Notes:Frankstown Avenue
From Pittsburgh Streets
To do
More about Franks Town.
1788-11-08: Samuel Findley, William Perry, "Notice is hereby given to all those that have applied for lots in the town lately laid out at the mouth of the Loyalhannon. . .," Pittsburgh Gazette, [p. 4] (Newspapers.com 96047334): "From the beautiful situation of this place, with many other natural advantages, added to the benefits that will arise from the Frankstown road, which is now opening, affords the greatest prospect of its being a capital place for trade and rapid improvement." Dated October 22, 1788.
1817: Source:Dougal: Appears as "Post Road to Frankstown."
1857: Source:A-negley-plan: Segment closest to Penn Avenue is labeled "Penn Township Plank Road or Frankstown Road."
1862: Source:Beers: East Liberty inset shows "Frankstown Turnpike."
1889-10-11: Source:Old-landmarks: "The old Frankstown road, part of which is now known as Frankstown avenue, East End, is a landmark. Frankstown, after which the road was named, was a little hamlet on the Juniata, three miles from where Hollidaysburg now stands."
1911: Source:Hanna-1
- Chapter IX, pp. 247–273, is about the Frankstown Path.
- pp. 259–260: "'To Frank's (Stephens') Town, 5 miles.' ¶ Ever since Jones's fabulous and harmful History of the Juniata Valley appeared in 1856, all writers on the early history of this district have followed his false stories about an imaginary 'old German Trader named Stephen Frank.' No such individual ever existed outside of Mr. Jones's imagination; and it is needless to say that none of his adventures, as recorded by Jones. ever took place.1 [Footnote: 1 At a later date (1763), there were three Lancaster Traders named Franks—Moses, Jacob, and David. See Egle's Notes and Queries, ii., 458; Calendar Johnson Manuscripts, 109, 177, etc.] Frank's Town was a name given by the Traders to the old town of the Delawares and Shawnees at this point, known in 1731 as Assunepachla. At that time its population consisted of twelve families and thirty-six men, all Dela- [p. 260] wares. It received its English name from Francis, or Frank, Stevens, a Trader at Allegheny as early as 1734. Owing to the misplacing of an apostrophe in the printed account of John Harris's description of the road to Allegheny, Jones assumed that 'Frank's (Stephens') Town,' as written by Harris meant Stephen Frank's Town. As late as 1772, the Reverend David Jones, a Baptist missionary, on his way to preach to the Ohio Indians, met a Frank Stephens at the mouth of Captina Creek (on the west side of the Ohio River, twenty miles below Wheeling). This man was an Indian, who had received his English name from that of Frank Stevens, the Trader. Possibly, he may have been a half-blood son of the Trader. Contrary to the statements of local historians of Frankstown, the Indians had abandoned their settlements there a number of years before the time of Braddock's defeat. We have already seen, that when Conrad Weiser passed over the Path in 1748, he 'came to Frank's Town, but saw no houses or cabins.'"
1966?: Source:Stringtown
- p. 3: Map of Native American trails in western Pennsylvania.
- p. 4: "The best known east–west paths were: ¶ 1. The Kittanning path which followed the Juniata River west, passed over the mountains at Kittanning Point, then to Kittanning on the Allegheny river and west to Detroit. ¶ . . . ¶ 4. The Frankstown path which began at Harris Ferry on the Susquehanna river, ran to Frankstown on the north branch of the Juniata river, thence over the mountains to the Kiskiminetas river and to the Ohio."
- p. 40: "The first one [turnpike] in America began operating in 1786, and the Pike across Pennsylvania was the most famous one, in those early days. At a gate in the mountains during its first year of operation, 38,000 horses, cattle and hogs were counted passing through it. It was truly the 'Gateway to the West' and in addition to the stage coaches and Conestoga wagons, many private carriages travelled over it. The construction of other highways leading from Pittsburgh made it possible to travel in all directions from that city. Construction of what is now the William Penn Highway (U. S. 22) was started eastward from Beulah Church, in what is now Wilkinsburg, in 1819. Thereafter, Penn Avenue in East Liberty carried both the traffic of the Pike and the William Penn Highway. ¶ Another road, Frankstown Road, starting in East Liberty, was opened up to the east in the same year. The name coming from a town of the same name, southeast of Altoona named for Colonel Isaac Frank, of General Washington's staff during the Revolutionary War. It lay astride the old Indian trail that ran from Will's Creek to a jointure with the Kittanning path to the east."
- p. 100: "Charles Ross, pioneer East Ender in 1928, prepared some interesting items regarding the history of the area. He said that in 1848 three main roads led off from the Greensburg pike into the countryside: first, the River Road following Collins Avenue to the Allegheny River and thense [sic] east (The Allegheny Valley R. R. took over the right-of-way in 1856); second, Frankstown Road which was built by General Anthony Wayne on his way west to Fort Wayne, Indiana; and third, Puckety Road which ran from the Pike along the present Lincoln Avenue, Verona Road, Hulton and Hilltown Roads and the north side of the railroad and thence over Coxcomb Hills down to Logan's Ferry."
- p. 187: "Frankstown Avenue at its junction with Penn Avenue just east of Highland Avenue towards Wilkinsburg. The avenue was once a road leading to the city of Frankstown named for one of Washington's generals."
1966-02-06: Source:Carlin: "Frankstown Rd. is named for Franks Town, an Indian village named for Francis Stevens, . . ."
2009: Source:Regan, p. 68: "Frankstown Road ¶ Frank's Town was an early Indian Village named in honor of pioneer Francis Stevens. The earlier Frankstown Trail ran from the Indian village on the Juniata River to today's Point."
2018: Source:Engineering
- p. 70: "In the early period of settlement in Pennsylvania, travelers from the east would use several paths to reach the Allegheny River Valley. From Carlisle in central Pennsylvania, travelers could use the Frankstown Path (also called the Allegheny or Ohio Path) northwestward to Indiana, Pennsylvania, where it joined the Kittanning Path, which ended at the Allegheny River near Kittanning. A shorter alternate route to the Allegheny Valley would take travelers along the Kiskiminetas Path from just west of Indiana to the Pittsburgh area. This path was the preferred route used by traders during colonial times to traverse the Pennsylvania wilderness."
- pp. 72–73: "The first formalized connection between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was the Pennsylvania Road, completed in the 1790s. Its alignment included portions of some existing paths and roads, such as the Allegheny Path, the Raystown Path, Burd's Road and Forbes' Road. The Pennsylvania Road was a state road spearheaded by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, who first lobbied in [p. 73] the state legislature for improvement to the east–west transportation system in the early 1780s. Throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century, several acts and appropriations from the legislature authorized surveys and construction on the road's westward advance. The final alignment of the road was roughly the same as today's Lincoln Highway, following the main line of Forbes' Road over the Allegheny Mountains to Ligonier and diverging a few miles south to Greensburg and then on to Pittsburgh. ¶ The William Penn Highway was surveyed first from Frankstown to the Conemaugh River in Blairsville in 1787. It was initially designed as a connection between the Susquehanna and Ohio River systems, by way of the Frankstown Road. The highway was extended along the Conemaugh River to Loyalhanna Creek and made passable for wagons in 1789. In the early years, the road was used primarily for transporting iron from the Juniata area to Pittsburgh. In 1807, the road was extended all the way into Pittsburgh. It was originally called the Huntington Pike, but over several years, the name evolved to the William Penn Highway."
