Did you know the following:
The original Townships in Indiana County were in 1807:
a. Armstrong (included Washington, Rayne and White Townships of today)
b. Center
c. Black Lick
d. Wheatfield (stretched from the Purchase Line along Cambria County to the
Conemaugh River, including Pine, Green, Brush Valley, Buffington and East
Wheatfield and West Wheatfield today.)
e. Mahoning (8 townships above the Purchase Line today)
f. Conemaugh (included Young Township and Burrell Township today.)
In 1809 we added a new township called Washington (included part of what is White Township
today)
In 1811 the town of Indiana came in to being but it was in Washington Township, part of
the Borough of Indiana was in Center Township.
In 1811 the town of Armaugh/Armagh came in to being
In 1820 Blairsville came in to being
Did you know that back in these years you not only had dollars and cents for money as we
do today but also had for examples .06 1/2 cents, .08 1/4 cents, .10 3/4 cents. I know
that the 1/2 of a cent was what they called a hay
penny but I don't know what the 1/4 and 3/4 of cents were called.
Also back in these days the people changed the spelling of their last name and or first
name every year which makes it interesting as to all the spellings that you can come up
with for the same person in records.
Also back in these years neither Armaugh/Armagh or Blairsville were in a township.
Green Township came in to being in 1823.
Browns Town came into being in 1827.
Strongstown came into being in 1826.
In reading old handwritting it is sometimes hard to decipher and sometimes thought to have
been a mistake in the spelling of someone's name.
For example: Charles Mafsey is really Charles Massey, years ago they used an f with a s to
signify two s's.
Also you will find something like Alex (with a curled line that goes upward) and this
signifies Alexander.
Another thing you will find is r's that look like n's.
So it isn't that our ancestors couldn't read and write but that they wrote
differently than we do today, I know my grandparents and great grandparents
wrote that way cause they were born and lived in the 1800's and that is how
they were taught to write.
Indiana County, PA