Dear Herman, No, I don't know of the school or the church, which I think was Methodist Episcopal. Jennie Arnheim read the cemetery there and published a list. She says that is all that is left. No buildings. This is odd as the Huntington Atlas article says there was a population of app. 2000 and there was a post office. Hard for that many buildings to completely disappear. The place I found the most information was in the Huntington County Historical Atlas, which was published before Blair County was formed, and therefor included places now in Blair County, with a section on Bennington. There was a town with a post office and Bennington was a train stop between Kittanning Point [Horseshoe Curve] and the Gallitzin Tunnels. The Catholics went to church at St. Patrick's in Gallitzin [Irish], St. Mary's in Gallitzin [Polish]--these two are now merged as St. Demetrius Church and Fr. Ledoux is the pastor. Before these two churches [and cemeteries] the Catholics used the church at Summit now called All Saints. There was also a church called St. Joseph's at Coupon which served some of the small mining towns to the west of Gallitzin. St. Joseph burned during a Sunday service about three years ago, but the cemetery is along Rt. 63. My mother-in-law lived up in that area and remembered St. Joseph's as a Polish Church. Some of my relatives were born in Elstie, between Benninton and Coupon. [Do not confuse this with Listie in Somerset County.] If the Catholics lived near the bottom of the Portage Railroad, they attended church in St. Mary's,Hollidaysburg, or St. Patricks, Newry. There is also a small article in a book that the Blair County Genealogy Society purchased from the Holestine Library [don't know if I spelled it right. It was a rental library in Hollidaysburg that closed when the old gentlemen who ran the place retired and the books were sold.] This book was about the Iron Furnaces and mines in the Western Pa area. Evidently Bennington had an ore mine and produced pig iron, then became more of a coal mine. It was producing the pig iron before the railroad came. This was difficult as it was on the mountain, and had to be hauled by pack horses or mules. I am not sure, but the Mack Family I was looking for said they resided in Bennington, but a map of the small communities along the Portage RR from the Foot of Ten to the summit, listed at "Foot of Six" is a house labeled "Mrs Mack". [Cambria County Atlas, 1890] So it is possible that the people living along the Portage Railroad listed their residence as Bennington. Anyone who can supply more information about the Bennington Area or anyone who lived there, I really would appreciate it. Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: NagleH <NagleH@aol.com> To: PACAMBRI <PACAMBRI@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 10:15 am Subject: [PACAMBRI] Bennington School House I see there is a new sign at Tunnel Hill that gives folks access to the old Bennington Cemetery. Does anyone know if there are any old photos of Bennington when it was inhabited. My Mother and her sisters used to say when they took train rides to Johnstown and Pittsburgh that their Mother used to point to a small red schoolhouse at Bennington just before they went into the tunnel and say that the small schoolhouse was her "Alma Mater". Their family lived there when she was small and her Father Tom Gallagher and her brothers were coal miners. Then they moved to Houtzdale and both parents died around 1900. Herman Nagle Altoona - - - - - - - - - - Search for more Cambria County information on our webpage: http://www.camgenpa.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PACAMBRI-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message