The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-08-24
AN HISTORIC STREAM.
Ghe Ripping Yough and Where Its
Famous Waters Flow

Connellsvllle Courier, who has been
spending some time at Somerfeld,
Pa, writes to his paper the follow
ing concerning that historic sec
ton:
Somerfeld was born with the Ma
tional road about the year 1915. 1t
took the name of SmithfeId, after
one of the first householders This
is the name Dv which it was desig-
mated on the mile posts. which may
still be seen standing along the
highway. When the village grew
to the dignity of postotiice the
Postot1ice Department refused to
adopt the name Smithfeld for the
reason that there was already post
office by that name in Fayette
county. The postof1icc was called
NomeriieId, ana ~ time the village
took the same name. The neigh
boring town Of Petersburg, three
miles uP the pike, encountered IA
similar difficulty, but did not so
readily adapt itself to the situation.
1t was laid out by one Peter Angus
tine, and TOOK the name of Peters
burg. A postoffce of that name
beng already established III another
part Of the STATE, the Petersburg
postot1ice being christened Addison,
from the township in which it is
situate. But the people didn't dis
card the old name. Thew stick to
1t vet.
Somerfeld is improving since the
advent Of a railroad. 1t is here
that the National road crosses the
Youghlogheny river on the pictur-
esque stone arch bridge, for the re-
pair and preservation of which
Governor Pattlson recommended
and the legislature granted an ap-
preparation of $1,000 A stone
tablet in the bridge tells us that it
was completed July 4, 1918, and
that the contractors were Kinkead,
Beck & Evans. The bridge is
therefore three-Cuarters of a CEN
fury old, and, barring the parapet
walls which were poorly constructed,
is in good state of preservation.
One mile above Somerfeld, where
Braddock run empties into the river,
is the Great Crossing of the Yough,
referred to so frequently in the his
tory Of the disastrous Washington
and Braddock campaigns against
the French and Indians at Fort
Duqucsne, now Pittsburg, IN 1854
and 1855. There is a wide expanse
of bottom land at the mouth of
Braddock run. 1t was here that
Braddock camped, June Gath, ac-
cording to Captain Orme's journal,
the only authentic record of that
fatal expedition. Orme alludes to
the encampment as being near Fort
Squaw. This was an old Indian
fort located on a knoll. Just north of
the mouth of Braddock run, on the
land of William Endsley. at whose
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