Transcribed by: Ron Sanders For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.
Link to a sketch of Fairview Township from the Atlas of Butler County, G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1874.
Surnames in this chapter are:
ADAMS, ANDREW, ANGELL, BARNHART, BLY, BOVARD, BREDIN, BROWN, CALDWELL, CAMPBELL, CONWAY, COOK, CRAIG, CUMBERLAND, DILLO, ELLENBERGER, EMERICK, EMERY, FLEMING, FLETCHER, FORMAN, FORRINGER, GIBSON, GIVENS. HALL, HAROLD, HARROP, HARSHAW, HAYS, HENDERSON, HEMPHILL, HUTCHISON, IRWIN, JACKSON, JOHNSTON, KAMERER, KAYLOR, KEPLER, KEPPLE, KING, KINKAID, KLINE, KOCH, KRANTZ , KRAUSE, KUHN, LAMBING, LEE, LUSK, MARSHALL, MAXWELL, MILLICHAMP, MOORE, MOORHEAD, MORTIMER, McCAFFERTY, McCASLIN, McCLEARY, McCLUNG, McCOLLOUGH, McCORKLE, McDERMOTT, McKISSON, McLAUGHLIN, McLEARY, OLDFIELD, O'DONNELL, O'FARREN, PATTON, PITCAIRN, PONTIUS, RAY, READ, REEP, RICHARDS, RIDDLE, RIGGS, ROBERTSON, ROWLEY, SANDERSON, SATTERFIELD, SCHWEITZERBARTH, SHAKELEY, SCOTT, SMITH, SNOW, STARR, STOREY, SYLVUS, SUTTON, TAYLOR, THORN, THUMM, TROUTMAN, UPDEGRAFF, VANDERGRIFT, WALLACE, WILES, WILSON, WOLFORD
FAIRVIEW township was established under authority of legislative enactment in March, 1846. This act provided that the new township to be formed out of Donegal township, should be bounded on the south by a line extending west from the line of Armstrong county, between the farms of Andrew BARNHART and the Widow SYLVUS, to the line of Centre township, and that the original lines of the northern part of Donegal should be the northern, eastern and western lines of Fairview. The place of election for the new township was fixed at the house of William McCAFFERTY in the village of Fairview, the voters of the old township of Donegal to meet at the house of Dennis O'DONNELL, Sr. In 1854 it was established within its present limits.
The population in 1850 was 1,678; in 1860---1,101; in 1870---1,078; in 1880, including the boroughs, 6,150, and in 1890, exclusive of boroughs, 1,996. In June, 1893, there were 222 male and 222 female children of school age enumerated. The assessed value of property in January, 1894, was $308,560; the county tax, $1,234.26; the State tax, $158.38, and the revenue for school purposes, in 1893---$4.224.15, including $1,119.17 State appropriation.
Andrew CAMPBELL moved in from Concord in 1804, just one year after Charles McCLUNG, the spinning wheel manufacturer, arrived from Maryland. Samuel IRWIN, John SNOW, John and George EMERICK, William FLEMING and Jonathan KEPPEL settled here within the first quarter of the century, while sons of the pioneers of adjoining townships and of Armstrong county, such as the THORNs, BARNHARTs and HAYS, came to seek homes in Fairview in later days.
St. Paul's Reformed Church, formerly known as the Union church, a combination of the Lutheran and Reformed people of this locality, built a log house early in the century on the Andrew BARNHART, Sr., farm, just north of the Gabriel PONTIUS farm. The ground was donated by Mr. BARNHART in 1813. Revs. Henry KOCH, SCHWEITZERBARTH and KRANTZ were early preachers. A frame house was subsequently raised, which was used by the two societies down to the close of the sixties, when the union dissolved, the Lutherans building north of old St. Patrick's on Sugar creek, while the Reformed congregation held the old property of eleven acres on the BARNHART farm, where is now the cemetery. The old building, which was their third house of worship, was abandoned, and they then established worship in the Sugar Creek church. Ultimately they became sole owners of that site, where their church, known as "White Church," stands today. Among the members were Gabriel PONTIUS, the KAMERERs, Frederick WILES, the KAYLORs, FORRINGERs, John and Jacob HEMPHILL, John WOLFORD, the SHAKELEYs and others. The old records were destroyed my mice, but Rev. Mr. KLINE, the present pastor, has the records of later years.
The justices of the peace elected from 1846 to 1894 are as follows: John SCOTT, 1846 and 1851; John McKISSON, 1850; Thomas CRAIG, 1854; Matthew S. RAY, 1856, 1861, and 1869; Robert CAMPBELL, 1857 and 1862; William C. ADAMS, 1866; Alexander STOREY, 1868 and 1873; A.L. CAMPBELL, 1872; William [p. 533] McCOLLOUGH, 1873; T.P. BROWN, 1874; Daniel UPDEGRAFF, 1875; William STOREY, 1876; S. W. McCOLLOUGH, 1878, 1883, 1888 and 1898; Robert McCLUNG, 1880, and W.F. CAMPBELL, 1885 and 1890.
Buena Vista had, later in 1878, a nominal population of 500, increased to 1,000 at certain time, and about 130 stores and dwellings. Situated in the southwest quarter of Fairview township, it was the center of the celebrated oil district; for round it clustered the oil towns of Angelica, Karn city, Iron city, Modoc, Greece City, Troutman, Millerstown, Fairview and Petrolia. That it was an important business place in the fall of 1873, may be learned from the fact that there were carried on there two hardware stores, two drug stores, two machine shops, two tank shops, two bakeries, two feed stores, two livery stables, two shoemaker's shops, two billiard rooms, two lumber yards, two dry good stores, two barber shops, two millinery stores, two trimming stores, two sewing machine agencies, a number of hotels and boarding houses, about twenty saloons, a meat market, a dozen of grocery stores, a news depot and a post-office. The law office of MARSHALL & McCASLIN, the offices of Dr. KING, formerly of Greece City, and Dr. OLDFIELD, formerly of Oil City, with the Rev. DILLO's Methodist church, in one of the billiard rooms, and HENDERSON's school in the grove, contributed to perfect the community. A Methodist church, since moved to Kittanning, was erected there, as well as a United Presbyterian building now standing and used at intervals for worship. In August, 1874, Alexander STOREY's big hotel was swept away by fire, and thirty-six other buildings, including four general stores in the center of the town, were reduced to ashes. This calamity did not wipe out the town, by any means; for a few new buildings were erected and such traders as Paul TROUTMAN, Enos ELLENBERGER and James J. SUTTON carried on business there for a number of years after the fire. In 1880 the census enumerators made no mention of the number of inhabitants.
Argyle may be said to date back to May, 1871, when A.L. CAMPBELL the [p. 534] first developer of the southern oil extension, leased thirty-five acres from Robert CAMPBELL near the north township line. John A. LAMBING purchased the leases and organized the Robert CAMPBELL Oil Company, with himself and brother, H.L. TAYLOR, C.D. ANGELL, B.B. CAMPBELL and the two BROWNs members thereof. On November 19 the drill struck the Third sand, but the gas and oil catching fire, destroyed the derrick. Within a day or so the flames were extinguished, a new rig put up, and an eighty-barrel well brought into existence. Then the stampede to Argyle commenced. F.M. CAMPBELL built the first house and led in the building enterprise. Within a little while the land was covered with houses, and Argyle became the Mecca of oil men. The GIVENS gas well on the GIBSON farm, supplied for a long time the light and heat for Petrolia.
The Argyle Savings Bank, of Petrolia, established in September, 1872, offered interest on time deposits ranging from four to six per cent. The directors of the bank were John PITCAIRN, Jr., John SATTERFIELD, H.L. TAYLOR, George V. FORMAN, J.J. VANDERGRIFT and George W. THUMM. After passing through many hands, it failed in 1891, injuring only the stockholders.
Near and at Argyle the highest well mouth did not exceed 1,171 feet above the ocean, and that was BLY & ROWLEY's Number 2, on the A.L. CAMPBELL farm. The well on the HARROP farm, EMERY & CALDWELL's producers on the R.D. CAMPBELL farm, A.L. CAMPBELL's wells, SATTERFIELD & TAYLOR's wells, and other famous producers, were commenced at points ranging from 1,149 to 1,171 feet above the ocean level.
Angelica, on the STOREY and KEPLER farms sprung into existence in June, 1873 when twenty store and dwelling houses were raised and occupied.
Iron City, now practically a part of Millerstown, was a busy place in 1873. Even prior to that date, in 1869, the Reformed society erected a church there, the history of which is given the chapter on Millerstown. hardware stores, saloons, hotels, boarding houses and all the institutions of an oil town were there even before the great railroad trestle was built, but the site is now given up to agriculture, the wrecks of derricks speaking of its former greatness.
Haysville is located in the midst of what was a most prolific oil field, where the Union Oil Company, or H.L. TAYLOR and Company, had, early in the seventies, ninety-seven producers, ranging in depth from 1,630 to 1,700 feet. That known as "Matthew STOREY Number 2" opened as a 1,2000-barrel producer, and others were equally great gushers. Thomas HAYS ultimately became owner of the greater part of the lands, laid out the village round John McCORKLE's store, and established his mercantile house there in 1875. A year after N.W. KRAUSE opened his oil well supply store, and fifty or sixty other buildings were erected. Owing to the decrease in production, beginning in 1879, the people sought better fields, and Haysville was deserted.
[End of Chapter 44 - Fairview Township: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]
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