inn Alpaca Suri Farm, which has descended from the original Linn Farm, settled over 200 years ago in Pennsylvania. Hannah Armstrong was born Sept. 3, 1756. She married Alexander Linn and had seven children. John Linn, the eldest, went alone to Crawford County, Penna. And took up a claim near Espyville and began farming for himself.. After the death of her husband, Hannah Armstrong Linn traveled by horse and wagon from New Jersey with the other three sons and a daughter to join John in Pennsylvania…thus the beginning of farming in Pennsylvania for the Linn family…

Espyville in those early days was a wilderness most of the way from Pittsburgh to the place where they settled, about 100 miles north. The woods abounded with wild animals, such as bears, deer, wolves, and some Indians and rattlesnakes. The boys were expert hunters and they had all the wild meat and honey they wanted.

For some years they had no conveniences, no mills or stores nearer than twenty miles. They used moccasins for shoes, and frequently wore buckskin trousers. Children had to go three or four miles to school. The people spun and wove their flax and wool into cloth. Flour and salt were brought from Pittsburgh on pack-horses. The first settlers used grease paper for window lights.

Hannah’s son Andrew took a barrel of sugar (made from maple syrup) to Pittsburgh by canoe. The sugar was traded for a rifle, which is still in possession of the family on the home farm.