On
June 26, 1871, the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad from Cumberland to Pittsburgh was
completed; the line from Cumberland met the line from Pittsburgh at Fort
Hill. The celebration was held in Confluence. One hundred and thirty years
later, on August 24, 2001, the section connecting the first 100 miles of
the Great Allegheny Passage was opened between Confluence and Fort Hill. A
two-day celebration was held in Confluence.
The word "confluence" is
defined as a coming together. The town is well named.
The Yough and Casselman
Rivers and Laurel Hill Creek join here.
Christopher Gist, the explorer and
friend of George Washington, is said to have given it the name Turkeyfoot
because the three streams flowing into one resembled a turkey's foot when
looked at from surrounding hillsides. It's likely that Gist was only the
first to call it the Turkeyfoot in English, having learned the name from
the Indians. Several Indian settlements were located in the area. It was
also called Crow Foot.
Whatever the bird in
question, a look at the map shows that this particular fowl had really crooked
toes.
An Indian trail called the
Turkeyfoot Path ran from here over the mountains to what is now
Cumberland, Maryland. It was laid out as a shortcut to following the
rivers, the rivers being more of an impediment to travel in that time than
a convenience.
The Ohio Company (the one
started by George Washington's brother and friends) proposed to widen the
Path in 1751 as a road and would pay anyone who did the work the sum of
"twenty five pounds Virginia currency." A 1752 map showed the road, so
they must have gotten the work done. There were roads that led in several
directions from here and each was called "the Turkeyfoot Road."
Washington stopped here May
20, 1754. He wrote in his diary:
"...we gained Turkey Foot by
the Beginning of the Night... Tarried there some time to examine the
Place, which we found very convenient to build a Fort, not only because it
was gravelly, but also for its being at the Mouth of three Branches of
small Rivers..."
He canoed down the Yough as
far as Ohiopyle, looking for an easy water route west for his troops, and
turned back when he found the falls. Washington estimated that it was
about 10 miles from Confluence to Ohiopyle. Not a bad guess on his part;
it's exactly that.
After failing to find a
suitable water route west, Washington came back upstream and took the
Nemacolin Path. A week later, he ambushed and killed the French Lieutenant
Jumonville and started the French and Indian War. It was just luck that
Washington found the French first and ambushed them. The French were
trying to do the exact same thing to him.
Washington's proposed fort at
Turkeyfoot was never built.
William Tissue laid out a
town here in 1800 and called it New Boston, but nothing much came of it.
For a time, Turkeyfoot was a
stopping place on the way west and cattle drovers continued to use the
Turkeyfoot Road even after the National Road was paved - it was easier on
the animals' hooves. The main route that carried the name Turkeyfoot Road
ran from Shippensburg, PA, through Turkeyfoot, south of Sugar Loaf
Mountain to Dunbar and Uniontown.
Local citizens strongly
resisted the coming of the railroad because of the loss of business from
the roads, but when the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad was
completed, it brought more prosperity to the place than the roads ever
did. The town of Confluence was laid out in 1870 as the railroad was
arriving.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, Confluence was a bustling burg, with lots of lumbering and coal
mining going on, and railroad branch lines going off in all directions.
There were several factories here that used the plentiful local wood.
The biggest industry in town
at the time was the Beggs Tannery, a large operation that was directly
across the railroad tracks from the square. Tanneries were common in
Pennsylvania due to the abundance of hemlock bark. Hemlock is high in
tannin, which is the principal ingredient in tanning leather. As the
supply of hemlock dried up, the tanneries moved elsewhere. Beggs' tannery
closed in 1920.
The B&O main line splits
here; originally the railroad departed from the river and went up over the
hill, saving three miles. In 1902 there was a need for a second line and
the "Low Grade" was built. Both rejoin at a place called Brook, which is
one of those places that has never been anything more than a name on the
railroad.
After the big trees were cut,
the coal mined, the trains quit stopping, and the dam was built,
Confluence was well on its way to drying up. River and trail recreation
changed that. Today, there are a couple of quite good restaurants and B&Bs
in town and the place is coming back to life. Confluence is unusual for a
trailside town in that it's flat and it has a large town square, complete
with gazebo. The benches in the square are a great place to take a break
and watch the world go by very, very slowly.
Turkeyfoot Township received its name from
the Indians who scouted for George Washington on his mission in 1753 to
build a fort at Pittsburgh. A portion of the map showing the country
Washington traversed, shows the shape of a turkeyfoot formed by the
confluence of three bodies of water: The Youghiogheny River, The
Cassleman River and The Laurel Hill Creek. This is where the Borough of
Confluence, Pennsylvania, in Lower Turkeyfoot Township, was built.
For the townships history, the census and an index of names
of everyone who lived in the township, Confluence and Ursina
from 1800 to 1930 see
http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/ltfoot/