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History of Cambria County, V.3

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. 127
Scotch-Irish settlement on Coneacheague creek, in what is now Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where James Johnston took up land and began farming.
    Several years before the immigration of the family England and France had been at war both in Europe and their American colonies, but, at the time of James Johnston's settlement in Westmoreland county peace prevailed, and pioneers were gradually working their way into the frontier regions of Pennsylvania, where land was cheap, the soil rich, and a comfortable home was assured the industrious settler in return for a few years of patient labor. However, in the course of a few more years England and France were again at war, and their American colonies soon became involved in the struggle, one of the principal objects of which was supremacy in America; and the territory of Westmoreland county was not far from the line between the possessions of the French and the territory of the English. In May, 1756, Edward Johnston joined a party of pioneers bound for the country farther west. He never came back, and is believed to have been killed by the Indian allies of France. Christie Johnston joined a company to fight against the Indians during Pontiac's war (1763-1766) and was slain in battle.
    Elizabeth Johnston married William Freame, who had been a private in an Irish regiment raised in Belfast to serve in America during the French and Indian war. He served under Wolfe, and took part in the capture of Quebec, Canada, in 1759. After peace was declared in 1763 he returned with the regiment to Belfast, and afterward came back to America, landed at Baltimore, and went from thence to the Coneacheague settlement near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, where he married. After marriage they lived at the Johnston home until after the death of the pioneer and his wife, and afterward until the time of the Revolution, when they took up land on Crabtree creek, in Westmoreland county, near the site of the present town of New Alexandria, where they ever afterward lived.
    William Freame was a member of the military company under Captain Bruce on the ill-fated Sandusky expedition against the Indians in 1782. His wife outlived him several years and was almost one hundred years old when she died. All her life from childhood she was a strict Presbyterian, and entertained strong feelings of antipathy against the Roman Catholic church,. her grandmother having been among those in Londonderry who had been persecuted and besieged by the Catholics in 1690. William and Elizabeth (Johnston) Freame had five daughters. One of them, Elizabeth Freame, married Alexander Johnston, and their son, William Freame Johnston, was governor of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1847 to 1853. Another daughter, Ann Freame, married James Tittle, who was a son of Peter Tittle the ancestor of John W. Tittle of Johnstown.
    About the year 1760 Peter Tittle settled in the then wilderness region of Westmoreland county, on the banks of a small creek known as Nine Mile Run, in what is now Unity township. He was one of three brothers who came from England together, the others being George and Henry Tittle. The family name of Peter's wife is unknown, but her christian name was Sarah. They had four sons and one daughter: James, Jonathan, Jeremiah, John and Sarah Tittle. Peter Tittle was a famous Indian fighter, and had reason for his hatred of the savages who devastated the country around his home; and family tradition says he was a good shot with the rifle and was able to count his scalps


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