Person:Daniel Brumbaugh (3)

[E1701] DANIEL3 BRUMBAUGH ([E3] Conrad2, Johannes Henrich1) b 1775; lived near Conemaugh (later called Johnstown), Pa., and moved to a farm near Dayton, O., and thence to Elkhart Co., Ind. He d in 1845 at Goshen, that co., and state.

Under [E3] + Conrad2 Brumbaugh [note a1] extracts have been given from the important ledger of John Horner; and other pages from the same are herewith reproduced, giving further records of Daniel3 and other children. Another old ledger is in the possession of Mr. James M. Swank, the iron and steel expert, and a portion of his published description of the same is reproduced because it applies to the same locality, period, and conditions, and also to the Juniata Valley.

"REVELATIONS OF AN OLD LEDGER"a "Isaac Proctor was a native of Bedford Co., Pa. He settled at Johnstown, 'at the forks of the Conemaugh,' when it was a mere hamlet of log houses, about the year 1800, in which year the town was laid out by Joseph Johns, a Swiss Mennonite, into streets and alleys, building lots, public squares, and other reservations. But the name that was then officially given to the new town was Conemaugh and not Johnstown, the latter name being substituted for the former in 1834. We have before us a letter dated at Conemaugh on April 27, 1832. Settlements had been made at Johnstown before 1800 by German and Swiss farmers. For a number of years after 1800 the town was almost exclusively inhabited by people of German and Swiss origin.

"Isaac Proctor was not only a country merchant but he was also the owner of a warehouse on the north bank of Stony Creek, below Franklin street, in Johnstown, which was maintained for the express purpose of receiving and storing bar iron from the forges of the Juniata Valley, which bar iron was hauled to Johnstown over the Frankstown road and thence shipped in large flatboats to Pittsburgh by way of the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers. There were other warehouses near that of Isaac Proctor which were maintained for precisely the same purpose. The flatboats were built at Johnstown, or at points farther up the Stony Creek and as far south as the mouth of Ben's creek, three miles away. A large business was done far into the present century in the shipment of Juniata iron by flatboats from Johnstown. At first and for many years these shipments embraced only bar iron, but subsequently and down to the opening of the Pennsylvania Canal to Johnstown in 1830 they embraced also blooms and pig iron, all made with charcoal. As the navigation of the streams mentioned was as yet wholly unimproved shipments could only be made during high water, and even then experienced pilots were required to prevent the boats from going to pieces on the rocks and riffles in which the Conemaugh river particularly abounded. Occasionally a boat was wrecked. In one di??aster at Richards' Falls two lives were lost. Much of the hauling over the Frankstown road was done in the winter, and February and March, when the spring 'break-up' took place, were favorite months for sending the flatb??ats to Pittsburgh, which was one hundred miles away. The boats were sold at Pittsburg and the crews walked home.

"Keelboats were also used on the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas rivers, but they were used chiefly in the salt trade, the Conemaugh salt works beginning about forty miles west of Johnstown. The first salt works on the Conemaugh date from about 1814. In A. J. Hite's Hand Book of Johnstown, printed in 1856, it is stated that the first keelboat built at Johnstown was built by Isaac Proctor in 1816. Keelboats, which passed from the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas into the Allegheny, brought back return cargoes from Pittsburgh.

"The merchandise accounts in Mr. Proctor's ledger are chiefly for the years 1808 and 1809, occasional entries coming down as late as 1810, 1811, and 1812. The warehouse accounts are for the years 1816, 1817 and 1818. As is usual in ledger accounts the prices of merchandise are not often given. It is, however, very remarkable that all the merchandise accounts are kept in pounds, shillings, and pence. The pound character (œ) is used. Dollars and cents are nowhere mentioned, although our federal coinage was authorized in 1792 and silver dollars were coined as early as 1794. The dollar mark ($) does not appear in any of the merchandise accounts. That business should have been transacted in British or colonial currency in an interior town in Pennsylvania as late as 1812 is a discovery for which we were not prepared. We can not underst and why the British system of computing values was continued in that interior town so long, nor is any light thrown upon the value of a pound in dollars and cents at Johnstown in 1812, or upon the forms of currency that were used when payments were made in "cash." John Holliday closed his account with Mr. Proctor in June, 1811, when he is credited with a payment of œ32 16s. 4d. in "cash"; in January, 1811, Patrick Dempsey closed his account by giving his note for œ6 10s. 3d.; in 18812 William Fulford closed his account by giving his note for œ2 6s. ld.; and in the same year John Grosenickle closed his account by giving his note for œ1 1s. 2d. In 1808 John Grosenickle is credited with œ1 11s. 9d. for hauling a load of maple sugar to Bedford. There are other entries in the same denominations.

"Another revelation of this old ledger is just as remarkable as the use of pounds, shillings, and pence until 1812. The warehouse accounts of bar iron received and shipped in 1816, 1817, and 1818 are kept in tons, hundredweights, quarters, and pounds, the ton representing 2,240 pounds, the hundredweight 112 pounds, and the quarter 28 pounds. The teamsters who hauled bar iron over the Frankstown road are credited in tons, hundredweights, quarters and pounds, and shipments to Pittsburgh are entered in the same terms. In ordinary commercial transactions neither iron nor any other commodity has been weighed by hundredweights and quarters forming fractions of a gross ton at any time within our recollection, the usage being to weigh only by tons and pounds, and it is really very surprising that the early English custom should have prevailed at Johnstown at so late a day as we have mentioned. Charges for storage in 1816, 1817 and 1818 appear, however, to have been paid in dollars and cents, as we find several charges in 1818 in these denominations. We have also found within the leaves of the ledger a bill against Isaac Proctor which reads as follows: 'Juniata Forge, 16th Dec. 1818. Mr. Isaac Proctor Bot of Peter Shoenberger 2 qrs. 1 lb. Bar Iron @ $0.08c--$4.56.' Juniata Forge [note a2] was located at Petersburg, Huntingdon county, and was built about 1804. In 1814 or 1815 it passed into the hands of Dr. Peter Shoer??berger.

"The numerous entries in Mr. Proctor's ledger make clear that large quantities of bar iron were shipped at Johnstown by flatboat in 1816, 1817, 1818. He did a large warehousing business, and other owners of warehouses were probably active competitors. The aggregate tonnage shipped by Mr. Proctor, which was chiefly on account of Dr. Shoenberger, amounted to several hundred tons annually. Some of Mr. Proctor's single shipments amounted to 16 and 19 tons. . . .

"From other sources than the old ledger we add some other facts which show the prominence of Johnstown as an iron centre early in the present century.

"John Holliday built a forge at Johnstown, on the north bank of the Stony Creek, about 1809, for the manufacture of bar iron from Juniata blooms and pig iron, but we find no mention in Mr. Proctor's ledger of any shipments from this forge. The dam of this forge was washed away about 1811, and subsequently the forge was removed to the north bank of the Conemaugh, in the Millville addition to Johnstown, where it was operated down to about 1822, Rahm & Bean, of Pittsburgh, being the lessees at this time. In 1817 Thomas Burrell, the proprietor at that time, offered wood-cutters 'fifty cents per cord for chopping two thousand cords of wood at Cambria Forge, Johnstown.' The forge would appear to have been in operation from 1809 to 1822.

"In 1807 or 1808 Shade Furnace was built on Shade creek, in Somerset county, about fifteen miles southeast of Johnstown, and in 1820 Shade Forge was built near the furnace. As early as 1820 bar iron was shipped to Pittsburgh from Shade Forge. Much of the iron from this forge was hauled to Johnstown for shipment down the Conemaugh, but some of it was shipped in flatboats directly from the forge. Pig iron was also hauled to Johnstown from Shade Furnace for shipment to Pittsburgh. But there was another early forge, which was still nearer to Johnstown, on the Stony Creek, about half a mile below the mouth of Shade Creek, known as Mary Ann Forge, which shipped bar iron to Pittsburgh at a still earlier day, and perhaps as early as 1811. Richard Geary, the father of Gov. John W. Geary, was the manager of the forge for about one year, and was supercargo of a load of bar iron which was shipped from the forge down the Stony Creek, the Conemaugh, and other streams to Pittsburgh. Garret Ream lived at the mouth of Ben's Creek and built boats which were loaded at Johnstown, but he also shipped iron direct from Ben's Creek, and it is probable that some of this iron came from Mary Ann Forge, Shade Furnace and Shade Forge.

"About 200 pounds of nails, valued at $30, were made at Johnstown by one establishment in the census year of 1810. About this time an enterprise was established at Johnstown by Robert Pierson, by whom nails were cut from strips of so-called 'nail iron' with a machine worked by a treadle, but without heads, which were added by hand in a vise. The 'nail iron' was obtained at the small rolling mills in Huntingdon county and hauled in wagons to Johnstown.

"The chief interest of this old ledger consists in its revelation of the fact that large quantities of Juniata bar iron were shipped to Pittsburgh from Johnstown as early as 1816. Earlier shipments were made by water from Johnstown to the same destination, probably as early as 1800, but the ledger of Isaac Proctor shows conclusively that these shipments had attained large proportions in 1816, 1817 and 1818, in which years bar iron had not yet been made at Pittsburgh. Next in importance among the facts disclosed by Mr. Proctor's ledger, [note a3] is the survival at Johnstown down to 1812 of the British system of computing values and the survival down to 1818 of the now long disused hundredweights and quarters."

In connection with the preceding, and with references under [E8] "Furnaces and The Iron Industry," and [E13] "Juniata Forge," etc., the following extract from "Progressive Pennsylvania," James M. Swank, pp. 189-190, is also of interest:

"Bar iron and castings from Bedford furnace [on Black Log Creek, 1787 or 1788, on the site of the present town of Orbisonia, Huntingdon Co., Pa.] and other iron works in the Juniata valley were taken down the Juniata river in arks, many of them descending to as low a point as Middletown, on the Susquehanna, whence the iron was hauled to Philadelphia. Much of the iron of the Juniata valley was also sent to Baltimore in arks down the Susquchanna river.

"Much of the iron made in the Juniata valley during the palmy days of its iron industry was sold at Pittsburgh, first in the form of castings, afterwards in both pigs and bars, and finally chiefly in the form of blooms. Before the completion of the Pennsylvania Canal [1834] and the Portage Railroad, bar iron from Centre county was at first carried on the backs of horses to the Clarion river, and was then floated on flatboats and arks to Pittsburgh. Pig iron and bar iron from Huntingdon county was hauled over the Frankstown Road to Johnstown and floated to Pittsburgh by way of the Conemaugh river. Subsequently blooms were hauled to Pittsburgh from Huntingdon county by wagon. 'Dorsey's iron from Barree forge' was on sale at Pittsburgh in Oct., 1805, by Thomas Cromwell. In April, 1807, at Pittsburgh, E. Denny advertised 'barr iron for sale, from Huntingdon and Centre counties, at a reduced price.' Juniata iron was long noted throughout the country for its excellence."

LEDGER OF JOHN HORNER, 1799-1809 The History of Cambria Co., Pa., by H. W. Storey, Vol. I, p. 296, contains extracts from the ledger of John Horner, while he was operating the saw and grist mill on Solomon's run. Mr. Emmett Horner, Johnstown, Pa., kindly loaned the ledger to the compiler, from which the reproductions were made, and which has furnished definite facts concerning [E3] Conrad Brumbaugh and some of his sons. The accounts are also kept in œ, s. and d., and the œ was $2.66 2/3, the s. was 13 1/3c, and the d. was 5 and 55 hundredths mills. It will be seen that [E1701] + "Daniel Brumboch" spent a half day mowing grass on Aug. 1, 1801, and received a credit of 1s. and 6d.; he further received 3s. for a day's work in cleaning John Horner's mill race; etc.

...

DANIEL3 BRUMBAUGH [E1701] IN ACCOUNT WITH JOHN HORNER Daniel Brumboch Dr.

...

  Children of [E1701] Daniel Brumbaugh (10): 

[E1722] + Elizabeth4, b 1796; d 1899; m Joshua Hart. [E1723] + Conrad4; d 1878; m Mary Jacobs. [E1724] + Susan4; m George Jacobs. [E1725] + George4, b 1802; m (1) Mary Horner; m (2) Mary Sharkey. [E1726] + Daniel4, b 1803; d March 8, 1882; m (1) Mary Studebaker; m

           (2) Mary Chambers. 

[E1727] + Catharine4; m John Davis. [E1728] + Andrew4; m Sarah Baringer. [E1729] + Samuel4, b Sept., 1818; d July 27, 1898; m Lydia Ann Leer. [E1730] + Isaac4, d 1863; m (1) Juliann Imbody; m (2) Eliza Wogaman. [E1731] + Abraham4; m Rachel Wogaman.

a1 Notes and Comments, James M. Swank, Philadelphia, Pa.; 1897; pp. 161-166. See 

also [E8] pp. 366, 388, Plates 179-182; and [E13] "Juniata Forge," p. 416.

a2 See [E13] p. 416.

a3 See also "Ledger of John Horner," following.

1. ↑ Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh. Genealogy of the Brumbach families. (1913, Vol. II)
   [E1701] DANIEL3 BRUMBAUGH ([E3] Conrad2, Johannes Henrich1) b 1775; lived near Conemaugh (later called Johnstown), Pa., and moved to a farm near Dayton, O., and thence to Elkhart Co., Ind. He d in 1845 at Goshen, that co., and state.
2. ↑ Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh. Genealogy of the Brumbach families. (1913, Vol. II).
3. ↑ 1840 United States Federal Census, Record Type: 6th Population Census
   Daniel Broombaugh household; Elkhart, Indiana; p. 31; Roll: 79.
4.   Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh. Genealogy of the Brumbach families. (1913, Vol. II)
   Vol. II, pp 642-651.
5. ↑ lived near Conemaugh (later called Johnstown), moved to farm near Dayton. OH and thence to Elkhart
6. ↑ Daniel Brumbaugh Male 1 16<26 Female 1 16<26
   
   Quemahoning, Pg 566 M32_43
7. ↑ Daniel Bonebrahe Males: 2 <10, 1 26<45 Females: 1 <10, 1 16<26
   
   Quemahonig Twp, Pg 161 M252_53
8. ↑ Daniel Brumbaugh - Males: 2 <10, 1 26<45 Females: 1 16<26
   
   Woodbury, Pg 84 M33_98
9. ↑ Daniel Brombough Males: 1 10<15, 1 15<20, 1 20<30, 1 40<50 or 50<60 Females: 1 5<10, 1 20<30, 1 40<50
   
   Henderson, Pg 115 M19_166
   
10. ↑ Daniel Brumbaugh, Males: 1 1 2 _ _ 1 Females: 2 _ _ _ 1
    
    Woodbury, Pg 155 M19_152
11. ↑ Daniel Broombaugh - Males: 1 10<15, 2 15<20, 2 20<30 1 60<70; Females: 1 50<60