Excerpt from The Burtner Homestead Reviewing History by Vera Burtner Ferree

After the stone house was finished in 1821, regular neighborhood meetings were held in it. When the Brackenridge family arrived in 1832, the Burtner house was the center for community planning. All important elections were held there, the last one being the election for second term of Abraham Lincoln, and families who came from a distance would fill the home overnight. This would make it necessary to bed-down the children in the old log barn loft.

On Friday, September 5, 1817, Philip visited Pittsburgh to see James Monroe and stayed overnight for morning events in Monroe's honor. He made a special visit to the city again on May 29, 1825, this time accompanied by his wife, for the great reception honoring LaFayette. Neighbors of his in the Bull creek area also made the trip. And when Charles Dickens passed through Tarenturn in 1842, on board the packet boat "Express", the whole countryside turned out to see him.