THE HISTORY OF SMITHTON, PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1800 TO 1950
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When they arrived they found their property surrounded by other settIers, many of whom had also come from Buck’s county, and may have been former neighbors and friends. As previously mentioned, a Jacob Smith of Bucks County, had owned land in the immediate neighborhood by 1778. Gershorn Bennethad arrived in 1796, and Jacob Hough of Bucks County had recorded his deed for 140 acres in South Huntingdon Township on April 28, 1782. The fact that both schools and churches were established before the coming of the caravan to the site of Smithton indicates that they were preceded by other families. Both Sewickley Presbyterian Church and Rehoboth Presbyterian Church had been established many years earlier. “Old Brick” Church had been established in 1794. Port Royal School extends so far into the past that so far as the writer could learn, no one knows when it was founded. However, it is known that the second building was built in 1801, and it was to Port Royal that the first children of the community went to school. The colony of Virginia from the first claimed that our corner of Pennsylvania was included in their grant, and claim to have convened court at Port Royal, the first in Westmoreland County. There was industry and activity all along the lower Jacob’s Creek valley. Turnbul and Marmie’s Iron Furnace operated from 1792 to 1802 and had employed quite a number of men. A short distance above the furnace on the South Huntingdon side of the creek lie the ruins of the forge which operated until 1812, converting the pig iron from Turnbull and Marmie’s into iron hollow ware such as skillets, pots, kettles, Dutch ovens, stoves and sugar kettles, as well as grates, irons and plow castings. Today, the remains of an ancient burial ground are sometimes found by hunters and hikers in the same region. Only a few markers remain above the ground, and of these, only one bears a legible inscription. It reads “Here lies the body of Daniel Guynn, died 1792, aged 78.” According to Jacob Frick Rowe in his little book called “Rambles Through Jacobs Creek Valley” this cemetery was for the Protestant employees of Turnbull and Marmie’s furnace. Thus we see that our Smithton pioneers had many neighbors within perhaps an eight mile radius. By 1801 Joseph Smith had built a stone grist mill on the bank of the river between the bridge and the old stone house, which is now a mere ruin. He had also built a dam across the river. The Rhodeses cleared the surrounding hills and started farms. The aforementioned old stone house was built in 1810 and Joseph’s wife Mary, helped a great deal in the building of it. It sheltered six generations through 130 years, and withstood yearly floods and the buffeting of ice moving down the stream each spring. At some time during those early days a wharf was constructed near the mill, and a flatboat ferry carried passengers across the river.
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