Beaver County, Pa

[fyrenut]

I have heard lots of misc. stories of bootleggers, river bandits, gamblers and whatnot around the Pa, Ohio lines in Beaver county, and East Liverpool Ohio area. Anyone have specific stories of interest..

Along that note. I have heard about the tavern that used to be in the vacinity of SH Bells on the PA side of the line that was quite busy in the early 1800's yet cannot seem to find concrete evidence of it thru news papers or deeds. Anyone hear of this tavern?.

Glascow has quite a bit of histroy going all the way back to Lewis and Clark expidition but thru all the floods the ohio has had alot of silt soil and debries has added depth to the area. What little detecting i have done has been met with little success but will keep trying and update anything I find.

 

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[jeff of pa]

Years ago I saw a TV show on the River Bandits.
Their hideouts were in caves along the River.

But this is all I remember of this.

 

[fyrenut]

yea.... unfortunately in this area when they put in all the dams.. they have raised the water lvl some 80' in places and at LEAST 15 known Indian caves/caves are now under water and have been for nearly 50+ years... I have located 8 others tho 2 with Indian hieroglyphics in em. The one i have gotten several good pictures of with wifes digital camera.. the other we are planning to return to once spring breaks...

 

[Rich in Central PA]

This is what I have for Beaver County.........

1. The area along the state line between East Liverpool, Ohio and Midland, Pennsylvania was a wide open area for gamblers, bootleggers, and illegal stills during the 1890's. I has been estimated by knowledgeable people that over $1,000,000 came into the area each year through these illegal activities. The Dutch Zellner Gang ruled the region during this period, and there are several stories of hidden caches along the state line of Ohio & PA. With some research, I am sure your local library, historical society, etc. has records or newspaper articles of this period.

2. On the northeast side of Ambridge is the site of Logstown, a large Indian village in 1727 to 1758.

3. Fort Mcintosh (1778 - 1791) was the first US military post north of the Ohio. It was located where Beaver is today.

4. General Anthony Wayne's army camped north of where Ambridge is today. The encampment was from Nov 1792 to April 1793.

 

[fyrenut]

thanks for the info... logstown is presently half under a sheetz gas station and right of way, the other half is being developed tho the historical society of beaver county is trying to get it opened up as a historical site thus off limits to development.... afore mentioned em\ncampment is almos the same exact area and under the same developement. It was also a part of old economy which is only 2 miles or so from this location... the ORIGINAL logstown was across the river in present day area of aliquippa/ west aliquippa and is in a state of very run down empty housing projects.. private property and hard to get access to anyways... the gang activities i am gonna look up... i have heard of them but never really connected the two to this region... will definitely have to head to the library in midland this week and start looking...

I have taken in the last year went from working alot on my family tree to looking at Beaver county as a whole historically and have about 3 drawers full of informationon local history itself from as far back as the indians meeting the french and building of Fort Macintosh, but little is ever mentioned on the "bad" seedy side of the frontier in this area other then disasters. Speaking of the old fort, anyone coming thru beaver county, its a really interesting stop. Beaver historical society has done a wonderful job of restoring much of the foundation plus digging up info about the history of the fort. Was suprised to find that much of the fort was only there a few years then tore down peice by peice and used in many of the log homes of early Beaver. One of the homes was discovered about 8-10 years ago when they were tearing down a house for a new road extention. The crew tearing it down found a log cabin style house under the main part of the structure and took great care in tearing the rest down. What is left today is an amazing peice of history still standing and being cared for by the historical society.
I recon if anyone wants info on beaver county itself and the history surrounding its foundations, let me know..from construction of the fort to logstown, to General Broadhead splitting his troops and the secondary body creating one of the most widely used roads in the county today to tons of cemeteries dating back to revolutionary times, there is tons of history here..

Anyway thank you again... if just one word sparks off a hunt of interest i really appreciate it and you did just that..lol.. will keep ya posted if i find anything of interest..