HISTORY
OF GROVE CITY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
Compiled
by Henry Hamelly
In
the beginning, before a fire department is needed, a settlement has to be
built. History of Grove City Volunteer Fire Department ties in with the
history of the borough of Grove City. That history had it’s humble
beginning in 1798. It’s first settlers were Valentine
and Mary Glenn Cunningham and their two sons, Charles
and James G. They emigrated from Huntingdon County and settled on
the banks of Wolf Creek. They are still there today, buried in the Old
Cemetery on Greenwood Drive, only two blocks from where Valentine built a
grist mill. Mary died in 1800 and Valentine
in 1801. She was the first white person buried on Wolf Creek.
The
grist mill pictured on opposite page [shown above right] compliment of Frank
C. Emery, a Spanish American War Veteran, was the playground for
him while a young lad. The mill is located where Fire Station No. 2
stands. It was for many years a meeting place of the region. The mill,
along with a house erected, constituted the nucleus of the village which
sprang up in those early years. The two sons, Charles
and James G. Cunningham, soon settled on farms which embrace the
territory now occupied by Grove City, and during their entire lifetime
were identified with the village, which was at first called Pine Grove.
In
1804 a road from Mercer to Cunningham’s mill was authorized by
legislature. The road passing over the bridge was called Roseburg Pike.
The present structure is third or fourth. For many year the bridge (proceding
the present), bore this sign: “TAKE NOTICE, ANYONE RIDING OR DRIVING A
HORSE, MULE OR HORNED CATTLE FASTER THAN A WALK ACROSS THIS BRIDGE WILL BE
LIABLE FOR A FINE OF $5.00 TO $20.00.” A new span will be constructed in
1965 or 1966 to carry the traffic of today.
In
1806, Robert Glenn, brother-in-law of
Valentine Cunningham, built a grist mill in Slabtown (now known as
Hallville). This mill was badly damaged by fire in February 1958. Many of
our present firemen recall the near zero wether (sic) and the icy
conditions that prevailed that wintery night.
The
growth of the Village of Pine Grove was quite slow. As late as 1875 there
were not more than 200 inhabitants. In addition to some twenty or more
residences the town consisted of a grist mill, post office, a few shops
and stores, a district school building and a little frame church which had
been erected by the Presbyterians in 1847. With the building of the
Pittsburgh, Shenango & Lake Erie Railroad in 1874, which brought the
village into communication with the outer world, and the effort to
establish an institution of learning in 1876, the town took on a new lease
of life and its material development really dates from this period.
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