FORMED April 17, 1795; named for Somerset, England. Chief industries are agriculture and mining. A mountain country of remarkable beauty, largely forests, although glades, or natural meadows, about the headwaters of streams are numerous and extensive enough to have the name, “The Glades,” applied to the whole county; standing on the summit of either mountain range that bounds it, east and west, one gets a view of unsurpassed beauty; at distance of twenty miles the other stands out in bold outline, with intervening country of hill, valley, forest, glade, and numerous watercourses, which find their way to the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Potomac rivers; immortalized in James Whitcomb Riley’s “’Mongst the Hills of Somerset.”
Nearly all this country, between the crests of the Allegheny Mountains and Laurel Hills, is one vast coal field, extending over the entire length, from Maryland to Cambria County, every vein of coal from the great Pittsburgh seam down being represented. Traditions of Indian villages are in the famous Turkey Foot, Casselman River forms middle toe at town of Confluence; also in Elk Lick township, Indian arrowheads and stone implements are found. In 1749, Christopher Gist, agent of the Ohio Company, was the first white man known to have crossed Somerset County; his route, along Nemacolin’s trail, a Delaware Indian chief, led him through Addison Township and to the, later known, Great Crossing; again passing through in 1750, he kept a diary.
George Washington in 1753, crossed through Addison Township, with four frontiersmen, one as Indian interpreter, one French interpreter; every spot of earth that Washington trod in the line of duty is sacred soil for all true Americans; he passed through Somerset eleven times; on Braddock’s ill-fated expedition in 1755, he lay for ten days at Great Crossing, on a bed of sickness, exempt by order of General Braddock. First road cut in 1754 was under Washington’s direction, afterwards substantially the Braddock Road, following Nemacolin’s trail, the chief who guided him; it began at Cumberland, Maryland, then a fort, and reached the Youghiogheny River, south of present village of Somerfield, at the Great Crossing; marked, only historic marker in the county.
The National Turnpike, commenced in 1811, has the same general course, occasionally using the same roadbed, crosses the Youghiogheny at Somerfield over a great stone bridge, still in good repair, completed July 4, 1818, and turned over to the United States on that day. President James Monroe and members of his Cabinet attended the opening of the bridge; this road became a great highway, over which passed a vast commerce, both east and west, wayside inns were nearly every mile, now none exist; the “Endsley,” stone house, in Somerfield, built, 1818, long a noted tavern, is now a private residence.
Next great road in the county was the Forbes, or Bouquet Road, cut by Colonel Bouquet in 1758, it
STEPPING STONES, KIMBERLY RIVER
traversed the county from east to west, and like the Braddock Road, was purely military, constructed under protection of a strong army; over it passed the army of General Forbes on way to conquer Fort Duquesne; George Washington was with this expedition in command of the first Virginia regiment. The road started at Bedford and followed an Indian trail, it was improved between 1785-95 and became known as “The Great Road”; afterwards about 1806 as the Stoyestown and Bedford Turnpike; later taken by the State Highway Department, it is now a great speedway, “The Lincoln Highway,” entering the county at Buckstown, crossing Stoney Creek at Kantner, one mile west is Stoyestown over one hundred years old; six miles farther west is Jennerstown, laid out in 1822 by General James Wells, who, in 1771, was wounded by Indians.
On Laurel Hills, three miles west of Ursina, is the Jersey Baptist Church, with ancient burial ground, has written record since 1775, first log church built, 1788, twice rebuilt; fine mountain scenery all along the route, and several places of historic interest, here, and in other parts of the county, sites of forts which date back to French and Indian wars and the Revolution, unmarked; few are now living who can point out the locality of these historic places with any degree of certainty. The Glades Road, laid out in 1772 from four miles west of Bedford to the Youghiogheny, via Stoney Creek, was made turnpike in 1816; along this road in 1810, on a farm nine miles east of Somerset, was born Judge Jeremiah Sullivan Black, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; United States Attorney General; and Secretary of State. First railroad through Somerset county was the Pittsburgh division of the picturesque Baltimore & Ohio, opened in 1871, with its famous tunnels. At Mason & Dixon’s line Negro Mount is about 2825 feet above sea.