Broad Valley Orchard

Part 3 – Struggle The 1880 US Census reveals that Thomas H. Dunn had married Sarah A. Davis (b. 1860 in Wales); they lived with her family in Shaler Township, Allegheny County, Pa., and all the men were worked in the “Iron Works”. By 1900 Thomas H. and Sarah Dunn lived in a ‘crackerbox’ on […]

I do not really know where the Dunn family came from. I have seen US Census Reports stating that my great-great-grandfather William Dunn was born in either Ireland in 1817 or in Pennsylvania in 1818. After that I have seen is the 1840 US Census for Hollidaysburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. These pre-1850 enumerations provide very […]

Hello all, I haven’t been posting many Farm Journal entries. I needed a change of pace and have been posting weekly family history notes, and this last grim dark eight weeks of winter has taken my mind off farming. Our house is partially heated by passive solar, and it is cold when we don’t put […]

Hello All, I have been working on the Dunn story before I make a trip to Hollidaysburg to visit their their library and county records office. I will post this as a series of 4 essays, one per week, starting with an introduction.. The Dunn Family Saga – Hope, Struggle, and Extinction Part 1 – […]

Hello All, My families’ story continues; this time back to the American frontier in the late 18th Century, in South Western Pennsylvania. I will soon make a research trip there to better document the link between Johnson’s Tavern and Johnson’s Farm. Please remember that I am utilizing italics for my working hypotheses, while using standard […]

Hello, here is what most Irish immigrants worked at in the first half of the nineteenth century. They did this work for twelve bucks a month (including grub, poteen, and tools). The canal were dug with shovels, picks, and wheelbarrows. When the cholera hit, the bosses raised the wage to eighteen dollars, to keep men […]