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Chest
Springs is distinguished by being one of the oldest boroughs in Cambria
County, also by being
one of the smallest in population, and the only borough that the famous Kittanning
Path crosses; made famous by the Indians and Indian fighters. Land
titles in
Cambria
County
show that in
1754 the Iroquois sold
Cambria
County
to the Penns.
October 13,
1760, William Penn
issued a warrant for a survey of Chest Manor.
February 17,
1769
, 888 acres
were sold to Benjamin Steward. March 20 and 21, 1769, the land was
surveyed and called "Chest." Historians believe that Chest
Springs got it's name from Chest Manor. The word Chest was derived
from the huge stands of Chestnut trees in the Manor area. The second
part of the borough's name came from springs along this section of the
Kittanning Path.
The
Manor track, reserved by the Penns, was erected in a borough by Act of
Assembly and was formed from about equal proportions of Allegheny and
Clearfield
Townships. It is
situated on the dividing ridge between the waters of
Clearfield
and Chest
Creek. [Note: This area of land was first recorded in 1842 as
Stewartville] The Borough was incorporated
May 19, 1858. A copy
of the draft is on file in the rooms of Cambria County Historical Society at
Ebensburg,
PA.
Main
state Yankees drifted into the district and other sections of the county
during the 1850s. The Perrys and Nutters settled in the springs
section and opened a lumbering trade. This trade is one that the
Springs had in common with most early
Cambria
towns.
The land had to be cleared and the timber was necessary for growth and
expansion of the section. Houses were built close to the springs on
the Chest Tract. These springs never went dry, even during the
severest drought, and in the early days were always a dependable source of
water supply.
Eben
Nutter was a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee and he brought many of the old
traditions and customs with him. Mr. Nutter built a boarding house to
feed and shelter the men who worked for him. This was a one story fram
building, and it stood for many years as a landmark. Then Yankee
families came from Maine
to Chest
Springs to work, cutting logs and sawing timber for Mr. Nutter. These
families were: Jmes Perry, Dan Downey, James Littlefield, Perry
McDonald, Solomon Charles, the Seathmans and Hollis families. They
built
Cape Cod
style houses.
These houses had sloping roofs on each side down to the ceiling of the first
floor, two windows on each side, and two windows in the gable ends to
provide light and ventilation for the bedrooms. The ceilings on the
second floor sloped down to the floor on each side.
Fifty
teams of horses and 12 yokes of oxen were used to haul the lumber to and
from the sawmills. There were no roads, but only log trails at that
time. The trails were only wide enough for a wagon. These roads
were used in dragging logs from the woods to lumber mills, hence the name
log trails came. The trails were cut right through the forest.
Chest Creek was the largest stream of water around and it was much larger
than it is today. It overflowed its banks regularly every spring and
fall.
In
those early days of 1850, illiteracy was common, and many families,
including the parents, could neither read nor write. Of course, this
was due to the fact that there were no schools and the meager fundamentals
of reading and writing were taught at home. The first school building
was made of logs, one small room, and the teacher was not paid a salary.
The families who sent their children to school gave free room and board to
the teacher. Each family kept the teacher for a month. The
school term started November 1 and ended February 28, only four months out
of a year. Some of the families would collect a few dollars among
themselves at the end of the term and give it to the teacher, probably about
$20.
Maine
state Yankees
brought with them their own religion, the Presbyterian faith. A church
was built in June 1861, which was later abandoned, and the Methodists used
it for a place of worship. A minister from Ebensburg came for services
on Sundays, and later a minister from Patton came once a month. The
church was then abandoned since most of the original families had moved back
to
Maine
about the year
1905. Their cemetery, called the
Union
Cemetery
has few marked
graves. The church was torn down in the year 1908.
The
first Catholic church was built in the fall of 1859 and dedicated on
March 20, 1860
. It was
only a small wooden structure known as the Chapel and fir first pastor was
Father John Burns, pastor of the
St. Augustine
Church
. Chest
Springs was only a mission parish at that time. Father Burns was
pastor from March, 1853, until April, 1866 at
St. Augustine
(and the
Chapel.) He was succeeded by Monsignor Martin Ryan. Father Ryan laid
the cornerstone of the church which was built in 18889 and dedicated in
1890. The church hall was dedicated in 1892 and the rectory the
following year.
The
first resident pastor was Reverend James McCarn in 1889 and since there was
not parochial residence, the pastor boarded with a private family until the
residence was built, which was a year later. Father McCarn died a
couple of years later and was succeeded by Father Francis McKenna, who was
then succeeded by Father John Duggan. Father Duggan built the
parochial school here in 1921. Since all of the Protestant families
had moved away, there was not need for a public school, so it was sold for
the lumber and taken away. Father James Padden was appointed pastor
late in October of 1928, after the death of Father Duggan. Father
Padden's tenure was the longest in the history of the parish. Others
were Father (presently Monsignor) Paul A. Lenz,
December 4,
1951
; Father Carl
J. Wileshal in July of 1953; Father Joseph C. Cummings,
March 8, 1955
; Father
Innocent A. Strittmatter,
June 8, 1956
; and Father
Gerald J. Oeler, present.
Word
was received from the Postmaster General at
Washington
,
DC
that the date
for the first Post Office established in Chest Springs was
May 4, 1839
, and the name
of the postmaster was Andrew McGuire. Therefore, it would appear that
there was a post office here 19 years before Chest Springs was established
on
May 10, 1858
. Mrs.
Jane Cramer was postmistress for a number of years and also Charles Perry
served as postmaster.
The
mail was brought with a horse and buggy from Ashville by rural carrier to
Perry's store, where the post office was located. Charles Perry was
postmaster at that time.
Another
distinction for the community was noted when flour from the Chest Springs
famous rolling mills was reported to be the first foodstuff to reach
Johnstown after the tragic flood of May 18889. The town in those early
days also had a shook shop to make barrels, a wooden mill, foundaries, and
black smith shops. A number of hotels served the workers and travelers
in those pioneer days, but fire destroyed them before the advent of the 20th
century. In the year 1900 there were the following business in the
borough: grist mill, blacksmith shop, hotel, harness shop, shoemaker,
livery stable, foundry, two churches, dressmaker, tinner, public school,
post office, several expert carpenters, two general stores, and a resident
doctor. The resident doctors here from about the year 1885 were:
Miller, Sloan, Noonan, Weatherly, and Sommerville.
Dr.
Harry Sommerville had his office on the second flor of Charles Perry's store
until he purchased the farm of Samuel Wills just outside the borough line,
and moved there. In addition to his medical practice he also pinch-hit
as a dentist and he extracted teeth frequently. Dr. Sommerville was
the first man to operate a dairy farm, and he had a fine herd of registered
Jersey
cattle.
He
also had the first hand operated cream separator, and he built the first
silo in this community. He obtained water for his cattle and farm
needs from a drilled well from which the water was pumped by a wind wheel
into a large storage tank. He was the first farmer to experiment with
growing of alfalfa, cow peas and strawberries, and also raised chickens on a
large scale for marketing. He owned the first automobile, a
Franklin
; Charles Perry
bought the second one from his brother, Frank, a Chalmers Detroit; and
Thaddeus Conrad had the third, which was a Buick. These were the only
cars in this community for quite a few years.
A
butcher shop was operated by Fred McDonald, who bought meat live from the
farmers which he slaughtered. Best cuts of round steak sold for 15
cents a pound in the year 1900, eggs at 15 cents a dozen, coffee at 15 cents
a pound, sugar at 5 cents a pound, flour at $1.25 for 49 pound sack at the
local feed mill, country butter at 20 cents to 25 cents per pound, fresh
milk at 5 cents a quart, and kerosene oil at 10 cents a gallon. Barrel
molasses, which was used in baking instead of sugar, and was spread on bread
sold at 10 cents a quart. There were no bakers in town, and every
family baked its own bread.
The
farmers produced most of their own food, except for a few things such as
coffee, tea, sugar and cheese. In the early days of the 1840s and
1850s, there were plenty of wild bees here and you could walk a short
distance out of the village into the woods and cut down a bee tree to get a
years supply of honey for the taking.
Also
about the year 1840, there was a large maple sugar camp here. It was
located just on the outside of the village. Then the land was covered
with dense woods. Most of the trees were maple sugar. The maple
sugar was boiled at the camp in large cast iron kettles with blazing logs.
It was marketed in nearby towns: Carrolltown, Loretto,
Altoona
, and
Johnstown
. Maple
sugar sold at that time for 20 cents a quart.
Arthur
Green operated a general store, but did not handle hardware or farm
implements. He had a complete line of china and Bric-a-brac.
There was a well dug close to the sidewalk in front of his store with a
large wooden pump with a long iron handle. This was borough property
and anyone could get water from it. The sidewalks were made of wooden
plank about two inches thick and 10 inches wide. Large flat stones
were laid at the street crossings, but in the spring and fall, they usually
became covered with mud. The state road through the town was
constructed in 1925. This was indeed a blessing for there was
foot-deep mud right through town during spring and fall.
Perry
McDonald was the last to have a team of oxen in the community. There
was a hitching rail consisting of a four inch pip supported by wooden posts
in front of Perry's store where farmers could tie their horses when in town.
There also was a weighing scale and platform in front of the store for the
farmers to weight their hay on the way to market.
As
to entertainment, there were only a couple of families who had pianos at
that time, since they were considered a great luxury, but several families
had foot tread organs. The music for dances and other festive
occasions consisted of organ and violin music. There were no movies
and the young people provided their own entertainment in their homes.
They had dances, hay rides, ice skating, and sled riding in the winter.
The ice from the pond in the winter was used to preserve food in the summer
months. The ice was cut from the pond in squares and placed in a
wooden frame and covered with sawdust. The ice would keep from melting
this way.
-
taken from the Chest Springs Area Bicentennial Book
by
the Chest Springs Area Bicentennial Association
Dated
July 4, 1980
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