USA > Pennsylvania > Historical register : notes and queries historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania. Volume II > Part 2
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"The title under Connecticut is of no avail, because the land in controversy is ex-territorial. It does not lie within the charter bounds of Connecticut. The charter of Connecticut does not cover or spread over the land in question. Of course no title ean be derived from Connecticut."
This opinion was possessed of the same odor as the decree of Trenton. It did not meet the questions raised by the claims of the settlers. They never claimed title under Connecticut nor under her charter bounds. They claimed under and by virtue of the grant made by Charles II, 20th April, 1662, and by purchase from the grantees in the grant. They stood as to title on an entirely independent basis from that of Connecticut.
It is interesting to note the outcome from this opinion of Judge Patterson. The very next year this " ex-territorial title of Connecticut which did not cover the lands in question " in its western extension, took from the United States and the incip- ient State of Ohio, "the Western Reserve," of 3,666,921 acres of this very land, and within three years thereafter took from
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Wyoming.
Pennsylvania seventeen towns embracing 288,532 acres at Wyoming.
Thus, by the joint action of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and the United States, in 1796, and later, Connecticut was permit- ted to "reserve"the right of soil to this large territory in Ohio. when she yielded up, under the arrangements made, all further claim to territorial jurisdiction and soil to the United States for her claim to territory within and beyond their reservation,- the cession of this reservation being made with the consent of these and the other States.
Connecticut sold the soil to most of these millions of acres and made of the proceeds a fund to establish schools in which to educate her children in the peculiar ways of New England. While she gave some of her home towns-Danbury, Fairfield, Groton, New London, and New Haven, small portions of these lands as a recompense to those towns for the losses and suffer- ings they had sustained in the Revolutionary war-partly from her own sons-not one acre, nor one cent, did she bestow on her poor bereaved, suffering town at Wyoming that furnished a larger part of her quota in that war. O, the depth of the meanness and ingratitude of the government of Connecticut to her poor, much-abused, long-afflicted, and deeply-suffering children at Wyoming !
Strange as the anomaly may appear that Connecticut, or people claiming under the charter or grant of Connecticut, should claim, and should actually exercise acts of ownership within the territorial bounds of the State of Pennsylvania, buy- ing and selling its soil and settling upon it ;- yet even in our day, when we have grown familiar with all the facts, it appears quite as strange that that government should exercise rights of ownership and sell the rights of soil in Ohio, west of Pennsyl- vania, by virtue of that charter, and that with the assent of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the United States.
When it is taken into consideration that the State of Connec- ticut had no title or right to the soil at Wyoming, and held the jurisdiction only as a trust confided to her by the settlers there, the sale by that State of both the right of soil and jurisdiction was one of the most stupendous frauds ever perpetrated by a
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Historical Register.
Commonwealth on a confiding people. But she deemed her- self well paid for her treachery in getting 3,666,921 acres of soil, not jurisdiction, in that territory known as the " Western Reserve," even though she was compelled thereby to turn the poor settlers at Wyoming over to the tender mercies of her co- workers in iniquity, the Pennamite land sharks, and though she never even gave to those settlers any recompense for the losses they sustained during the Revolutionary war, when she was making distribution of the Western Reserve for that pur- pose to the towns above-named, she well knowing that those settlers were the greatest losers and sufferers of them all.
After the perpetration of this great wrong. and after Connec- ticut had the reward of her iniquity fully secured to her and the whole question seemed settled, a sense of justice took pos- session of leading Pennsylvanians, not land jobbers, and on the 4th of April, 1799, they passed an act granting and confirming the rights of the settlers to fifteen of the towns settled by them, which, by a subsequent act, was enlarged to seventeen towns. This act and its supplements were accepted by the settlers and thus, after forty years of warfare, they were left in undisturbed possession of their homes, for which they had so long and so ardently struggled, and in defense of which they had shed so much blood and treasure.
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Fithian's Journal, 1775.
FITHIAN'S JOURNAL. 1775. ANNOTATED BY JOHN BLAIR LINN.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM PIPER'S *__ WARRIOR RUN-NORTHUM- BERLAND.
Wednesday, July 12 .- The Captain was out reaping. Mrs. Piper received me very kindly. She is an amiable woman by character ; she appears to be so by trial. At three after din- ner the Captain came in. He stood at the door. "I am," said he, "William Piper. Now, sir, in my turn, who are you." "My name is Fithian sir." "What is it?" "Fithian, sir." "Oh," says he, "Fiffen." "No, it is Fithian." " What, Pithin ? Damn the name, let me have it in black and white. But who are you? Are you a regular orderly preacher ? We are often imposed upon and curse the man who imposes on us next." "I come, sir, by the appointment of Donegal Presbytery from an order of Synod." "Then God bless you, you are welcome to Warrior Run-You are welcome to my house. But can you reap ?" He was full " half seas over." He spoke to his wife : "Come, Sally, be kind and make a bowl of toddy." Poor, unhappy, hard-conditioned, patient woman ! Like us neglected and forsaken "Sons of Levi," you should fix on a state of hap- piness beyond this world. I was in the evening introduced to
* Capt. William Piper of 21 Batt. Penn'a Regiment, commissioned July 20, 1763 ; served under Col. Bouquet in the campaign of 1764, and received for his services three tracts of land-one of which con- taining 609 acres, "including the mouth of Delaware Run" (in Northumberland county) was surveyed May 23, 1769. To this tract he removed from his residence near Shippensburg soon afterwards, and made his home where the village of Dewart now stands. He had but one child, Peggy, mentioned in the Journal ; she married James Irwin of Mercersburg, Pa. The tract is patented to James Irwin. May 31, 1794, and Roan in his Journal ( Annals of Buffalo Valley) speaks frequently of James Irwin stopping at Clingan's on his way up to see his lands on Warrior Run. My efforts to trace Peggy's de- scen.dants have thus far failed.
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Captain Hayes, * a gentleman of civility and seriousness. He begged me to preach a week-day lecture before I leave the neighborhood. At Mr. Hayes' I saw a large gourd; it holds nine gallons. I saw in the bottom near the bank of the river, a sycamore or buttonwood tree, which measured, eighteen inches from the ground, fifteen feet in circumference.
Thursday, July 13 .- " There is not one in this society but my little wain," said the Captain to me quite full of whiskey, "not one of them all but my little wain that can tell you what is effectual calling." Indeed, his " wain " is a lovely girl. She is an only child just now ten years old. She seems to be re- markably intelligent, reads very clear, attends well to the quan- tity of words, has a sweet, nervous quo-he accent. Indeed, I have not lately been so highly pleased as with this rosy-cheeked Miss Peggy Piper. Mrs. Piper keeps a clean house ; well-fixed beds. Here I have not seen a bug or flea.
Friday, July 14 .- Last evening after sunset I walked with Mrs. Piper to four neighbors' houses, all within a half a mile. She was looking for harvest hands, while her ill-conditioned husband was asleep perspiring off the fumes of whiskey. It is now seven o'clock. There are two reapers. Miss Piper is out carrying drink to the reapers. Her father is yet asleep. Tim is about the house as a kind of waiting man. There is also a close-set voung Irish widow who, on her passage, lost her husband and two children at sea. She came in Captain McCulloch's ship with six hundred passengers, of which one hundred and five died at sea, and many more on landing.
* Lieut. James Hays, 1st Penn'a Battalion, commissioned Nov. 29, 1763, (Pa. Archives, 2nd series, vol. ii, page 612.) His location, 334 acres, was surveyed immediately above Capt. Piper's on the river. Subsequent to the Revolution he removed to his tract at the mouth of Beech creek in Clinton county, where the house he originally built and occupied by him is still standing on the north side of Bald Eagle creek opposite Beech Creek Station of the Lock Haven and Tyrone Railroad. From the windows of the cars can be seen the Hays cemetery, originally a private burying-ground on the place. His tombstone bears the following inscription : " James Hays, born Feb. 29, 1740, died February 14, 1817 ; his wife Sarah, born Feb. 15, 1745, died May 5, 1823." They have many well-known descendants in Clinton county.
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Fithian's Journal, 1775.
Mrs. Piper is taken this morning after breakfast with a violent fever and palpitation of the heart, which continues very threaten- ing. The young Irish widow is lame with a cold in her shoulder and has this morning scalded her hand most sorely. Dear Peggy went out early and is overheated, so that she is laid up with the headache. The Captain himself is ut semper full of whiskey. A house full of impotence. We are relieved, how- ever, by a young woman of the neighborhood. Dr. Sprigg, a gentleman in the practice who is settling in this neighborhood, by accident came in, and made some application of some medicine to Mrs. Piper. Towards evening I took a ramble with Peggy to find and bring in the cows. She showed me their sugar tree bottom, out of which Mrs. Piper says she makes plenty of sugar for her family use. I am charmed with each calm even- ing. The people here are all cordial and inveterate enemies of the Yankees, who are settling about in this province on the land in dispute between Connecticut" and Pennsylvania. It is said they are intending to come down into this neighborhood and fix down upon the unsettled land, which exasperates the people generally.
Saturday, July 15 .- I had my horse belled to-day and put in a proper lawn. I would rather call it a park. He wears the bell, contrary to my expectation, with perfect resignation. To-day Mrs. Piper is better, and walks the house. There came ten reapers before breakfast ; the captain was in bed, supinus stertiens. It was something remarkable-after he awaked he would drink no more, and before evening was perfectly sober. I am told he is always sober and devout on Sabbath. There came on a great rain before ten, and reaping was done. I took a walk after the rain on the bank of the river. My wonder . ceases that the Indians fought for this happy valley.
* The forty-first parallel of latitude to which the Susquehanna Com- pany at Hartford, Conn., claimed, runs seven or eight miles south of the neighborhood known as the " Paradise Country," from its pro- verbial beauty and fertility-where Mr. Fithian was sojourning. As early as 1772, the company had advanced its pickets to the border " to hold possession." In deeds of that year I have noticed a special covenant was commonly inserted "against the claim of the inhabit- ants of New England."
Historical Register.
Sunday, July 16 .- Warrior Run. *- This meeting-house is on the bank of the river, eighteen miles from Northumberland. It is not yet covered : a large assembly gathered. I preached from a wagon. the only one present. The people sat upon a rising ground before me. It looked odd to see the people sit- ting among the bushes. All were attentive, and there were many present. I spoke the loudest and with more ease than I have ever done any day before. After service I rode down to Mr. Fruit's and spent the evening reading and examining Mr. Lusk's piece against the Seceders.
Monday, July 17 .- After breakfast and praver I took my leave, crossed over the river and rode down to town. The day was bright and very hot. The inhabitants yet busy with their harvest.
Northumberland .- In town by eleven, much fatigued. I spoke with Mr. Barker. He was busy, but soon came in, and we spent an hour very pleasantly. I walked down to Mr. Martin'st to see the newspapers. Dr. Plunkett and three other gentlemen were in the next room. Mr. Carmichael's; sermon.
* John L. Watson, Esq., whose father owned the site, informs me the old church of Warrior Ruu stood at the lower end of Watsontown where the old grave-yard is still partly visible within the limits of Mr. Ario Pardee's large lumber manufacturing works. The present Warrior Run Presbyterian Church is several miles from the river on the main road from Milton to Muncy.
¡ Robert Martin kept the first tavern at Northumberland, having settled there prior to the purchase of 1768, and according to Mr. Me- ginness ( Hist. of West Branch Valley, page 123) was " undoubtedly the first settler on the site." Robert Martin was the grandfather of Lewis Martin, Esq., of Williamsport. ( See Day's Hist. Collections of Penn., p. 533, for interesting notices of Mrs. Grant, daughter of Robert Martin.)
* Dr. Wm. Plunket was the first presiding justice of Northumber- land county. ( See biographical sketch in Linn's Annals of Buffalo Val- ley, page 271.)
¿ Rev. John Carmichael, graduate of Princeton College. 1759, after- wards pastor of the Presbyterian Church at the " Forks of the Brandy. wine." He was an earnest, uncompromising friend of American liberty. (See Futhey and Cope's Hist. of Chester county, page 493.) The sermon alluded to was preached to Capt. Wm. Hendricks' com- pany which left Carlisle for Boston a week previous.
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Fithian's Journal, 1775.
preached lately before the Carlisle company was in contempla- tion. "Damn the sermons, Smith's, and all," said one of them. "Gunpowder and lead shall form text and sermon both." The Doctor, however, gave him a severe reproof. The Honorable Conference is yet sitting, and have published to the world reasons for our taking up arms. By a letter lately from Prince- ton to a gentleman here. I am told that James Armstrong and John Witherspoon# have gone to Boston with General Wash- ington. I am told that Mr. Smith,t our tutor, was lately mar- ried to Miss Ann Witherspoon. Probably in this conflict I may be called to the field, and such a connection would make me less willing to answer so responsible a call. I will not therefore marry until our American glory be fixed on a per- manent foundation, or is taken entirely from us.4 An alarm- iug report ; eight horse loads of powder went up the country this day, carried by a number of Indians. It is shrewdly guessed they have in view some infernal strategem.
Tuesday, July 18 .- I rose by seven, studying at my sermon for the fast. There is a rupture in the other town (Sunbury) ; they have two men in prison who were seized on suspicion of selling what they call the Yankee rights of land. They are apprehensive of a mob who may rise to release them, and keep every night a strict guard. Mr. Scull § who is captain for this town, goes with a party for a guard from hence to-night. I am invited to a party this afternoon. South of this town the bank of the river is a high stony precipice, three hundred and fifty feet at least, and almost perpendicular. There is a way, by going a small distance up the river, of ascending to the top,
*James Armstrong and John Witherspoon graduated at Princeton in 1773 in the class succeeding that of Fithian, 1772. Armstrong died in 1816. Witherspoon in 1795.
¡ Samuel Stanhope Smith, afterward President of Hampden and Sidney college, Va., died in 1819.
Mr. Fithian changed his mind. He married Miss Betsey Beatty, Oct. 25, 1775, and died while serving as a chaplain in the army of New York Island, Oct. S, 1776.
{ William Scull, sheriff of North& Co. October, 1775. (See Linn's Annals, page 87, for his report on Plunket's expedition to Wyoming.)
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Historical Register.
which is level and covered with shrubby pines. Here I am invited by a number of ladies to gather huckleberries. The call of women is invincible and I must gallant them over the river. Perhaps my Eliza is in the same exercise in the back-parts of Deerfield (Cumberland County, N. J.) We dined and walked down to Mr. Martin's on the Westway street .* Ladies: Mrs. Boyd, a matron. Mrs. Martin, Mrs. McCartney, Miss Carothers, Miss Martin, Miss Lask, and a strange young woman, Miss Manning, and myself. Horrible, fearful! It is so high and so steep. Look at yon man in his small canoe; how diminutive he seems groveling down there, paddling a tottering boat! The water itself looks to be very remote, just as I have often seen the sky in a still, clear brook.
Wednesday, July 19 .- Mr. Barker called on me this morning to walk. We strolled up the North Branch of the river two miles. Good land but less cultivated. I cannot but much , esteem this young gentleman. He is not forward in conversa- tion, not by any means dull, makes many just and pleasant remarks on the state of America. Two wagons, with goods, cattle, women, tools, &c., went through the town to-day from East Jersey, on their way to Fishing creek, up the river, where they are to. settle. Rapid, most rapid, is the growth of this county.
* In a plot of the town which Mr. Fithian makes in his Journal, he represents a row of houses along the North Branch and a row along West Branch -- none in the center. By Westway street he meant the one running from the Point up the West Branch. Of the ladies belonging to the huckleberry party : Mrs. Sarah Boyd, the matron, was the mother of Lient. Wm. Boyd, killed at Brandywine, Sept. 11, 1777, of Lieut. Thomas Boyd, killed by the Indians, Sept. 12, 1779, in Sullivan's campaign, and of Capt. John Boyd, so many years Justice of the Peace at Northumberland. Miss Carothers was a sister of Lieut. John Carothers, 12th Pa., killed at Germantown, October 10, 1777.
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The Family of Alexander.
THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER.
BY REV. HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN.
I. JOHN ALEXANDER, of County Donegal, Ireland, m. ISA- BELLA MARKS, and had issue, all born in Ireland.
2. i. Thomas. m. Agnes Mitchell.
3. ii. William.
4. iii. John, b. 1753; m. Jane Byers.
5. iv. Samuel.
6. v. James.
II. THOMAS ALEXANDER (John) came to America in 1760 and settled at Carlisle, Cumberland co., Pa. He was among the members of the First Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, with William and Samuel, his brothers, in 1773 and 1785; d. June 15, 1802; m. AGNES MITCHELL; d. April 12, 1794 ; daughter of - --- and Mary Mitchell. They had issue, all b. at Car- lisle.
7. i. John.
ii. William, d. infant.
ili. William (2d) was called "Big Billy ;" Captain in war of 1812; ob coelebs.
iv. Thomas, was a saddler by trade; was ensign 1812, of Capt. Beckwith's company, and resided in Lewistown, Pa., in 1826 ; went West, supposed to St. Louis, and probably ob coelebs.
v. Mary, m. Samuel Clendenin and had several children, one of whom m. Robert Irvine, of Carlisle, and is supposed to be still living.
vi. Isabella, m. William Mackley, of Carlisle, and died there.
III. WILLIAM ALEXANDER (John) came to Carlisle after 1760. Was very active in support of the Colonies during the Revolution, and commissioned first lieutenant in Capt. Rippey's company of the Sixth battalion of Pennsylvania, Col. Win. Irvine, January 9, 1776 ; promoted captain October 25, 1776 ; appointed major of the Third regiment of the Line, April 16, 1780; retired July 1, 1783; afterwards, July 8, 1786, was ap- pointed to survey military lands west of the Allegheny and
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Historical Register.
Ohio rivers in Pennsylvania. Family tradition says he was appointed brigadier general in 1812, but did not enter the ser- vice, although fully equipped for the campaign. He was at one time an aid-de-camp to General Washington, and a mem- ber of the Society of the Cincinnati from Pennsylvania. His certificate is still in the possession of his relatives, the family of Wm. H. Alexander, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa, bearing the sig- natures of Washington and Knox, and dated October 31, 1785. He died unmarried in November, 1813.
IV. JOHN ALEXANDER (John) came to Carlisle after 1760; also entered the army of the Revolution, and distinguished him- self in the service; was commissioned second lieutenant of Capt. Abraham Smith's company, Col. Wm. Irvine's Sixth Pennsylvania battalion, raised in the Cumberland Valley, Jan- uary 9, 1776; first lieutenant March 23, 1776; captain of Seventh regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, March 20, 1777; was appointed paymaster First Pennsylvania, August 27, 1778; transferred to the Fourth Pennsylvania, January 17, 1781; he is believed to have attained the rank of colonel, but he resigned July 11, 1781, for the purpose of marrying-his betrothed being opposed to his remaining; was major of the militia at Carlisle, September, 1794, during the Whiskey Insurrection ; died at Carlisle, August 4. 1805, aged fifty-one years; m., at Carlisle, JANE BYERS, one of the daughters of Hon. John Byers, of Carlisle, formerly of Lancaster county. John Byers emigrated from Ireland with his brother James before 1750. On October 24, 1758, he held a commission from the Crown as justice of the peace, and acted as an associate judge in the court of common pleas for the county. He continued to hold this office, at one time being president judge, until 1780. In 1781, he was elected a member of the Supreme Executive coun- cil from the county of Cumberland. He was an active mem- ber of the First Presbyterian Church at Carlisle, and an elder. Ilis other two daughters married a Carothers and a Henderson. John Alexander and Jane Byers had issue :
i. John Byers, m., at Carlisle, April 22, 1806, by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D., Syndey Smith ; settled at Greensburg, Pa. ji. James, went to Pittsburgh.
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The Family of Alexander.
iii. Thomas, went to Pittsburgh.
iv. Samuel, a lawyer at Carlisle, who m. a Blaine.
v. William.
vi. Isabella, m. Andrew Carothers, at Carlisle.
vii. Rebecca.
viii. Jane Mary.
ix. Margaret Elizabeth.
V. SAMUEL ALEXANDER (John) came to Carlisle with his brothers after 1760; also entered the Revolutionary army ; his name appears among the members of the First Presbyterian Church at Carlisle in 1785 ; m. September 13, 1785, by Rev. Robert Davidson, D. D., at Carlisle, ISABELLA CREIGH, d. of Hon. John Creigh, who came to Carlisle from Ireland, 1761. He was a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church at Car- lisle, and was the son of John Creigh, a ruling elder of the Church at Carmony, Ireland. He was an active and able de- fender of American liberties. He filled many offices in the county, having been register of wills, recorder of deeds, clerk of the orphans' court, justice of the peace, and president judge. Among his grandsons are Alfred Creigh, LL. D., and the late Rev. Thomas Creigh, D. D. Samuel Alexander moved to Pitts- burgh ; was a merchant there. He left issue :
i. John.
ii. William.
iii. Samuel.
VI. JAMES ALEXANDER (John) came with his parents from County Donegal, Ireland, and m. MARGERY ----; had, among other children :
i. James, who was a professor in the University of Dublin.
VII. JOHN ALEXANDER (Thomas, John) b. at Carlisle ; m., July 3, 1798, Hannah Downer Hibbard; b. June 18, 1778; d. 1867. They had issue :
i. Thomas Hibbard, b. June 18, 1799 ; d. same day.
ji. Sarah Agnes, b. March, 1801 ; d. January 7, 1806.
8. iii. William Hibbard, b. November 19, 1805.
VIII. WILLIAM HIBBARD ALEXANDER (John, Thomas, John) b. November 19, 1805, at Carlisle. d. 1864, at Wilkes- Barré, Pa. ; m., December 2, 1820, Maria Ulp, daughter of
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Historical Register.
Barnett UIp. of Wilkes-Barre; b. March 17, 1811 ; d. 1875. They had issue :
i. Emily Isabella.
ii. Caroline M.
iii. Marie Annie.
iv. John Barnett.
v. Hannah Augusta.
vi. William Murray.
vii. Charles Henry.
There was also a Randle Alexander in Fannet township, Cumberland county, in 1778: and Hugh Alexander, of whom Dr. Egle has given the following: Hugh Alexander, of Cum- berland county, (was living in Carlisle, 1780,) the eldest son of John and Margaret (Glasson) Alexander, was b. near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1724. His parents came to America in 1736, set- tled in Chester county, but before 1753 moved to Shearman's Valley, then Cumberland, now Perry, county. Hugh was deputy to the Provincial Convention of June, 1776, and mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention of July 15, 1776, mem- ber of the Assembly, November 28. 1776. Died at Philadel- phia while a member of the Assembly in 1777. He m., Ist, in 1753, Martha Edmeston, daughter of Dr. David Edmeston, of Fagg's Manor, and there was issue:
i. Margaret, b. 1754; m., 1772, Capt. John Hamilton.
ii. John, b. 1756: m., 1750, Margaret Clark.
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