Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series marking the 250th anniversary of Westmoreland County’s founding.
Planting seeds for crops was the aim of many settlers who arrived in Westmoreland at the time of its formation as a county 250 years ago.
Others were on a mission to plant seeds of faith.
Those two interests intersected on a roughly 30-acre farm in Ligonier Township, creating a legacy that is appreciated by current residents Steve Patricia and his wife, Helen.
“There’s a lot of pride in this area, and a lot of history that has been preserved,” said Steve Patricia, an artist who often depicts historical images.
The property was owned in the late 1700s by Robert Roberts, a Maryland native and traveling minister who eventually was selected as a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Religious services at one time were held in the farmhouse; Patricia believes the oldest section of the home has stood for at least 200 years.
He removed a drop ceiling to reveal the home’s original hand-hewn American chestnut beams. He’s also found long pegs of the same wood that were used in the dwelling’s construction and a wrought iron nail, which predated modern wire nails.
“There are so many people who’ve lived here over time,” Steve Patricia said. “I’ve saved just about everything I’ve come across.”
That includes a bottle of bed-bug poison that likely was purchased in the mid-1800s before being stashed in the basement.
Thousands of more objects from past eras came to light when Patricia invited a group of students from Pitt-Greensburg to complete archaeological digs on his farm — including the area around a spring that bubbles up at one end of the house. Some of the more interesting items that were uncovered include a pewter button and a clay pipe dating to the 1750s.
Patricia has the meticulously labeled items in storage but is wondering what to do with them in the long run.
“A lot of effort was made to procure them,” Steve Patricia said, noting he has yet to discover the location of the home’s former outhouse, where more discarded relics from the past are bound to be buried.
“There’s a lot more evidence still to be found,” he said.
