as their names occur in connection with the churches, schools, industries and official life of both township and borough, there is no necessity for their repetition here.
MUDDY CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH was organized October 19, 1819, among the members being Henry SHAFFER, Jacob ROSE, Samuel STOUGHTON, Ann SHAFFER, Margaret SPEAR, and John OELTON. Revs. Henry SPEAR and NathanielTIBBETT preached here prior to 1822, when Rev. Samuel STOUGHTON was chosen preacher. He remained until 1862, when Rev. D. L. CLOUSE succeeded him. In 1869 Enos WOODRUFF came and preached here until Centennial year, Rev. M. S. BOWSER being also a preacher here during the last three years of Mr. WOODRUFF's pastorate and until the fall of 1877, when Rev. W. H. H. MC KINNEY took charge. In 1885, he was succeeded by Rev. Joseph M. RAY, who remained until 1891, since which time the church has been without a regular preacher, though the society claims no less than 143 members. In 1844 a brick building was erected on the south bank of Muddy creek, three miles north of prospect, near the Franklin road, which is still in use. The old deacons of this organization were Jacob ROSE, John SHAFFER, William SHAFFER, Robert HAMPSON, C. BAKER, Andrew STOUGHTON, Daniel SMITH, Oliver PISOR, Robert MC GINNIS, Simon STICKEL, Leonard [p.589] SHANNON and James CRATTY. Only a few of the number were residents of Franklin, the others hailing from Brady, Muddy Creek and Connoquenessing townships.
THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH at Mt. Chestnut was organized in 1857 by Rev. William BRANDON. Meetings were held in Joseph BALPH's barn until the completion of the present brick church building in the fall of 1858. This house resembles in style that of the Presbyterian church at Mt. Nebo, below Whitestown, and appears to have been erected on the same plans and out of similar material. From 1858 to 1876 Rev. James A. CLARK was the pastor, and Hugh and James STEVENSON, John MILLER and John M. DUNN the elders. The society was incorporated March 5, 1890, on petition of William WATSON, Enos MC DONALD, William STOOPS, Thomas J. DODDS, John F. CRANMER, John M. DUNN, A. L. WEITZELL and M. W. SHANNON. Rev. T. W. YOUNG succeeded Mr. CLARK as pastor.
The Mt. Chestnut postoffice was conducted from 1850 to 1855 by James D. ANDERSON. From the fall of 1855 to the spring of 1862, during which time the office was discontinued, the people were compelled to go long distances for mail, so that the re-establishment of the office in 1862 was a boon which they appreciated. J. J. STEVENSON held the office eighteen years; William WATSON from 1880 to 1885; Oswald KORNRUMPF, from 1885 to 1889, and William WATSON from 1889 to 1893. Oswald KORNRUMPF, appointed in 1893, is the present postmaster.
There are no manufacturing industries nearer than the RALSTON mill and creamery at Prospect; HAYS' mill and ALLEN's mill in Connoquenessing and the CRANMER mill, east of the village, on the Butler road. The United Presbyterian church, STEVENSON's blacksmith shop, W. WATSON & Son's general store, the postoffice store and a collection of neat dwelling houses constitute the village of 1894.
[End of Chapter 53 - Franklin Township: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]
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Updated 07 Jan 2000, 12:06
