Jefferson Twp.

       Mr. SHARPLESS  had put up a a blacksmith shop, and there, assistedby NATHAN MITCHELL and JOHN PIERSOL, worked the iron used in buildingthe mill.  Their most important work was the manufacture of six large iron screws intended for pressing the paper.  Each screw was five inches in diameter and four feet six inches in length.   The threads were cut by horse power.   SHARPLESS was noted, during his residence in Chester Co., as a skillful inventor, and among other things he invented a powerful  pressing - screw for use in the United States Mint in Philadelphia.   The story goes that when the Mint was in it's infancy a visitor remarked upon the poor work made by the coin-pressing machines, saying he knew of a young blacksmith who could make a screw infinitely better than the ones there in use.   He named JONATHON SHARPLESS as the man, and SHARPLESS was thereon engaged to make a screw.  It proved to be so satisfactory that he was at once requested to furnish more.  His contract completed, he was asked to make out his bill, and named two hundred and fifty dollars as his price although, truth to tell, he feared the bill would be rejected as too high, for his work upon the whole job had not covered more than a month's time.   " Still, said he, when relating the story afterwards, I thought the government was rich
and ought to pay me a big price".  Not only was the bill not rejected, but it was paid cheerfully and quickly.   After paying it , the Mint superintendent gleefully remarked," Mr. SHARPLESS, these screws are of such value to us that had you asked three times,   two hundred and fifty dollars, you would have got your price."   " Thats the time they bit me, " remarked the old gentleman, while relating the incident afterwards.
As to Mr. SHARPLESS shop in REDSTONE, it may be related in passing, that there he made for Captain SHREVE, what are said to have been the first steamboat anchors used on the MONONGAHELA RIVER.
   Returning to the subject of the paper-mill, the completion of the mill building, tenement houses for mill hands, and a small grist-mill, was not effected until 1796, in which year the mill was started and the first paper made.
   The following editorial is taken from the WASHINGTON TELEGRAPH of Jan. 12,1796, published at WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON CO. PENNSYLVANIA,
 and refers to this mill.
  " We are happy in being able to announce to the public with a
considerable degree of confidence that a paper-mill will shortly be
erected on this side of the mountains , and that there is little doubt
of it's being completed by the ensuing fall.   The gentleman who
undertakes it is of an enterprising disposition, and capable of going
through the business with spirit.    The work, for which several
preparations are already made, will be erected on a never-failing
stream, in a thickly settled part of the country, and close to
navigation.   The advantages accruing to our community from this
addition to it's manufactures, will be very great, and it behooves every
well-wisher to the community to contribute his mite toward the
supporting of it.   It cannot be carried on without a supply of rags.
Of these every family can supply more or less, and there will be stores
in every town and and various parts of the country ready to receive
them.  Every patriotic family then will doubtless cause all their rags
to be preserved and forwarded to some place where they are collected,
not so much for the pecuniary advantage to be derived from them, as for
the pleasure arrising from having served well their country.   We shall
shortly be furnished with a list of such store-keepers as can make it
convenient to receive them, and shall then announce their names to the
public.
    The TELEGRAPH bearing date May 24, 1796, contains the following
advertisement,
                                            TO THE PUBLIC
SAMUEL JACKSON and CO.
   " Inform the inhabitants of the WESTERN COUNTRY that they are making
every exertion to forward the completion of their paper-mill, which they
are erecting on BIG REDSTONE, about four miles from BROWNSVILLE, in
Fayette Co., a never-failing stream.   That they have experienced
workmen engaged to carry on the work, and hope to be able before the
expiration of the present year to furnish their fellow- citizens with
the different kinds of paper usually in demand, of their own
manufacture, and of as good a quality as any brought from below the
mountains.   They request their fellow-citizens generally to promote
their undertaking by encouraging the saving and collecting of rags, and
inform merchants and store-keepers in particular that they will give
them a generous price in cash for such clean linen and rags as they may
collect.
 
   The paper of June 20, 1797, contains the following notice,   The paper which you are now reading was manufactured at REDSTONE, by Mssrs. JACKSONand SHARPLESS, on REDSTONE CREEK, in Fayette Co., and forwarded with a request to publish thereon a number of the TELEGRAPH that the public might judge their performance.
   In the Pittsburg Gazette of June 24, 1797, appeared the following.,
     " This paper is made in the Western Country.  It is with great
pleasure we present to the public, the Pittsburg Gazette, printed on
paper made by Mssrs. JACKSON and SHARPLESS, on REDSTONE
CREEK in Fayette Co.   Writing paper, all kinds and qualities, as well as printing paper, will be made at the mill.  This is of great importance to the inhabitants of the country, not only because it will be cheaper than that which is brought across the mountains, but it will keep a large sum of money in the country which is yearly sent out for the article.
      The first of the paper was dipped by POLLY GIVEN, a young woman employed in JONATHON SHARPLESS family, to whom she had come to from Brownsville   She married Capt. JAMES PATTERSON in 1801.
    When SHARPLESS found that upwards of $6000 had been laid out in the building of the paper-mill and it's attachments, instead of the $ 3000 reckoned on , he was somewhat nervous over the great overlay and feared a profitless result, especially as JACKSON had furnished the bulk of the capital and held everything in his name, although SHARPLESS was ostensibly  a half-partner.  The situation worried SHARPLESS, for not only all of his money, but money belonging to his wife had been put into the affair, without any writings to show that he had any claim whatsoever.   Added to that was the information that Mr. JACKSON was a sharp one and likely to ignore his partners' claims entirely, in view of the fact that there was no written evidence to them.     But Mr. JACKSON was the soul of honor in all his transactions with SHARPLESS, and in 1798, gave him a clear unquestionable title to one-half of the business, the property, and  the profits.     The earliest manufacture of the mill was writing paper, which SHARPLESS himself carried to Pittsburg in a two-horse wagon, and there sold as he could find customers.  To find them was not difficult , for he placed his goods at far below the prices that had ruled before his advent, and at his prices he made a very handsome profit.
  In his record of the profits, he stated that he paid four cents a pound for rags, and sold his paper for one dollar per quire.    He often used to tell that when peddling his paper in Pittsburg he would find his pockets so overloaded with silver that he would have to stop his sales until he could hurry back to the tavern to deposit his coin
with the landlord.
  Then, his pockets being empty. he resumed traffic.   In 1797, the mill made chiefly printing paper, and employed as many as twenty or twenty-five hands.
   In 1810, Sharpless retired from active participation , and accordingly leased his
half-interest to SAMUEL JACKSON for $1200 per annum.   JACKSON thereupon
took on as his partner , his son JESSE, who had married SHARPLESS daughter BETSY.  JONATHON SHARPLESS then moved to Franklin Twp, on REDSTONE CREEK where he purchased the mill property owned by JONATHON HILL, and which is now owned by SAMUEL SMOCK.  Mr. SHARPLESS called the place SALEM MILL, and built there also a sickle-factory, fulling-mill, blacksmith- shop, etc. and conducted for many years an extensive business.There he died on Jan. 20, 1860
at the age of ninety-two, and was buried in the Quaker Cemetery, in Center School District, Redstone Twp.
      Upon taking possession , with his son ,of the paper-mill , SAMUEL JACKSON removed his residence from the mouth of the creek to the paper-mill , and occupied the stone mansion built by JONATHON SHARPLESS, near the mill, and yet in good preservation.   Upon the death of SAMUEL JACKSON in 1817, JESSE JACKSON became the sole proprietor of the paper-mill business, and shortly associated with him , SAMUEL, son of JONATHON SHARPLESS, In 1822, JACKSON removed to the mouth of the Redstone to take charge of the mill there, leaving the paper -mill in
the hands of SAMUEL SHARPLESS, WILLIAM SHARPLESS andJOB HARVEY.  The latter firm carried it on for three years.  A time book kept by them in
1823, still preserved, shows a list of the girls employed at the mill that year.
   NELLIE SHAW, NANCY CASTLER, PEGGY COCHRAN, ELIZA MAXON, MATILDA MAXON, ELIZA ROSE, ANN SHAW, ELIZA DUNN, ANN LYLE, MARY REED, MARY BOWLIN, LUCINDA BOWLIN, and SABIAN ROBINSON.

   WILLIAM SHARPLESS and JEFFERSON CARTER succeeded to the business, and in 1832 became the proprietors, although the latter took no part in the active management.  The next succession was a firm composed of SAMUEL SHARPLESS, JOHN WALLACE ( the latter for many years previous having been the mill foreman, ) and RICHARD HUSKINS.  While they were in possession the mill burned , Oct. 28, 1842.    The loss was considerable, for the building contained a stock of manufactured paper valued at twenty thousand dollars.  All of it was destroyed.  The disaster brought the paper business at that point to a close.   In 1843-44 , SAMUEL SHARPLESS  erected on the site, the REDSTONE FLOUR MILL, and carried it on until his death in 1846.    After that the successive proprietors were, JAMES and JOHN B. PATTERSON ,CHARLES FOULK, SHARPLESS, PATTERSON and BAIRD, BAIRD,  DAVIDSON and Co.  SHARPLESS and PATTERSON,   LINNand PARKHILL, and J.P. PARKHILL.     Mr. PARKHILL conducted the business until 1875, since that time the property has lain idle.
             TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION AND CIVIL LIST  At the September sessions of the court in 1839, a petition for the division of the township  of  Washington was presented.     GEORGE CRAFT, DENNIS SPRINGER and THOMAS MCMILLEN were appointed commissioners to investigate and report upon the matter of dividing said township. Their report, made at the June session of court in 1840, was as follows.

    " We report that we met pursuant to previous notice at the house of ABRAHAM HOUGH on Monday, the 11th day of November, 1839,  that we then proceeded to make a division of said township  of Washington, as nearly agreeable to the said order as practical, making natural boundaries, the lines of said new township when the same would arrive at the points mentioned in said order, commencing at the coal bank on the MONONGAHELA RIVER. about ten perchesabove the mouth of a small run called COAL RUN, on the lands of said ABRAHAM HOUGH, then eastwardly through the lands of said HOUGH and lands of JOHN  BLYTHE , thence by the meanders of said
north branch of the LITTLE REDSTONE, up to EVAN COPE'S sickle shop, thence by a straight line, passing near HAMILTON'S blacksmith shop, to a point in the line between said STEVENS and ASA CHAMBERS, thence by the same  to a point in Perry Twp. line, near the residence of said ASA CHAMBERS, thence by Perry Twp. line to the line between Franklin and Washington Twps. , now proposed to be called, Jefferson Twp.  thence by said line to Redstone Creek, thence by Redstone Creek to it's mouth, thence by Monongahela River to the place of beginning.  The undersigned
are of the opinion that from what is now called Washington Twp. and the number of voters residing therein, that the foregoing division is necessary, and they therefore recommend to the Honorable Court to authorize the erection of a new township to be called Jefferson."
    At the same sessions of the commissioners report, as above given, was confirmed by the court.At the June sessions of court, 1843, a petition was presented for altering a line between Jefferson and Perry townships, so as to include MARTIN LUTZ within Jefferson Twp.   Commissioners were appointed, and the following report was presented and approved March 14, 1845.
    To the Honorable the Judges named,
   We, the persons appointed by the annexed order of Court, for the purpose of revising township lines, having first been duly sworn and affirmed according to law, do report in favor of placing so much of the land of MARTIN LUTZ, as indicated in the above plot No. 2, viz. , that the township line be so altered that it commence at an elm tree, one of the corners of said LUTZ land, and run north 22 1/2, east 22 perches,
thence north 16 1/2, east 76 perches, thence south 70 1/2, west 40 perches, to the old line, and that in our opinion there is a necessity for the same.   Given under our seals this 18th day of January A.D., 1845.   JAMES FULLER, WILLLIAM ELLIOTT, and DANIEL SHARPLESS.
    And now to wit, June 6, 1845, the above report having been read in the court in the manner and at the times prescribed by law, the Court approves and confirms the said alteration.
   The civil  list of Jefferson from 1840-1881 is given herewithMore later,  Joan

                JUSTICES OF THE PEACE
1840--- ALEXANDER BLAIR
              RICHARD HUSKINS                            
1845--- JOHN H. TARR
1848--- WILLIAM G. PATTERSON
1853--- JOHN S. GOE
             WILLIAM G. PATTERSON
1858--- WILLIAM J. STEWART
              JOHN G. GOE
1864--- F.G. HERRON
             J. N. DIXON
1868--- J.N. DIXON
             F. C. DIXON
1850--- JOHN MINER
             ABRAHAM PERSHING
1852--- CHARLES MCCRACKEN
              JOHN GOE
1872--- GIBSON BINNS
1874--- WILLIAM F. CLIFTON
1877--- GIBSON BINNS
1878--- JACOB WOLF
             JAMES ESSINGTON
 

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