Barkeyville is a borough in Venango County, Pennsylvania, United States
Henry Barkey
- Born: 14 Feb 1810, Hanover Township, Pennsylvania
- Marriage: Elizabeth Latshaw in 1833
- Died: 18 Nov 1889, Irwin Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania at age 79
- Buried: Church of God Cemetery, Barkeyville, Venango, Pennsylvania, USA
• Property: land, 1831, Venango County, Pennsylvania. In 1831, Henry bought land in Venango County, Pennsylvania and built a town there. He designed the layout of the town.
• Occupation: general store owner, 1831, Barkeyville, Venango County, Pennsylvania. He was the town postman and justice of the peace performing numerous marriages. He also ran a general store, which later in life he shared as a partner with his son-in-law. Henry built large houses and sold them to people who moved to his town, which he called Barkeyville. In 1859, the first commercial oil well in the United States was drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Henry already owned land in the area, so he continued to buy more land and build more homes. His store was the gathering place for the people. He built the Barkeyville Academy, which served as a private high school before public schools were established in Pennsylvania. Several of his grandchildren taught at the Academy. Henry was also the local preacher at the “Church of God” until he moved to Venango County in 1851.
• Built: a town in Venango County, Pennsylvania. He designed the layout of the town. He was the town postman and justice of the peace performing numerous marriages. He also ran a general store, which later in life he shared as a partner with his son-in-law. Henry built large houses and sold them to people who moved to his town, which he called Barkeyville. In 1859, the first commercial oil well in the United States was drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Henry already owned land in the area, so he continued to buy more land and build more homes. His store was the gathering place for the people.
• Barkeyville Academy. He built the Barkeyville Academy, which served as a private high school before public schools were established in Pennsylvania. Several of his grandchildren taught at the Academy.
• Occupation. 65,66 Henry was also the local preacher at the “Church of God” until he moved to Venango County in 1851.
• Biography. 67 Henry Barkey was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1810, son of Abraham and Catharine Barkey, who removed to Butler county, where our subject was reared. He grew up on the homestead farm, and folowed farming for many years and afterward engaged as a clerk in a general store. In 1851 he located on the site of Barkeyville and engaged in mercantile business in partnership with Abraham Hunsberger. He followed mercantile pursuits until 1885, when he retired from business. Mr. Barkey was married in 1833 to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of John Latschaw, and reared one daughter, Catharine, wife of Abraham Hunsberger. he was an elder in the church of God and in politics a Republican.
Anonymous [View Citation] [Table of Contents] History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including its aboriginal history, the French and British occupation of the country, its early settlement and subsequent growth, a description of its historic and interesting localities, its rich oil deposits and their development, sketches of its cities, boroughs, townships, and villages, neighborhood and family history, portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc., etc. Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1890 pg 960
• Biography. 68 Henry Barkey established one of the pioneer stores here, and was the local preacher of the church of God until he moved to Venango County in 1851 where he founded the town of Barkeyville. Abraham Huntzberger, who married Barkey's daughter, Catherine and became her father's partner, was reared at Harmony. John Barkey, a brother, also carried on a store here, until he retired to his farm where he died.
Anonymous [View Citation] [Table of Contents] History of Butler County, Pennsylvania : embracing its physical features, aborigines and explorers, public lands and surveys, pioneers, early settlement and subsequent growth, organization and civil administration, political affairs, the legal and medical professions, the press, schools and school laws, internal improvements, agriculture, the temperance cause, military history, the Butler oil and gas fields, sketches of boroughs, townships and villages, religious, educational, social and material progress, biographies and portraits of pioneers and representative citizens, etc., etc. Chicago?: R.C. Brown & Co., 1895, pg 418
• From the History of Barkeyville: Barkeyville, Venango County, Pennsylvania. 69 Barkeyville, Named for Henry Barkey 1810-1889 also once known as "The Corners", McMurdy's Corners and Beatty's Corners. A store that used to be at -“The Corners” was owned first by the George McMurdy family and then to the Beatty family. Barkeyville became a borough in 1968.
Henry Barkey established one of the pioneer stores here, and was the local preacher of the "Church of God" until he moved to Venango County, in 1851, where he founded the town of Barkeyville. Abraham Huntzberger, who married Barkey's daughter, Catherine, and became her father's partner, was reared at Harmony. John Barkey, a brother, also carried on a store here, until he retired to his farm, where he died.
A major Indian path from the Forks of the Ohio-Pittsburgh to Venango-Franklin was located just west of here. George Washington used it in traveling north to Fort LeBoeuf in 1753. Capt.Jonathan Hart widened the path in 1787 on his way to build Fort Franklin. Here at Mayes Forks, the house on the North West corner was a major hotel-and a mail and stagecoach stop-during the early Nineteenth Century.
During the next thirteen years no definite steps were taken, but the subject of education was kept alive by discussion through The Church Advocate and by Eldership actions. Then came the year 1881, which, for two reasons, will ever be memorable in the history of our educational work. It was in that year that an academy was opened at Barkeyville, Venango County, Pennsylvania, which proved to be the most successful effort of that kind which had so far been made. And it was the same year that the General Eldership took the action, which resulted in establishing Findlay College, our splendid institution of learning at Findlay, Ohio.
Rev. John R. H. Latchaw was the founder of Barkeyville Academy. He started the school in the year named, in the bethel of the church of God at that place, of which he was the pastor. Public-spirited citizens and church members, especially by Henry Barkey and Abraham Hunsberger, aided him financially. The school made a good beginning under local management, but soon became an Eldership institution. By means of local gifts and Eldership support considerable ground was secured, a school building was erected, and later a boarding hall. There was a good attendance of students, not only from West Pennsylvania but also from other Elderships. Latchaw, after a term of four years, was followed in the principalship by E. F. Loucks, J. F. Bigler, Charles Manchester, W. C. Myers, Ira C. Eakin, G. W. Davis, H. K. Powell, and W. H. Guyer, in the order named. The principals and other members of the faculty who served from time to time were devoted servants of Christ. A genuine religious spirit was the controlling influence. A Christian atmosphere was always in evidence. And for a quarter of a century this Academy exerted a splendid influence among the churches and sent out young people who later successfully filled positions of leadership and responsibility. A striking illustration of its far-reaching influence is found in the fact that five of the six presidents
of Findlay College, before going to that institution, were connected with Barkeyville Academy, as principal, professor or graduate. The West Pennsylvania Eldership, therefore, has the distinction of being the only annual Eldership, which successfully established and maintained an institution of learning. "Success" and not "failure," is the proper word to use. For while Barkeyville Academy ceased to exist some twenty years ago, the cause was not an inherent weakness, but the combination of two conditions which arose in the natural course of events. The one was the establishing of high schools, which provided, as a part of the free school system, training equivalent to that for which tuition had to be paid at academies. The other was the establishing of Findlay College, a higher institution of learning, but also having facilities for doing the work, which had been done by Barkeyville Academy
• death, 18 Nov 1889. Henry died November 18, 1889 in Irwin Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania. Henry is buried behind the little Church of God, which he helped build in Barkeyville. He donated the land for the church and the cemetery. Henry died of Tuberculosis.
