The land was part of a tract warranted by Valentine Eplar (surveyed October 20, 1766) and patented by the Philadelphia Quaker brewer and land speculator Rueben Haines. It lay at the northwest end of Haines’ patent. Blacksmith Daniel Long purchased the tract (or a portion of it) from Haines in 1775. Long was living there when the Presbyterian Reverend Philip Fithian chronicled his travels on a missionary tour of Scotch-Irish settlements in the region in 1775-76. In 1794 blacksmith Adam Reed purchased from Long and sold to tanner Jacob Herring in 1809. Deeds show the farm’s changing size and ownership over three centuries. Owner Michael Ream (1803-1883) is buried in an adjacent cemetery.
Early deeds refer to unidentified “structures” on the farm. Exact dating for the farmhouse construction is not known. Possibly, it was built before 1820 by Scotch-Irish or German immigrants to Penns Valley in the 1780s, 90s, and early 1800s. Contextual clues support the likelihood that this was a settler home, particularly the site, access, and construction style. The house was sited near good water sources (year-round streams and a spring) and built into a south-facing bank between upland, tillable fields that slope up to a wooded ridge to the north. The site was bordered on the west by a passageway (now paved road) through a gap in the ridge allowing travel between Penns Valley and Brush Valley. Approximately 1 mile east a stockaded house or ‘fort’ offered refuge. Approximately 1 mile south an Indian trade path (now part of Pennsylvania Highway 45) ran alongside Penn’s Creek.
The house construction is log, possibly pine cut on the farm. The logs are hewed square, notched at the ends, approximately 16-18 inches wide, 7 inches deep, and 30 feet long. Chinking (formerly mud, now mortar) fills the large space between notched logs that form the house walls. It is a 2-story house with a footprint approximately 31 feet x 28 feet on a stone foundation. Doors and windows are off-center. Inside, ceilings are approximately 9 feet downstairs and 8 feet upstairs. A large, stone central chimney was removed at an unknown time, although the chimney’s base remains. Central chimney log houses in the German (originally Scandinavian) style of this one were commonly built during European settlement of Penns Valley. The Daniel Waggoner homestead near Aaronsburg probably built in 1809 is another example.
July 9, 2011
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