Chapter 26

Annals Of Jackson Township
By Mrs. Betty Burkhart
Nanty Glo Journal
October 8, 1942

Communities and Their First Settlers

Teeter And Leidy's Lane (Conclusion)

In what is now the Teeter community Judge Murrary once held title to most of the land.  Later, Nathaniel Teeter cleared ground and settled there.  Other residents were John Wilkinson, John Rager, Adam Shuman, Abraham Brown, Jake Faulkmer, (he was the grandfather of John Teeter who still resides in the community), and there were the Shearer, Pearson and Lambaugh families.  An old cemetery is located on the Lambaugh place.

The name Shuman is among those of the earliest residents.  John Shuman cleared the ground on the farm now owned and occupied by the Michaels family near Vintondale and he was the father of eight children all of whom settled here, or nearby.  Two sons, Daniel and Henry, were soldiers in the Civil War, and the latter was killed in action in that conflict.  Daniel married Dillie Dearmin and with his family resided in Vinco in his later years.  Adam, son of John, married Sophia Jane Smith and he, it was, who first cleared the land (1876) near the Jack Rager school where he lived until his death and where his son, John, still lives. Adam and his wife were the parents of nine children, all residents of this community and Nanty-Glo.

Leidy's Lane is not a lane, but a township road, and is so called because the early settlers of the community were all Leidy's.  Part of this land, later owned by the Cobaugh's, then by Henry Leidy and Frank Seth, was "warranted in the name of a Mr. Findley in 1792, just a few years after the William Perm heirs had purchased it from the Indians.

The Leidys are of German stock and the first Leidy in the community was Samuel, who came to this country in time to fight in the Revolutionary War.  Samuel's son, David, built the house where Louis Sabo now lives.  David's son, also named Samuel, lived away from the community for awhile but about 76 years ago he returned here and owned over 300 acres of land.  He reared a large family, most of whom continued to be township residents.  His children were Elizabeth, who later married Daniel Burkhart; Levi, twice married, first to Lucinda Cover and the second time to Matilda (Wagner) Walker; Robert, who married Frances Cover; Susan, who became the wife of John Gillin; Henry, who married Sarah Jane Mahan; Sarah who married a man by the name of Powers and after his death married George Roberts (and lived on what is now known as the "old Daddy Davis" place), and Samuel, who became the husband of Annie Ribblet.  All of these are familiar names in the township, and the children of these couples have, for the most part settled nearby.  The children of Elizabeth and Daniel were Louise, still living on the old homestead at Burkhart's Crossing; Mary Ellen Morrison of California; Martha, now deceased, who was the wife of Harry Reighard and resided here, and Lee, married to Josephine Wega, who now resides in the West.

The children of Levi and his wife, Lucinda, are Harry, Howard, John, Amos, Blair and George, and to Levi and his second wife was born one son, Ira.  The last four named reside in the Clinefelter community and Harry and John established their homes and reared their families on farms near Wesley Chapel.

Henry, son of Samuel and his wife, Sarah Jane, had one child, a daughter, Clara, who has been a teacher in the Nanty-Glo school for a number of years.  Robert Leidy's home was that now owned by the Metzger family and J.W. Helsel of Vinco recently purchased the Henry Leidy farm.  Scenes of the Henry Leidy homestead are perpetrated in photographs that were taken while the Leidys still lived there.  The photographs show various scenes of the farm and are of great pastoral beauty.  They have been enlarged and painted in natural colors and adorn the living room walls of the Leidy home on Foster Street in Nanty-Glo, and are considered priceless by the owners.

An early settler of the community adjoining Leidy's Lane was Leonard Boring.  He was a Civil War soldier, and was twice married the first time to Nancy Longnecker and the second time to Nancy Rodkey, mother of Elmer Rodkey who was well known in the Vinco community where he conducted a store for many years.  Andy Brown, a descendant of this first Boring, now resides with his family on the site of the old home.  Samuel Brallier was also an early settler here.  Frank and John Santa bought the Brallier farm.  Mrs. Stephen Gallo of the Summerhill road and Mrs. William Little of Lorain, Nanty-Glo, are daughters of Frank.

Joseph Cobaugh and his wife resided on what is still known as the old Seth place.  The death of Mrs. Cobaugh, while very tragic, was thought to have saved the lives of many others.  Mrs. Cobaugh, while gathering eggs in the haymow at her farm home, fell to the floor beneath and her neck was broken.  Following the funeral, a public sale of the household goods was held which was attended by farmers and their families for miles around, who otherwise (it being market day for them), would have gone to Johnstown with their produce, as they were in the habit of doing. Had they gone to Johnstown they would, no doubt, have been caught in the great flood that swept the valley, killing thousands of people, for the day of the sale was also the day of the tragic happening, May 31,1889.

About 1872 a school house was built in Leidy's Lane, situated near a small stream that runs through the valley and on the same side of the road that the old Henry Leidy bam is located.  The little school continued to exist until 1913 when the school, but not the building (as was previously recorded in this column), was moved to Mundy's Corner.  All of the buildings and the ground were sold, and a new school house was built near the location of the present one at Mundy's Corner.  Fred Custer bought the little Leidy school building and moved it to his farm across the meadow.  It is now the granary on the Louis Sabo farm.   Henry Leidy bought the ground on which the building stood and several others purchased the other buildings and furnishings of the school.

In reading over the names of the teachers at this old school we note that many are now well known in the county.  The first teachers were Daniel Good, (son of Jacob Good), who later held county offices, and Billy Davis, previously mentioned in these annals, who was a well-known citizen.  Others were Theodosia Campbell, who was later married to Jacob Stutzman, one of the early residents of Coopersdale, Johnstown; Roscoe Custer, Elmer Sell, identified with an Altoona newspaper for many years, a man by the name of Brentinger, Minnie Lydic, who became the first wife of Jacob Stutzman, Nora (Bracken)Davis, Millie Lydic, Rev. J.L. Bowman, Thomas Clinefelter, Cyrus W. Davis, later county sheriff, Daniel Williams, first superintendent of the Nanty-Glo schools, Harry Burkhart, a son of Harrison Burkhart, and who was later connected with a Chicago newspaper for several years, Bell wissinger, now a teacher in the Conemaugh schools, and Irvin Wissinger of Wesley Chapel who was the last to teach at the little school.  With the population of Mundy's Corner increasing it was thought wiser to have a more central location for the school so a new building was erected at Mundy's Corner.

Personal Note:
The writing of this history has given the author a greater appreciation of the worth of the early settler and a deeper respect for the things for which he stood.  It has also given her a deeper understanding and affection for the people of the township, learning as she has so much of the lives and the loves, the tragedies and hopes and dreams of their ancestors.

If mistakes have occurred, consider before you pronounce judgment that often three or four persons will declare a thing to be so while the fifth will say it is untrue, and the fifth may be right.  But each statement of importance has been checked and double checked in an effort to make the history authentic.  Mistakes, if they can be proven as such, will be righted if the series appear later in book form.

Transcribed By Deborah Berg

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