USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the region of Pennsylvania north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny river, of the Indian purchases, and of the running of the southern, northern, and western state boudaries. Also, an account of the division of the territory for public purposes, and of the lands, laws, titles, settlements, controversies, and litigation within this region > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13
Gc 974.8 Ag6h 1657174
M. Las
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01177 2966
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyofregiono00agne_0
A HISTORY
OF THE REGION OF
PENNSYLVANIA NORTH OF THE OHIO AND WEST OF THE ALLEGHENY RIVER,
OF THE
INDIAN PURCHASES, AND OF THE RUNNING OF THE SOUTHERN, NORTHERN, AND WESTERN STATE BOUNDARIES.
ALSO,
AN ACCOUNT OF THE DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES, AND OF THE LANDS, LAWS, TITLES, SETTLE- MENTS, CONTROVERSIES, AND LITIGATION WITHIN THIS REGION.
BY
HON. DANIEL AGNEW, LL. D., LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
PHILADELPHIA : KAY & BROTHER, LAW PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS, AND IMPORTERS. 1887.
1657174
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by HON. DANIEL AGNEW, LL.D., .
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
COLLINS PRINTING HOCSE, 705 Jayne St., Phila.
PREFACE.
PROBABLY no part of Pennsylvania is more interesting in its history, settlement, titles, and protracted litigation than that portion lying north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny River. A century having elapsed since its purchase of the Indians, and the passage of the laws regulating its appropriation and titles, few lawyers are living familiar with these subjects.
The legislation peculiar to this region was unfortunate, and gave rise to contests which for many years retarded improvement, and rendered titles uncertain. It was my fortune to begin practice when lapse of time and the Statute of Limitations began to urge a final settlement of the disputes between the "warrantees" and the "set- tlers." In the winter of 1829-30 accident, or good fortune, threw into my hands the second volume of Charles Smith's edition of the Laws of Pennsylvania, containing his exhaustive note (156 pages) on the Land Laws. The study of this was my preparation for a large practice in land titles.
In December, 1818, John B. Wallace, Esq., had con- veyed a large body of land, in Beaver County, to the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Philadelphia. In 1832 the bank, finding it necessary to act promptly, sent out
iv
PREFACE.
its agent, William Grimshaw, Esq., a lawyer, better known as a compiler of minor histories and school- books. He compromised with many settlers, yet many were left against whom ejectments were brought, causing long litigation. I was largely employed, and became familiar with the disputes between the warrantees and settlers.
The history of this region is so blended with the leg- islation relating to it, it is impossible to separate them. It is not only interesting, but necessary therefore to take a historical view of the condition in which this north- west territory was found, when the Indian title was relinquished, and the laws were passed relating to it.
The number and variety of the original titles and their ramifications are so great they must be historically considered in order to understand them.
Not more than three or four lawyers remain who were contemporary with the questions involved; and . perhaps not another beside myself willing to undertake the labor of perpetuating the events which entered into them.
Hoping that the account given in the following pages will be interesting and useful, I present them to the profession and the public.
DANIEL AGNEW.
BEAVER, October, 1886.
CONTENTS.
-
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
General Situation of Northwestern Pennsylvania before the Purchases of the Indians in 1784, 1785, and 1789 1
CHAPTER II.
Relating to the Purchases of the Indians
13
CHAPTER III.
Of the Depreciation Lands
· 19
CHAPTER IV.
The Donation Lands
32
CHAPTER V.
The Western and Northern Boundaries of the State, and part of the Southern . · 58
CHAPTER VI.
The Erie Triangle
· 66
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
The Reservations
PAGE 73
CHAPTER VIII.
The Allegheny and Beaver Reservations · 79
CHAPTER IX.
Reservations at Erie, Franklin, Warren, and Waterford . 102
CHAPTER X.
General Disposition of the Lands under the Act of April 3,
1792 .
117
APPENDIX.
Address of Daniel Agnew at the Dedication of the New
Court-house of Beaver, Penn'a . · 167
Report of General Wm. Irvine, agent of the State on the Donation Lands . . 196
Letter of David Redick, relative to the Allegheny Reserva- tion of 3000 acres 210
Address of Cornplanter, or Captain Abeal, before the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania 212
CONTENTS.
vii
PAGE
Account of Ft. McIntosh and of the French Forts at Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, Machault or Venango, and Du Quesne
220
Fort McIntosh
. 220
Presque Isle
225
Fort le Bœuf
. 226
Fort Machault or Venango
228
Fort Du Quesne .
. 229
Deed of John B. Wallace to the Farmers and Mechanics'
Bank of Philadelphia . 232
Memorandum of deed from Maurice and William Wurts and
Ham Jan Huidekoper to Meredith and Day . . 234
Index
. 257
HISTORY
OF THE
TERRITORY, SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES NORTH OF THE OHIO AND WEST OF THE ALLEGHENY RIVER.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL SITUATION OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVA- NIA BEFORE THE PURCHASES OF THE INDIANS IN 1784, 1785, AND 1789.
THE state of the Western country, between the years 1780 and 1796, had a direct bearing upon the condition of the territory, and the land titles, within that section of Pennsylvania lying north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny River. This portion is within the last purchases of the Indians at Fort Stanwix in 1784, Fort McIntosh in 1785, and Fort Harmar in 1789. It is a matter not only of historical interest, but essential to a proper understanding of the land laws, land titles, and general history of this region, that the facts bear- ing upon its situation should be grouped in a short detail.
1
2
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
France, Spain, and England were the three great powers which, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, contended for the dominion of the north- ern half of the new continent. Spain pursued her designs in southern fields, France in northern, and Great Britain between the two. The Appala- chian chain of mountains, running northeasterly and southwesterly, parallel to and a few hundred miles inland from the Atlantic coast, long formed a barrier to the English advance into the interior of North America. But France, entering the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and ascending that river, found her way in the rear of that great mountain range, into the heart of the continent.
The world has rarely witnessed methods pur- sued similar to those of the French kings in the conquest of the wilds of America. No great army landed on these shores with banners flying, driving before them peaceful inhabitants. But religion, knowledge, and chivalry made their way slowly from the St. Lawrence to the distant Mississippi, carrying with them the influence of peace and the guise of friendship. Missionaries of the Cross, filled with zeal and possessing much of the learning of the age, were found in the wig- wam of the Indian, and on the moss-carpeted floor of the wilderness, teaching the doctrines of Christ, and some of the ideas of civilization. Here toiled
3
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
priest and chevalier-Champlain, Le Caron, Mes- nard, Brebœuff, Allouez, Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Hennepin, De Tonti (Italian), Frontenac, and others, many of whom imprinted their names upon the soil they trod.
France, following the river Ottawa, it chanced, discovered Lake Huron first, and thence spread over the country adjacent to Lakes Michigan and Superior, reaching the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Later she found the straits leading into Lake Erie, and founded Detroit ; in the meantime having discovered Ontario. Lake Erie was the last to be reached, owing to the adoption of the northern route by the Ottawa first, and to the Erie region being inhabited by the league of the warlike Iroquois, who presented a formidable barrier to progress in that direction.
Though some of the British colonies were planted as early as 1620, and even before, along the Atlantic coast, it was not until the middle of the next cen- tury the English broke over the Allegheny moun- tain range and began the contest with France for the possession of the western territory, at the junc- tion of the rivers where Pittsburgh now stands.
At this time the western tribes of Indians were under the influence of the French, who had pushed their way to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie,
.
4
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
and built forts at Le Bœuf, above on French Creek, and at Venango, at its mouth.
. The first step taken by the Colonial government was to ascertain the feelings of the Indians beyond the Allegheny River, and their number and strength; it being understood that they were de- clining in their friendship for the French. For
this purpose, Conrad Weiser, a prominent citizen of Berks County, familiar with the Indian tongues, was sent out under instructions from the President and Council of Pennsylvania. He kept a minute journal, setting out from his home August 11, 1748, and reaching Logstown, on the north bank of the Ohio, on the 27th of August. His mission was faithfully performed, and favorable results accom- plished.
In December, 1750, George Croghan, an Indian trader, as the representative of Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, held interviews with the Indians at Logstown, and made a treaty with some of the Six Nations, and the Delawares, Shawanese, Wy- andots, and Twightwees. The next most memo- rable was the visit of Washington on behalf of Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to the French commandant at Le Bœuf. The territory surround- ing the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny was then supposed by Virginia to be- long to her. He set out in November, 1753, and
.
5
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
reached Le Bœuf on the 11th of December. His journal, kept in detail, was considered so import- ant that it was published by Virginia. The result of his mission was the discovery of the intention of the French to hold the head of the Ohio, and the country northward and westward, under the alleged discovery of La Salle, about eighty years before. In view of this fact the Governor and Council of Virginia resolved to send a force to the head of the Ohio, and plant a fort and station there. The Assembly voted the means, and a small army was raised, commanded by Col. Fry, who died before the advance, and was succeeded in command by Washington. When Washington, with a part of his force, reached the Monongahela, he there en- countered a small force of the French, sent from
Fort Du Quesne, at the junction of the rivers, under command of Jumonville. The French were de- feated, and Jumonville killed, under circumstances the French called assassination-a charge always denied by Washington. This was followed by the battle of the Great Meadows, with a larger force sent from the fort, the retreat of Washington, and building of Fort Necessity, and, finally, its sur- render and evacuation by him.
The French having thus succeeded in holding possession of the territory at the head of the Ohio, Great Britain resolved upon stronger measures to
6
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
dislodge them. This led to the memorable expedi- tion under General Braddock, and his defeat on the 9th of July, 1755, near the mouth of Turtle Creek, ten miles above Pittsburgh. He had come by way of Cumberland and Wills Creek. His defeat for a time confirmed the French possession, then ex- tending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the southern shore of Lake Erie, and thence from Presque Isle, where Erie now stands, down the Ohio (as the Allegheny was then called) by a chain of forts at Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, and Venango, to Fort Du Quesne, at the junction of the rivers. It was by this route down the Alle- gheny, the French, under Mons. Contrecœur, a French officer, in April, 1754, descended with three hundred canoes, and one thousand French and Indians, and eighteen cannon, drove off Ensign Ward, of the Virginia troops, and built Fort Du Quesne, named after the French Governor of Canada. The defeat of General Braddock was a great disaster, and for a time retarded the efforts of the British.
The next attempt by the English to dislodge the French took place in 1758, by way of the Pennsylvania route, through the region now of Bedford and Westmoreland counties, and by way of Ligonier and Bushy Run. This expedition, under General John Forbes, was successful, and
7
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
Fort Du Quesne became Fort Pitt, soon to be known as Pittsburgh. But the French were not expelled from the western country, and though held in check by Fort Pitt, they and their Indian allies occupied the country north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny; the Indians making fre- quent incursions southward and eastward of these streams, bringing terror to the few scattered in- habitants by their barbarities-killing, scalping, and taking many prisoners, and carrying women and children into their western haunts.
The French power was broken by the fall of Quebec and the capture of Niagara, yet it did not immediately surrender. The French army retired to Montreal, which became the centre of their operations until September, 1760, when the French Governor of Canada, threatened by the near ap- proach of two English armies, surrendered Mon- treal, Detroit, Mackinaw, and all other posts within his dominion, to General Amherst, the English commander.
Following this came the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, by which France ceded to Great Britain " her pre- tensions to Nova Scotia, or Acadia, and in full right Canada, with all its dependencies; and agreed that the boundary of division between the terri- tories of Great Britain and France should be a line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi River to
8
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
the river Iberville, thence by the middle of that river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea;" surrendering to Great Britain all the territory on the left, or east side of the Mississippi, excepting the town and island of New Orleans.
Peace, however, did not come to the western country. In 1762 Pontiac, the great Ottawa chief, fearful of English ascendency, was forming his grand confederacy of all the Indian tribes, which took final shape in a general council at the river Ecores, in April, 1763. This was followed by Pontiac's war, which for more than a year raged with terrific violence. During that time no safety for the white man lay in Western Pennsylvania. The Indians besieged Fort Pitt so closely it was in constant danger. Their incursions were carried far beyond the Allegheny River to the Allegheny Mountains, frequently passing their defiles into the region of the Juniata, carrying terror, massacre, and destruction in their paths.
The siege of Fort Pitt brought about the expe- dition of Colonel Henry Boquet, with a force of about five hundred men, in the year 1764, to relieve it. He was ambushed at Bushy Run by the In- dians, who, having notice of his approach, left the investment of Fort Pitt to meet and destroy him. For a time defeat seemed inevitable, and many of his troops were killed and wounded; but by a skil-
-
9
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
ful manœuvre, attacking the Indians in their flank and rear, he finally put them to flight with great loss, his own, however, in the beginning being greater. From Fort Pitt Colonel Boquet made his expeditions against the Indians in what is now the State of Ohio, in the autumn of 1764. The relief of the siege of Detroit by the English, and their possession of the lake country, put an end to Pon- tiac's war. The Indian troubles, however, did not cease, and Western Pennsylvania continued unset- tled beyond the Allegheny River. This, at first, was largely owing to the influence of the French settlers along the lakes and in the western terri- tory, whose bitterness toward the English con- stantly made the English nation odious and hateful to the Indians. This animosity came to a head in 1774, in the war known as Lord Dunmore's. The settlers, then chiefly from Virginia, had pushed their improvements to the Ohio River and were ad- vancing into Kentucky. Reports of Indian out- rages, many untrue, were fanned into a flame among the excited whites along the Ohio, above and below Wheeling. These culminated in the massacre of two small bodies of Indians by Michael and Daniel Cresap, one below Wheeling at Captina, and the other at Baker's, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek. They became the immediate causes of the war of 1774. It was in this state of hostile feeling
10
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
the murder of the family of Logan, the Mingo chief, took place, causing him, to this time the firm friend of the whites, to enter into the struggle against them with an almost frantic zeal, and to glut his revenge in blood.
Now came another blast to fan the flame of In- dian wrath against the whites-the war of the Revolution. England, in her effort to subdue the colonies, regardless of the ties of blood and the dictates of humanity, sought the savages, and by every art in her power persuaded them to lift the tomahawk and sharpen the scalping knife against the whites in the West. Outrage and barbarity followed the footsteps of the Indians in their many incursions into the settlements. The entire terri- tory north of the Ohio became unsafe. The decla- ration of peace between the United States and Great Britain by the treaty of peace of 1783 did not end the Indian warfare. These sons of the forest saw the march of white settlements still pressing onward toward their hunting-grounds, and with the feelings natural to all men conceived that their rights were endangered, and a country believed to be their own about to be wrested from them by violence. In these feelings they were encouraged by certain white renegadoes, who had acquired influence among them.
The doctrine of conquest, however justified by
11
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
so-called Christian kings, to expand their posses- sions and power, can scarcely be allowed as a justifi- cation for war, desolation, and seizure of land from those who inhabit it. Civilization pleads the bar- barism of the natives; yet the pure principles of the doctrine of the Prince of Peace will find it hard to defend the plea. It is the proud distinction of Pennsylvania that all the land she owns she bought. But this claim does not turn aside the trend of his- tory. The Indian war was marked on the side of the whites by cruelty. The massacre of the Christian Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten, on the Tusca- rawas, was one of the most fiendish acts that ever disgraced civilized men, and whose particulars freeze the blood and make the heart stand still.
This state of affairs led to expeditions against the Indians-Crawford's in 1782, Harmar's in 1790, and St. Clair's in 1791-all of which suffered defeat. The Ohio country remaining unsafe, outside of a few forts, the next step was the organization of an army under General Anthony Wayne. St. Clair's defeat, in 1791, was attributed to the want of dis- cipline of his troops, largely militia who had not undergone drill. To obviate this defect, General Wayne assembled his troops on the elevated plain a short distance below the present town of Economy, on the Ohio. in what is now Beaver County. His encampment has since been known as Legionville,
12
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
a few perches east of the present Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway, which here skirts the right bank of the Ohio River. This encamp- ment lasted throughout the winter and spring of 1792-3. In April, 1793, he moved his army to Fort Washington (now Cincinnati), remaining there till the spring of 1794. Thence he made his expedition to the Maumee. On the 20th of August he gave battle to and defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers. In this engagement the Indians were completely routed, and their power broken. After- wards he returned to Fort Greenville, which he made his headquarters, where, on the 3d of August, 1795, he concluded a treaty of peace with the In- dians which put an end to the war. This treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United States on the 22d of December, 1795-a date which has since played a conspicuous part in the controversies upon the land titles of Western Pennsylvania under an Act of the Legislature of the 3d of April, 1792.
.
13
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
CHAPTER II.
RELATING TO THE PURCHASES OF THE INDIANS.
IT is proper now to refer to the acts which gave Pennsylvania title to the territory north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers.
By the treaty made at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, in New York), on the 5th of November, 1768, between the Penns and the Six Nations, the Indian title had been extinguished on the east side of a boundary beginning where the northern State line crosses the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, and running a circuitous course by the West Branch of that river to the Ohio (Allegheny), at Kittanning; thence down that river to where the western boundary of Pennsylvania crosses the main Ohio. Thence the line ran southward and eastward by the western and southern boundaries of the State, to the east side of the Allegheny Mountains. By a treaty made October 23, 1784, also at Fort Stanwix, between the commissioners of the State of Pennsylvania and the Six Nations, viz., the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, all the remaining In-
14
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
dian lands in Pennsylvania were purchased. The eastern boundary was that of the western boun- dary of the purchase of 1768.
As the boundaries of the treaty of 1784 are important to the subject of this treatise, they are copied, viz :-
"Beginning on the south side of the river Ohio, where the western boundary of the State of Penn- sylvania crosses the said river, near Shingo's Old Town, at the mouth of Beaver Creek, and thence by a due north line to the end of the forty-second and beginning of the forty-third degrees of north latitude ; thence by a due east line, separating the forty-second and forty-third degrees of north lati- tude, to the east side of the East Branch of the river Susquehanna; thence by the bounds of the late purchase made at Fort Stanwix, the 5th day of November, Anno Domini 1768, as follows: 'Down the East Branch of the Susquehanna, on the east side thereof, till it comes opposite the mouth of a creek, called by the Indians Awandac, and across the river, and up the said creek, on the south side thereof, along the range of hills, called Burnett's Hills by the English, and by the Indians ; on the north side of them, to the head of a creek, which runs into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, which creek is by the Indians called Tyadaghton, but by Pennsylvanians Pine Creek,
15
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
and down said creek, on the south side there- of, to the said West Branch of the Susquehanna ; then crossing the said river, and running up the same, on the south side thereof, the several courses thereof to the fork1 of the same river which lies nearest to a place on the river Ohio (Allegheny), called Kittanning, and from the fork by a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid ; and then down said river by the several courses thereof, to where the western boundary of the said State of Pennsylvania crosses the same river, at the place of beginning.'"
It will be noticed that, in this deed, the western boundary is said to cross the Ohio River, near Shingo's Old Town, at the mouth of Beaver Creek. The Indian town at the mouth of Big Beaver Creek was Sawkunk, or Sawkung. I have not heard of any Shingo's Old Town at the mouth of Little Beaver. The Big Beaver seems to be the creek referred to, though the boundary, as after- wards run in 1785-6, fell a few yards below the mouth of Little Beaver, twelve miles below the Big Beaver. In 1753, Washington, in his journal, said Shingiss, king of the Delawares, lived about two miles below the forks of the Ohio (Pitts- burgh). It is possible "Shingo's Old Town" merely indicated his chieftaincy, and not the name of the
1 This fork was known as the " Canoe Fork," or more latterly as the " Cherry Tree Corner."
16
SETTLEMENT, AND LAND TITLES.
town. This uncertainty of the western boundary is referred to by General Wm. Irvine in his report (see Appendix), and had much to do with pre- venting the donation surveys from being laid near to the western boundary.
The Wyandot and Delaware Indians then occu- pied a large territory west of the Allegheny River, and not being parties to the treaty made at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, a treaty with them was held by the same commissioners at Fort McIntosh (now Beaver), in January, 1785, and their title extin- guished by a deed of the 21st of January. This deed is in terms and boundaries the same as that of Oc- tober 23, 1784. Thus the Indian title to all the lands in Pennsylvania was finally extinguished by pur- chase under the humane and enlightened policy which characterized the course of Wm. Penn and his heirs.
. At the time of the treaty of 1785, the State was not the proprietor of the northwestern angle of the present territory of the State, called the Erie Tri- angle. A subsequent treaty was made in 1789, at Fort Harmar, for the purchase of the Indian title to the "Triangle." It will be noticed hereafter.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.