USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 7
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 (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
" But with the settling of the Indian disorders and the return of peace, there soon came other troubles, with expensive and vexatious litigation, to annoy and harass settlers and warrantees by the uncertainty that was cast upon their titles. This uncertainty grew out of differences of opinion in re- lation to the construction the two years' clause of the law requiring actual
70
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
settlement, after the termination of the Indian hostilities that had prevented such settlement from being made, should receive. The opposite views held by those interested in titles are clearly stated in Sergeant's 'Land Laws,' page 98: 'On one side it was contended that the conditions of actual settlement and residence, required by the act, was dispensed with, on account of the prevention for two years after the date of the warrant * by Indian hostilities ; and that the warrant-holder was not bound to do anything further, but was entitled to a patent. On the other side it was insisted that the right under the warrant was forfeited, at the expiration of two years, without a settlement, and that actual settlers might then enter on such tracts and hold them by making a settlement. On this and other constructions, numbers of persons entered on the lands of warrantees and claimed to hold under the act, as settlers, after a forfeiture.' The authorities of the State at the time-1796 to 1800-held to the first opinion, and by the advice of Attorney-General Ingersoll, the Board of Property devised what was called a 'prevention certificate,' which set forth the fact of the inability of the warrantee or settler to make the required settlement. This certificate was to be signed by two justices, and on its presentation, properly signed, the land officers freely granted a patent for the land described. Under prevention certificates of this kind many patents were granted. The Holland Land Company received more than one thousand, and John Field, William Crammond, and James Gibson, in trust for the use of the Pennsylvania Population Company, more than eight hundred. These patents all contained a recital of the prevention certificate. as follows: 'And also in consideration of it having been made to appear to the Board of Property that the said (name of warrantee) was by force of arms of the enemies of the United States prevented from making settlement as is required by the ninth section (act of April 3, 1792), and the assignees of the said (warrantee) had persisted in their endeavors to make such settle- ment,' etc. With a change of administration in October, 1799, there followed a change of policy. The new authorities did not regard the policy and pro- ceedings of the former Board of Property binding, and the further issuing of patents on prevention certificates was refused. In the mean time, the contentions between the owners of warrants and settlers were carried into the courts, where a like difference of opinion in regard to the rights of the contending parties under the act of 1792 soon manifested itself, the judges disagreeing as widely in their construction of the ninth section as the parties in interest. It was only after years of exciting and troublesome litigation, and the enactment of a number of laws by the Legislature of the State to facilitate an adjustment of the contentions, that titles became settled and owners felt secure in their possessions. It may be said that while the judges of the courts often differed in their opinions on the points at issue, the litiga-
* Nearly all of these warrants were granted in 1792-93.
71
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
tion ended generally in favor of the holders of the warrants. The Holland Land Company, being composed of foreigners, could appeal to the courts of the United States. In one case carried to the Supreme Court, the company was actually absolved from making the settlement prescribed by the ninth section, Chief Justice Marshall holding that a warrant for a tract of land under the Act of 1792 ' to a person who, by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, was prevented from settling and improving the said land, and from residing thereon from the date of the warrant until the Ist of January, 1796, but who, during the said period, persisted in his endeavors to make such settlement and residence, vests in such grantee a fee-simple in said land.' * That the uncertainty in regard to land titles during these years did much to retard the growth and prosperity of this northwestern section of the State cannot be doubted; but, under the influence of better conditions, brought about by the adjustment of land rights and the allaying of local strife, it after- wards made marvellous strides forward in the march of progress and im- provement.
" The dispositions made of the unsold depreciation and the undrawn donation lots in this part of the purchase were fully treated of in former papers, and, therefore, need no further notice. It may not, however, be amiss to say a word in relation to the purchase of the Erie triangle, an acquisition that was of vast importance to Pennsylvania by reason of the outlet of Lake Erie. The triangle was claimed by the States of New York and Massachu- setts, but was ceded by both States, in the years 1781 and 1785, to the United States. The Pennsylvania authorities, anticipating its possession, had, through a treaty made at Fort McIntosh by General St. Clair, Colonel Harmer, and others, secured a deed from the Indians by which their claim of title was extinguished. This deed, signed by the chiefs of the Six Nations, is dated January 9, 1789, and the consideration paid was two thousand dollars. It was then, by a deed dated March 3, 1792, ceded by the United States to Pennsylvania. This deed is signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. In 1790, Andrew Ellicott made a survey of the triangle and found it to contain two hundred and two thou- sand two hundred and eighty-seven acres, and the purchase-money paid to the United States, at the rate of seventy-five cents an acre, amounted to $151,640.25. This purchase having been completed before the passage of the act of April 3, 1792, the lands within it, except the reservations, were sold under the provisions of that act. Before the completion of the purchase, John Nicholson had made application for the entire tract, and probably held a larger number of warrants for lands within its boundaries than any other individual.
* Smith's Laws, vol. ii. p. 228.
72
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" THE RESERVATIONS NORTH AND WEST OF THE OHIO AND ALLEGHENY RIVERS AND CONEWANGO CREEK
"In the act of March 12, 1783, setting apart the depreciation lands, two reservations for the use of the State were made,-one of 'three thousand acres, in an oblong of not less than one mile in depth from the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, and extending up and down the said rivers, from opposite Fort Pitt, so far as may be necessary to include the same;' and the other 'three thousand acres on the Ohio, and on both sides of Beaver Creek, including Fort McIntosh.' There was also reserved on Lake Erie for the use of the State the peninsula of Presque Isle, a tract extending eight miles along the shores of the lake and three miles in breadth, and another tract of two thousand acres on the lake at the mouth of Harbor Creek; and also tracts at the mouth of French Creek, at Fort Le Bœuf, and at the mouth of Conewango Creek. For the purpose of raising an additional sum by the sale of town lots to be used in paying the debts of the State, the President of the Supreme Executive Council was authorized by an act passed the 11th day of September, 1787, to cause a town to be laid out on the reservation opposite Fort Pitt. The tract, except three hundred and twelve acres within its boundaries, was accordingly sur- veyed into town and out lots and sold at public auction. The regular lots of the town, as laid down in the survey, were in dimensions sixty by two hundred and forty feet, while the out lots contained from five to ten acres. The part containing three hundred and twelve acres, not included in the plan of the town, was patented to James O'Hara on the 5th day of May, 1789. This town has grown into the large and flourishing city of Allegheny. By another act, passed September 28, 1791, the governor was given power to authorize the surveyor-general to cause a part of the reservation at the mouth of Beaver Creek to be laid out in town lots, ' on or near the ground where the old French town stood,' in such manner as commissioners, to be appointed by the governor, should direct. By this act two hundred acres were to be surveyed into town lots, and one thousand acres, adjoining on the upper side, into out lots to contain not less than five acres, nor more than ten acres. Daniel Leet, a deputy-surveyor, who had previously surveyed district No. 2, of the depre- ciation lands and one of the donation districts, was employed to lay out these town and out lots, and his survey of the town and out lots was confirmed by an act passed in March, 1793. The same act directed the governor to proceed to make sale of the lots and grant conveyances for them, in the manner pre- scribed by the act authorizing the laying out of the town. The town was called Beavertown, and when the county of Beaver was erected in 1800 was made the county seat. The act erecting the county appropriated five hundred acres of the reservation for the use of such school or academy as might there- after be established in the town. The town then called Beaver was incor- porated into a borough in 1802, and the boroughs of Rochester and Bridge- water, on opposite sides of the creek, also occupy parts of this reservation.
73
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" The towns of Erie, Franklin, Waterford, and Warren were established by an act passed on the 18th day of April, 1795. Of the large reservation on Lake Erie, at Presque Isle, the governor was authorized to appoint two com- missioners to survey sixteen hundred acres for town lots and three thousand four hundred, adjoining thereto, for out lots, with such streets, alleys, lanes, and reservations for public uses as the commissioners should direct. The town lots were to contain not more than one-third of an acre,* the out lots not more than five acres, the reservations for public uses not to exceed twenty acres, and the town was to be called Erie. After the survey of the town, made by General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, was filed in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth, the governor was directed to sell at public auction one-third of the town lots and one-third of the out lots to the highest bidders, and grant patents to the purchasers upon the condition that within two years they respectively should ' build a house, at least sixteen feet square, and containing at least one brick or stone chimney,' on each lot purchased, the patent not to be issued until after the expiration of two years, and then only on proof that the condition of the sale had been complied with. In addition to the surveys of the town and out lots, the act provided that three lots-one of sixty acres on the southern side of the harbor, another of thirty on the peninsula, and a third of one hundred acres, also on the peninsula,-should be surveyed for the 'use of the United States in erecting and maintaining forts, magazines, and dock-yards thereon.' Of the tract at the mouth of French Creek, three hundred acres for town lots and seven hundred acres for out lots were to be surveyed for the town of Franklin; and of the tract at the mouth of Conewango Creek, three hundred acres for town lots and seven hundred acres for out lots were to be surveyed for the town of Warren. At the time the act providing for the laying out of these towns became a law a settlement had been made at Fort Le Bœuf. Andrew Ellicott had surveyed and laid out a town, and his draft of the town was accepted and confirmed by the Legislature. It was provided, however, that in addition to the town lots of Ellicott's survey, five hundred acres should be surveyed for out lots, and that the town should be called Waterford. The size of the town and out lots for Franklin and Warren, the out lots for Waterford, and the provisions for streets, lanes, alleys, and reservations for public use,-the reservations reduced to ten acres,-were the same as for the town of Erie, as were also the regula- tions for the sale of the lots. At Waterford a number of settlers who had built houses were given a right of pre-emption to the lots on which they settled. A subsequent act passed April 11, 1799, provided that surveys should be made of the reserved tracts adjoining Erie, Franklin, Warren, and Water- ford, not laid out in town or out lots, into lots not to exceed one hundred and
* The regular town lots of Erie as laid down in the map of the town are eighty- two feet six inches front and one hundred and sixty-five feet in depth.
74
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
fifty acres in each, to be sold by commissioners, one of whom was to reside in each town. The tracts were to be graded in quality, and no sale was to be made at less than four dollars an acre for land of the first quality, three dollars for the second quality, and two dollars for the third quality; and purchasers, before title could vest in them, were required within three years from the date of their purchases to make an actual settlement on the. land 'by clearing, fencing, and cultivating at least two acres for every fifty contained in one survey, and erect on each lot or tract a messuage for the habitation of man and reside thereon for the space of five years following their first settlement of the same.' The same act required five hundred acres in each of the reserved tracts to be surveyed for the use of schools or academies, and provision was made for the appraisement of the residue of the town and out lots, and for their sale by the commissioner residing in the town. It was also provided in this act that the reserved lot in the town of Erie, at the mouth of Cascade Creek, was to be sold at public sale, on consideration of settlement and improvement, provided it brought fifty dollars an acre. By an act passed February 19, 1800, the clause of the act that required settlement and improve- ment of lots was repealed. The other reservation of two thousand acres in the Erie triangle, at the mouth of Harbor Creek, was donated by an act of the Legislature to General William Irvine to indemnify him for the loss of Montour's Island (now called Neville Island), in the Ohio River below the city of Pittsburg. General Irvine held the island under a Pennsylvania patent, but was divested of his title by a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in an ejectment suit brought against him by a party who claimed owner- ship under a Virginia right, which, under the agreement between Pennsylva- nia and Virginia for settling the southwestern boundary dispute, was held by the court to be good."
INDIAN TREATIES AT FORTS STANWIX (ROME, N. Y.) AND M'INTOSH
For a full history of the proceedings of the treaties held at Forts Stanwix and McIntosh, between the commissioners of the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania and the deputies of the Six Nations and the Wyandott and Delaware Indians, claiming the unpurchased territory within the acknowledged limits of the northwest of Pennsylvania, see McKnight's " Pioneer History of Jef- ferson County, Pennsylvania."
CHAPTER V
TITLES AND SURVEYS-PIONEER SURVEYS AND SURVEYORS-DISTRICT LINES- LAWS, REFERENCES, AND REPORTS-STREAMS AND HIGHWAYS-DONATION LANDS
"IN 1670 Admiral Sir William Penn, an officer in the English navy, died. The government owed this officer sixteen hundred pounds, and William Penn, Jr., fell heir to this claim. King Charles II. liquidated this debt by granting to William Penn, Jr., 'a tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland and west of the Delaware River, extending as far west as plantable.' King Charles signed this deed March 4, 1671. William Penn, Jr., was then proprietor, with power to form a government. Penn named the grant Penn- sylvania, in honor of his father. In 1682 Penn published his form of govern- ment and laws. After making several treaties and visiting the Indians in the interior as far as Conestoga, Penn sailed for England, June 12, 1684, and remained away till December 1, 1699. On his return he labored to introduce reforms in the provincial government, but failed. He negotiated a new treaty of peace with the Susquehanna Indians and also with the Five Nations. In the spring of 1701 he made a second journey into the interior, going as far as the Susquehanna and Swatara. Business complications having arisen, Penn sailed for England in the fall, and arrived there the middle of December, 1701. Owing to straitened financial circumstances, he entered into an agreement with Queen Anne, in 1712, to cede to her the province of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties for the sum of twelve thousand pounds sterling; but before the legal papers were completed he was stricken with paralysis, and died July 30, 1718, aged seventy-four. While Penn accomplished much, he also suffered much. He was persecuted for his religion, imprisoned for debt, and tried for treason. After his death it was found that, owing to the com- plication of his affairs and the peculiar construction of his will, a suit in chancery to establish his legal heirship was necessary. Several years elapsed before the question was decided, when the Proprietaryship of the province descended to John, Richard, and Thomas Penn. John died in 1746 and Richard in 1771, when John, Richard's son, and Thomas became sole Pro- prietaries. But the Revolution and the Declaration of Independence soon caused a radical change in the provincial government."-Meginnis.
During the Revolution the Penn family were Tories, adherents of Eng- land, and on the 27th of November, 1779, the Legislature of Pennsylvania confiscated all their property except certain manors, etc., of which surveys
76
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
and returns had been made prior to the 4th of July, 1776. The Penns were granted as a compensation for these confiscations one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling. This ended the rule of the Penns in America. The treaty of peace between England and what is now the United States was ratified by Congress in January, 1784. All foreign domination or rule in the colonies then ceased, but internal troubles with the savages still continued in this State in the north and northwest.
" The Indians were jealous of their rights, and restive under any real or fancied encroachments that might be made upon them, and it required the exercise of great care, caution, and prudence on the part of the authorities to avert trouble on the northern and western boundaries of the State; and this they did not always succeed in doing, as many adventurous spirits, pushing far out into the unsettled wilderness, discovered to their sorrow. Fortunately, however, by the treaty of October, 1784, with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, and that of January, 1785, with the Wyandots and Delawares at Fort McIn- tosh, the Indian title was extinguished to all the remaining territory within the then acknowledged limits of the State which had been previously pur- chased. The boundaries of that great northwestern section of the State cov- ered by this purchase may be briefly described as follows: Beginning on the east branch of the Susquehanna River where it crosses the northern boundary of the State in Bradford County ; thence down the east branch to the mouth of Towanda Creek; thence up Towanda Creek to its head-waters; thence by a straight line west to the head-waters of Pine Creek; thence down Pine Creek to the west branch of the Susquehanna ; thence up the west branch to Cherry Tree in Clearfield County; thence by a straight line to Kittanning, on the Allegheny River, in Armstrong County; thence down the Allegheny River to the Ohio River ; thence down the Ohio River to where it crosses the western boundary to Lake Erie; and thence east along the northern boundary of the State to the beginning. And within this territory at the present day we find the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Crawford, Venango, Forest, Clarion, Elk, Jefferson, Cameron, Butler, Lawrence, and Mercer, and parts of the counties of Bradford, Clinton, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Alle- gheny, Beaver, and Erie."-Annual Report of Internal Affairs.
The Indians received for this territory ten thousand dollars in cash. Our wilderness was then in Northumberland County. "All land within the late (1784) purchase from the Indians, not heretofore assigned to any other par- ticular county, shall be taken and deemed to be within the limits of Northum- berland County and Westmoreland County. And that from Kittanning up the Allegheny to the mouth of Conewango Creek, and from thence up said creek to the northern line of this State, shall be the line between Northum- berland County."-Smith's Laws, vol. ii. p. 325.
" Under the Proprietary government which ended November 27, 1779. land was disposed to whom, on what terms, in such quantities, and such loca-
77
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
tions as the proprietor or his agents saw proper. The unoccupied lands were never put in the market, nor their sale regulated by law. Every effort made by the Assembly to secure uniformity in the sale and price of land was resisted by the proprietor as an infringement upon his manorial rights. After the Commonwealth became vested with the proprietary interests, a law was passed April 9, 1781, for establishing the land-office, for the purpose of enabling those persons to whom grants had been made to perfect their titles. July 1, 1784, an act was passed opening the land-office for the sale of vacant lands in the purchase of 1768. The price was fixed at fio per one hundred acres, or thirty- three and one-third cents per acre, in addition to the warrant survey and patent fees, and the quantity in each warrant limited to four hundred acres and the six per cent. allowance. The purchase of 1784 having been com- pleted and confirmed by the treaty at Fort McIntosh, January, 1785, the land- office was opened for the sale of lands in the new purchase December 21, 1785, at which the price was fixed at £30 per one hundred acres, and warrants were allowed to contain one thousand acres, with ten per cent. overplus, besides the usual allowance." This is the reason why so many old warrants contained eleven hundred acres, with six per cent., or sixty acres more. "Nevertheless, the price of the land was placed so high that but few speculators ventured to invest in the hilly and heavily timbered lands of Northern Pennsylvania. Under the pressure of certain land-jobbers, who were holding important offices (?) in the Commonwealth, like John Nicholson, Robert Morris, and William Bingham, an act was passed April 3, 1792, in which the price of vacant lands was reduced to fifty shillings per one hundred acres, or six and two-thirds cents per acre. Speculation ran wild. Applications for warrants poured into the office by tens of thousands. The law, while it appeared to favor persons of small means, and prevent the wealthy from acquiring large portions of the public domain, was so drawn that by means of fictitious appli- cations and poll deeds-that is, mere assignments of the application without the formalities of acknowledgment-any party could possess himself of an unlimited quantity of the unappropriated lands. Within a year or two nearly all the lands in the county (then Northumberland) had been applied for, Nicholson, Morris, Bingham, James D. Le Roy, Henry Drinker, John Vaughan, Pickering, and Hodgdon being the principal holders."-Craft's His- tory of Bradford County, pp. 40, 41.
" When, in the pursuance of this policy which had been adopted by Wil- liam Penn, by treaties with and by purchases of the Indians, they finally became divested of their original title to all the lands in Pennsylvania ; then, under what was called ' The Late Purchase,' which covered all of this section of country and included it in Northumberland County, in the year 1785 certain warrants, called 'Lottery Warrants,' were issued by governmental authority to persons who would pay twenty pounds per hundred acres, authorizing them to enter upon the lands and make selections where they pleased. This was
78
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
done to some extent, and on those warrants surveys were made; but, as there was no road by which emigrants could come into the country, no settlements could be made except where the sturdy pioneer could push his canoe, ig- noring, or overcoming all the privations and difficulties incident to a pioneer life in such a wilderness."
PIONEER SURVEYS
With a desire to give a complete history of the pioneer surveys of the northwest, I addressed a letter to Hon. I. B. Brown, Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs, asking for all the information possessed by the State. I herewith submit his reply,-viz. :
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.