Spruce Creek

From the county histories, on Spruce Creek township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1876, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

The latter division is a spur usually known as the Short mountain, about two miles in length, extending from one river to the other. The Pennsylvania railroad passes through a tunnel in the northern end of it, half a mile below the village of Spruce Creek. The greater part of the township consists of an elevated plateau, to which has been given the name of Canoe valley, from the mountain enclosing it on the west. It has a fertile limestone soil, which yields generously to the hand of cultivation. One locality in this township, Water Street, is mentioned by John Harris in his "account of the road to Logstown," in 1754. The old Indian war-patb passed through it, and Conrad Weiser was there in 1748. It derived its name from the fact that a stream of water literally flowed through the street. During the Revolutionary war, General Roberdeau had a landing there, from whence lead ore, mined in Sinking valley, was shipped east to be melted, and where stores were received for the miners and troops at Fort Roberdeau. The most prosperous days of Water Street were while the Pennsylvania canal was in successful tide of operation. But since it has been closed and abandoned, the place has lost all importance, trade and travel having been diverted to points on the line of public improvements, a few miles northward. The business once attracted to Water Street by the canal is now drawn to Spruce Creek by the Pennsylvania railroad.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 550,752 of the scanned text

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From the county histories, on Spruce Creek township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1876, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

Directly opposite was the mouth of a creek coming down from among the mountains and passing a short distance above its confluence with the river, through a narrow defile, which widens into a small valley, forming a level space of limited extent. The village of Spruce Creek proper, or Graysport, as it was originally named, stands on the south side of the Little Juniata, but intimately connected with the other side of the river that the two form but one community, I shall treat them accordingly. James Gray became the owner of the land on which the village is situated under a purchase from John Cannon, but the interest of the latter being afterwards sol'd at Sheriff's sale, was bought by John McCahan, of Huntingdon. A controversy arose between Gray and McCahan concerning the title, which was compromised, and a deed executed by the latter to the former on the 15th day of April, 1820. Gray had a tannery, not on the part upon which he subsequently laid out the village, but at the upper or Gray's fording, on land now owned by Michael Low. Until recently, a great willow tree stood there, which had been planted by Matthew Gray when a boy, the stump of which remains.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 554,127 of the scanned text

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