Transcribed from the "History of Allegheny County
Scott Township - At the October sessions 1860, a petition
for the division of Upper St. Clair was filed, and a commission
appointed for its consideration. The measure was carried, by a
majority of forty-two, at an election held April 23, 1861, the
division was confirmed by decree of court, when the new township
received the name Scott. It extends from Chartiers creek on the
west side to Baldwin township on the east, with an area of about
ten square miles. The population was 1,807 in 1870, and 1523 in
1880.
The earliest permanent settlers were Alexander Long, Andrew
McFarlane, John Henry and William Lea. Long was from York county.
McFarlane emigrated from Ireland to Philadelphia in 1758. In 1774
he was a justice of the peace, prob-ably the first in the township.
Lea was a soldier, and rose to the rank of major. He had sons,
William, Robert and Samuel. The sons of William were William Robert,
Samuel, Lafayette and James W,; of Robert, David N. and Thomas;
of Samuel, John, William and Samuel. Hezejiah, William, Thomas
and Samuel Nixon were the sons of Jame (Lea) Nixon, Isaac Williams
and sons John, Isaac and Robert; John, William and ____ Turner;
Peter Ross and son Casey,John Ross and son Philip, Willaim Glenn
and sons James and William were also early residents.
The township in common with all this section of country, is
rich in mineral resources. The first coal mine on the Chartiers
Valley railroad, south of Mansfield, is No. 2 of the Mansfield Coal
and Coke company, open in 1883. Five hundred men are employed, and
175 cars are required in the shipment of the product, which amount
to 600 tons daily, and 120,000 tons in the course of a year. Glendale
colliery, 300 feet east of Glendale station, is operated by Gregg
Brothers. The Nixon mines, 300 feet east of Leasdale station were
opened by the Chartiers Valley Coal company in 1878, and are now
owned by W. A. Black; 75 men are employed. The daily output is 300
tons for the shipment of which the proprietor uses 53 cars. The
Diamond mines, 500 feet east of Leasdale station, and Leasdale mines,
600 feet east of Woodville station, are among the oldest in this line
of railway. Summer Hill mines , at Woodville, were opened by Romer &
Jones in 1875. Negley & Black succeeded to their ownership in 1878,
and Jessup & Co. in the same year, when (1879) the present proprietor,
Frank Armstrong, assumed control. Six hundred tons are produced daily,
employing 175 men, and requiring 96 cars. The Old Bower Hill mines,
1,200 feet east of Bower Hill station, were reopened by the Imperial
Coal company in 1887 after a long period of suspension. Bower Hill No.
2, 1,500 feet east of the station of that name, has been operated
since 1875 by A. J. Schulte. One hundred and twenty-five men are
employed.
The station on the Chartiers Valley railroad in this county are
Glennis, Leasdale and Woodville. Glendale is an important suburb of
Mansfield borough.Leasdale derives its name from the Lea family, which
was early represented in the vicinity. The Leasdale Glass company, T.
F. Hart, president; M. H. Hart, secretary; R. Brankston, manager, are
the proprietors of the glassworks at this place, established in 1870
by Lindsay Brothers, and owned successivly by the Lindsay Glass
company, Robert Liddell and Gallatin Glass company. The plant con-
sists of a frame building 200 feet long and 60 feet wide, one ten-pot
furnace, and a corresponding number of lehrs and ovens; 50 men are
employed, and 45 boys. Flint botles constitute the exclusive product,
which is valued at $55,000 annually.
Long's Arlington and Mt Lebanon were stations on the Pittsburgh
& Southern railroad, in the eastern part of the township, before that
road was abandoned. Mt Lebanon postoffice was established in 1855.
It is the only post-village in the township. A small portion on Castle
Shannon extends over the line of Baldwin and Scott.
St Clair United Presbyterian Church received its first pastor in
the preson of Rev. Joseph Kerr, who was installed at the house of
Nathaniel Plummerin October, 1803. The first sermon had been preacjed
in November of the previous year, by Rev. John Riddell. Mr Kerr's
pastorate also included Mifflin Church. Since his resignation, in 1825,
the succession of pastors has been as follows: John Dickey, 1830-29;
Alexander H Wright, 1843-46; Joseph Clokey, 1848-55; J C Boyd, 1858 to
present.
The Woodville Protostant Espiscopal church was built in 1846 and
replaced a log building of great age, one of the first places of worship in
the Chartiers Valley. The latter was erected at the time when a Book of
Common Prayer was on little use unless supplemented with a trusty gun. It is
said that on one occasion when the worshipers had reached that part of the
service known as the litany, and were giving one emphantic "Good Lord,
deliver us," an attack was made by the Indians, and within a few seconds
every porthole had its glistening rifle. No record of the pastors here has
been preserved. After a long period of discontinuance, the church was
reopened for services October 24, 186. Among those buried in the adjoining
cemetery are Jane Williams, who died August 4, 1795, thirty-three years of
age; Daniel S Williams, May 4, 1825; Mary Richardson, January 1, 1805, aged
seventy-seven; James Richardson, September 2, 1805, aged eighty-four; Daniel
South, June 25, 1811; WIlliam Beaumont, September 19, 1813; Capt. David Steel,
February 4, 1819; and an earlier generation of the Lea family, whose graves
are unmarked.
The following is quoted from the Pittsburgh Dispatch;
It is a mooted question as to which is the oldest church
and burial place in the region of which Pittsburgh is the
center. There is, however, litle doubt that this distinc-
tion belongs to the Episcopal church and graveyard near
Woodville, eight miles from the city. Maj. Lea, who accom-
panied the Forbes expedition to Fort Duquesne, settled at
Leasdale prior to 1760. Being a Church-of-England adherent,
a church of that order was soon organized, and Episcopal
services were maintained, with more or less regularity, by
the Leas and Nevilles at Woodville a number of years before
Dr McMillian began his work at Cannonsburg, and a quarter of
a century before there was church organization at Pittsburgh.
The present stone church is the third edifice on the site,
the first having been a log building, which probably no one
can remember.In that log church was christened a daughter of
Maj. Lea in 1774. On one of the headstones in the old burial
place is this inscription: "Jane Lea Nixon, born 1774, died
1859,m the first white child born in the Chartiers Valley."
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