USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 8
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five or six miles east of where the western boundary line reaches the lake. This new boundary line was permanently marked by stone monuments placed a mile apart, and lettered, on the one side to indicate New York and on the other to indicate Pennsylvania. The location of the western line was determined in 1786, Andrew Ellicott serving as commissioner on the part of Pennsylvania.
This survey of the state boundaries settled one thing, but it unsettled another. The question immediately arose, if not in one form, then in another, where is Presque Isle-in what state is it located? For this comedy of errors, or of misunderstandings, came up., It turned out that there was a tract of land claimed first and last, by no less than four states, Virginia, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. As to the claim of the first, it was effectually settled by the survey. The survey on the other hand, seemed to establish the title of New York to the piece of territory. However, there was a better authority. The royal charter, in the case of New York as in that of Pennsylvania, was the declared law. This charter defined the western boundary of New York to be the meridian of the western end of Lake Ontario, and the surveyors agreed that the western end was just outside of Burlington Bay, and this fixed the boundary line just twenty miles east of Fort Presque Isle. The claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut were also based upon royal charters. But these placed no western limits upon the territory granted. The tri- angle, therefore, belonging neither to New York, Pennsylvania nor Vir- ginia was logically a part of the territory of either one or the other of these New England states. In this troublesome situation the United States government effected a settlement of the difficulties by becoming owner, Connecticut, however, reserving to itself the territory west of the Pennsylvania line and between the lake and the forty-first degree of latitude, a tract of country to this day known as the Western Reserve.
After the survey, when it came to be known that the Triangle which had been in dispute was held by the United States government, there arose a strong desire on the part of Pennsylvania interests to secure it as part of the state. Gen. William Irvine had been sent to the northwest by the state authorities to examine and report upon the qualities of the lands of that section and make report. When this was done and it came to be known that the state had no harbor on the lake, and that the triangular tract was in every way desirable, there arose a strong desire to possess it. This was especially manifest in Philadelphia where the progressive citizens, eager to extend whatever commercial advantages offered, saw in the possession by the state of so fine a harbor as Gen. Irvine described, determined upon securing it. Accordingly an organiza- tion was effected, the state authorities enlisted in the measure, and at length a contract was made between the delegates of the state of Penn- sylvania and the United States government for the sale of this tract of land to Pennsylvania. The act under which the title was authorized on
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the part of the state was approved by Governor Mifflin April 13, 1791. The patent from the United States to the state of Pennsylvania, was signed by George Washington, President; and Thomas Jefferson, Secre- tary of State, April 23, 1792. The consideration was $151,640.25, and it was paid in continental certificates.
But there was another title to be cleared up. The Indians of the Six Nations claimed ownership, control or right over the land that was to be disposed of. In the Indian claim there was nothing specific-no metes nor bounds-it was in a general way as their land the claim was made, and notwithstanding the indefinite character of the claim set up by the aborigines it could not be ignored. Accordingly negotiations were opened with the Indians which resulted in a conference on January 9, 1789, at which time the representatives of the Indian Six Nations signed a deed transferring the land. The price paid for the land to the Iroquois was $2,000 by the state of Pennsylvania and $1,200 by the United States.
Even this was not the end of claims that were against that triangular piece of territory. It turned out that objections arose with reference to the transaction of 1789, as there were Indians who claimed they had not been represented in the deal, whereupon the trouble was straightened out at the end of a pow-pow, and a new deed was given bearing date February 3, 1791. Both of these deeds were signed by Cornplanter, one of the most famous Indians in the history of that race, and by Half Town and Big Tree, also important chiefs in the Iroquois confederacy. No sooner had this second settlement of the land claim been made than a dispute arose between representatives of the Senecas and other tribes and trouble seemed to be brewing. The upshot of it was that $800 more was paid when a final release was executed, which became recorded as a quit-claim deed.
With this the title of Pennsylvania to the Triangle was fully cleared up. "Thus we have for the Triangle, settlements and considerations made by the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vir- ginia, and by direct conveyance from the United States to the state of- Pennsylvania, reinforced by a deed relinquishing all rights and claims, except for hunting, from the Six Nations of Indians, and subsequently by another quit-claim deed representing Indians who appear to allege dis- satisfaction or bad treatment. The title of Pennsylvania to the Triangle seems to have been acquiesced in and regarded as complete and sufficient as a basis of all subsequent titles."*
Though the part of the county south of the Triangle came to Penn- sylvania through no such tribulation as has just been recounted, there were aspects in the acquisition of that not without interest. Of course it was embraced in the charter given by Charles II to William Penn, but was not part of the territory purchased from the Indians in 1768-or previous to the war of the Revolution, that is to say, in Colonial times.
* Dept. Int. Affairs, Report 1906.
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It was acquired after Pennsylvania had become a sovereign state of the American union. It came about this way :
A conference by commissioners of the United States and commis- sioners representing the state of Pennsylvania was held at Fort Stan- wix, in New York (now Rome, N. Y.) at which negotiations were made and perfected by which the Indians conveyed to the state of Pennsylvania the territory north of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers, and extending from a point in Armstrong county, generally in a northeasterly direction to a point in the state boundary line near the center of Bradford county, including all land from this line north to the New York state line and westward to the line of Ohio, which it will readily be under- stood embraced the land up to the old state line in Erie county. The deed to this land from the Indians is dated October 23, 1784.
The Indians whose title was supposed to be transferred or passed by the above deed, were those known as the Six Nations. But there were other Indians who claimed rights and ownership in Pennsylvania. The Wyandottes and Delawares, after the assignment by the Six Nations had been made, came forward with their claims to the whole, or a large portion of the same territory. No claims were more difficult to adjust than Indian claims of this character, unless the simple method of buying off all claimants were adopted. Indeed there was no other way to get around trouble, trouble of the most serious kind. For a dissatisfied Indian was not slow to become a hostile Indian if he felt himself in any way aggrieved. Accordingly another conference with relation to the same territory was held at Fort McIntosh (now Beaver, Pa.) where on January 21, 1785, the Wyandotte and Delaware Indians conveyed their title or claim to the state of Pennsylvania.
Hence, for the land south of the old state line in Erie county there was first the charter of Charles II to William Penn bearing date March 4, 1681, by which the commonwealth derived title on its estab- lishment through the Divesting Act of 1779; then the title so obtained was reinforced by the deed of purchase from the Iroquois or Six Nations, dated October 23, 1784, and by a second deed from the Wyandottes and Delawares, January 21, 1785. It is interesting at this point to note the fact that, whatever title or claim the people of the white race may have had to the territory of Pennsylvania, every foot of it was purchased from the Indians, the original owners of the soil. In some instances, as has appeared, the land was purchased twice over.
The purchase of the Triangle and its addition to Pennsylvania naturally rendered the survey of that portion of the boundary line ex- tending from the southwest corner of the state of New York to the shore of Lake Erie obsolete, but the monument erected at the west end of the line, to mark the completion of the survey, standing originally on the crest of the bluff, was in the course of time carried away by the sloughing of the steep clay hillside as the frosts left the soil in the spring.
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It was regarded as too important a landmark not to be perpetuated. Accordingly the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the session of 1905 passed an act appropriating $500 for the erection of a new monument to mark the end of the old state line which would at the same time stand as a record of the historical events associated with the place and the county. It stands near the shore of the lake in Springfield township about half way between the eastern and western boundaries of the township.
The work of properly locating the new monument was entrusted by Secretary Brown of the Department of Internal Affairs to Mr. J. Sutton Wall, chief draftsman and surveyor of the Department. It was. important of course that it should in fact represent the termination of the line, and a careful survey was made by Mr. Wall with that purpose in view. The old stone, which had been a slab from a rather thick and hard stratum of the shale which crops out near the water's edge, had entirely disappeared having it is believed been picked up by the gatherers of stone- for pier-filling when the Conneaut docks were in course of construction. The new monument, it was desired, should occupy a position where there would be no danger of its sliding down the bluff and yet be on the line of the original survey. The assistants of Mr. Wall in the work of choosing the location were O. P. Eaton and J. C. Wilson of Corry, Charles Bovee of North Springfield and Ralph C. Benedict of West Springfield. Careful search under the guidance of Joseph R. Hewitt of Springfield township resulted in finding the last of the milestones, the 259th. It was found in a broken condition, between the properties of Henry Kenuth and C. G. Kimmel.
According to the report of the survey of the original boundary, the last stone or monument had been placed eighty-five rods west of the 259th milestone. Measuring from that milestone, west 85 rods, Mr. Wall found that in the year 1906, when his survey was made, the location of the stone would have been about half way between the edge of the bluff and the waters of the lake, indicating that not less than one hundred feet of the land of the top of the bluff had been carried away by the sloughing or sliding of the land, since the original monument had been placed, in 1287.
For the new monument a site was selected on the summit of a small ridge or knoll, five hundred and sixteen feet west of milestone No. 259. There twenty feet square was staked off and subsequently bought by the state, in the center of which the monument was to be erected. In April, 190?, the work of erecting the monument was entrusted to the care- and superintendence of Mr. Benedict. A substructure of broken stone and concrete was made and upon this the monument was erected, the- work being completed on the 23d of April. 1907.
This monument was formally dedicated at a mass-meeting. com- posed principally of citizens of Erie county, including Senator Sisson
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and the members of the House of Representatives on September 10, 1907, an appropriate date, being the ninety-fourth anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie, where Commodore Perry, in command of a fleet, the best part of which was built at Erie, won the most notable naval victory up to that time, capturing an entire British fleet.
The dedication proved to be an auspicious occasion. Not only was there a large and representative gathering, but the people assen .- bled there came impressed with the proper spirit, ready to enter into the doings of the day with appreciative interest. By common consent the chief feature of the program had been assigned to Hon. Isaac B. Brown of Corry. As secretary of Internal Affairs at Harrisburg, he had taken especial interest in the enterprise of preserving the terminal mark of that historic survey. Becoming deeper interested in the project as the details of the work progressed. he had taken to a study of the history that the monument proposed to be erected would recall to a thoughtful mind, with the result that he had accumulated an extensive store of historical facts. He was therefore made speaker of the occasion. His address was a historical review of the country round about, history that the monument was intended to stand for and commemorate. It is therefore, not the last milestone in the old state line, but marking the place where that line terminated is a monument of the events associated with the coming of the white race into the county of Erie and into western Pennsylvania.
This monument is a monolith of New England granite, equally four sided with a pyramidal top. On each of the four sides there is a bronze panel securely fastened. These bear proper inscriptions, which are :
Northern side: "The lands north of this line and easterly to the western line of New York, purchased from the Indians January 9, 1789, and February 3, 1791, and deeded to the state of Pennsylvania by George Washington as President of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, March 3, 1792."
Southern side: "Lands in northwestern Pennsylvania included in the Charter to William Penn of March 4, 1681, purchased of Six Na- tions, October 23, 1784, and from the Wyandotte and Delaware Indians, January 21, 1785."
Eastern side: "Easterly 516 feet from this monument stood the last milestone, the 259th from the Delaware river."
Western side: "Erected in 1907 by the State of Pennsylvania to mark the location of the old State Line established in 1786-7."
There may seem to be a discrepancy between the terms of the grant of King Charles to William Penn and the survey as actually made in 1786-7, that survey being on the 42d parallel; for it will be found in the original grant that the language used is, that the territory is bounded "east by Delaware river unto the three and fortieth degree of Vol. I-5
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north latitude." This is the explanation: The grant is to the degree, not the parallel; and the forty-third degree begins at the forty-second parallel. The Triangle, then is in the forty-third degree.
CHAPTER VIII .- READY FOR THE SETTLERS.
GRIEVOUS INDIAN TROUBLES AT LENGTH DISPOSED OF .- PROVISIONS MADE
BY WHICH LAND COULD BE ACQUIRED.
The ownership of the Triangle having been determined, it would seem as though nothing remained but to open the land for settlement in order to bring this way a population that even in those early days had turned its face westward, following the star of empire. This the State proceeded to do with all the expedition that could be expected. As early as 1791, the year after the commonwealth of Pennsylvania had adopted its first constitution, a favorable report on a proposition to open up a route from east of the mountains to Lake Erie was received and acted upon by the state legislature. Just after the constitution had been adopted Timothy Matlack, Samuel McClay and John Adlum were ap- pointed commissioners to proceed up the Sinnemahoning and cross to any stream that might discharge itself into the Allegheny river nearest the mouth of French creek, up which stream they were to proceed to Le Bœuf, and thence, over the portage road to Presque Isle. It was the report of this commission that was received by the legislature in 1791, and the result was the passage of an act appropriating 100 pounds for the improvement of French Creek from its mouth up to the road leading to Presque Isle. This was part of an act designed to improve the navi- gable waters of the state and to open roads.
Two years later there was organized the Pennsylvania Population Company, whose managers were John Nicholson, John Field, Theophilus Casenove and Aaron Burr. This company undertook to stimulate settle- ment, but their efforts were for the time thwarted by the Indians.
It had been supposed that, with deeds in fee and deeds of quit- claim, which had been secured from the Indians, all doubts about the title had been set at rest. But they were not. The Indians were possessed of peculiarly fine ideas of their rights, and, without any comprehension of white men's laws it was no easy task to satisfy them. As a rule the white man was impatient with what appeared to be their vaccilating dis- position, while the Indian, failing entirely to understand the newcomers, was suspicious that every overture was an effort to overreach him. The result was in every instance a long drawn out dispute, in which the white man, undertaking to enforce his law, was opposed by the only law
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the Indian knew-the law of force. Few people, even at this late day, can fully appreciate what the exact relation was that existed between the two races at that time. The white man then certainly did not, and the Indian could not. The fact of the matter is the white man who was the product of many centuries of education and culture, was dealing with a man of the stone age. It was as though the ancestors of the race then come into the life of this continent, were pitted against their descendants who for far more than a millenium had been making steady progress upward. In much that was possessed of the attributes of man- hood by the white man, the Indian was as a child. He knew nothing whatever of civilization. He had no written language. Even his hieroglyphic record was restricted to the totems that designated family or tribe and the commonest objects of nature about him. His only history was in traditions which lived but so long as the particular family concerned endured.
What wonder, then, that, when it came to the weighty negotiations that involved their parting with their ancestral rights, they were slow to comprehend and reluctant to consent? With no ideas beyond what had been their mode of living, how could it be expected they could un- derstand what a new mode involved, or believe that a better could obtain ? They could only see in the new system a deprivation of their means of livelihood, a change that would bring hunger and suffering to them. Their lands were theirs to hunt over. From the chase they obtained sustenance for themselves and children. Deprived of these they could not live. And then, when it came to the final test, they knew of no resort but that which had obtained among them from the beginning, so far as they had knowledge-the law of force.
It was this attitude of the Indians that caused the delay in the settlement of this part of the country after all the obstacles of the white man's law, as between claimants among the white men, had been re- moved. Moreover, it seemed at the time as though the Indian was receiv- ing encouragement in his opposition to the settlement of the country- that his dissatisfaction was being stimulated; for the evidences seemed to show that representatives of the British government were stirring up discontent among the Indians. Cornplanter, one of the noblest of the American savages, and friendly with the Americans, was himself dragged into the plots and schemes of those who were endeavoring to stir up dissensions and discourage the occupancy of the territory on the south of Lake Erie. These representatives of the British, establishing themselves at Buffalo Creek, called frequent conferences with Indians. Gen. Wilkins, in 1793, reporting on the Indian situation from Fort Frank- lin, said. "The English are fixed in their opposition to the opening of the road to Presque Isle (from Le Bœuf), and are determined to send a number of English and Indians to cut them off." Their idea, it would appear, was to claim the Triangle lately acquired by Pennsylvania, as,
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being territory not included in the royal grants, either to New York or Pennsylvania, therefore the property of Great Britain. And in fur- therance of this scheme or plan, the Indians were urged on to defeat the efforts of the Pennsylvania authorities to secure peaceful possession.
Old Cornplanter was loyal to his American friends. He favored the transfer made by the Indian nations through him. But Joseph Brant was opposed and he stirred up a strife that threatened to be violent. Brant was one of the most remarkable Indians that ever lived. He was probably the first of his race to receive a high-grade education. He was a college graduate; had learned all the arts and graces of civilization ; but when he had attained the highest point that the school education of the day could give him, he threw it all at his feet, and, putting on his dress of buckskin returned to the woods and the ways of the tribe in which he had been born. It was Brant who led in the fight against adopting a treaty of peace and he pertinaciously resisted its adoption. Cornplanter was trusted by the white people. They had had experience of his fidelity; but of the other it was different. There had been no massacres by the Indians here up to this time, nor in the immediate vicinity of Erie, but with Brant breathing out threatenings none were willing to take the risk that seemed to be involved, not even with as- surance of the friendship of Cornplanter.
The outcome of the Indian troubles that were now in evidence was a decision to send forces for the garrisoning of Fort Franklin and Fort Le Bœuf. There had been a force at Fort Franklin but it was deemed inadequate under the more threatening condition of affairs. Capt. Denny was sent with a force to occupy Le Bœuf, but directed to proceed no farther. Accordingly he established himself there and built two small block houses.
In the Triangle matters were at a stand-still. No white man at- tempted to become a settler. The Pennsylvania Population Company had appointed Thomas Rees a deputy surveyer for land in the Triangle, which in 1792 he entered in his book of record, and next year he made an attempt to go out and survey them; but, proceeding by way of Buf- falo Creek, he was halted there and informed by the Indians that if he went to Presque Isle to make his surveys he would be killed. This dis- couraged him for that season. The next year, 1794, he did come; and prosecuted his work. But he did it alone. He saw no white man, and, living in constant fear of the savages, made what haste he could to reach Fort Le Bœuf, where there was a garrison under Major Denny. Early in 1795, Deacon Hinds Chamberlain of Le Roy, N. Y., in company with Jesse Beach and Reuben Heath, made a journey along the south shore of Lake Erie. He reports: "At Presque Isle we found neither whites nor Indians-all was solitary." Under such a state of affairs it became a necessity that the conditions applying to contracts for the pur- chase of land in the Triangle should be changed.
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Now there were a number of ways by which the public land of the Triangle could be secured by settlers and these may be profitably set forth here. First there was the Actual Settlement Act, passed by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth in 1792, immediately after the Triangle had been acquired. This act provided that the land would be sold to any person who would cultivate, improve and settle the same, or cause them to be improved and settled, at seven pounds and ten shillings for every one hundred acres, with allowance of six per cent for roads, etc., but no one settler was allowed to claim more than four hundred acres. The definition of actual settlement was set out with care. "No title shall vest in the lands unless the grantee has, prior to the issue of his warrant, made or caused to be made, or shall, within two years next after the same make or cause to be made an actual set- tlement thereon by clearing, fencing and cultivating at least two acres for every one hundred in one survey, and erected a house, and resided or caused a family to reside on the same for the five years immediately following; and in default thereof new warrants shall be issued to actual settlers." In view of the Indian troubles, however, there was a notable modification in the terms made which "provided, that if any such actual settler or grantee shall, by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, be prevented from making such settlement, or be driven therefrom, and shall persist in his endeavors to make such actual settlement, then, in either case, he and his heirs shall be entitled to have and to hold such lands in the same manner as if the actual settle- ment had been made." However, the lands actually settled and improved were to remain chargeable with the purchase money and interest, and if the grantee neglected to apply for a warrant for ten years after the passage of the act, unless hindered by death or the enemies of the United States, the lands might be granted to others by warrants reciting the de- faults.
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