My Genealogy Hound

HARVEY B. COCHRAN, retired farmer Duquesne, was born in March, 1821, in Mifflin township. His grandfather, Samuel Cochran, a native of Ireland and of Scotch descent first settled in Dauphin county, Pa., and then came to Mifflin township, this county, where he bought 320 acres of land, which property has been in the possession of his family until lately. He married Mary Shearer, a native of Chester county, Pa. John Cochran, the last of the children, died in 1873, after dividing the farm, giving a part to Robert Patterson and a part to Joseph Keneday. Each one sold a part of the land on which is now erected Allegheny Bessemer Steel-works a monster building constructed of iron, erected partly on historical ground, being that of the military road over which Braddock, Col Washington and the ill-fated army passed on the 9th of July, 1755. They are now filling a ravine through which the troops defiled on their way to the crossing, which is (or was before the dams were built), known as Braddock’s Lower Ripple. His Upper Ripple is a short distance above the Cochran farm, the lower one just opposite the Edgar Thomson Steel-works, through which the army passed, marching into an Indian ambuscade. Frazier afterward came in possession of the battlefield and before tilling the soil gathered up the bleached bones and buried them. When Mr. H. B. Cochran built here, in sinking a foundation for one of the stacks, a mason came upon a mass of human bones which no doubt were the bones of the slaughtered soldiers which were dumped into the filling. The father of Col. John Neel crossed the mountains in 1779 or 1780, and settled on a farm, back of McKeesport some three or four miles, in Versailles township, the same farm now occupied by John Muse. In 1781 two uncles of Mr. Cochran’s mother, Adam and William Neel, followed him, on horseback, armed with rifles. They landed at the brother’s in the evening and turned their horses into the woods. In the morning, being warned of the Indians, they took their rifles and started on the hunt for their horses intending to cross the Monongahela river at Braddock s Upper Ripple, in order to look at some land on the south side. They had only proceeded a few rods from the log cabin however, when the brother, who was with his family eating breakfast, heard the report of two rifles. Taking his own, he went up a little rise in the ground and saw Indians taking the scalps off the brothers. Turning toward the cabin he shouted: “Come on boys here’s the yellow d__ s!” and then raised his rifle (which was a flintlock) to shoot, but one of the savages was the quicker of the two and fired first, the ball knocking the pan off Ned’s gun. The Indians then fled into the wilderness, and it was the last raid they ever made along the Monongahela river. Samuel Cochran died aged eighty years; his wife when aged fifty-one. They had twelve children: Robert, Samuel, Joseph, John, William, Mary, Sarah, Jane, Elizabeth, Margaret, Rachel and Ann. Of the sons, Samuel bought a farm and married Grizella, daughter of James and Rachel (McClure) Neel. Samuel Cochran, Jr. and Sr., were elders in Lebanon Presbyterian Church; Samuel, Jr., died in 1845, aged sixty years; his widow Jan. 10, 1875, aged eighty-seven years. They had five children: Louisa, Myra, Harvey Byron, Melissa and Theresa.

The subject of this memoir has been a farmer all his life, and has inherited many of the sterling qualities of his parents. He yet owns 170 acres of the old homestead. In 1886 he built a handsome residence in Duquesne, where he now resides. He has always taken a deep interest in political matters; has been identified with the democratic party, and has filled various offices in his township.