Early Settlers in South Fayette February 27, 2020

Copyright © 2020                               John F. Oyler

February 27, 2020

Early Settlers in South Fayette

We recently had the privilege of meeting with a group of South Fayette Seniors and discussing the pioneers who originally settled what is now South Fayette Township. We have talked and written about early settlers in the general Bridgeville area; this was our first opportunity to focus on South Fayette,

We began by revisiting the series of events that led to the establishment of the township in its present form. Pennsylvania’s claim to southwestern Pennsylvania was finally upheld in 1780. At that time Washington County was established; it consisted of all the land west of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.

In 1788 Allegheny County was created with its southern border being close to what it is today; it extended to Lake Erie in the north. Within the county, Moon Township included all the land south of the Ohio River and west of Chartiers Creek.

In 1790 Fayette Township was established from part of Moon Township. It, in turn, was subdivided into North and South Fayette Townships in 1842. The final event was the establishment of Collier Township in 1785 from parts of Robinson, South Fayette, and North Fayette Townships.

We currently believe that the first people to occupy this area were very primitive wanderers who left evidence of their existence fifteen to twenty thousand years ago at Meadowcroft Shelter.

About one thousand years ago there were several villages of a native culture well on the way to civilization in this general area. Known as the Monongahela People these folks lived in crude huts in organized villages, raised crops, and manufactured crude tools.

This was the same era as the Mound People in the Ohio Valley, the Mississippian people in Cahokia (east of today’s St. Louis), and the Anasazi in the Four Corners area. Cahokia was home to 40,000 people in those days; a population greater than that of London at the time.

Unfortuntely all these budding civilizations disappeared and were replaced by the native Americans who were here when the European settlers arrived. They had only a few small settlements in southwestern Pennsylvania; it was primarily a hunting ground for them.

Delaware Tingooqua (known as Catfish to the Europeans) had a hunting camp in what is now downtown Washington, Pa. The trail from that site to an occasional settlement on the Ohio River at today’s McKees Rocks was named Catfish Path in his honor. It followed ridges along the Chartiers Valley. The settlers improved it and renamed it the Black Horse Trail. In the nineteenth century it became the Washington and Pittsburgh Turnpike. A century later it served as the route for part of I-79.

Prior to 1768 this area was off limits to permanent settlers. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix that year reversed that restriction and opened it up. Christian Lesnett elected to take advantage of this opportunity; he is believed to be the first settler in what is now South Fayette. His claim was along Coal Pit Run, near today’s Alpine Road.

In the same year a mystery man named Miller showed up and claimed the land at the mouth of a creek that he named for himself. According to legend he sold it to land speculator John Campbell. “The Mouth of Miller’s Run” passed to Campbell’s sister at his death. She sold it to Presley Neville who then sold it to Robert Johnson in 1807. Johnson was the subject of one of our recent columns.

In 1772 Richard Boyce and his cousin Thomas Faucett arrived and staked claims in the south end of the township. Boyce Station and Fawcett Church Road are named for them.

George Vallandingham and his brother-in-law Richard Noble claimed land in the northwest part of the township along Robinson Run in 1773 and founded Noblestown. Richard’s son Henry then built a sawmill and a grist mill and established a prosperous trading business.

Next came Nicholas Hickman and his two sons, in 1774. They purchased a claim from a settler deciding to move west, supposedly for one cow. Their land was northwest of Coal Pit Run, including Hickman Hill, currently the site of Calvary Full Gospel Church.

Abraham Middleswarth and his son Moses arrived in 1781 and claimed land in what is now the northeast corner of the township, in the Thoms Run area. Moses eventually moved across Chartiers Creek and acquired most of the land in Bridgeville west of Washington Avenue.

Samuel Morgan came to the South Fayette area sometime in the early 1780s and claimed the property known as “Armaugh” which eventually became the community of Morgan (the site of this talk). He built a grist mill there which was sold to Moses Coulter in 1811. We know very little about Coulter’s early life; he arrived in South Fayette in 1790.

James Dinsmore was born near Belfast in Ulster, Ireland in 1742. He came to the New World as a young man, settling in York, Pa. Around 1776 he claimed “Canaan” on Miller’s Run, in the Cuddy area. By 1795 he and his family had moved into Washington County in Canton Township. A blockhouse called Dinsmore’s Fort was built on this site.

Obadiah Holmes, Jr. and his family came to South Fayette at about the same time and claimed “The Parsonage” due north of Morgan’s property. His parents had settled on Chartiers Creek in what is now Strabane Township in 1775. He was a participant in the Gnadenhutten Massacre, allegedly reluctantly.

These early settlers were remarkable people – self-reliant, resourceful, and very hardworking. One wonders how many of us today could achieve what they did.

Our thanks to Margie Smith and the South Fayette Seniors for the opportunity to discuss them.