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 10
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The earliest mention of the name of the stream I have noticed is found in Conrad Weiser's journal of his journey to Logstown. Of course it had a previous existence. Leaving Heidelberg Township, Berks County, on the 11th of August, 1748, Weiser crossed the "Allegheny Hills," com- ing on the 22d to the "Clearfields," now in Clear- field County. On the 25th he crossed the "Kis- keminetoes," coming to the Ohio the same day. The Allegheny was then so called, and is thus named in the treaties with the Indians at Fort Stanwix in 1768 and 1784, both describing the
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boundary of the purchases as striking the Ohio at the Indian village of Kittanning. On the 30th of August Weiser came to "Beaver Creek," and finally reached Logstown, on the north bank of the Ohio, below the present town of Economy. The "Little Beaver," twelve miles below the "Big," is mentioned by Washington in his journal of his mission to the French Commandant at Fort Le Bœuf and Venango in November, 1753. On his arrival at Logstown he says the "Half King was at his hunting cabin on Little Beaver, and was sent for there."
A most interesting account of this region is given by Christian Frederick Post, a German and Moravian preacher, twice sent out from Philadel- phia, in 1758, to the Indians living west of Fort Du Quesne. In his second journal, November 16, 1758, he says: "We went down a long valley to Beaver Creek, through old Kushkushing, a large spot of land, about three miles long. Kushkush- ing was a Delaware town, near the junction of the Shenango and Mahoning, which form the Big Beaver, and on the west side of the Beaver." In Weiser's journal the town is called "Caskaskie." Here lived the famous chief of the "Turtle Tribe" of the Delawares, known as "King Beaver," or " The Beaver;" and here we meet the origin of the present name of the stream, it being evidently
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a translation of the Indian name. Both men and tribes were distinguished by the names of favorite animals. In the Irrequois Confederacy, or Five Nations, there were eight tribes of each nation, known as the Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Turtle, Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. The Delawares were not of the confederacy, but their tribes were distinguished in a similar manner. I have not discovered the Delaware name for "Beaver," but among the Irrequois it was "Non-ga-nee-ar-goh." "King Beaver," or "The Beaver," is frequently mentioned, and his speeches preserved in the conferences with the Indians-in that of George Croghan, deputy to Sir William Johnston, His Majesty's Superintendent of Indian Affairs, at Fort Pitt, in July, 1759; of Brigadier-General Stanwix, at Fort Pitt, in October, 1759; and in the journal of Colonel Henry Boquet of his expe- dition in 1764 from Fort Pitt to the Indians west- ward. At the conference, November 10th, with the Turkey and Turtle tribes of the Delawares, "King Beaver" is set down as the "chief of the Turkey tribe, with twenty warriors." This proves that his name, "Beaver," was personal and not tribal, being taken, probably, from the stream on which he lived, as before mentioned. I have taken these facts from an article on the origin of
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the name of Beaver County, written by myself, therefore it will not be deemed plagiarism.
The town of Beaver is emphatically a child of the State, and its large lots (300 by 120 feet) and wide streets (100 feet) bear no impress of private economy. It was laid out under authority of the Act of 28th September, 1791, by Daniel Leet, whose survey was adopted and ratified by the Act of 6th March, 1793, and covers the site of the old French and Indian town, upon which Fort McIntosh was built. Beaver County was erected by the Act of 12th March, 1800. The Act recites the reservation contained in the Act of 13th of March, 1783-"to the use of the State of 3000 acres on both sides of the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, including Fort McIntosh." The out-lots of Beaver, and the grant of 500 acres for the use of an academy, were also laid out upon this reser- vation. A similar reservation of 3000 acres was made at the junction of the Allegheny with the Ohio, on which the town of Allegheny and a common pasture for the lot owners of 100 acres (the present parks) and the out-lots, were sur- veyed under the Act of 11th September, 1737.
Fort McIntosh was built in 1778, and from it General McIntosh marched with 1000 men against the Sandusky towns, and built Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas. . Some of the lines of Fort McIn-
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tosh were visible when I came to Beaver in 1829. One of these lines and the places of the terminal bastions may yet be discerned upon close observa- tion. It was a strong stockade, and mounted one six-pounder. A covered way descended the face of the hill to the bottom, where a well was said to be dug, water not being had on the plain short of the hill, a half a mile in the rear. Fort McIntosh was the scene of the last treaty with the Indians, which extinguished their title to the soil of Penn- sylvania. The treaties of 1768 and 1784 at Fort Stanwix were made with the chiefs of the six Nations -the Mohawks, Oneydas, Onondagoes, Senecas, Tuscaroras, and Cayugas. These treaties were made after the Tuscaroras had joined the Five Nations. The treaty of Fort McIntosh was made in January, 1785, with the Wyandotts- and Delawares, the last claimants of title, and ran in the words of the description of the boundary line between the purchases of 1768 and 1781. In anticipation of the extinction of the Indian title, the State had, by the Act of 1783, laid off the country west of the Allegheny and north of the Ohio into two grand sections, intended as dona- tions to the Revolutionary soldiers of the Penn- sylvania Line, and for the redemption of the certificates of depreciation from the continental scale given to them for their pay. The Donation
12
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Lands lay north of a due west line from Mogul- bughiton Creek, above Kittanning, to the Ohio State boundary. The Depreciation Land, as it was called, lay south of this line, which ran between five and six miles south of the present town of New Castle.1
These historical reminiscences are not foreign to my theme, for they are connected with two germane subjects-the litigation attending the land titles in the county, and the location of the county seat. The Depreciation Lands were ordered to be sold at the " Coffee-house," in Phila- delphia, but bringing very low prices, the sales were suspended. Of the Donation Lands many of the tracts were undrawn, and a large tract of country, called the "Struck District," was with- drawn from the wheel as unfit, on account of its broken and hilly character. A part of the "Struck District" lay in Butler County. Afterwards came the Act of 3d April, 1792, which opened to settle- ment and survey the unappropriated lands north of the Ohio, and west of the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek. It was a most unfortunate law for the State. It provided two modes of appropriation-one by warrant and survey, the other by actual settlement and survey-the 9th
1 More nearly eight miles.
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section making void and subject to new warrants all warrants under which an actual settlement should not be made within two years after the original warrant. Under this section sprang up that once famous contest in the Courts of the State and of the United States, whether the war- rants were void, or voidable only by non-fulfil- ment of the conditions of settlement; and its kindred question, whether the Indian war excused or only suspended the performance of the condi- tion. At the passage of the Act of 1792 this re- gion was uninhabited, by reason of the Indian war, excepting in a very few instances of settlement near the rivers. As a consequence, capitalists, re- siding chiefly in Philadelphia, immediately availed themselves of the warrant mode of acquiring title, appropriating large tracts of country. The war- rants of the Pennsylvania Population Company, organized by John Nicholson, are generally dated on the 14th day of December, 1792, and covered a large part of the territory of Beaver County, north of the Ohio. The Indians being defeated by General Wayne at the battle of Maumee, on the 20th of August, 1794, he concluded a treaty of peace with them on the 3d of August, 1795, which was ratified by the Senate, on the 22d of December following. This was the signal for actual settlements under the Act of 1792, and in
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the spring of 1796 came that great wave of set- tlers which quickly covered the lands of the county. Now the contest began. The settlers, believing the warrants forfeited by non-settlement under the warrants within two years, sat down upon the surveyed tracts, in disregard of the titles of the warrantees. A warfare followed, which for nearly forty years distracted this unhappy region, and delayed its improvement. This is not the time and place to trace in a brief address the history of that great controversy, the conflict of decisions, and the compromise legislation resorted to to compose the strife; yet the subject is well worthy of an abler pen, and teems with interesting incidents. It was in the closing years of this controversy that my own knowledge of land law began.
On the dissolution of the Pennsylvania Popu- lation Company, in or about the year 1812, its lands in this county passed, in 1813, into the hands, chiefly, of William Griffith, of New Jer- sey, and John B. Wallace, of Philadelphia. Their adventure failed, probably by reason of the uni- versal depression following the war of 1812. A partition was made, Mr. Griffith taking the land contracts, including the compromises, which were all on time, and Mr. Wallace the unsold parts generally. Mr. Griffith's portion afterwards passed
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into the hands of assignees or trustees, and Mr. Wallace in December, 1818, conveyed the remain- der of his portion to the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Philadelphia in payment or security for debt. These lands of the bank lay for years with- out attention. In 1832 the bank, fearing the consequence of delay, sent out its agent and attorney, William Grimshaw, the well-known compiler of several school-books and minor his- tories. He was a man of imposing appearance, tall, severe and high-tempered-a man well calcu- lated to impress the settlers with fear of the law's tangled net-not personal fear, for few knew the feeling. He was active and efficient, compromis- ing with some and suing others. A large crop of ejectments followed, some of which found their way to the Supreme Court with various fortunes. About ten years later the Messrs. Huidekoper, of Meadville, having purchased the interest of the assignees of William Griffith,' compromised on fair terms, and to their credit, be it said, brought few or no suits. But time will not allow me to pursue this subject. It would be interesting to a Phila- delphian, familiar with the names of the families of 1792, to run over the names of the warrantees of that year. To this day, as I walk the streets
They were assignees of William and Maurice Wurts, of Phila- 1 delphia, who claimed under William Griffith.
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of that city, I read their familiar names on the door-plates of their houses. By compromises, by trials, and by the operation of the Statute of Limitations, under a change of judicial interpreta- tion, the titles of this county became settled and an era of improvement began.
It is probably not well known to the Bar of Beaver County, as few date their admission beyond 1850, that the variety of the original land titles in Beaver County exceeds that of any other county in the State. On the south side of the Ohio we have all the various titles, under- warrants, improvements, and licenses, both of the proprietary and the State governments, applicable to the purchase under the treaty of 1768, to which may be added Virginia entries by settlement under the "corn" law of that State of 1778, and by special grants, recognized by Pennsylvania in her settlement of boundaries with Virginia. One of these titles by Virginia entry is to be found at and below the mouth of Sawmill Run, opposite Pittsburgh, the property being owned in my younger days by West Elliott. General Washington was the owner of titles, under Virginia, to lands lying chiefly in Wash- ington County. On the north side of the Ohio we have the titles under the Donation and Depre- ciation surveys, with some marked peculiarities,
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and titles under the Act of 1792, by warrant and survey, and actual settlement and survey, involv- ing characteristics still more marked, including the doctrines of abandonment and vacating war- rants. These varying elements have also given characteristics to the tax titles of this county, differing in some respects from those in other parts of the State. The difference in the kind of warrants on the north and south side of the Ohio and in the modes of survey on both sides, often conflicting with each other, made the land titles of the county intricate and difficult.
Returning now to the more specific matter of the place selected for the administration of law, I may recur to the Act of 1800 fixing the county seat and the reasons therefor. A county is one of the great municipal divisions of the State, essential to the convenient and efficient administration of the government. The first inquiry of a calm and judicious mind is, Where is the true centre of con- venience, interest, population, and territory-not one of these, but all? It was quite natural that the legislators of that day would remember the town which the State herself had laid out with generous squares, and liberal avenues, and in which she had reserved eight squares for "pub- lic uses"-uses which she reserved to herself to appoint. It was on the site of the old French
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town, and of Fort McIntosh, to which a fine mili- tary road had been laid from Fort Pitt by Gen. Broadhead, a road on the south of the river, known to this day as "Broadheads," reaching the Ohio and coming down the hill opposite Beaver. The location of the town was most favorable. Beaver stands on a beautiful, healthy, and com- manding plateau, elevated about 130 feet above the river, and containing about 1000 acres, front- ing upon the Ohio to the southeast, and just below the Big Beaver. Of this plain one whom many of you knew, a son of one of Beaver's earliest and most eminent lawyers, and a child of genius, has beautifully written. Here he was born, here his eyes rested for the last time on the fair scene he depicted, when running a race with death, to the balm of California skies. But death outran him, and he died in Sacramento in January, 1870. His remains now lie here where he wished them to rest. Allow me a single extract from this de- scription :-
"The skies which overhang the hill-guarded plain are peculiarly rich and soft-are in unison with the scenery which is boldly beautiful rather than sub- . lime. It seems as if, in carving the outline of my native village, God had cut an exquisite brooch to nestle on the bosom of nature. Here dear ones sleep in a tasteful cemetery ; among them my hon-
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ored father, and the mother, whose memory has, for many years, been to me a living passion. I often think, that when my rambling life is over, if it please God, I would love to sleep, until the voice of Jesus shall quicken me into the full immortality of redemption, where the brawl of my native river shall sweetly and sadly resound round my grave. These hills shall lovingly guard, and these skies overshadow many generations after I and mine shall dwell together in the dust. Then shall they be fused and furled in fire-the time of the end shall have come. Happy they who shall stand up in the lot of childlike believers in Jesus! Something whis- pers, Jam claudite ritos."
These were among the last brilliant utterances of the Rev. Franklin Moore, D.D., in his flight ere death caught up, before he had crossed the con- tinent.1 But the beauties of the plain and the memories attending it were not the substantial reasons for fixing the seat of justice here. It had centrality of territory, population, convenience, and interest. Beaver stood on the bank of the great river of the West. Entering the county on the southeast at the mouth of the Big Swickly, the Ohio ran northwest to the mouth of the Big Beaver, then turning in front of the town it ran a little south of
1 Rev. Franklin Moore. D.D., filled many leading charges, in- cluding Wheeling, Washington, Uniontown, Harrisburg, Pottsville, and Philadelphia. In the last from 1862 to 1869.
.
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west to the Ohio State line. The Big Beaver coming in from the north, and bearing onward the waters of the Mahoning, Shenango, Neshannock, Slipperyrock, Connoquennessing, Brush Creek, Hickory Creek, Brady's Run, and minor streams, concentrated the valleys of all these water courses, like the radii of a circle, on the Ohio at the mouth of Big Beaver. So Raccoon entering the county at White's Mill on the south ran north nearly midway, entering the Ohio just below the Beaver plain. Thus nature had planted this fine plateau right at the centre of four great valleys, on the north, east, south, and west. These valleys and their corresponding ridges constitute the great channels of travel, all centring here. These again are fed by the smaller valleys and ridges leading into them-the Six Mile Run, Four Mile Run, Two Mile Run, Dutchman's Run, Crow's Run, Tevebaugh, entering the Ohio on the north side, and Logstown Run, and various streams down to. Mill Creek on the south side; while Raccoon bore to its mouth the waters of the Big and Little Travis, the Service, and other streams. Thus stood Beaver at this natural centre of travel, and the men of 1800 chose the only true centre of convenience, population, and territory. It was no leap in the dark, but the unbiased judgment of men consulting the public interest. They knew
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that the natural course of travel is along the val- leys, and upon the ridges, such as the Ohioville, Achortown, Broadhead and Frankfort roads, and that public thoroughfares do not seek to cross hills and dales, in ups and downs, like the teeth of a saw, at the expense of horse flesh, vehicles, and taxes. These reasons, self-evident then, have never changed, because nature remains the same, and even railroads follow the same law of travel.
. The county was organized in 1803, under the Act of 2d of April. The Commissioners crected the public buildings on two of the reserved squares, the court-house on that now occupied by this building, and the jail on the next adjacent, on the same side of Third Street. The first Court was held in February, 1804, in the house of Abner Lacock, on the lot lately owned by John Clark. The jail being first built, the Court was held in the second story of it until the old court-house was completed in 1810. That building was en- larged and improved in 1846, the wings having been rebuilt previously-the eastern wing in 1840, and the western afterward.
A new court-house had been sorely needed for years. Not only had the old one become unsuit- able, unsafe, unhealthy and uncomfortable, but the division of the former offices among a greater number of persons, and the creation of new offices,
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and the accumulation of records, papers, and re- cord books, the increase of population, and vast change in the subjects and character of litigation heretofore described, and other causes, all rendered a new building adapted to the wants of the present day an absolute necessity.
Here let me probe a tender spot, which like a wound needs it. I mean the inexcusable weak- ness of architects who sacrifice the purpose of a building to architectural effect. This is especially true in court-rooms. I speak from experience, having presided in many. I have had to place the witness at the end of the bench, and cluster the jury and counsel around him, and thus. to put justice in a corner. The architect, big with grand conceptions and holding before his eyes some ideal of genius, reaches to fame through lofty heights and groined arches, whose grand proportions return the sounds of the voice in rumblings and echoes, mixed with the original tones, destroy- ing their distinctness, to the loss of sense and to the prejudice of public interest. The purpose of a court-room is the administration of justice, but how can justice be administered by men architecturally deaf ? Anything impairing hear- ing is an absolute wrong to justice. Women and low-voiced men are rarely heard in such a room, and their testimony must be repeated by
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counsel, thus endangering accuracy and encourag- ing a vicious habit of repetition when not neces- sary, but used by counsel for effect on the jury. Human tribunals are imperfect at the best, yet how much worse it is when the access to justice is cut off by barring out distinctness of sound! The loss of a monosyllable will destroy the truth of a statement. See the consequence in a trial for life and death. The only real success in a court-room known to me, was the result of an acci- dent. The new Supreme Court room at Harrisburg is built alongside the Land Office, whose low height of ceiling regulated that of the new court-room. As a consequence, hearing is good. I would ex- cept also the new Supreme Court room in Phila- delphia, which is also good.
At the first court held in February, 1804, the Hon. Jesse Moore presided. He was the Presi- dent Judge of the sixth circuit, composed of the counties of Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Mercer, and Erie. His associates were Abner Lacock, John H. Reddick, and Joseph Caldwell. Abner Lacock resigned, and David Drennan was appointed, and took his seat on the 5th of February, 1805. On the death of Judge Caldwell, his vacancy was not filled, the number of associates, in the mean time, having been limited by law to two, John H. Red- dick and David Drennan continued together until
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1830, when Judge Reddick died, and Thomas Henry was commissioned May 19, 1830, by Gov- ernor Wolf. Judge Drennan died in 1831, and on the 19th of August the Governor commissioned Joseph Hemphill.
In 1806 Beaver County was transferred from the 6th to the 5th circuit, and Samuel Roberts be- came the President Judge of this county as part of his district. He was the author of the Digest of the English Statutes in force in Pennsylvania. On his death in 1820, he was succeeded by Wil- liam Wilkins, his commission dated on the 18th of December. On the appointment of Judge Wil- kins to the District Court of the United States, Charles Shaler succeeded him as President Judge of the 5th District. He sat in Beaver until the for- mation of the 17th District, bythe Act of 1st April, 1831, composed of the counties of Beaver, Butler, and Mercer. John Bredin, of Butler, was appointed President Judge of the new district, and continued to preside until his death, on or about the 22d of May, 1851. He was followed by myself, appointed in July, 1851, elected in the following October, and re-elected in October, 1861. I continued until December, 1863, when I became an Associate Jus- tice of the Supreme Court. Judge L. L. MeGuf- fin followed, then B. B. Chamberlin ; after him A. W. Acheson, followed by Henry Hice, Beaver
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County having in the mean time gone into the 27th District, composed of Beaver and Washington, and is now a separate district, numbered the 36th.
At the first court in this county, in Feb. 1804, the following gentlemen, attorneys in the fifth circuit, were admitted to practice in Beaver, viz:
Alexander Addison, Thomas Collins, Steele Semple, A. W. Foster, John B. Gibson, Samson S. King, Obediah Jennings, William Wilkins, Henry Haslet, James Allison, John Simonson, David Redick, Parker Campbell, David Hays, C. S. Sample, Henry Baldwin, Thomas G. John- ston, Isaac Kerr, James Mountain, Robert Moore, William Ayres, and William Larwill. Among these names will be recognized some of the most eminent men in Western Pennsylvania, at a time when the Bar of the fifth circuit was unsurpassed by any Bar in the State. The only name I miss from this roll is that of James Ross,1 the leader of the Bar at that early day, unrivalled for learning, polish, and legal erudition.
Of those who located in Beaver, James Allison and Robert Moore were among the most eminent, both being men of learning and ability. John Ban- nister Gibson, afterwards the great Chief Justice, remained but a year and a half, leaving the county young, and before he had achieved reputation.
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