Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 11

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526

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The controversy between Virginia and Pennsylvania in regard to the ownership of territory assumed its most important aspect about the time the Maryland ques- tion was settled. The Pittsburg region appears to have first been the subject of controversy in 1752, when Thomas Penn wrote to the governor of the province de- siring him to enter into any reasonable measures to assist the governor of Vir- ginia to build a fort at the forks of the

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

Ohio, and take some acknowledgment from him that this settlement should not be made use of to prejudice the rights of the proprietor of the country.

Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, on the 19th of February, 1754, announced his in- tentions of building a fort on the Ohio to oppose the encroachments of the French and offered the men who were to be en- gaged in the work over and above their pay two hundred thousand acres of land, one hundred thousand acres of which should be contiguous to the fort, and the other one hundred thousand on or near the river. This proclamation was transmitted to Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, and the latter replied that, having inquired into the extent of the province westwardly, he had the greatest reasons to believe that the lands intended to be granted were within the limits of the province of Penn- sylvania. Governor Dinwiddie was equally firm in his belief that the land and fort were within the jurisdiction of Virginia, and thus it came about that the region around Pittsburg became the bone of double contention. England and France went to war about it, and Virginia and Pennsylvania began a controversy which endured for more than twenty years, in the course of which much ill blood and angry feeling were displayed. The matter was not finally settled until 1782, when the present line between Pennsylvania and West Virginia was agreed upon, which is an extension of Mason and Dixon's line. The line was not completed and perma- nently marked until 1784.

The new purchase of 1784 was confirmed by the Wyandotte and Delaware Indians January 21, 1885, and soon after settlers began to flock into the territory from the west branch of the Susquehanna. It was not until 1795 that the early pioneers crossed the Allegheny River and pene- trated the vast wildernesses of Butler County and the territory lying north to Lake Erie.

The record of the treaties made with the Indians after the famous "walking pur- chase," reflects no great amount of credits on the white invaders of the country. The new comers from the north of Ireland had no thought for the original occupiers of the land, and, as proved by their deter- mined opposition to Penn's surveyors and rent collectors in the Gettysburg country, did not even respect the claims of the pro- prietors of the province where such claims interfered with their own interest. Strong and warlike and without mercy in war, they marched forward to occupy the land and began the commencement of the end at the neighboring town of Kittanning on the Allegheny River. Then followed treaties which were broken with impunity by the whites whenever it was to their in- terest to do so, while the Indians were held to a strict compliance with them. The first treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 was an affair of this kind. The colony or pro- prietary then got a show of title eastward to the Allegheny south of Kittanning. In 1878 the title became vested in the State of Pennsylvania, and from that period to 1794 the war was between her citizens and the Indians.

As the years passed by, the Indians realized the plans of the invaders, and determined to hold in check the advance of the white race. They expressed them- selves plainly, but the aggressive people of trade and commerce disregarded the warning, and pushing forward their ad- vantages, brought on the Indian wars that terrorized the western section of the State for half a century. The first organized attack made by the English-speaking colo- nists in the vicinity of Butler County was that on the Delaware Indian town at Kit- tanning. This attack was made by three hundred and seven soldiers under Lieu- tenant-Colonel Armstrong in September, 1756. The Indian town was burned and with it many Indian women and children.

The colonists lost seventeen killed, thir-

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teen wounded, and nineteen missing. A number of whites held captives by the In- dians were released.

FERGUSON'S WANTON ACT.

In 1796 while John Gibson and William Ferguson were en route to Butler County they discovered a canoe full of Indians on the river near Brady's Bend. More than one of Ferguson's relations had been mur- dered by the savages, and as a consequence, he bore no love for the redskins. Here was an opportunity for revenge, and avail- ing himself of it, he fired on the party and killed one of the savages. He then fled toward Butler County and made his escape. The following year John Alexan- der and Hugh Gibson settled permanently on land selected in the limits of the county the previous year. Soon after their ar- rival, two giant Indians presented them- selves at the cabin door. Hugh Gibson, a boy of fifteen, was alone at the cabin and was very much scared, but the Indians merely asked for something to eat and when their hunger was satisfied with some cucumbers and cake furnished by young Gibson they passed on.

As late as 1818 the Cornplanter Indians visited Butler County for their annual hunt during the winter season. As the animals would fall, the wild hunters would dress them carefully and then hang the carcass high up in the branches of a tree beyond the reach of wolves, and in places where bears would not venture. In later years straggling Indians from the Seneca reservation visited the county, but after the murder of the Wigton family in 1842 by Mohawk, the representatives of the In- dian tribes avoided Butler County.

THE DEPRECIATION LANDS.

Before the title to the region northwest of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek had been secured, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was tak- ing steps for disposing of these lands.

During the later years of the Revolution the value of the bills of credit issued by Pennsylvania, as well as those issued by Congress, gradually depreciated until they fell to a mere nominal value. Conse- quently great losses were experienced by the holders of the State certificates. The officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania line and the State troops especially suf- fered, as they received the certificates in payment for their services. Disputes con- stantly arose in relation to the deductions to be made from the face of the cer- tificates. To remedy this inconvenience, the State legislature on the 3rd of April, 1781, passed an act fixing a scale of depre- ciation varying from 11/2 to 75 per cent. for each month between the years 1777 and 1781. According to which the accounts of the army could be settled. Unable otherwise to pay its troops, the State gave the officers and soldiers certificates in con- formity with the prescribed scale, which were made receivable in payment for lands sold by the State. These were called "Depreciation Certificates," and the lands thus purchased were called the "Depre- ciation Lands."

In order to provide for the redemption of these Depreciation Certificates, an act was passed on the 12th of March, 1783, which described the boundaries of the Depreciation Lands. The boundary began at a point where the western line of the State crosses the Ohio River; thence up the said river to Fort Pitt; thence up the Allegheny River to the mouth of Mahoning Creek; thence by a west line to the west- ern boundary of the State; thence south by said boundary to the place of begin- ning, "reserving to the use of the State 3,000 acres in an oblong not less than one mile in depth, from the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers and up and down the said rivers from Fort Pitt as far as may be necessary to include the same; and a fur- ther quantity of 3,000 acres on the Ohio River on both sides of Beaver Creek, in-

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

cluding Fort McIntosh." The surveyor general of the State was instructed to cause the aforesaid tract of land to be laid out in lots of not less than two hundred, nor more than three hundred and fifty acres each, numbering the same lots numerically on the draft or plat of the country aforesaid, and "shall as soon as the same, or one hundred lots thereof, are surveyed, together with the secretary of the land office and receiver general, pro- ceed to sell the same lots under such regulations as shall be appointed by the Supreme Executive Council. The full con- sideration bid at such sales shall be paid into the receiver general's office either in gold or silver, or in the certificates afore- said, upon full payment of which consider- ation and the expense of surveying, to- gether with all fees of the different offices, patents shall be issued in the usual form to the several buyers or vendors and the different sums in specie that may be paid into the receiver general's office, shall be by him paid over to the treasury of this State for the purpose of redeeming such certificates as may remain unsatisfied at the end of such sales."

The northern boundary line of the De- preciation Lands passed east and west almost centrally through Butler County, through the center of Donegal, Oakland, Center, Franklin, and Muddy Creek Town- ships, passing close to the village of North Oakland, Holyoke Church, and south of the village of Portersville. It was about four miles north of the borough of Butler. The southern half of the townships above mentioned and all of the townships in the southern part of the county including But- ler Borough were included in these lands.

The Depreciation Lands were divided into districts which were assigned to a deputy surveyor and the dividing lines ran southward from the northern boundary line to the Allegheny or Ohio River, as the case might be, and were parallel. The dis- tricts were named after the surveyors, and

are numbered from east to west beginning at the Allegheny River. The first district in Butler County is known as Elder's dis- trict, and extended about four miles west -of the eastern boundary of the county. The territory comprised the eastern sec- tions of Buffalo, Winfield, Clearfield, and Donegal Townships to the northern boun- dary. The second district was known as James Cunningham's, and was the largest district in the county. It extended from the western boundary of Elder's district ten miles west to a point about one-half mile from the western line of Middlesex, Penn, Butler, and Center Townships, and in addition to these townships included part of Oakland, all of Summit, Jefferson and Clinton, and parts of Donegal, Clear- field, Winfield and Buffalo. The area of this district within the limits of Butler County was approximately 150,000 acres, and within the limits of Allegheny County nearly as much more. West of the Cun- ningham district was Jones' district, which comprised part of Franklin Township, all of Connoquenessing, Forward and Adams Townships, including the villages of Mt. Chestnut, Prospect, Whitestown, Connoquenessing, and the town of Mars. The fourth district was Nicholson's, and the fifth district was Alexander's, the dividing line between the two being about four miles east of the western boundary of the county, and dividing the townships of Cranberry, Jackson, Lancaster, and Muddy Creek. Evans City is in Nichol- son's district, and the towns of Harmony and Zelienople and the village of Middle Lancaster are in Alexander's district. Other districts were created in a similar manner extending to the western boundary of the State. As a rule the western dis- tricts were much smaller than those of Butler County.

THE DONATION LANDS.

By a legislative act passed March 7; 1780, the faith of the State was pledged to

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bestow upon the officers and privates of the Federal army belonging to the State, certain donations and quantities of land according to their several ranks, to be sur- veyed and divided off to them severally at the close of the war.

For the purpose of effectually comply- ing with the intention of the act, the legis- lature on the 12th of March, 1783, or- dained "that there be and there is hereby declared to be located and laid off a cer- tain tract of country beginning at the mouth of Mahoning Creek; thence up the mouth of the Allegheny River to Cone- wango Creek; thence due north to the northern boundary of this State; thence west by the said boundary to the north- west corner of the State; thence south by the western boundary of the State to the northwest corner of the Depreciation Lands, and thence by the same lands east to the place of beginning, which said tract of land shall be reserved and set apart for the only and sole use of carrying into execution the said resolve."

The act provided that all officers and pri- vates entitled to land as aforesaid, should make their respective claims for the same within two years after peace had been de- clared, and in the case of failure to make such application in person or in that of their legal representatives within one year after their decease, then it may be lawful for any person or persons to apply to the land office, locate and take up such parts or parcels of land upon such terms as the legislature shall direct.

The legislature passed an act on the 24th of March, 1785, providing that the Donation lands should be laid off in lots of four descriptions, one to contain five hundred acres each, another three hun- dred acres each, another two hundred and fifty acres each, and another two hundred acres each, with the usual allowances.

The allotment made for major-generals, brigadier-generals, colonels, captains, and two-thirds of the lieutenant-colonels, was

five hundred acres each. Regimental sur- geons, surgeons' mates, chaplains, majors, and ensigns, were allotted three hundred acres each. One-third of the lieutenant- colonels, sergeants, sergeant-majors, and quartermaster-sergeants were allotted two hundred and fifty acres each. Lieuten- ants, corporals, drummers, fifers, fife- majors, drum-majors and privates, were allotted two hundred acres each.

DRAWN BY LOTTERY.

A lottery was provided for the impar- tial distribution of these donations. Each applicant, if a major-general, should draw four tickets from the wheel containing the numbers on the five hundred acre lots; if a brigadier-general, three tickets; if a colonel, two tickets; if a lieutenant-colonel, one ticket from the wheel containing five hundred acre lots, and one from the wheel containing the numbers of the two hun- dred and fifty acre lots ; if a surgeon, chap- lain or major, two tickets from the wheel containing the numbers on the three hun- dred acre lots ; if a captain, one ticket from the wheel containing the five hundred acre lots; if a lieutenant, two tickets from the wheel containing the two hundred acre lots; if an ensign, or surgeon's mate, one ticket from the wheel containing the three hundred acre lots; if a sergeant, sergeant- major, or quartermaster-sergeant, one ticket from the wheel containing the two hundred and fifty acre lots; and if a drum- mer, drum-major, fife-major, fifer, corpo- ral or private, one ticket from the wheel containing the numbers of the two hundred acre lots.

The Donation Lands in this county lie in the northern and northwestern portion and are comprised of Districts No. 1 and No. 2. District No. 1 is composed of parts of Franklin, Clay, Brady, Muddy Creek and Worth Townships, and District No. 2 is composed of parts of Cherry, Clay, Washington, Brady, and Slippery Rock Townships.

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

THE "STRUCK DISTRICT."

Under the law of 1785, an agent was ap- pointed whose duty it was to explore the Donation and Depreciation districts, ex- amine the quality of the lands, and espe- cially to report such as was in his opinion unfit for cultivation. This duty was at- tended to by General Irvine, who explored Butler County, and reported that a part of the second division of /the Donation Lands was generally unfit for cultivation, and in consequence, the lots included in it were withdrawn from the lottery and from this circumstance it was known as the "Struck District."

A portion of the "Struck District" is in Butler County, and comprises the northeastern quarter, which in the last forty years has been the most valuable portion of the Butler, or lower oil region. A large proportion of the lands in Butler County thus reserved from the distribu- tion of the soldiers, were originally as val- uable as those in any part of the donation tract, and the oil development which came later made them the richest lands in the county. The "Struck District" com- prised what is now Allegheny, Venango, Marion, Mercer, Parker, Fairview, Con- cord, and parts of Donegal, Oakland, Cen- ter, Clay, Washington, Cherry, and Slip- pery Rock Townships.

The lands in the "Struck District" were disposed of by warrant and patent the same as other lands of western Pennsyl- vania under the settlement law of 1792. These lands were sold by the State to the settlers from April 3, 1792, to the 28th of March, 1813, for $20 per one hundred acres.

THE SETTLEMENT LAW OF 1792.

The lands in the triangle in Erie County, the "Struck District," and the residue of the lands in the depreciation and donation districts, including the greater portion of them not taken up by the claims of the

officers and the soldiers of the Revolution- ary army, were offered for sale under the act of the 3rd of April, 1792, which is known as the Settlement Law of that year. The price of the vacant lands within the purchase of 1768, excepting such lands as had been previously settled on or im- proved, was reduced to the sum of fifty shillings for every one hundred acres, and the price of vacant lands within the pur- chase of 1784 and lying east of the Alle- gheny River and Conewango Creek, was reduced to the sum of five pounds for every hundred acres. All of the lands ly- ing north and west of the Ohio and Alle- gheny Rivers, including Butler County, except those appropriated to public or charitable uses, was offered for sale at seven pounds, ten shillings, or twenty dol- lars, for every one hundred acres, with an allowance of six per cent. for roads and highways. This purchase act implied ac- tual settlement of the land and improve- ments such as is now enforced in home- steading United States lands.

The Indian wars to which reference has been made in a previous chapter rendered it impossible for the pioneers who located warrants under the old acts, or bought lands under the act of 1792, to effect a settlement in this county prior to the proc- lamation of the treaty of Greenville ne- gotiated by General Wayne in 1795, and as a consequence the homestead or im- provement sections of that act were nulli- fied by the circumstances of the case, and later by the acts of speculators, until 1805, when the United States Court, through Chief Justice Marshall, gave a judgment on the main question, the lesser points in the controversy being settled by legisla- tive enactments.

Much controversy arose out of the act of 1792 between the actual settlers and the land speculators, or jobbers as they were called, in Butler County. The job- bers claimed that non-compliance with the provisions of the law requiring settlement

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to be made within two years after the pas- sage of the act, forfeited the right of own- ership. On the other hand the settlers contended that settlement was impossible prior to 1796, because of the Indian war, and that two years succeeding passifica- tion should be allowed for the making of actual settlements and improvements pre- scribed. There was great diversity of opinion upon the bench as to the meaning of the act, and the controversy was finally carried up to the United States Supreme Court.

ROBERT MORRIS.

Robert Morris, the Revolutionary pa- triot and Washington's secretary of the treasury, became a large owner of Butler County land, and many of the land owners of today hold title through this celebrated, but unfortunate, patriot. Morris was the holder of a large amount of the depreci- ated scrip redeemable in western Pennsyl- vania lands, and influenced by James Cun- ningham, one of the surveyors of the de- preciated lands, and afterwards his agent, located a great number of warrants in the present limits of Butler County. This he was able to do by a process which, al- though undoubtedly contrary to the spirit of the law of 1792, was not in violation of any of its provisions. The warrants were made out in the year 1794 in the names of sundry citizens of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, most of them Germans, and then assigned to Morris. The latter paid the moneys demanded, and eventually se- cured patents to most of the tracts of land, but they bore on the maps of the surveyors the names of the Lancaster County men, obligingly lent for the purpose of assist- ing the speculator. Morris located three hundred and eleven warrants in Cunning- ham's district, which had been issued to men who served in the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental army. The area cov- ered by these warrants embraced about 90,000 acres of land in the northern part

of the district including the site of the borough of Butler. This wholesale sys- tem of land purchase was carried on in other counties until loaded down with real estate, the patriot lost all, and from 1796 to 1802 was in a debtor's prison. He died May 8, 1806.

AGRARIAN TROUBLES.

Litigation concerning title to land was more common within the limits of the Cun- ningham district than elsewhere in Butler County. Robert Morris' effects were sold in 1807 at marshal's sale in Philadelphia, and the warrants for the Butler County lands went into the hands of Stephen Low- rey of Maryland and other speculators. Lowrey's purchase consisted of one hun- dred and seven warrants, which covered many tracts on which the pioneers had many permanent improvements, and the real troubles between the contending spec- ulators and the holders of the land began. Many of the settlers who had no warrants for the land were summarily dispossessed of their squatter homes by the land job- bers, and others were compelled to make terms as best they could. The feeling against the speculators ran very high, and considering the character of the frontiers- men with whom they had to deal, it is sur- prising that war did not result from the controversy other than that which was carried on in the courts. As it was, much ill feeling was engendered and on one oc- casion at least blood was shed.

THE SHOOTING OF MAXWELL.

The agrarian trouble on the Duffy farm west of the borough of Butler in 1815 was the direct outcome of the persecutions of the settlers by the land speculators which had been going on relentlessly for a period of almost twenty years. The land in ques- tion was part of the Morris estate which had been purchased by Stephen Lowrey, and the latter claimed ownership in 1815. Previous to this time the farm had been

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY

entered by Abraham Maxwell on the ground that no previous settlement had beed made on the tract in accordance with the act of 1782, and he was advised by his attorney, William Ayres, Esq., of Butler, that his claim was valid. He accordingly built a cabin on the ground and made quite an extensive clearing. The land was cov- ered, however, by one of Morris's war- rants which had been taken out in the name of Christian Stake, and was one of the 107 tracts which came into the hands of Lowrey at the sale of Morris's estate.

In the spring of 1814 Maxwell leased the property to Samuel Robb, and soon after- ward Lowrey brought suit of ejectment against the owner and the lessee and ob- tained a judgment in the United States court at Philadelphia. By reason of the de- fendant's default of appearance, the order of ejectment was placed in the hands of a deputy marshal named Parchment, who made preparations to dispossess Robb. The latter refused to give peaceable possession, and he was backed in his decision by the farmers in the surrounding country, many of whom had located on land claimed by Lowrey and had suffered or expected to suffer ejectment. The officer did not then attempt to use violence, but one morning in October, 1815, he returned to Butler with an organized posse for the purpose of carrying out the order of the court. The officer and his posse assembled at the old hotel on South Main Street, where the Wil- lard Hotel now stands, and there met a number of farmers from the surrounding country, all of whom were bitterly opposed to land jobbers in general, and Lowrey in particular. Both parties were armed with rifles. When the officer and his posse in- cluding the land owner, Lowrey, started out upon the road leading along the creek to Maxwell's cabin, they were closely fol- lowed by the farmers, who were deter- mined to oppose the ejectment of Robb. The two parties met again at Robb's cabin, where Robb met them at the door and re-

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Century history of Butler and Butler County, Pa., and representative citizens 20th, Part 11

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1526

Author: McKee, James A., 1865- ed. and comp
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1526