Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History & Biography
18741
"GAZETTEER OF TOWNSHIPS."
EAST FALLOWFIELD TOWNSHIP
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EAST FALLOWFIELD was formed in 1804. It lies
upon the south border of the county, west of the center, and
contains 16,616 square acres. The surface is hilly and drained
by Crooked Creek, which separates this township from West
Fallowfield and a few small streams tributary to it, the principal of which are Union and Henrys runs, the former in the northern and the latter in the southern part. The soil is
gravelly. Upon the farms of J. H. and J. M. McEntire in
this township, so we are informed, has been discovered a vein
of anthracite coal live feet in thickness. It is the only bed of
coal yet found in this part of the county. If we are correctly
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informed the fact disproves the opinion which is prevalent that
anthracite coal does not exist west of the Alleghanies. It is
doubtful however.
The manufactures of the township are of considerable and
increasing importance. They consist principally of two cheese
factories, one located about one and one-fourth miles from Atlantic and owned by Messrs. Findley & Breckenridge, which uses
the milk of 300 cows and presses an average of eight cheeses
per day, and the other, located in the north-eastern part of the
township and owned by Messrs. Mellon & Co., which was started
in the spring of the present year, (1873) used the milk of 200
cows, and pressed five to seven cheeses per day; McQuiston &
Cos flouring mill, located on Crooked Creek, in the south-western part, which employs two persons and contains four runs of stones with a capacity for grinding sixty bushels of grain per
day; J. L. Johnsons oil barrel factory, located at Atlantic,
which gives employment to four persons and the annual product of which is valued at $6,000 to $10,000; and G. K. Millers steam mills, located about one-half mile east of Atlantic, which
give employment to six persons, and daily produce 10,000 feet
of sawed and 5,000 feet of planed lumber, besides a quantity of
nail keg headings.
The Atlantic & Great Western R. R. passes in a southerly
direction through near the center of the township.
The population of the township in 1870, was 1,167, all of
whom were white, 1,098, native and 69, foreign.
During the year ending June 3, 1873, the township contained
seven schools and employed fourteen teachers. The number of
scholars was 303; the average number attending school, 248;
and the amount expended for school purposes, $1,443.16.
ATLANTIC, (p. o.) (formerly known as Adamsville p. o.,) on
the A. & G. W. R. R., is pleasantly situated on elevated ground
overlooking a wide extent of country, and contains three stores,
a barrel factory, stave mill, two shoe shops, a millinery shop
and about fifteen dwellings. New buildings are being put up
with considerable rapidity and the place gives promise of speedily becoming an active business center.
The earliest settlement which has come under our observation
was made in 1792, by Thomas Frame and Daniel Miller, who came
about the same time. They are reputed to have been at that time
the only white settlers west of Meadville. Frame came from
Dunnstown, on the Susquehanna, and settled upon a tract of 600
acres in the northern part of the township. Abner E. Frame, his
son, relates that when his father started from Meadville on his
exploring expedition, he took with him upon his back his rifle,
camp kettle and two weeks provisions, all of which, with his
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camp, were consumed by fire. Thomas Smith, Thomas McMichael and Abraham Jackson came in 1798. The two former
settled in the nortliern part of the township. Jackson came
from Susquehanna county. He helped to repel the Indians in
Western Pennsylvania and was a soldier in the war of 1812. Daniel Dipple came from Caroline township, Cumberland county, in 1800, at which time there were but few settlers in what
is now comprised in the townships of East and West Fallowfield
and Greenwood. His neighbors were Smith and McMichael
before named. His death, which occurred Nov. 20, 1811, is said
to have been the first in this township. Jacob Dipple, his son,
who was but six years old when his father came, is still living
on the old homestead. John McEntire, a native of Scotland,
immigrated to this country in 1801, and took up a large tract
of land in this township. John Andrews settled upon a tract
of 400 acres in the north-western part of the township in 1803,
having emigrated the same year from Ireland. The locality in
which he settled and the country for many miles in all directions was a dense wilderness. Mr. Miller and Adams, also
natives of Ireland, were his only neighbors.
Fallowfield M. E. Church, at Hannas Corners, was organized in 1872,
with one hundred members, by Rev. J. A. Hume, the first and present
pastor, and the church edifice, which will seat 300 persons, was erected the
same year, at a cost of $1,800, the present value of Church property. It
has 160 members.[Information furnished by Mr. J. D. Dunbar, trustee.
1 Hamilton Child, comp., Gazetteer and Business Directory of Crawford County, Pa., for 1874 (Syracuse, N.Y.: By the comp., 1874), pp. 118-19.