So far as
the records show, the first white settlers were
Solomon and Samuel Adams and their sister Rachel
Adams. Coming from Bedford in the early 1770s,
they pioneered in the Stonycreek valley and
cleared the first farmland in what is now
Johnstown. Samuel and Rachel were killed by
Indians as they fled toward Bedford about 1772.
Their memory was perpetuated with the naming of
Solomon Run, Sam's Run and Rachel Hill.  Among other early settlers
was John Horner, the patriarch of the Stonycreek,
who once owned most of the land that now includes
the 7th and 17th Wards and Dale Borough. He built
a grist mill on Solomon Run in 1799.
John
Hinckston, who killed the last known Indian in
the Johnstown area, lived along Hinckston Run
before 1800; Peter Gouchnour came to the area in
1798; Abraham Hildebrand erected a grist mill on
the Little Conemaugh in 1797.
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