LEWIS HUFFMAN FAMILY
(This information was
given to me by Rev. J. W. Dean of Jersey Shore, Pa.)
The land of Huffman joined or bordered that of one of the Castors. Lewis Huffman, Sr. was born in 1754 and died in 1833. His wife Catherine, was born 1757 and died 1843. On February 3, 1801, he bought part of a tract of land known as “Wrightsburg” from Zadock Wright. (Book K, page 186, Pennsylvania Land Patents show that this tract was patented by Zadock Wright in 1785). In 1935, this Huffman land was owned by a Benjamin Castor, a great-grandson of Benjamin Castor, Sr.
Lewis Huffman had twelve children, but there is only information concerning three. Lewis’ oldest son, Jacob, married Hester Beam, daughter of John Beam who was a son of the original Beam settler, Abraham Beam. Sarah Huffman, second child of Lewis Huffman, married Sampson Castor, a son of Benjamin Castor, Sr. Another daughter, Catherine Huffman, married Gabriel Castor, another son of Benjamin Castor, Sr..
ALFRED
B. HUFFMAN
Alfred
B. Huffman,
mechanic, postoffice Gill Hall, son of Jacob and Hester Beam Huffman, was
born in Jefferson township, July 29, 1838. His grandfather, Lewis Huffman,
came from Germany and settled in this county at an early time, where he
reared a family of twelve children. He was in the war of 1812. Jacob
Huffman was born in Jefferson township, where he died Nov. 21, 1865. His
children were Catherine, now Mrs. S.
M. Peterson of Tyler
county, W. Va., Elijah (who died when a child), John B. (deceased),
Sarah Margaret (now Mrs. I. W.
Snee of Jefferson township) and Alfred B. The last named married Mary J., daughter
of Smith Gaston, of Washington county, and settled on the place owned by
his parents, remaining with them until their deaths, when he moved to
Gill Hall, and engaged in business as dealer in general merchandise. He
subsequently retired, and his son John G. was a merchant of Gill Hall. Mr.
and Mrs. Huffman had four children: John G. (who married a daughter of
Jackson Stilley), Ella May (wife of D. B. Blackburn, of Jefferson
township), Hester Jane and Joseph E. Mrs. Huffman died Oct. 9, 1888. Mr.
Huffman has held several official positions in the township, and at the
present time is acting justice of the peace. He has been a member of the
Methodist Church for thirty years and is a democrat.
J.
S. WICKS
J. S. Wicks, farmer, postoffice Gill Hall, son of Silas Wicks, who died in Pittsburgh, was born near Jones ferry, below Pittsburgh, in 1821. In 1848 he married Sarah J., daughter of John Snee, of Jefferson township, and their children are Rhoda J. (now Mrs. Boyer, in California), Lizzie (now Mrs. Barkley, in Washington county, Silas M. married in Santa Barbara, Cal.), John (married, and a resident of Jefferson township),Charles W. (married, and the owner of an adjoining farm), James A. and Jessie L. (a twin). John Snee came with his parents to Jefferson township when he was fifteen years old, and in 1823 he married Sarah, daughter of Col. Ferree, of Peters Creek. He bought the Gill Hall farm in 1824. His children were Sarah J., Thomas and Joel F., latter two being now deceased. John Snee died in 1872, aged seventy-nine, his widow in 1875, aged seventy-seven. Mr. and Mrs. Wicks are members of the Methodist Church, Mrs. Wicks’ father came with his parents to Jefferson township when he was fifteen years old, and they purchased the farm now owned by our subject.
THE JACOB STILLEY FAMILY
Jacob Stilley emigrated from eastern to western Pennsylvania with his family about the year 1775 and settled on a tract of land adjoining the present Jefferson Methodist Church and cemetery located in Jefferson Township, Allegheny County. He was of German or Prussian extraction. Jacob Stilley was killed at Fort MacIntosh near Beaver, Pa. by the accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of a comrade while in camp defending the frontier settlements from the attacks of Indians, leaving behind him his wife, whose maiden name was French, and seven children chiefly in childhood. Their names were Tobias Stilley who married Ruth Piersol and lived and died on the farm of his father on February 19, 1857 at age 88. John Stilley who married Rebecca Thompson. John was taken captive by the Indians when he was eight years of age (see story under the title “Indian Troubles In This Area”), but after he was freed he served as a soldier in the army of General Wayne in 1794 and took part in the battle of Au Gloise in the Northwestern part of the State of Ohio. Later he moved his family to Knox County, Ohio in 1811 and died there in 1850. Peter Stilley, who married Jane Barclay, was born on December 26, 1777. He was a gunsmith, farmer and was captain of volunteers in the service of the United States in the War of 1812. He was ordered to Baltimore with his Company on November 1814 and was honorably discharged the same year at Somerset. He resided on his farm on Lick Run, Jefferson Township and died October 14, 1819 at the age of 41. Rachel and Sarah were also two of the children taken prisoner by the Indians. Sarah died while a prisoner, but Rachel later married William Kennedy. Elizabeth married William Powell and was a resident of Beaver County. Rebecca married Christopher McGill and they lived in Gill Hall.
The
Village of Large
Zadock Wright, a wagoner with the Braddock Army, returned to this area after the retreat, and settled on a tract of land bordering Peters’ Creek, now known as Jefferson Township. His cabin sight was near the home of the late Fannie Beddell. He was probably the first settler in this area.
In the early years the Large family operated a grist mill on Peters’ Creek. Later Jonathan Large built a large distillery in the valley, which was located on the present Route 51 and later sold to The National Distillery Company. The property was bought by Homer Reed, later passed into the hands of the Noble Dick Company who is 1958 leased it to the Westinghouse Company. This company has established a large Research plant which employs 280 people, but at one time employed 1700.
Up until the l900’s, when the mines opened, the area of Large consisted of scattered farm houses until the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company built some fifty houses and a Company store. The first post office was housed in the Company store until 1920 when it was moved to the corner of Old Clairton Road and Route 51. Bill Green became the first postmaster and later years a Carl Robinson become the postmaster and also operated a small store. A new branch of the post office is now on Route 51 in Large.
A brick yard, employing 30 to 40 men, was established in 1902 which supplied the nearby steel mills with brick.
One of the old schools was the Laurie school on old Route 51, a four-room school was built in No. 7 Patch about 1906 or 1907. It was used until the Roosevelt school was built in 1935.
Charley Davis. Sr. operated an old-time moving picture theatre.
The
present busy four-lane highway, Route 51, was probably the same road that
was surveyed from Ft. Dunmore, Pittsburgh to Beckets Fort on the
Monongahela River.
The
Village of Gill Hall
Gill Hall is a little village in the western part of Jefferson Township. This small village proudly contains a Methodist Church and a United Presbyterian Church. There is also a Fire Department, a service station, and an elementary school called Gill Hall Elementary School which was built by Jefferson Borough in 1954. This village had its beginning back in the days when a man by the name of William McGill took out a land grant of 176 acres. On July 10. 1786, the name of the grant was called “Gill Hall.”
William
McMillan
William McMillan, the father of Rev. John McMillan the early pioneer preacher of Washington County, was born in Antrim, Ireland in the year 1717. In 1738, he married Margaret Rea and in the year 1742, they came to America landing at New Castle, Deleware where so many of his countrymen had disembarked. They moved to Faggs Manor, Chester County, where they bought a farm from the original patentee. During the Revolutionary War, he sold his property in Chester County and then moved to the Western Country, which is now Allegheny County. He took out a patent of 210 acres. It was surveyed on May 7, 1785 on a Virginia certificate patent issued March 11, 1788 and was called “Donegal”. (This information was taken from the records of the Allegheny County Courthouse.) This property is located in what is now Jefferson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania on the old State Route 51 between Elizabeth, Pa. and Large, Pa. not far from Peters Creek. William McMillan died on July 2, 1792 and is buried in the Chartiers Cemetery. This was sold to John McElheny, William McMillan’s son-in-law, in the year 1797.