Editing Jenner Township, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==

[[File:Boswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown 09-12-1967.jpg|thumb|Jenner Township in 1967]]
Initial hunters and settlers in the territory that includes present-day Jenner Township were [[Mingo]], also known as the Seneca, one of the Six Nations of the [[Iroquois]].<ref>Cassady, John C. 1932. ''The Somerset County Outline.'' Scottdale, Pa.: Mennonite Publishing House. pp. 75–76.</ref> The land was ceded by the Iroquois Six Nations officially by the [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] of 1768 to Penn family as proprietors of Pennsylvania province.<ref>Cassady, pp. 80–81.</ref> Early European traders crossed Jenner Township as early as 1750, when [[Christopher Gist]] documented his brief time there in his travel diary.<ref name="Cassady, p. 82">Cassady, p. 82</ref> Gist is said to have named Quemahoning Creek,<ref name="Cassady, p. 82"/> which drains much of Jenner Township. The Northern Trail, an established Indian trail, crossed the territory from east to west, intersecting Quemahoning Creek at Kickenapaulin's Town, a rather substantial Indian settlement, the site of which now lies under the waters of the [[Quemahoning Reservoir]], just outside the township.<ref>Cassady, p. 113.</ref> In August 1758, the Northern Trail was improved, initially for the British military use, and renamed the Forbes Trail,<ref>Cassady, pp. 106–109</ref> later known as the Pennsylvania Road, the [[Lincoln Highway]], and now [[U.S. Route 30]].<ref>Cassady, pp. 189–191.</ref>

With the building of the Forbes Road to [[Fort Ligonier]] and, later, onward to [[Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania|Fort Pitt]], present-day Pittsburgh, European settlement began in earnest. Jenner Township was formed out of the western part of [[Quemahoning Township, Pennsylvania|Quemahoning Township]] in 1811.<ref>Cassady, p. 211</ref> The township was named in honor of Dr. [[Edward Jenner]], discoverer of the smallpox vaccine. Early Jenner Township settlers were primarily German and English speakers engaged in agriculture. [[Pennsylvania Dutch language|Pennsylvania Dutch]] was still spoken in rural parts of the township until the 1960s.

Some of the first settlers were Robert & Rhoda Smiley in the 1780s.<ref name="WatermanWatkins">{{cite book |title=History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania |url=https://archive.org/details/pa-bedford-somerset-fulton-1884-waterman/page/n673/ |year=1884 |publisher=Waterman, Watkins & Co. |location=Chicago |pages=505–510}}</ref> Jenner Crossroads, the township's first substantial European settlement, grew near a grist mill and tavern stop established about 1800 along the Pennsylvania Road.<ref>Cassady, 1932. pp. 58, 213.</ref> Samuel Steel built a sawmill at Jenner Crossroads in 1817; John Shopwood opened a hotel in 1825, and Samuel Elder opened the first store in 1836.<ref>Cassady, pp. 50, 216.</ref> Other early industry in the township included a sawmill on Quemahoning Creek built about 1813 by Moses Fream and a small woolen mill, built in 1817 by William Dalley, enlarged by Owen and William Morgan later into a small settlement known as Morgantown.<ref>Cassady, pp. 50, 59.</ref> A Lutheran church was built in the township in 1814, a Methodist Episcopal church in 1827, a Reformed church in 1841, and a United Brethren church in 1849.<ref name="WatermanWatkins" />

Jenners, Ralphton, Acosta and Gray were each built shortly after 1900 as company towns by Consolidation Coal, a Rockefeller interest, for its newly opened deep coal mines. Immigrants from Poland, Italy, Russia, Ruthenia, Wales, and Ireland filled the coal towns. The Somerset Coal Strike of 1922–1923 centered in these towns, and nearby Boswell, [[Jerome, Pennsylvania|Jerome]] and Windber. The strike, which ultimately failed in its goal to unionize miners, drew significant nationwide attention for the hardships suffered by local miners.<ref>For additional detail, see Blankenhorn, Heber. 1924. ''The Strike for Union: A Study of the Non-Union Question in Coal and the Problems of a Democratic Movement.'' New York: H.W. Wilson; Brophy, John. 1964. ''A Miner's Life.'' Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Bussel, Robert. 1999. '' From Harvard to the Ranks of Labor: Powers Hapgood and the American Working Class.'' University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.</ref> By the 1960s, the deep mines had closed. The town of Randolph was also a very small coal mining community in Jenner Township, any trace of which is now virtually gone, having been destroyed by highway construction in 1970.

[[Surface mining]] and some deep mining of coal continues in the immediate area. Farming, timber harvest and tourism are also mainstays of the local economy. Jenner Township also serves as a bedroom community for the nearby Somerset and Johnstown areas.

The [[Bridge in Jenner Township]] and [[Matthew Hair Farm]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>