The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-02-14
CamBr1a County
CHAPTER XXI.
.Jos,s.ssown.

Conenaugh Borough ana AoHeNhauSh
Township forming the remainder OF her
boundary. To this, Kcrnville, on the op-
posite side of Stony Creek, has been adj
ded. and constituted until within the last
few days the Fourth Ward"
Johnetown, as we choose TO describe it,
has Il much larger extent; and we shall
speak of the town as it should be, and not
as it is.
Thus considered, Johnstown is one of
the largest and most fourishing inland
towns in the State, her population being
almost, if not quite, equal to the city OF
Harrisburg Itembraccs, johnstown lrop-
er, Kernviiie, Conemaugh Borough, Mill
vile, Cambria City, Prospect, Sharpsburg,
Hornerstown, and all contiguous territory
laid out into streets and assuming the
appearance Of a town.
There is, perhaps, no location within
the limits of Pennsylvania SO well eaicula-
ted fJr large manufacturing business as
Johnstown. In many particulars 1T re
sembies Pittsburg: its Stony Greek and
Conemaugh answer to the Monongahela
and Allegheny of Pittoburg, on smaller
scale it has the same precipitous and
frowning bluffs on all sides is surrounded
by rich coal fields. But here the similar
ity ceases, for Johnstown is bounded by
hills full of iron, mineral which does
not exist in the Immediate neighborhood
OF Pittsburg.
The site of Johnstown was originally
occupied by an Indian town, known as
Kichenapo~lny'S tovn The red men had
a war path from the Frankstown settle
meat, pursuing pretty nearly the same
general direction as the Frankstown road.
1t is observable in this case, as we'll as in
others. that the savages always selected
such locations for their villages and el4-
campments as have since commended
themselves to their civilized successors.
In 1913. the Indian chief, Nickcnapaw-
ling, had abandoned his town, and receded
westward, impelied to do SO by the en-
croachments Of civilization. In that year
we find him at Old FrcDchtown, at the
mouth of Beaver creek
The whole fat on which Johnstown now
stands WAS grown up with weeds, briars,
and bushes" which formed an almost iul-
pervious thicket Christian Frederic Post,
German, the bearer OF a message from
the Provincial Governor Of Pennsylvania
to the Indians, after speaking OF this town
says: "Pisquotemen (his Indian guide)
led us upon steep hill, that our horses
coald handy get up; and Thomas Hick-
mans horse tumbled and rolled down the
hill like a wheel on which he grew angry
and would go no farther with Us, and said
he would 90 by himself. Ithappened we
found a path on the top OF the hill"
As Post was travelling towards Du Quesne
1t was doubtless the Ioder or Amish hill
TO which he alludes in the above extract.
A German, named JosEPH JARNs,
made the first settlement, about 1892, aud
his name, anglicised, has been given to
the town. 1t was several years after the
erection of his cabin before the neiehbor-
hood was settled
The whole locality, however, was never
more than farm, known as the M Clan
achan Tract" Chat being tie warrantee
name OF the tract Of land until it came
into the possession of PETER LEvERGooD,
Esq, who laid it out in town lots, from
which time it assumed the character of a
village. The fact of the Junction of Stony
Greek and Conemaugh being the head of
ark and rctt navigation, soon made the
village point for shipping the iron that
was hauled over the Allegheny Mountain
by the Frankstown road. \ FOUNDRY was
among the first improvements in the vii
lage, owned, as l believe, by Mr.. Lever
good, fed by metal from east OF the noun
tain.
(And here 1t might be noted, in paren-
thesis, that the searliest inhabitant," while
hauling, at immense expense, over almost
lmpassable roads, their metal from Hunt
Ingdon county to Johustown to supply
their foundry. as well as 20 ship westward,
remained totally ignorant cf the fact that
they were passing over richer beds of