Mon Valley History

Jefferson Twp.

  One of the largest agricultural twps. in Fayette Co, lies on the
Monongahela River  which flows along the western border at the base of
an abrupt hilly range, whose value lies in vast deposits of coal,  found
not only along the river, but in every part of the twp.  Jefferson had
in June,1881, a population of 1613, and in January 1881, an assessed
valuation of  $745, 903.   The township boundarys are Washington Twp. on
the north, Redstone Creek on the south, Perry and Franklin on the east,
and the Monongahela on the west.   The twp. is watered by numerous small
streams , of which the most important is the Little Redstone Creek. that
rises in Jefferson and empties into the Monongahela near Fayette City.
There were doubtless in the territory , settlements along and near the
riverfront and along it's banks as early as 1761, but they were
interrupted by Indian incursions that drove the settlers back, and, in a
majority of cases, frightened them away permanently.  A few returned ,
however, to their lands, and among those, WILLIAM JACOBS appears to be
about the only one of whom there is present knowledge.   His land lay at
the mouth of the Redstone Creek. That he took a very active part in
improving the country is not clear, since in 1769, he sold the property
to PRIOR THEOBALD and LAWRENCE  HARRISON.    In 1777 the same tract came
into the possession of SAMUEL JACKSON  , and was his home until his
death.  Just when ANDREW LYNN came to the creek is not known. but it was
not long after 1761.  He tomahawked a claim to lands on both sides of
the creek near the mouth, and put in a patch of corn on the Jefferson
side, where he also put up a cabin.  Presently he concluded the Indians
were getting altogether too threatening, and fearing harm might come to
him and his family, he hastily fled to the country east of the
Alleghenys.   He came back in the fall, rightly conjecturing that the
danger signs were past, and quite luckily , found his corn crop intact
and ready for gathering.

  In April 1769, he applied to have his land surveyed, and Aug 22nd of
that year , the survey was made.  That was the First survey made under
the law of 1769 within the limits of Fayette Co.  Mr. LYNN did not
receive the patent for his land until 1787.   In  view of the fact that
this was the first land surveyed in the county, a copy of the patent is
given as follows.

This tract has been in the possession of the Lynn family since it was
surveyed for ANDREW LYNN  1n 1769, and contains today valuable deposits
of coal and iron ores that add to it a wealth of which ANDREW LYNN never
dreamed.

  ANDREW LYNN entered the Continental service during the Revolution as
wagon-master, and upon the close of the war resumed his rural life on
the Redstone.  About 1790, he moved across the creek and lived near the
present home of J.M. LYNN until his death in 1794.   After his death his
widow enlarged the LYNN landed possessions by the purchase of adjacent
hilly tracts, and in 1796 built upon the Redstone a grist mill, where
ANDREW LYNN had some years before erected a sawmill . The widow LYNN
would doubtless have deferred the building of the grist mill , but BASIL
BROWN , with an eye upon the property, compelled the erection of the
mill under the law providing that every owner of a mill-site should put
up a mill thereon or abandon the same to the state.   Mrs. LYNN'S son
ISAAC, was for many years the miller.  Besides ISAAC, the sons of ANDREW
LYNN were ANDREW JR. , WILLIAM, AYERS and JOHN. There was but one
daughter, MARY.  She married JOHN CORBLY, a Baptist minister of Greene
County, who while on his way to church one Sabbath with his children was
attacked by Indians.  One of his daughters was scalped and killed, while
he and his other children made good their escape by flight.

  JOHN LYNN went out to the Ohio frontier to fight the Indians and was
killed.   ANDREW JR. moved to near Fayette City  ( or  Cookstown ).
WILLIAM,  AYERS,  and ISAAC lived and died in Redstone.  ISAAC occupied
the old homestead and carried on the mill.    He went out as as Captain
of a company of the Pennsylvania militia, in Col. REES HILL'S regiment
in 1813, and served six months.  J.M.LYNN, son of Capt. ISAAC,
recollects seeing the company leave Brownsville for the field, and
recalls the circumstance, that the men crossed the river on the mill dam
, the stream then quite low.   The last survivor of Capt.  ISAAC LYNN'S
company , Sergeant JOHN REED, died at the home of S.W. REED, in
Jefferson twp, in the summer of 1880, at the age of ninety-four.

   In 1817, Capt. ISAAC LYNN built the brick mansion which is now
occupied by his son, J.M. LYNN.    HENRY HUTCHINSON, one of the
hod-carriers in the building of that house, died in Springhill twp. in
1879 at a great age , nearly ninety.  He came from a long -lived family,

his mother dying at the age of one hundred and six.   ISAAC LYNN , who
died in 1835, upon the farm where he first saw the light, had nine
children, of whom the sons were ANDREW, JOHN, WILLIAM ,JACOB , JAMES
MADISON,  THOMAS and AYERS.   JAMES MADISON lives on the old farm,
JACOB in Armstrong County , AYERS in Jefferson Twp.  and THOMAS in
Perry.  J.M. LYNN rebuilt the mill in 1844, and still controls it  He
has been a miller on that spot since 1820.

One of the conspicuous figures in Fayette County's early history was
SAMUEL  JACKSON,  a  sturdy Quaker from Chester County, and a
businessman of large and liberal enterprizes that made him quite famous
in his day.  Early in the year 1777, he settled in Fayette Co, at the
mouth of the Redstone Creek, and occupied land now included within the
limits of Jefferson Twp.   The deed for the property, now in the
possession of  E.J. BAILEY, of Jefferson, recites that May 22, 1777,
JESSE MARTIN of Westmoreland Co. transferred to SAMUEL JACKSON of London
Grove, Chester Co.,for a consideration of two hundred pounds, a piece of
land with improvements, at the mouth of the Redstone Creek, containing
three hundred acres, known as " MARTINS FOLLY ", and bounded by the
lands of THOMAS BROWN and ANDREW LYNN.

   This land was originally occupied for  a settlement by WILLIAM
JACOBS, who is said to have located upon it as early as 1761.   Driven
out by the Indians, Jacob returned after a while and applied for a
survey of his land, April 24, 1769.  He sold it to PRIOR THEOBALD and
LAWRENCE HARRISON, to whom he executed a deed bearing ___ 2, 1769.
HARRISON transferred his  right to THEOBALD, July 10,1769, and April 5,
1776, THEOBALD deeded the property to JESSE MARTIN , who in 1777, sold
it to JACKSON.   Mr. JACKSON selected a site for his home near the place
now called ALBANY,  and built thereon a log cabin.   In 1785 he erected
the commodious stone mansion now occupied by ELI J. BAILEY, and in that
house resided until his death in 1817.  Although nearly a hundred years
old, the house is still a shapely, solid structure, and bids fair to
remain so for years to come.   The land  purchased by JACKSON and JESSE
MARTIN was not patented by the former until Feb.7, 1789.   JACKSON was a
millright , and soon after making a location , put up at the mouth of
the Redstone, a saw mill, grist mill and oil mill.  He was also engaged
to a considerable extent in the building of flat boats , for which there
was a lively demand from emigrants coming over BURD'S ROAD to the river,
and thence desiring to journey to the lower country.    The craft were
each in size large enough to carry a family and effects, and while his
customers waited for the construction of a vessel, JACKSON would
furnish  them with entertainment at his house for a week or so.

  In 1754, there was in Jefferson, near the mouth of the Redstone, a
storehouse called the HANGARD, built in Feb. of that year by Capt.
WILLIAM TRENT for the Ohio Company.   TRENT set out early in 1754, from
VIRGINIA, with a company of fourty men, to aid in finishing a fort at
the forks of the Ohio, already supposed to have been begun by other
employees of the Ohio Co.    Capt. TRENT'S line of march was along
NEMACOLIN'S TRAIL to CHRISTOPHER GIST'S, and then by the Redstone trail
to the mouth of the Redstone, where, as already told, he built a
storehouse for the company,and then proceeded on his journey.   On June
30, 1754, M. COULON DE VILLIERS, in command of a force of French and
Indians, enroute from FORT DUQUESNE to attack WASHINGTON at GIST'S,
halted at the HANGARD and encamped on the rising ground about two
Musketshots from  the building.   M. De VILLIERS afterwards described
the HANGARD as " a sort of fort built of logs, one upon another, well
notched in, and about thirty feet long by twenty feet wide."   When they
returned in July the French burned the structure.  It occupied the
present site of the BAILEY mill.

Go to Jefferson Twp. - Part TWO
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