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Zach Connell May Come Home
Authored by: Willard L. Lewis
on Jun 1, 1956
If Connellsville continues to expand in the next 150 years as much as it has since its founding by Zachariah Connell it is just possible that the pioneer may "come home."
At present his body lies in a grave - and not a proud one - just past East Francis Avenue, approximately 100 yards from former Route 119 which connects East Crawford Avenue with Popular Grove. It is outside the present city limits. Boundaries have been extended in other directions but not in that which would bring Zach Connell back to his home town.
The city's founder owned 2,569 1/2 acres in the area that is now Connellsville. The property line began at the banks of the Youghiogheny River and extended east to what is now Cottage Avenue and north to what is known as North Alley.
When emigrants crossed the Appalachian mountains, heading west, and stopped at the Connell farm where they were granted the privilege of building rafts, it opened Zach's eyes to the fact that his place was a natural site for a future city.
He had a town of 180 quarter-acre lots surveyed and the place became a borough on March 1, 1806.
The town limits have extended in every direction since the original survey - yet the eastern boundary stopped within a few feet of the Connell grave. One more annexation toward the east and Zachariah Connell will be "back home."
Posted: Mar 21, 1998
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