In the latter part of the eighteenth century there were but two white men living in all this region. The first one there was Thomas Blair, whose cabin was on the mountain at Blair's Gap, where the Portage Railroad afterwards came over. The other was Michael Maguire, who came along in 1790, and going through the Gap, concluded to settle among the Indians about twelve miles away, at what was afterwards Loretto. These rugged pioneers spent most of their time fighting and watching the Indians and wild beasts, and gathered a few companions around them. Here afterwards came Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, who left the Russian army in 1792 and visited America, designing to travel. He became a Catholic priest, and liking these mountains, established a mission at Loretto in 1798, spending a fortune in maintaining it, his missionary charge ultimately extending over the whole mountain region. He attracted a population of about three thousand, chiefly Germans and Irish, repeatedly refused the episcopacy, and continued his labors until his death at Loretto in 1840. His remains lie in front of his church, surmounted by a monument, while the centenary of this St. Michael's Church of Loretto was marked in October, 1899, by erecting his bronze statue, the Prelate-Prince Gallitzin being portrayed as he appeared in the Allegheny wilderness, wearing cassock, surplice and a skull-cap in lieu of the beretta, this being his usual head-gear at service. Loretto, named after the city on the Adriatic, was the first nucleus of population in this elevated district, and is about five miles north of the railway. Loretto was the first settlement in this region, but afterwards the coal and iron attracted the Welsh, who came in numbers, and founded the town of Ebensburg, about eleven miles from the railway. They gave their familiar name of Cambria to the county. Here on the mountain side, at an elevation of over two thousand feet, are the Cresson Springs, a noted health resort, with a half-dozen medicinal springs, the chief being an astringent chalybeate and a strong alum.