| The following article was written by James W. Siehl and
appeared in the Windber, PA "ERA" published May 10, ,1983
Adams family made its mark in Richland-Geistown
Before white people like Samuel Adams came here more than
200 years ago, Indian villages were scattered along the shores of the
Conemaugh and its tributaries.
"Here the dusky warriors danced around the campfire, and shouted their
songs of victory and deficance. Here the Indian mother hushed her children
to sleep by chanting the glorious deeds of the red man.
"The eagle built his aerie upon the rocks
and the bear, the wolf, and the elk inhabited the unbroken wilderness.
"But, all has changed. Pleasant fields
and thriving towns now lie upon the margin of this stream. Forests, it is
true, still wave in all their pristine wilderness upon the overhanging
mountains, but ther ringing of the woodsman's axe, the shrill whistle of
locomotive and the ponderous thumping of forge-hammer have frightened away
the Indian and the eagle for ever."
A young man not yet 30, Thomas J. Chapman wrote the
quoted passages in a small book he named "Valley of the Conemaugh"
published in Altoona as the Civil War was ending in 1965.
Some historians credit Samuel Adams and four members of his
family - Solomon, Archibald, Rachel and Benjamin - as being the first
white settlers in Cambria County.
A number of local landmarks bear their name - Among them Solomon's Run,
Sams Run, Rachel Hill and Adams Township.
CAME FROM BERKS
The Adams family came here from Berkes County in the early 1770's and
settle in what is now the Richland-Geistown area. The territory had been
opened for settlement after being purchased from the Indians in 1768.
A fatal run-in with an Indian has
preserved Sam Adams' p;ace in local history.
He and the Indian apparantly killed one
another over 210 years ago in a bloody encounter said to have taken place
on Sandy Run about eight miles east of an Indian village Conemaugh Old
Town situated a the point of the Litttle Conemaugh and Stonycreek rivers.
Lore has it they share a common grave
in corner of Richland Township, buried together in a patch of woods near
Cole's Crossroads. Because
the white man had bought their land, the local tribes of the Iroquois
Nation with a large village at the current location of the Quemahoning Dam
usually did not bother the settlers.
For that reason, it is believed some western tribe, perhaps one from Ohio
or Michigan, may been responsible for a raiding party which caused local
families to seek safety at Fort Bedford, then a long journey over the
mountains in the 1770's.
After the scare subsided, a group of men, among them Sam Adams, started
back to their cabins with pack horses to collect their livestock.
Encountering no Indians, they were
returning to the fort, traveling single file along the path, when one of
the dogs became uneasy and ran away. While the others waited, two of the
men went for the dog. The
men had gone only a several hundred yards, when a body of Indians attacked
the rear of the column to take prisoners. Other in the column came to
assist. But they turned and fled under the fire of the Indians - all
except Samuel Adams.
According to A. J. Hite's "Hand-Book of Johnstown", Adams climbed a tree
and began to fight in the Indian style. In a few minutes, however, he was
shot to death, but not before an Indian was also mortally wounded.
When the news reached the fort, a party
volunteering to inspect the area came across the bodies in ankle-deep
snow. The face of the Indian had been covered by his companions with
Adams' hunting shirt.
DIFFERING VIEWS
Authorities differ as the both the date and mannin in which the men died.
Some place the year as 1785, and that Adams and the Indian killed each
other with their knives while fighting around a white oak tree.
They were buried together near the spot where
they were found. It was
through the work of a priest who loved local history that the location of
the double grave is known.
The Rev. Modestus Wirtner, who served St. Jospeph's Catholic Church in
Johnstown and other parishes, marked the spot by standing two large, flat,
pointed stones on edge in ther ground.
It is not known how father Wirtner pinpointed the grave.
One of the goals of the historical and
steergin committee assisting in Richland's sesquicentennial celebration is
to permanently mark the grave with a historical marker.
After the area was opened for settlement,
the region developed rapidly. Pioneers came over the Kittaning Path to the
northern part of the county and over the Conemaugh Path into the southern
sector. On March 26th,
1894, Cambria County was formed by legislative act., taking portions of
Somerset and Huntingdon counties. those counties had been form from part
of Bedford county years earlier.
Richland Township, taking its name form the rich earth was formed in 1833.
Adams Township was created from land in Richland Township in 1870. |
