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once heard it can never be forgotten. I heard it once at Ephrata, in my very young days, when several of the old choir were still living, and the Antietam choir had met with them. And some years since I sojourned in the neighborhood of Snowhill during the summer season, where I had a fine opportunity of hearing it frequently and judging of its excellence. On each returning Friday evening, the commencement of the Sabbath, I regularly mounted my horse and rode to that place a distance of three miles-and lingered about the grove in front of the building during the evening exercises, charmed to enchantment. It was in my gay days, when the fashion and ambition of the world possessed my whole breast; but there was such a sublimity and devotion in their music, that I repaired with the greatest punctuality to this place, to drink in those mellifluous tones which transported my spirit, for the time, to regions of unalloyed bliss-tones which I never before nor since heard on earth, though I have frequented the English, the French, and the Italian opera that is music for the ear; the music of BEISSEL is music for the soul-music that affords more than natural gratification. It was always a delightful hour to me-enhanced by the situation of the cloister, which is in a lonely vale just beyond the South mountain. During the week I longed for the return of that evening, and on the succeeding morning was again irresisti bly led to take the same ride, (if I did not let it be known in the evening that I was on the ground-for whenever it was discovered, I was invited and kept the night in the cloister,) to attend morning service-at which time I always entered the room, as there was then preaching. But as often as I entered, I became ashamed of myself; for scarcely had these strains of celes tial melody touched my ear, than I was bathed in tears: unable to suppress them, they continued to cover my face during the service; nor, in spite of my mortification, could I keep away. They were not tears of penitence, (for my heart was not subdued to the Lord,) but tears of ecstatic rapture, giving a foretaste of the joys of heaven.

GREENE COUNTY.

GREENE COUNTY, originally a part of Washington, was organized by the act of 9th Feb. 1796. It occupies the extreme southwestern corner of the state. Length 32 m., breadth 19; area, 597 sq. miles. Population in 1800, 8,605; in 1810, 12,544; in 1820, 15,554; in 1830, 18,028; in 1840, 19,147.

The surface of the co. is generally hilly; the western part, where the streams rise, perhaps too much so for an agricultural country: there are, however, along the streams some delightful valleys, abounding in luxuriant vegetation, and covered, in their primitive state, with a dense growth of timber. The rolling character of the surface, and the nature of the soil, are better adapted for grazing than for grain. Many of the cattle raised in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, are grazed here before being driven to the eastern markets.

The farmers have turned their attention to the raising of sheep, which, until within a year or two past, proved a profitable stock, and will probably always pay as well in this region, or better, than any other department of farming. The co. is well watered by six principal creeksDunkard, Big Whitely, Little Whitely, Muddy, and Ten Mile creeksall of which empty into the Monongahela, which washes the eastern boundary of the co. Wheeling creek empties into the Ohio at Wheeling. These streams, in the course of time, have worn very deep channels in the country, and have imparted to it its rough and rolling aspect; yet, if they have thus in some measure marred the beauty of the land, they have amply compensated for the inconvenience by the inexhaustible mineral supplies which are laid open in the sides of the hills thus abraded. The great Pittsburg coal seam, from 6 to 8 feet thick, and probably the purest and most important seam of coal in the west, is exposed at many

localities throughout the co. Above the coal, and separated from it by a heavy bed of sandstone and shale, reposes the most extensive and valuable deposit of lime in the western counties, consisting of beds from 7 to 20 feet in thickness. It is of incalculable value to the agriculture of the southwestern counties; but it is to be regretted that the importance of lime, as a fertilizer, has been hitherto so much overlooked. Another seam of coal, about six feet thick, is exposed in the bed of South Ten Mile cr., two miles east of Waynesburg, and is met with at various other points of the county. A forge and furnace were formerly in operation near the mouth of Ten Mile cr.,-and a large woollen factory, during the late war, in Clarksville,-but were suffered to decline.

That extensive district now composing Greene, Washington, and Fayette counties, and a part of Somerset, was originally supposed to be included within the boundaries of Virginia, and was first settled, or rather first visited, by adventurers from that state and Maryland. As early as 1754, David Tygart had settled in the valley which still bears his name in Northwestern Virginia. Several other families and individuals came into the region in the course of five or six years afterwards. These early adventurers were men of iron nerves and stout hearts-a compound of the hunter, the warrior, and the husbandman; they came prepared to endure all the hardships of life in the wilderness; to encounter its risks, and defend their precarious homes against the wily natives of the forest. For some 10 or 15 years the possession of the country was hotly contested, and alternately held and abandoned by the English on the one hand, and the French and Indians on the other. Families were frequently murdered, cabins burnt, and the settlement thus for a time broken up. Stockade forts were resorted to by the inhabitants for the protection of their families in time of invasion. One of these, called Jarret's fort, was situated on Whitely creek, about seven miles west of Greensburg. Settlements were made at a very early date by the Rev. John Corbly and his family, and others, on Muddy creek. The following narrative was given by him in a letter to Rev. Wm. Rogers of Philadelphia, in the year 1785:

On the second Sabbath in May, in the year 1782, being my appointment at one of my meetinghouses, about a mile from my dwelling-house, I set out with my dear wife and five children for public worship. Not suspecting any danger, I walked behind 200 yards, with my Bible in my hand, meditating; as I was thus employed, all on a sudden, I was greatly alarmed with the frightful shrieks of my dear family before me. I immediately ran, with all the speed I could, vainly hunting a club as I ran, till I got within 40 yards of them; my poor wife seeing me, cried to me to make my escape; an Indian ran up to shoot me; I then fled, and by so doing outran him. My wife had a sucking child in her arms; this little infant they killed and scalped. They then struck my wife several times, but not getting her down, the Indian who aimed to shoot me, ran to her, shot her through the body, and scalped her; my little boy, an only son, about six years old, they sunk the hatchet into his brain, and thus dispatched him. A daughter, besides the infant, they also killed and scalped. My eldest daughter, who is yet alive, was hid in a tree, about 20 yards from the place where the rest were killed, and saw the whole proceedings. She, seeing the Indians all go off, as she thought, got up, and deliberately crept out from the hollow trunk; but one of them espying her, ran hastily up, knocked her down, and scalped her; also her only surviving sister, one on whose head they did not leave more than an inch round, either of flesh or skin, besides taking a piece of her skull. She, and the before-mentioned one, are still miraculously preserved, though, as you must think, I have had, and still have, a great deal of trouble and expense with them, besides anxiety about them, insomuch that I am, as to worldly circumstances, almost ruined. I am yet in hopes of seeing them cured; they still, blessed be God, retain their senses, notwithstanding the painful operations they have already and must yet pass through.

Muddy creek, Washington county, July 8, 1785.

In several interesting numbers published in the National Intelligencer

two or three years since under the signature of "A Traveller," is the following paragraph relating to Greene county:

The warrior, with his gun, hatchet, and knife, prepared alike to slay the deer and bear for food, and also to defend himself against and destroy his savage enemy, was not the only kind of man who sought these wilds. A very interesting and tragic instance was given of the contrary by the three brothers Eckarlys. These men, Dunkards by profession, left the eastern and cultivated parts of Pennsylvania, and plunged into the depths of the western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was on a creek flowing into the Monongahela river, in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard creek, which it still bears. These men of peace employed themselves in exploring the country in every direction, in which one vast, silent, and uncultivated waste spread around them. From Dunkard's creek these men removed to Dunkard's bottom, on Cheat river, which they made their permanent residence, and, with a savage war raging at no considerable distance, they spent some years unmolested; indeed, it is probable, unseen.

In order to obtain some supplies of salt, ammunition, and clothing, Dr. Thomas Eckarly recrossed the mountains with some peltry. On his return from Winchester to rejoin his brothers, he stopped on the south branch of the Potomac, at Fort Pleasant, and roused the curiosity of the inhabitants by relating his adventures, removals, and present residence. His avowed pacific principles, as pacific religious principles have everywhere else done, exposed him to suspicion, and he was detained as a confederate of the Indians, and as a spy come to examine the frontier and its defences. In vain did Dr. Eckarly assert his innocence of any connection with the Indians, and that, on the contrary, neither he nor his brothers had even seen an Indian since their residence west of the mountains. He could not obtain his liberty until, by his own suggestion, he was escorted by a guard of armed men, who were to reconduct him a prisoner to Fort Pleasant, in case of any confirmation of the charges against him.

These arbitrary proceedings, though in themselves very unjust, it is probable, saved the life of Dr. Eckarly, and his innocence was made manifest in a most shocking manner. Approaching the cabin where he had left and anxiously hoped to find his brothers, himself and his guard were presented with a heap of ashes. In the yard lay the mangled and putrid remains of the two brothers, and, as if to add to the horrors of the scene, beside the corpses lay the hoops on which their scalps had been dried. Dr. Eckarly and the now sympathizing men buried the remains, and not a prisoner, but a forlorn and desolate man, he returned to the South Branch. This was amongst the opening scenes of that lengthened tragedy which was acted through upwards of thirty years.

The following also occurred within or near Greene county, then Westmoreland:

MADAM ;-I have written to Mr. of your city, an account of an affair between a white man and two Indians. I am now about to give you a relation in which you will see how a person of your sex acquitted herself in defence of her own life and that of her husband and children.

The lady who is the subject of this story, is named Experience Bozarth. She lives on a creek called Dunkard creek, in the southwest corner of this county. About the middle of March last, two or three families, who were afraid to stay at home, gathered to her house and there stayedlooking on themselves to be safer than when all scattered about at their own houses.

On a certain day, some of the children thus collected came running in from play, in great haste, saying, there were ugly red-men. One of the men in the house stepped to the door, where he received a ball in the side of his breast, which caused him to fall back into the house. The Indian was immediately in over him, and engaged with another man who was in the house. The man tossed the Indian on a bed, and called for a knife to kill him. (Observe, these were all the men that were in the house.) Now Mrs. Bozarth appears the only help, who not finding a knife at hand, took up an axe that lay by, and with one blow cut out the brains of the Indian. At that instant, (for all was instantaneous,) a second Indian entered the door, and shot the man dead, who was engaged with the Indian on the bed. Mrs. Bozarth turned to this second Indian, and with her axe gave him several large cuts, some of which let his entrails appear. He bawled out, murder, murder. On this, sundry other Indians, (who had hitherto been fully employed, killing some children out of doors,) came rushing to his relief; the head of one of these Mrs. Bozarth clave in two with her axe, as he stuck it in at the door, which laid him flat upon the ground. Another snatched hold of the wounded, bellowing fellow, and pulled him out of doors; and Mrs. Bozarth, with the assistance of the man who was first shot in the door, and by this time a little recovered, shut the door after them, and fastened it, where they kept garrison for several days, the dead white man and dead Indian both in the house with them, and the Indians about the house besieging them. At length they were relieved by a party sent for that purpose. This whole affair, to shutting the door, was not, perhaps, more than three minutes in acting.

Westmoreland, April 26, 1779.

The more permanent and peaceful settlement of the county was not made until after the peace of 1783. Greensburg, the oldest village in the county, must have been laid out about this time, or not long previously.

WAYNESBURG, the county seat, was laid out when the county was established in 1796, and was incorporated as a borough in 1816. The land was purchased from Thomas Slater, and the lots were sold in conformity with the law, for account of the county. Nathaniel Jennings had built a mill in the vicinity some time before the site was selected for the county seat. Thomas Kent, David and Israel White, John and Thomas Smith, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Adams, and others, were among the early residents here. The borough is situated in a delightful valley near the left bank of Ten Mile creek, about twelve miles from its mouth, and within one mile of the centre of the county. It enjoys the advantages, in addition to that of the public business, of pure air, good water, a fertile soil, timber, stone, and bituminous coal in abundance. The scenery around the town is delightful. The Catholics, Cumberland Presbyterians, and two denominations of Methodists, have each a church, and the Baptists are about building.

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In the annexed view the courthouse and public offices are seen on the left. The private dwellings, of which there are about 80, are many of them of brick or sandstone. No stage-coach runs from the town in any direction. Large droves of cattle pass through towards the eastern markets, the clay roads along this route acting more kindly upon their feet than the stony surface of the national road. The academy of the county is at CARMICHAELSTOWN, or NEW LISBON, a village of some importance on Muddy creek, about four miles from its mouth.

GREENSBURG, on the Monongahela, was formerly a place of considerable trade-a depot for produce sent down the river in arks and steamboats; but larger towns on the national road and on the Ohio have changed the current of trade. Directly opposite Greensburg is New Geneva, the

former residence of Mr. Gallatin, and the site of his extensive glassworks.

NEWTOWN, MAPLETOWN, CLARKSVILLE, JEFFERSON, MOUNT MORRIS, MORRISVILLE, and CLINTON, are small villages, adapted to the business of the agricultural communities amid which they are respectively situated.

HUNTINGDON COUNTY.

HUNTINGDON COUNTY, originally a part of Bedford, was established by the act of 20th Sept. 1787. Its limits were curtailed in 1804 by the separation of a part of Cambria co. Length 38 m., breadth 31; area 1,185 sq. m. Population in 1790, 7,568; in 1800, 13,008; in 1810, 14,778; in 1820, 20,142; in 1830, 27,145; in 1840, 35,484.

The county lies entirely within the great central mountainous district, and its surface is consequently rugged. In passing through the county from the southeast to the northwest, there occur successively the Tuscarora, Shade, Black-log, Jack's, Sideling-hill, Terrace, Allegripus, Tussey's, Lock, Brush, Bald Eagle, and the great Allegheny mountains; with some ridges of minor importance. The Broad-top mountain is an isolated elevation on the southwest boundary, containing a small and singular bituminous coal basin, the seams of which are from one to four feet in thick

ness.

Between these mountains are a corresponding number of valleys, of every variety as regards their shape, and adaptation for agricultural and mineral purposes. Some are broad, containing undulating lands highly enriched with limestone; others are coves, of a canoe shape, enclosed between two spurs of a mountain; others so narrow as scarcely to allow their waters comfortable room to pass. The Raystown branch, which passes through one of these, writhes and wriggles itself about as if vexed with the restraint. The Juniata passes through the centre, and receives all the minor streams of the county. The Little Juniata, the Frankstown branch, the Raystown branch, and Aughwick cr., are the principal tributaries.

The county is perhaps not surpassed by any in the state, in the richness and variety of its mineral deposits, and the steadiness and extent of its water-power; it is inferior to but few in the fertility of its valleys, and its convenient situation for obtaining fuel of all varieties, for manufacturing purposes. Bituminous coal can be obtained, by railroad and canal, from the Allegheny mountain: lead-ore is found in Sinking valley, and about the close of the revolutionary war one of the mines was worked to some extent. The predominating ore, however, is iron, of which vast deposits are found in almost every section of the county. The manufacturing of iron constitutes one of the principal branches of business, as may be seen by the following list of iron-works, extracted from Harris's Pittsburg Directory for 1837:

On the Little Juniata-Elizabeth furnace and Mary Ann forge, owned by Edward Bell; Antis forge, by Graham & M'Camant; Cold-spring forge, by John Crotzer; forge by A. R. Crane, (net

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