Blair Co., PA History - Life in the 1780s.

BLAIR COUNTY PA HISTORY

Date: Taken 16 July 1994. Topic: Blair County, Pa. - History According to an extract from C.B. Clark's "Semi-Centennial History of Blair County," the first permanent white settlers of Blair County were members of the Tunker Church, who came into the southern end of Morrison's Cove about 1760, or earlier. A Presbyterian minister by the name of Beatty preached a sermon at Beaver Dams, now called McCann's Mills, on a certain Sunday of the year 1756. But the above author, from whose work these historical data are gleaned, states that the Tunkers, who resided here, as above stated, held religious services at an early date, and the congregation consisted of residents of the Cove. Be this as it may, it is conceded by historians that the Tunkers (now known as "The Brethren") settled in the Cove sometime between 1750 and 1760. About the year 1765 Jacob Neff, who had embraced the Tunker faith, built a mill where Roaring Spring, a prosperous and growing borough, is now situated. His mill was burned by Indians, and rebuilt by him prior to the Revolution. Sometime afterward it was owned by John Ullery. Mr. Ullery had a brother named Samuel, who was the first Dunker preacher in Morrison's Cove, a great-grand-father, on the mother's side, of Brother S.B. Furry. He (Samuel Ullery) preached in the Yellow Creek congregation, southeast end of the Cove, in the vicinity of New Enterprise, and having for his successors in office, Martin Miller, Jacob Miller, John Holsinger, David Brumbaugh, John Eshelman, Leonard Furry, and Daniel Snowberger. Although Samuel Ullery was the first Dunker minister in the Cove, in the course of a few generations, Brethren could be found in all parts of the fertile valley, and eventually pushed their way across the Cove Mountains ... they entered into the woods and cleared farms, many of which are now very fertile, in the hilly country along the Alleghany ... - From A Brief History of Claar Congregation, by Rev. David M. Adams, 1908, p. 4.