Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Annals Of Jackson Township
By Mrs. Betty Burkhart
Nanty Glo Journal
September 3, 1942

Communities and Their First Settlers

Mundys Corner

In 1868 Thomas Davis came to this country from Wales. He was 16 years old at the time. For awhile he worked in the mines in Clearfield and Jefferson counties but later came to this part of the country where he worked as an engineer in Nanty-Glo. He lived at Mundy's Corner and was one of the founders of the local Brethren Church. Mr. Davis was known as a singer. He and his wife, Sara Jane (Minds) Davis, were the parents of twelve children, five of whom died in infancy. Grant Davis of Elkins, W. Va., formerly of Nanty-Glo, Samuel Davis of Mundy's Corner, and Mrs. Victor Pearson of Nanty-Glo are surviving children of theirs. Many of their descendants still reside in this community.

Mark and Dan Kerr were sons of James and Sara (Repine) Kerr, natives of Ireland. Four of the six children of James and Sara settled elsewhere, but Mark and Dan came here in 1873, at the time the Davis sawmill was in operation^where they were employed. They married local girls and raised large families, most of whom have settled here. Mark's children are Florence (Kerr) Rose, Virginia (Kerr) Devlin, Mollie (Kerr) Singer, Hazel (Kerr) Brown, and Charles Kerr, all of this locality, and Daisy (Kerr) Buterbaugh of Indiana. Mark Kerr lived on the Dearmin farm for a few years, but later purchased the farm which still bears his name. He died in 1927.

E.A.Vickroy was an early resident of this community, and much of the land near the church, which remains in an untouched state, is know as "Vickroy's." It is a favorite hunting ground for local nimrods.

An Indian, known as John Smith, lived in this community near where the home of John Bracken now is. He was skilled in the use of herbs as medicine and was the only doctor many of our earliest residents knew. He could often be seen with a basket on his arm, going deeper into the woods, or to a small stream where he gathered the plants that he used to heal the sick. He was not a full-blooded Indian but had the characteristics of the members of that race. He wore his hair in two long braids, sometimes winding them around his head. He was held in high esteem by all who knew him, and stories concerning his ministering to the afflicted have been handed down to the present generation.

In 1921 a group of men formed a company and divided land, which they had purchased from the Crouse heirs, into lots which they then sold. Olin Burkhart, now of New York City, was the surveyor of the lots and A.V. Little of Johnstown was the engineer. Edward Custer was the trustee for the property known as the John H. Cooney and Harry B. Cooney estate. Other members of the company were Howard Davis and Ephraim Custer of Conemaugh. A contest was then begun in which a prize was to be awarded to the person who would supply a better name for the community and the name "Mundy's Square" was chosen by the judges as the one most suitable. It was recorded in that name, but who won the prize, which was a lot in the community, by supplying the name can not be learned by this writer. The name "Mundy's Corner" seemed to be the most easily remembered however, and has continued to be used instead of the official Mundy's Square.

After the Corner was divided into lots and sold, the growth of the community was rapid. Situated as it is on an important artery of coast-to-coast travel, the Corner has in recent years become a community of filling stations and several small stores, catering to the touring public. Most of the wage earners, are employed in the surrounding towns, the steel mills of Johnstown, the mines of Nanty-Glo, or with business houses. On the road leading from Mundy's Corner to Nanty-Glo, almost a solid line of new and beautiful houses and bungalows have been built in recent years, the majority of them having been constructed in part of native field stone. Most of these residents formerly lived in Nanty-Glo.

The road leading to Johnstown has also become lined with the homes of former town dwellers. The six-room brick school building, the Brethren Church with its adjoining "Cape Cod" parsonage, the small stores, gas stations, and the many homes at the Corner all go towards making the community a live and active little town. As the "Corner" is connected with Nanty-Glo in one direction, with Wellview in another, Singer Hill in a third and Ford's Corners in a fourth direction, it is hard to say just what the population is, but if the growth is as steady in the future as in the past, it will one day be linked with its neighboring cities, or incorporated as a borough.

One of the largest buildings here is the one now occupied by Luther's Restaurant. This is on the site of the old Monday home, shown in the picture last week, which stood until the early '20's. At that time an addition was made to the old house and a recreational center established there, but later the old building was torn down and the present one built. Lester Watson conducted a business there for a few years, later George Cunningham was associated with his father-in-law, Mr. Hickman, in conducting a restaurant there. When the Monday family, and later the Crouse family lived there, a large barn stood across the road on the site now occupied by the Penn-Way. All of the other buildings have been erected during the past twenty-five years.

The locale of this community is a scenic and beautiful one and tourists from other states often comment on that fact. It is 1,897 feet above sea level and the Laurel Hill mountains can be seen in the distance. As one views the almost constant stream of vehicular traffic speeding over the smooth concrete highways, it is hard to believe that seventy or so years ago the place was mostly wilderness with the stone pike leading through it over which stage coaches, teamsters, strings of circus wagons and oxen drawn wagons made their slow way. Large droves of turkey, hogs and other animals were sometimes driven on foot over this highway, on their way to distant markets. The old watering trough that stood on the corner near the Monday homestead was the stopping off place for the traffic of those days. Here the animals of the circus would be watered before continuing over the mountains toward the distant city of Pittsburgh. The inn for the rest and refreshment of travelers, however, was located a scant half mile from the Corner, as has been mentioned, where the toll gate also was.

To Be Continued Next Week