Hiram Earl Walley

  General Notes:

Hiram Earl Walley - born 10 oct 1893 - Westmoreland Pa. Hiram's last residence was 15068 New Kensington, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.
When Upper Burrell Township was created in 1879, there were four one room schools in the township. The four original schools were named : Chestnut Hill , Milligantown, Walnut Hill, and Crawford-Whitten. We could find no record of the date of construction of these schools. However, judging from earlier published maps of Burrell Township, the school houses were built prior to 1857, probably after the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Free Public School Act in 1834. Later, as the population growth concentrated in various neighborhoods, four more schools were added: Menk, Joint, Merwin, and Black or Oakwood. All of these did not operate continuously because of the variable number of school age children available from time to time. This also meant that a teacher might one year teach in one school, but be required to teach at a different school the following year. All of the one room schools were closed permanently in 1939, and there is scarcely a trace of any one of them to be found today. The old buildings were usually auctioned by the School Board for about $100-$200, dismantled, and hauled away. As part of the lease agreements, the land reverted to the land owners.

CHESTNUT HILL SCHOOL located on the west side of the Markle Road on the top of a ridge about one mile from Merwin was named for the chestnut trees that once covered the hill. In 1879, the property belonged to John C Wiley and later to William J and Hazel Troutman. It is now part of the Alcoa property.

Hiram married Margaret McCracken. (Margaret McCracken was born on 17 Jan 1894, died on 15 Sep 1981 and was buried in Plum Creek Cemetery, Pittsburg, PA.)