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North Sewickley Township

COURTESY OF BEAVER COUNTY BICENTENNIAL ATLAS

 

North Sewickley Township was established in 1801, when, as Bausman's Beaver County History states, New Sewickley Township was formed from the original Sewickley Township, "and North Sewickley was probably the remaining part. "

The earliest township settlers are said to have been Ezekiel and Hannah Jones, who arrived from New Jersey in 1801, and settled near where the Riverside Junior-Senior High School now stands. Ezekiel Jones, from 1804- 1805, was Beaver County Coroner, and in 1801 lent his home for use as the first Baptist church in the area. It's now known as the Providence Baptist Church. A "collection of houses, hardly large or compact enough to be called a village, but known as North Sewickley," grew up near Connoquenessing Creek, and a post office also bearing the township name was established nearby in 1837.

Around 1845 or 1846, the North Sewickley Academy was founded in the same vicinity by the Reverend James S. Henderson, pastor of Slippery Rock Presbyterian Church. A log cabin housed the Academy from its founding until 1850, when a more substantial structure was built. Originally a school intended to "prepare boys and girls for college," then a young ladies seminary, and finally a soldiers' orphans school, the Academy lost its pupils to the Monaca Soldiers' Orphans School conducted by the Reverend W. G. Taylor.

Like surrounding areas, North Sewickley possessed a number of coal deposits. Many of these small mines bore the names of the operators who worked them. Thompson Run Mines was a larger operation that lasted into the 1940's. In addition, North Sewickley boasted "excellent limestone and sandstone." According to a recent township history, the first stone quarry along the Beaver River was situated in North Sewickley Township; this history also states that the Funkhouser family owned the property and sold it in 1886 to Fred Gwinner, who established the quarry.

The Beaver Division Canal followed the township's western boundary, and provided transportation for the minerals produced. The Homewood Iron Furnace, built in 1858, was the last of several stone blast furnaces in Beaver County. It stood on the hillside overlooking the canal and river, not far from the present Townsend plant. Iron was produced from native ores, in this furnace, for about ten years. Transportation advantages have always been available to the township. The stage road to Mercer passed through the township in its early years. The Harmony Streetcar line followed the Connoquenessing through the northeast corner of North Sewickley in 1913; Rustic Park, owned by the streetcar company, was a popular place for outings in the years following. The Pennsylvania turnpike bisected the township in 1951, but access was available only at Homewood.

In 1845, North Sewickley lost territory to three new townships, Marion, Wayne, and Perry. It was further reduced in 1892 when Eastvale was incorporated, and in 1918, Ellwood City annexed South Ellwood from the township.

Despite the losses of land, the township's population has swelled over the years, from 1,154 in 1,890 to the 1970 figure of 6,048. Brush Creek Park, Beaver County's newest park, preserves some of the township's scenic beauty and provides recreation for county residents. (Part of the park lies in North Sewickley and part in Marion Township.) With Franklin and Marion, North Sewickley Township is in the Riverside School District, and the Junior-Senior High School stands on the shore of the Connoquenessing Creek, near the site of Rustic Park.