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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

the family moved to Johnstown, then called Conemaugh Old Town.     Jacob Johns, the founder of the town, had sold his property here and removed to Somerset county; the property had changed hands several times, and the title finally became vested in John Holliday, from whom Peter, Sr., bought it, thus becoming the proprietor of the greater portion of the town site; and also the old forge, which will be referred to again.     The town was then practically only so much good farm land, however, and when two enterprising men, associated as the firm of Burrell & Brenizer, offered him a good price for the property he sold it, and returned to Lancaster county.     But it seemed to have been foreordained that he should make Johnstown his home, though the circumstances under which he returned were certainly very unfortuitous. All of his property in Lancaster county was burned, and Burrell & Brenizer failed to meet their obligations to him.     In this desperate strait, as a last resort, he came back here to save from the wreck all that was possible. The property became his again, together with the forge, which originally stood on the Stonycreek, near to the corner of Levergood and Stonycreek streets. The forge was built about 1809 by George Buckwalter. James M. Swank's "The Manufacture of Iron in All Ages" says the dam of his forge was washed away about 1811, which was the date of Peter, Sr.'s arrival in Johnstown, and this untoward event may have accounted for his obtaining possession of it, for there can be no doubt that he got it at a bargain.     This forge was subsequently moved to the Conemaugh river, below Johnstown, where the school-house now stands on Cinder street,

in Millville, and was operated down to about 1822.     At the time of the abandonment of the forge, according to the authority referred to above, the firm of Rahm & Beam, of Pittsburg, were the lessees. The forge was used to hammer bar-iron out of Juniata pig-iron.     Mr. Levergood was now naturally and rightly looked up to as the first citizen of the town, though it was at that time little more than a settlement.     Founder Johns made the start, but it remained for men of Mr. Levergood's capacity to keep it going. The people had confidence in him. He was not an aggressive man, but was a safe leader, feeling his way carefully. He was too cautious for his own financial welfare. Much of his time was given to his farm, which embraced nearly all of the upper portion of the town, from Franklin street to the foot of Green Hill. His farm-house stood on the site of Hager's Block, then located on the corner of Bedford and Levergood streets, afterwrds destroyed in the flood of 1889; here he lived from about the time of his return from Lancaster ounty until cut down by death. His orchard was a short distance back of the house, and the family graveyard, now the site of the power-house of the Johnstown Electric Light company, and Mr. John Thomas's property, and formerly a part of it.     The graveyard was originally intended for a family burying-ground, but when the Lutheran church was organized, Mr. Levergood permitted the congregation to bury its dead there, never charging anything for the permission. The first interment was made in 1835.     The house of Mr. Thomas, on the lot adjoining the graveyard, was built by the elder Levergood for a parsonage for the Lutheran

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