William HATFIELD[1] 1804 - 1871

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• Birth	1804	Upper Middletown, PA
  Gender	Male
  Died	1871	Fayette County, PA.
  Person ID	I324	Leonard
  Last Modified	22 Oct 2009

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth GADD,   b. 27 Feb 1803,   d. 18 Jul 1894
  Children	1. Sarah HATFIELD,   b. 26 Nov 1826,   d. 19 Aug 1891, Uniontown, PA.   2. William HATFIELD,   b. 28 Oct 1842   3. Melvina HATFIELD
  Family ID	F00114	Group Sheet

  
  

• Notes

  From "A History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men", edited by Franklin Ellis, Philadelphia, L.H. Everts & Co., 1882. pp731-2 In 1814, there was nothing at Tuckertown but the blacksmith's shop and the home of George Wintermute. In that year, a twelve-year-old orphan lad named William Hatfield (born near Plumstock) tramped into Wintermute's shop and asked to be taken as an apprentice. Wintermute rather fancied the lad and not only agreed to take him as an apprentice but soon adopted him as his son. Hatfield worked faithfully with Wintermute until 1926, and upon the latter's removal to Ohio purchased his shop and business at Tuckertown (or Johnson's as it was then called). Hatfield carried on a good business as blacksmith and farmer until 1840, having in 1836 provided the State with all the iron toll-gates erected on the pike within Fayette County. In 1842, Mr. Hatfield bought of Robert Johnson the stone tavern which, as before observed, had been built (by Ransom Dearth) for Johnson in 1817. ....In 1852, Hatfield took charge of the tavern, and kept it open until 1855, when the opening of the railways diverted traffic from the pike, closed the doors of the famous roadside taverns, and hushed the stir and animation that had for years made the old National Road a panorama of busy life. William Hatfield, who had by that time become a man of means and a large landowner, lived at Tuckertown until his death. He served in Redstone township as justice of the pease for the space of ten years, and associate judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions. From "Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Vol 1" John W. Jordan and James Hadden, editors; New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Co.; 1912. p775, within a sketch of Edmund Leoanrd, his son-in-law: He (Edmund) married Sarah, born in 1825 in Redstone township, Fayette County, died in 1891, daughter of William Hatfield, a construction contractor and a descendant of Matthias Hatfield, who came from Scotland, settling at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in 1665. William Hatfield erected the toll gates on the National Pike between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, West Virginia; also built a section of the Erie Canal in New York State, but retaining his home in Redstone township, Fayette County, where he was accidentally killed. He served one term as associate judge of Fayette County and was a man of prominence. From "The Old Pike, A History of The national Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes Thereon," by Thomas Searight, Uniontown, PA, by the author, 1894; p 251: It was while engaged in doing a favor for an old neighbor, in the year 1871, that he (Wm. Hatfield) lost his life. His neighbor, John C. Craft, had purchased a patent pump, and called on Judge Hatfield to assist him in placing it in his well. The Judge, as was his habit, promptly responded, and, going down to the bottom of the well, called to his neighbor, who stood at the surface, to send him down a saw or an ax. The needed tool was placed in a heavy iron-bound tub and started down, but, through neglect, the cable slipped, and the tub was precipitated a great depth upon Judge Hatfield's head, fatally injuring him. He was extricated from his perilous position in an unconscious state, carried home, and lingering only a few hours, died. His remains were interred in the beautiful cemetery near Brownsville, attended by a large concourse of sorrowing citizens, including the Judges of the Courts and the members of the bar of Fayette County, Pennsylvania.




• Sources

  [S00143] G. Allan Vaughan, LEONARD Family History, G. Allan Vaughan, (Name: self-published;), 193.