The transcription of the article is (made by Randall Seaver after multiple attempts to have it transcribed by an AI tool):
BE THAT AS IT MAY
By J.L.M.
THERE are a few neglected semi-private family burial grounds in Mercer County, nearly every one covered with bushes or briars, and nearly every one containing the mortal remains of forgotten people.
There is one in Perry Township that has not a bush, not a tree, not a briar, not a weed. But it qualifies as the burial place of the fist settler in Northern Mercer County and, we beleve, the first white settler in all Mercer County.
He is Martin Carringer, veteran of the Revolutionary War. Also buried there is his son, Henry Carringer, Company C, 145th Pennsylvania Infantry, War of 1812. He has distinction, too.
THE histories and records of Mercer County quite agree that a number of men came to Mercer County to settle in the year 1796. This was the year before George Washington retired from the presidency but that was not the occasion of the trek into the fastnesses of Mercer County but it was early in American history. It was a year before the U.S. frigate Constitution was launched and before "Old Ironsides"was reconditioned at Boston.
Of all the intrepid settlers who have came here none claimed to have settled in this terrain at or before the early part of 1796 except Alex McCracken and Hugh Minnie who settled north of what was afterward Sheakleyville. In "the early part of 1796" they found one Martin Carringer who had already settled in what was then Old Sandy Creek, later Mineral Township, still later Perry Township.
MARTIN CARRINGER, from this early, authentic account, was actually a settler in Mercer County before any other man is so mentioned. Robert McCord and Andrew Campbell are named as settling along the Pymatuning-West Salem line in the "summer of 1796," and Benjamin Bentley, near Sharon in the "spring of 1796," and William Budd and Daniel Hull about the same time.
Now, "very early" in 1796 is not a great while before "spring" of 1796 or "summer" of 1796, but it is earlier and especially is it significant that Carringer "was then settled." The reputed first settler, Benjamin Stokely, by his own account, says he came to the county October 14, 1796.
The evidence points to Martin Carringer as the county's first settler.
NOT A GREAT deal is known about Martin Carringer. Imagine yourself the sole resident of the wilderness that was then Old Sandy Creek, one of the four original townships with its 50 square miles of forest land.
Some of the Sandy Creek pioneers who came in during the year 1796 declared that Carringer had built a cabin in 1795, on Donation Tract No. 941; that he was a man "of wonderful kindness;" of German descent; "generous to only the poor and helpless;" "vehement against other" requests or demands for contributions. They also said he was "secretive" in his "thoughts and actions."
DONATION LAND generally was unsettled in Old Sandy Creek for years after the warrant tracts were cleared, and in the part now Donation, Perry Township, there was no settler except Martin Carringer, "only Revolutionary soldier in the entire original township" (now Sandy Creek, Perry, Deer Creek and New Vernon). This was in 1799. Some lonesome years!
In 1828, John Feather came to Perry Township, and found only eight families: M. Carringer, near the center of the township; George Carringer, "a half mile from where his widow now resides" in the western part; Andrew McClure in the south-eastern part; David Lytel, in northeastern corner; John McCartney, east side; Thadeus Axtel, adjoining Feather; James Limber, northwest corner and William Sheakley.
Martin Carringer was 14 when Napoleon Bonaparte was born and he was 25 when Paul Revere made his famous ride. He was 21 when the American Declaration of Independence was made.
THE UPPER SANDY Creek (Georgetown) Presbyterian Church and the Fairfield Church were organized practically the same time in 1799, and we find Martin Carringer the largest subscriber to the Georgetown Church with a mark of $10.
We next hear of him in 1818, three years after the Battle of Waterloo when he, John Sheakley and Samuel Cochran withdrew from the Georgetown Presbyterian Church and joined the Mineral Ridge Associate Reformed (Covenanter) Church.
Some who remained with the Presbyterians were strenuous for the use of Rouse's version of the Psalms (John Larimer would not read Watts' version except out in the orchard). Richard Custard and the pastor, Mr. Condit, favored Watts' version.
THE FIRST elders in the new Associate Reformed Church, Mineral Ridge, were Baptist Brush, Ross Byers, James Brush and Charles Montgomery. The first members were Mrs. Ross Byers, Mr. and Mrs. John Thompson, Ebenezer Miller, Agnes Long, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Hazen, A. McCardless, Mr. and Mrs. Elliott, David Gardner, Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Byers, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Findley, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cochran.
The Mineral Ridge Associate Reformed Church merged with the Sheakleyville United Presbyterian Church in 1853.
In a remarkably large (35-acre) and remarkably flat pasture field lie the remains of this pioneer. The local of the burial ground was discovered by a small Record-Argus search party, the scout being M.F. Patterson and the strange terrain being shown pictorially on page one of this issue. It is on the farm of Robert Kelso, about two miles irectly south of the intersecton of the Greenvilole-Sandy Lake highway with the Hadley lateral. Martin Carringer was buried there 115 years ago. His memorial stone, flat on the ground and broken in two, reads:
MARTIN CARRINGER
departed this life
January 25, 1835
in the 80th year
of his age.
Leaving his family to mourn his loss.
The source citation is:
"Be That As It May," Greenville [Penn.] Record-Argus newspaper dated Thursday, 24 August 1950, page 11, column 2: Martin Carringer sketch; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 22 July 2024).
This article provides much more history of Martin Carringer and the early settlers o Perry Township in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. I found one error - the Henry Carringer who is buried near Martin Carringer is a grandson of Martin. This Henry Carringer was born 1839 in Sandy Creek Township, and died 26 December 1862, perhaps in the Civil War. His father was Henry Carringer (1800-1879), my 3rd great-grandfather.
Martin Carringer (1758-1835) was born in about 1758 in Pennsylvania (perhaps in Lancaster), the son of Henry and Rosina (--?--) Carringer. He married Mary Magdalena "Molly" Houx (1768-1850) in May 1785, probably in Westmoeland County, Pennsylvania. They had eight children. Martin served in the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1778 in the 8th Battalion of Pennsylvania. He has a Revolutionary War pension file which includes the baptism records of his children. Martin died 25 January 1835 in Sandy Creek Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania.
Martin Carringer (1758-1835) is my 4th great-grandfather through his son Henry Carringer (1800-1879), then his son David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902), then his son Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946), then his son Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), and then his daughter Betty Carringer (1919-2002), who is my mother.
You never know when a descendant or relative will find this blog post and learn something about their ancestors or relatives, or will provide more information about them to me.
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Disclosure: I have a paid subscription to Newspapers.com and have used it extensively to find articles about my ancestral and one-name families.
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