Treaty of Fort Stanwix
At an historic meeting, an agreement was
reached which paved the way for the founding of
Johnstown, destined to become Cambria County's
only city and the hub of its greatest population
area. The meeting date was November 5, 1768. The
principal bargainers were chiefs of the Iroquois,
reigning Indian power in the East, and
representatives of the Penn family's proprietary
government in Pennsylvania. The pact made that
day went down in history as the Treaty of Fort
Stanwix. It opened up settlement for all of
Pennsylvania south of the historic Kittanning
Path, and thus induced settlers to enter the
valleys of the Conemaugh and Stonycreek. It was
five months before land warrants could be issued
under the Fort Stanwix Treaty. But on the very
day that the treaty became effective, April 3,
1769, a warrant was taken out for 249 acres that
stretched between the Conemaugh and Stonycreek
Rivers. This tract was Johnstown's birthplace.
Early Traders and Pioneer Settlers
Prior to the Fort Stanwix pact, journeying
pioneers were the only white men to traverse the
valley wilderness. Among them were some of early
Pennsylvania's most famous explorers -- Col. John
Armstrong, who later defeated the Indians at
their Kittanning stronghold, George Croghan, John
Davenport, James LeTort, Christian Frederick Post
and Conrad Weiser. As early as 1731 LeTort
reported to Governor Patrick Gordon that he found
45 Indian families living on "Connumach
Creek", also referred to in the colonial era
as "Cough-naugh-maugh", "Connumah",
"Ko-ne-ma", or "Gunamonki",
to name a few of the derivatives. Other early
traders and explorers stopped off at
Kickenapaulin's, a name applied to an individual
as well as to his Indian settlement. Early maps
place Kickenapaulin's at the present site of
Quemahoning Dam in Somerset County. It is
possible that Kickenapaulin also may have settled
for a time near Johnstown as his tribe moved
westward. Whether Johnstown proper was once the
site of a permanent Indian village is disputed
among historians and researchers. Nevertheless,
there is evidence that the Delawares and Shawnees
(or Shawanese) frequently passed through and near
the area. An old Indian trail, the Conemaugh Path,
extended from Bedford to Johnstown and thence
through the Conemaugh Gap westward to the Ohio
Country. So far as the records show, the first
white settlers were Solomon and Samuel Adams and
their sister Rachel Adams. Coming from Bedford in
the early 1770s, they pioneered in the Stonycreek
valley and cleared the first farmland in what is
now Johnstown. Samuel and Rachel were killed by
Indians as they fled toward Bedford about 1772.
Their memory was perpetuated with the naming of
Solomon Run, Sam's Run and Rachel Hill. Among
other early settlers was John Horner, the
patriarch of the Stonycreek, who once owned most
of the land that now includes the 7th and 17th
Wards. Abraham Hildebrand erected a grist mill on
the Little Conemaugh in 1797 and Peter Gouchnour
came to the area in 1798. Dale Borough built a
grist mill on Solomon Run in 1799. John Hinckston,
who killed the last known Indian in the Johnstown
area, lived along Hinckston Run before 1800.
The First Landowners
Regardless of whether the Indians had a
permanent settlement in Johnstown, it was still
considered "Indian Country" in 1769
when Charles Campbell of Westmoreland County
became the first owner of the land on which the
town was founded. The Campbell tract generally
included that land which now makes up the 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th Wards. Its boundaries described an
irregular triangle, with its apex just downstream
from the point where the Stonycreek and Little
Conemaugh Rivers meet. All the downtown area
below the Haynes Street Bridge was included. On
April 7, 1769, four days after the Campbell
application, a second warrant was taken out. This
application made James Dougherty owner of the
Cambria City section. Original warrants for other
tracts that now make up the city went to Benedict
Dorsey in 1776 (Woodvale), Peter Snyder in 1776 (Hornerstown),
Martin Riley in 1787 (Osborne Section), Thomas
Afflick in 1788 (Minersville), Jacob Stutzman and
Robert Adams in 1795 (Kernville) and James Flack
in 1797 (old Conemaugh Borough). These men were
not necessarily settlers or developers, but they
were the first landowners. Most tracts changed
hands several times before actual development was
begun.
Plots and Plans for the First Settlement
It was an Amish farmer, Joseph Schantz, who
plotted and planned the first permanent
settlement. Schantz arrived in Philadelphia from
Switzerland in 1769 and set his sights westward.
During his life-time he used the surname "Schantz"
(Johns) on most of his land deeds and "Jantzin"
(Johnson) in his family Bible records. The
original Campbell tract became the site of the
village, but the land had several owners before
it came into the hands of Joseph Johns. Campbell
sold the land to James Wilkins in 1780. The tract
then went to John Johnston in 1781, to James
McLanahan in 1782 and then to Joseph Johns in
1793. Johns paid McLanahan 435 pounds, equivalent
to $12,150 dollars, or $8.50 per acre. In 1794,
about one year after Johns bought the Campbell
tract from McLanahan, he reached the site of his
new purchase. Joseph built a log cabin at the
present intersection of Vine and Levergood
Streets and then began to clear land for farming.
Within the next six years he cultivated or
cleared about 30 acres. Anticipating the creation
of a new county (Cambria County in 1804), Joseph
Johns hoped that his land would be chosen as the
county seat. With this in mind, he laid out the
first village lots and streets in 1800. He called
his settlement "Conemaugh Old Town".
More Settlement Owners
On leaving his settlement in 1807, Joseph
Johns sold the town to William Hartley and Dr.
John Anderson for $5,000 dollars. They kept it
three years and sold out to John Holliday of the
Juniata Valley. Holliday built an iron forge on
the banks of the Stonycreek, but abandoned the
project when a flood destroyed his equipment.
Holliday sold his holdings in Conemaugh Old Town
to Peter Levergood for $8,000 dollars in 1811.
Two years later Levergood sold out to George
Brenizer and Thomas Burell for $12,583 dollars.
However, Levergood eventually regained the
property and became the town's most successful
developer. In 1818, when Brenizer and Burrell
could not make the payments agreed upon,
Levergood bought the property back at sheriff
sale for $6.18. Levergood kept the property in
his possession until his death in 1860. When he
died he left a dollar value of $50,000 in gold in
a Johnstown bank.
Progressive and Prosperous Community
In addition, three unincorporated villages had
sprung up -- Moxham, Morrellville and Walnut
Grove. Three more, Kernville, Sharpsburg and
Hornerstown, already had been absorbed by
Johnstown. Kernville became the 5th and 6th Wards.
Hornerstown and Sharpsburg made up the 7th Ward.
Residents of Coopersdale Borough also had voted
to join in the consolidation, but they were
unable to do so because Coopersdale was not
contiguous to Johnstown. Morrellville separated
Johnstown and Coopersdale and since Morrellville
was not then a borough, it did not vote on the
consolidation issue. About the time the city
received its charter in 1889, the village of
Moxham was annexed to the 7th Ward. Two years
later, by court decree, it became the 17th Ward.
Meantime, in 1890, the village of Morrellville
received its borough charter. It retained its
municipal identity until 1897 when it was annexed
to the city as the 18th, 19th and 20th Wards. The
annexation of Morrellville removed the obstacle
that had prevented Coopersdale from joining the
city. Coopersdale then became the 21st Ward in
1898. With the addition of Coopersdale, the
present day boundaries of Johnstown were
virtually established. Most notable among the
later day annexations was Roxbury Borough, which
became part of the 8th Ward, and Walnut Grove,
which became part of the 17th Ward.
Between 1852 and the important year of 1889,
Johnstown attracted new industries and businesses
and acquired the characteristics of a progressive
and prosperous community. The town gained another
railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio. Horse-drawn
street cars, free mail service, electric lights,
natural gas, a water system, telephone service
and banking houses were some of the signs of
additional advancement. Then on May 31, 1889,
Johnstown and its neighboring boroughs
experienced their darkest day. On that date the
South Fork Dam gave way and the great flood that
roared through the valley became known to the
world as the Johnstown Flood. The raging flood
tide left over 2,200 dead in its path, and it
left valley communities crushed and maimed almost
beyond recognition. It was one of the worst peace-time
tragedies of all time.
The Canal meets the Railroad
Johnstown's corporate history dates from
January 12, 1831, when the name Conemaugh Old
Town was abandoned and the community was
chartered as Conemaugh Borough. George Kern was
elected the first burgess. Three years later
another Act of Assembly changed the name to
Johnstown Borough in honor of the founder, Joseph
Johns. The incorporation came at a time when
Johnstown was enjoying its first prominence. The
building of the Pennsylvania Canal System had
made Johnstown one of the four most important
towns on the cross-state route, and it began to
benefit from the trade and commerce of the day.
The canal system extended from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh. However, over the mountains between
Johnstown and Hollidaysburg the water route was
not feasible and the stretch was traversed by the
Allegheny Portage Railroad. It was at the canal
basin in Johnstown, near Railroad and Clinton
Streets, that the canal and railroad met. It was
here that boats and passengers transferred from
water to rail, when going east, and from rail to
water, when moving west. This made Johnstown the
head of navigation for the canal's western
division. Canal transportation between Johnstown
and Pittsburgh began in 1831. In 1834 the
Allegheny Portage Railroad was completed and this
final link opened the entire state-wide route.
For the next 20 years Johnstown was a boat and
rail center that gradually attracted new people,
new wealth and new enterprise. By 1850 the
population had reached 1,260.
Grandview Cemetery 1885
Grandview Cemetery is operated by the Citizens'
Cemetery Association, founded in 1885, by
prominent citizens in an effort to establish a
cemetery for Johnstown's rapidly growing
population. The first interment was that of
Lucretia Hammond of Kernville on April 30, 1887.
The cemetery initially was known as Grand View
Cemetery. The trustees selected the name to
reflect the "grand view" of the city.
One-hundred acres on Yoder Hill west of the city
was purchased from the Cambria Iron Company. The
company had used the site as pasture and farmland
for horses and mules employed in its mills and
mines. In the late 1880s, a winding carriage road
over one-mile long was constructed up Yoder Hill
with two imposing stone arch memorial entrances.
Near the upper arch an administration building
and maintenance garage were erected in 1897. Soon
afterward it was found that an entrance to the
cemetery from the Westmont side would be
necessary. In 1904 this entrance was made at
Bucknell Ave., along with the building of a stone
fence extending along Millcreek Road, a distance
of 3,520 feet, for the protection of the cemetery
grounds. In 1991 this wall was extended an
additional 2,530 feet along Millcreek Road to
Menoher Boulevard. Its design, of cut stone
columns connected by black aluminum rods along
the winding shape of the road creates an artistic
looking boundary for this section of the cemetery.
In the 1940s the old roadway was abandoned with
the construction of Menoher Boulevard or the
"Easy Grade Highway" as it is better
known. A new, modern administration building and
maintenance garage replaced the old structures in
1989. Most of the cemetery's historical
significance comes from the Johnstown Flood of
1889. Many of the Flood's 2,209 victims are
buried there. A section called the "Unknown
Plot" contains the bodies of 777 flood
victims who could not be identified. The state
Flood Commission purchased the plot for burying
the unidentified victims. The commission bought
markers for each grave and a monument that cost $6,500.
This monument, with its immediate surroundings,
forms probably the most striking feature of the
cemetery. It was dedicated May 31, 1892, in the
presence of about 10,000 people, among them the
Governor of the State and many prominent men from
all over the Commonwealth. During the Johnstown
Flood Centennial of 1989, 700,000 people from all
over the state, nation and world visited the
Johnstown Flood Memorial near St. Michael, the
Johnstown Flood Museum in downtown Johnstown
featuring the Academy-Award-winning film about
the flood by Charles Guggenheim, and the Unknown
Plot at Grandview Cemetery. The cemetery contains
the grave of Lt. Col. Boyd "Buzz"
Wagner, the first American air ace of World War
II. Also buried in Grandview is John G. McCrory,
founder of the McCrory 5-and-10 store chain. The
number of persons at Grandview as of March 31,
1992 was 57,006. In 1977, three mausoleums were
added to the cemetery. To this day, the names of
all persons interred in Grandview are hand
written in the Chronological Book of Interment.
Containing 47 burial sections and more than 235
acres, the cemetery is one of the largest in
Pennsylvania.
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