Crawford County, Pennsylvania

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WEST FALLOWFIELD was formed from East Fallowfield in 1845. It lies upon the south border of the county, west of the center, and contains 6,629 square acres. The surface is undulating and heavily timbered, principally with pine, oak and chestnut. The soil is a clayey loam. The principal stream is Crooked Creek, which separates it from East Fallowfield. The old Beaver & Erie Canal extends through the eastern part of the township, in close proximity to Crooked Creek.

The population of the township in 1870 was 691, all of whom were white, 664, native and 27, foreign.

During the year ending June 3, 1872, the township contained five schools and employed nine teachers. The number of scholars was 204; the average number attending school, 137; and the amount expended for school purposes, $1,173.12.

HARTSTOWN (p. v.) is situated a little north of the center of the township, on the line of the old Beaver & Erie Canal and at the outlet of a large reservoir which fed the Canal, but from which, since the latter’s abandonment, the water has been drawn. It was incorporated as a borough in 1851, and had, in 1870, a population of 188. The number of inhabitants has not materially changed since then. It has three churches, one school, a hotel, two stores, one harness shop, three carriage shops, two blacksmith shops, a barrel factory, a shoe shop and a steam grist mill, just completed, containing two runs of stones. The reservoir which supplied the canal at this place covered about 600 acres, and being well stocked with fish was a favorite resort for the lovers of piscatorial sport. Bass, white fish and pickerel were caught here in great abundance. The water was drawn off in 1872. Before the canal was abandoned Hartstown was a thriving village.

ADAMSVILLE (p. o.) is situated in the southern part of the township and contains two churches, (and a Society of Old-School Presbyterians who have no edifice,) three stores, two blacksmith shops, two shoe shops, one carriage shop, a steam flouring mill, (with three runs of stones and a capacity for grinding forty bushels of grain per day,) thirty dwellings and about 150 inhabitants.

Settlement was begun in the latter part of the last century. Hugh Fletcher was the first to settle in the northern part of the township. He was a native of Ireland and came here in 1797. His daughter, Sarah, was the first white female child born in Shenango township. Hugh Blair, also from Ireland, came in 1802 and settled upon a tract of one hundred acres about one mile north of Hartstown.

The Hartstown United Presbyterian Church was organized in 1830, by Dr. Dinwiddie. The first pastor was Rev. S. F. Smith. The first church edi- *118 fice was erected in 1830, and the present one in 1855, at a cost of $2,500. It will seat 500 persons. The present pastor is Rev. H. H. Hervey, our informant, and the number of members, 130. The Church property is valued at $3,000.

The M. E. Church, at Hartstown, was organized with fifteen members in 1840, in which year was erected the church edifice, (which will seat 175 persons) at a cost of $500. The pastor is Rev. H. S. Goodrich, and the number of members, 35. The Church property is valued at $400.—[Information furnished by Mr. Enoch Ellis.

The Adamsville Freewill Baptist Church was organized with twenty-one members, in April, 1853, by Revs. J. S. Manning and J. B. Page, the former of whom was the first pastor. Their house of worship, which will seat 250 persons, was erected in 1853, at a cost of $1,200. The Society numbers fifty-five, and is under the spiritual tutelage of Rev. N. H. Farr, our informant.

¹ Hamilton Child, comp., Gazetteer and Business Directory of Crawford County, Pa., for 1874 (Syracuse, N.Y.: By the comp., 1874), pp. 118-19.