THE HISTORY OF SMITHTON, PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1800 TO 1950
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It was completed in 1872 a lovely red brick church situated in one of the most beautiful spots in the Youghiogheny valley. It stood in a grove of giant elms, at the junction of the Hollows, where the two little streams that flow down them meet. The clear little brooks, abounding in small fish, the big trees and the soft grass beneath had made it a favorite picnic spot for years. It provided the perfect setting for the new church. Just one year later, The Waverly Coal Company, a concern controlled by the Mellons and Coreys of Pittsburgh, began mining operations in this beautiful spot. They sank a shaft and built a tipple and 10 coke ovens within a few hundred feet below the new church. The congregation sought an injunction against the company but accomplished nothing. In 1880 more ovens were built, even nearer the church than the first ones. In a short time the picturesque beauty of the place was destroyed. Waverly Works was abandoned November 9, 1923. Where once had been beauty, there remained desolation. The Universalist group had long since given up their unequal controversy with the coal barons, and in 1887 had erected another church in the town. The coal company had purchased the original church building and had used it for a stable for the horses and mules they worked in the mines. In this year of 1950, the coke ovens are crumbling into oblivion. Nature is rapidly reclaiming her own as locust trees, sycamores, and elms, already grown quite tall, have begun to obliterate at least the worst of the scars. The church, now a garage and filling station, is still most commonly called the Mule Stable. About 1872 the first doctor came to town. He was Dr. Hugh Nicolay, and was given an immediate opportunity to make a good impression. His first patients were Jennie Smith and Manda Smith (Mrs. L. H. Young and Mrs. N. E. Rhoades) who were very ill with typhoid fever. They recovered, and the young doctor’s reputation was established. He married Jennie Hough, a daughter of Julia Ann and J. D. Hough. Brick was made in the town when the occasion demanded, in whatever location clay was to be found nearest to the spot where the bricks were to be used. The large brick house at the west end of First Street, owned at present by Amel Powley, the Moss house at Fitz Henry, and the John Rhodes house on the hill, now owned by Ardo Shupe, were built of brick made on First Street, in 1866. Later, in 1875, Joseph D. Hough made brick at the same place, from which his own home at the foot of the hill facing the length and breadth of Peer Street was built, and also the home of his brother-in-law Joseph B. Smith, which was built similarly, commanding a full length view of Center Street. This latter home was razed about 1939 to make way for the home of Dr. McClain Post. At the same time, 1875, the Free Methodist Church was built. With the beginning of coal operations the town grew rapidly. The company store was the first store within the present borough limits.
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