A Bimonthly Publication of the
Freeport Area Historical Society October/November, 2002
MEETINGS
October 10, November 14 and December
12 meetings will be at 7 p.m. in the Freeport Community Center.
Please come, and bring a friend who might like to join.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW?
Put on your thinking caps. Can you name the railroad that ran through Freeport - from out the dam road, down High Street, out across 6th, 5th and 4th, and Buffalo and then on out Mill Street, where it ended? See last page for the answer.
NEWS OF THE MILL
Paperwork has been turned in to the county to remove the mill from the property tax rolls. We await a decision.
Papers have also been sent in to get on the National Registry of Historic Buildings list. This could take as long as a year. As the paperwork progresses we'll be notified of any adjustments we need to make, but the feeling is that it will go through.
GRANT WORKSHOP
Don and Bonnie Collar, Al and Robin Bennett, and Frank Craig attended a grant workshop on September 24 at Beaver Co. Community College. They felt the workshop, put on by the Bureau of Historical Preservation, was time well spent. They learned much about how to get grants, what all a group must do, what information has to be included. There are different kinds of grants and they learned about the time periods involved. In the next fiscal year it is expected that funds will be cut drastically.
PLEDGES
We are moving right along. Pledges
stand at nearly $6,000 and about $2,000 of that amount has already
been paid. Since the last newsletter, these great supporters
have made pledges:
Bill Rittflman
James E. Hackestein
Bill Milberger
Richard & Betty Sweeny
NEXT NEWSLETTER
The deadline for articles for the next Newsletter is November 25. If you have an old letter, picture or an article that would be appropriate, please contact us - Don, 295-4635, Carol 353-2527, or Email to pchale@salsgiver.com. We welcome your input.
HEIRLOOM RECIPES
Maple Salad
1 large pkg. Cream cheese ½1/2
C. maple syrup
1 c. crushed pineapple, drained
1 C. dates, chopped ½1/2 t. salt
1 t. maple flavor 1 large Cool Whip
Mix together and refrigerate until
firm.
Contributed by Alice Julius
FROM JOHN SHOOP'S WEATHER BOOK
1848 - 1870
This column will return
in a future newsletter.
FREEPORT AID OPERATED WELL DURING CIVIL WAR
Another article written by Vernon Ross and published in a local newspaper in about 1956.
Freeport chapter of the Soldiers Aid Society was formed during the Civil War. It sent such items as dried applies, onions and elderberry wine as well as clothing to the Pittsburgh Branch of the Sanitary Commission.
The society was organized to promote the welfare and comfort of union soldiers. Old records show that the local group was founded January 31, 1863. Officers were Mrs. Mary Galbraith, President, Miss Mary Kennedy, Secretary, Mrs. Anna B. Weaver, Treasurer, and Mrs. Mary Murphy, Miss Selma Gibson, Miss Hannah McClelland and Miss Fannie Woods, committee on work and expenditures.
There were 73 other women members and 84 gentlemen "who were always on hand in an emergency."
The records show that money raised
in 1863-64 included $5 in dues and collections; $27 from children's
exhibition in the Baptist church, $160.20 from exhibitions in
the Presbyterian Church. The total was $192.20.
Articles sent to the Pittsburgh Branch of the Sanitary Commission
for the 14 month period ending May 18, 1864 included: 239 shirts,
28 sheets, 89 pairs of drawers, 33 pillows, 109 pillow cases,
47 towels, 47 handkerchiefs, 6 pounds lint, 112 pads, 86 pairs
of hose, 164 rolls of bandages, 85 cans of fruit.
Also, 6 bushels of dried peaches, 6 of dried berries, a bushel of dried apples, ½ ½1/2 bushel of onions, 135 books, 40 pamphlets, 14 packages of papers, 15 gallons of elderberry wine.
The society continued its work for some time after the end of the war. It was engaged in filling large orders for arm slings. Material for these slings was furnished by Pittsburgh Branch of the Sanitary Commission.
NEEDED
We urgently need old maps, newspaper articles, journals, drawings, pictures, etc. from the early days of the Mill. Some of the history we have, but more is needed and it would be helpful in getting grants. Please check your attics!!
Q & A
This column will return in the next newsletter.
WEB SITE
The Freeport Area Historical Society now has a web page. It is up and running, thanks to the expertise of Frank Craig. Remember, it is a work in progress. Check it out at www.fahs-pa.org. Hey, Frank, keep up the good work!
ROWLEY ALBUM
Member Dave Rowley has shared information received from Irene Rowley of Petaluma, CA. In the next few Newsletters we'll be including some of her research.
The Freeport-Natrona Vicinity: Original Lots, 1842-1860
Daniel Rowley's death in 1842 marked the end of the Rowley pioneering era. His widow, Polly, and her children returned to the Freeport vicinity immediately after and settled permanently. The Rowleys purchased most of their Freeport land from the original estate of the town's founder, William Todd, esquire. Todd's relative James Armstrong inherited the estate, divided it up into lots and was selling off lots in Freeport on a grand scale from 1840s to 1850s. This explains why most of the Rowley land was purchased from James Armstrong.
Freeport was a rural village and port on the Allegheny River, a boating, trading town. It was expanding rapidly since the PA Canal was being constructed right through it. The Freeport Journal describes a down-to-earth, friendly place. Residents enjoyed picnics, ice skating on the river, church functions, horse races and baseball. The Rowleys lived in extended families on their purchased plots from 1842 on.
Lots #20 and 21: Polly Rowley bought property in Freeport almost immediately after her husband's death. She settled on Lot 20 and did not build on #21. Her house was at the southeast corner of Stewart and Mill Streets, on the northern edge of the village on a hill overlooking the main village, next to the Buffalo Creek Bridge. While her married children settled nearby, she lived here with her unmarried daughter, Elmira.
Asa Rowley might have transferred part of Lot 10 to Polly which became Lots 20 & 21, as he had promised to sell a "Freeport Lot" in an earlier agreement with her husband. However, her estate records maintain she purchased it from James Armstrong independently. (A deed has not been found.)
In the 1850s Polly helped Elmira to raise Henry W. Rowley since Elmira was without husband. Polly's letters and will suggest she lived on a meager budget, reliant on children and relatives for support. In several instances she wrote to family in New York and Vermont, asking if she could collect on her inheritance or if there were any funds under Daniel's name in the Brandon lodge. In her will of 1865 she had only two possessions to bequeath: To her daughter "Almira, or her child now living, Lot #20. To each of my other children I give the sum of $1.00."
RAILROAD ANSWER
It was called the Northwestern Railroad. Plans were to build a bridge over Buffalo Creek. But the railroad went bankrupt and had no money to build what would have been a very high and very expensive bridge across Buffalo.
(2) Transfers of property
in Freeport…in 1842 to Polly Rowley, #s 20, 21, June 16,
for $60.