History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790

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WILLIAM PENN.

THE writer briefly refers to the person, motives and principles of the first charter proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania, once the owner of the soil of this county. Two hundred and thirty years ago was born in the city of London the sub- sequent founder of that province. He was the son of William Penn, of the county of Wilts, Vice

›The subject matter of this chapter was originally prepared for and partly delivered as an address on the occasion of the observ- alice of the centennial anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1576, at Cherry Run. In Plum Creek township, The author saw! "On the thirteenth day of March, 1876, a joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the l'nited States was adopiett and only approved, recommending the people to assemble In their respective towns or counties on this centennial anniversary of our uational independence, and canse to be then delivered an histortent sketch of their town or county from its formation, und that either a written or printed copy thereof be Med in the clerk's office of the county, and an additional one in the office of the Libra - Fan of Congress, so that a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first century of their existence. The purport of that joint resolution has very properly been brought to the knowledge of the people hy tho proclamations of the President of the I'nited States and the Governors of this and nther attte ..

To render that recommendation of Congress effective, so far as this county is concerned, these historical sketches were in part origi- mailly prepared at the instance of the people of Armstrong county.

The writer remarks, in passing, that there is a wide difference between a sketch and a history of either a county, state or country. The former Is simply an outline, a general delineation, or incomplete draft ofone or the other, as the case may be. A history, or a complete narrative of the events which have happened within the territorial limits of this county, since its history began, would require a much longer period of time for its preparation than has been allotted to thewriter, and it would be much more voluminous than is the sketch which he has prepared. He may also remark that he has studionsly syfrained from infusing original and speculative ideas into these sketches, but has rather endeavored to fill them with such facts of history as he has gathered in the course of his earlier and more recent researches. Some of them are much older than is the organ- Ization of our connty, but they are, nevertheless, remotely con- nected with its history.

Admiral in the time of Cromwell, and whom King Charles II knighted for his successful naval ser- vices against the Dutch. Ilis son-our William Penn-was a serious youth. Ile received religious impressions in his twelfth year, which were con- firmed by the preaching of Thomas Lowe, a Quaker preacher. In his fifteenth year, while a commoner in Christ Church, Oxford, he met with other stu- dents who were devoutly inclined, and with whom he joined in holding private meetings, in which they prayed and preached, which, it seems, was offensive to the college authorities, by whom those young religionists were confined for non-conformi- ty, but continuing in their religious exercises, they were finally expelled. Young Penn's father vainly endeavored to turn him from his religious bent and exercises, which the more worldly minded senior feared would interfere with his promotion in the world, but finding him still determined to adhere to his religious convictions, gave him a severe beating and turned him adrift upon the world. The young martyr was restored to his home by the intercession of his mother. He afterward visited Paris, and after his return was admitted to the study of the law in Lincoln's Inn. He soon after became a member of the staff of the Duke of Ormond, who was then the Viceroy of Ireland, He was thus engaged for awhile in military service, of

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

which he became fond. His father, however, would not permit him to enter the army, which he then eagerly wished to do. "It was at this interesting period of his life," says Wayne MeVenagh, in his eulogy, " that the authentic portrait of him now in the possession of the Historical Society was painted-a portrait which dispels many of the mis- taken opinions of his person and his character generally entertained. It presents him to us clad in armor, of frank countenance, and features deli- cate and beautiful, but resolute, with his hair 'long and parted in the center of his forchead, falling over his shoulders in massive, natural ringlets.' This portrait bears the date of his twenty-second birthday, and the martial motto ' Pur queritur bello'" Having been sent, in his twenty-second year, by his father, to Ireland to manage an estate, he again met Rev. Thomas Lowe, in Cork, by whose preaching, and through his deep sympathy for a persecuted sect, he became a confirmed Quaker, and, with others, was imprisoned for attending Quaker meetings. He was, however, soon released, through the intervention of the Earl of Orrery. His father ordered him home, and finding him still inflexible in his conviction of religious duty, would have compromised with him if he would have agreed to remain uncovered before the king, the duke, and himself, which, refusing to do, he be- came hateful to his father, by whom he was again driven from his home, but was again restored. Though his father never afterward openly counte- naneed him, still he would intercede for his release when imprisoned, as he occasionally was, for con- science's sake. When Sir William died, in 1670, he was fully reconciled to his son. He left him a large estate. In bidding him farewell, he said, "Son William, let nothing in this world tempt yon to wrong your conscience. So will you keep peace at home, which will be a feast to you in a day of trouble."

The writer passes by young Ponn's ministry, his marriage, and the persecutions of his soet. Find- ing that these persecutions would not cease, he resolved to settle in America, remarking : "There may be room there, though not here, for such a holy experiment." In 1681 he obtained from Charles II a patent for a province in North America, which the king readily granted, in con- sideration of his father's services and a debt of sixteen thousand pounds due his estate from the Crown, which the government was either unable or unwilling to settle with him in money. After a long and searching course of proceedings, lasting from June 14, 1680, till March 4, 1681, the charter was{ granted, in which the boundaries of the

Province are thus prescribed : " Bounded on the cast by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance northward of New Castle town (Del.) unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, if the said river doth extend so far northward, but if the said river shall not extend so far north ward, then hy the said river so far as it doth extend; and from the head of said river the eastern bounds are to be de- termined by a meridian line, to be drawn from the head of said river unto the said forty-third degree. The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the said castern bounds, and the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle, northward and westward, unto the begin- ning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned." By a calculation of the contents of those charter boundaries the Pro- vince contained thirty-five millions three hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred acres. The present area of the State of Pennsylvania, according to the census of 1870, is forty-six thousand square iniles, or twenty-nine million four hundred and forty thousand acres. The arca was diminished by the subsequent adjustment of the boundaries between this and the States of Maryland, Virginia and New York. The impossible southern line, mentioned in the charter, caused much dispute between Peun and Lord Baltimore, which was at length permanently fixed by Mason and Dixon, who were eminent mathematicians and astrono- mers. In 1774 Lord Dunmore groundlessly claimed that the western boundary of Pennsylvania did not include Pittsburgh and the Monongahela river. After Gen. Gage ordered the evacuation of the English troops from Fort Pitt, one Dr. John Con- nolly, as Dunmore's agent, took possession of Fort Pitt with a military forco which he had collected in Virginia, changed the name of the fort to that. of Dunmore, issued his proclamation asserting tho claim.of Virginia to the fort and the territory in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, and com- manding the people west of Laurel Hill to submit to the authority of Lord Dunmore as the Governor of the King of England. Settlers who had de- rived their titles from Virginia located in various .parts of that region. Governor Penn, however, caused Connolly to be arrested and imprisoned, and the intruders under the Virginia titles to be expelled.

In December, 1774, the boundary line between Pennsylvania and New York was ascertained and

WILLIAM PENN.

fixed by David Rittenhouse on the part of the for- mer, and Samuel Holland on the part of the latter, to be north latitude 42°, with a variation of 4° 20'. The forty-third parallel of north latitude, men- tioned in the charter, extends through central New York. Messrs. Rittenhouse and Holland placed a stone on a small island in the western branch of the Delaware river as a monument on the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, with the words and figures NEW YORK, 1774, and the above-mentioned lati- tude and variation cut upon the top. They also placed another stone, four perches due west from the former, cutting on the top thereof the word PENNSYLVANIA and the same latitude and variation as on the other. The extension of that line farther west was postponed until 1786-7, when it was com- pleted by Andrew Ellicott, on the part of Pennsyl- vania, and James Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on the part of New York.

By act of March 27, 1790, £300 were granted to Reading Howell for delineating on his map all the lines of this state, as established by law, or other- wise ascertained.

Penn sailed in the ship Welcome, August 30, 1682, for his newly acquired province. He arrived after a long passage at New Castle, Del., where the colonists, English, Dutch and Swedes, assembled to welcome him as their beloved proprietor. He wished the province to be called New Wales, but the king persisted in naming it "Pensilvania." In reference thereto Penn wrote to his friend, Robert Turner, on the 5th of January : "I pro- posed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past and would take it upon him ; nor could twenty guineas move the under- secretaries to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise."

Notwithstanding his rights under that charter, he purchased the territory from the Indians at a fair price.

Before leaving England he drafted and published the Fundamental Law and Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, from which I cite the thirty-fifth section : " All persons living in this province who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God, to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in noways be molested or pre- judiced for their religious persuasion or practise in

matters of faith and worship; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry whatever "- wherein was granted a greater degree of religious liberty than had been elsewhere allowed.

A sketch of the early history of the Colonial government established by Penn, of the just treaties made between him and the Indians, and of the disturbed state of affairs in the colony after his return to England, properly belongs to state history. The writer will not, therefore, dwell on them, but proceed to present some of the events which help make up the history of our own county.

THE THREE ORIGINAL COUNTIES,

laid out by the immortal founder of Pennsylvania in 1682, were Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester .* To the last named the territory now included within the limits of Armstrong county once, theoretically at least, belonged, under the charter of Penn, but before he had purchased the Indian title.

Though the Province was divided in 1682 into the three above-mentioned counties, their bounda- ries were not distinctly ascertained until several years thereafter, i.e. the division lines between those three counties. The Provincial Council unanimously agreed and ordered what they should be February 1, 1865. Nevertheless a petition of the justices of Chester county for themselves and the inhabitants thereof was presented to the council January 25, 1689, setting forth that Chester county was bnt a small tract of land not exceeding nine miles square, and but thinly settled, so that it was "not able to support the charge thereof ;" tliat upon their hum- ble request the proprietor and governor (Penn) had been pleased, before his departure, to grant an enlargement of the same, viz., to run up from the Delaware river along the Darby Mill creek, the several courses and distances until they took in Radnor and Herford townships ; then down to the Schuylkill ; then upward along the several courses thereof, without limit. The prayer in the petition was that the council would confirm these bounds so that the people of Chester county might in some measure be able to defray their necessary charge. The allegation that the proprietor before his return

* We know that King Charles christened this state, and why he gave to it the name which it still bears. But how came the original county from which this county has descended to be christened Chester ? Clarkson, in his "Life of Penn" (vol. 1, p. 259), alluding to the assembly being called at Upland, says: "This was a memorable event, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstance; he determined, therefore, to change the name of the place. Turning round to his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accom- panied him in the ship Welcome, he said, 'Providence has brought us here safe ; thou hast been the companion of my perils: what wilt thou that I should call this place?' Pearson said, 'Chester, in remembrance of the city from whence I came.' William Penn re- plied that it should he called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties he would also call one of them by the same name."

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

to England had indicated his wishes respecting the increase of the area of that county was corroborated by the written attestations of John Blunston, Randall Vernon and Thomas Usher, and by the assertions of some of the members of the council, that these courses and distances accorded with the map of the Province. John Blackwell, being then governor, directed that the minutes of the council, held February 1, 1682, be examined. It was found that the copy which was then before the council agreed in substance with the entry of the minutes. On February 26, 1689, the council reaffirmed their vote of February 1, 1682, fixing the dividing lines between the counties of Chester and Philadelphia, so that the area of Chester county was enlarged. To what extent ? Not expressly, yet impliedly or inferentially, so as to include all the territory of the Province not included in Bucks and Philadel- phia counties. At all events, the jurisdiction of the courts of Chester county, after its enlargement, over the settlements as they extended westward, until the formation of Lancaster county forty- two years later. Its western and northwestern boundaries were not expressly designated- they were left open. It is, then, a reasonable infer- ence that Armstrong county is a descendant from Chester.

LANCASTER COUNTY.

The petition for its organization was presented to the Provincial Council, February 6, 1828-9. (It appears from the +1st chapter of the Acts of the First General Assembly, passed December 7, 1682, that the first settlers of this state began the year on the first of March ; that sixth of February was, ac- cording to their calendar, in 1828, but according to ours, in 1829.) That was " a petition of the inhabi- tants of the upper [western] parts of Chester" which " was laid before the board and read, setting forth that by reason of their great distance from the county town, where courts are held, offices are kept, and annual elections are made, they lie under very great inconveniences, being obliged, in the re- covery of their just debts, to travel one hundred miles to obtain a writ ; that for want of sufficient number of justices, constables, and other officers, in these parts, no care is taken of the highways ; townships are not laid out, nor bridges built, when there is an apparent necessity for them ; and further, that for want of a gaol there, several vagabonds and other dissolute people harbor among them, think- ing themselves safe from justice in so remote a place ; and therefore praying that a division line be made between the upper and lower part of said county, and the upper part thereof erected into a

county, with all the immunities, rights and privi- leges which any other county of this province does now enjoy."

This petition led to the formation of another county. York, including also what is now Adams county, was separated from Lancaster by act of August 9, 1749.

CUMBERLAND COUNTY

was formed out of Lancaster county by act of January 27, 1750 : " All and singular the lands lying within the Province of Pennsylvania, to the westward of the Susquehanna, and northward and westward of the county of York, and is hereby erected into a county, named and hereafter to be called Cumberland, bounded northward and west- ward with the lines of the Province, eastward partly with the river Susquehanna, and partly with the county of York, and partly with the line dividing the said province from Maryland."

BEDFORD COUNTY

was formed out of Cumberland county by act of March 9, 1771 : " All and singular the lands lying and being within the following boundaries : Be- ginning where the Province line crosses the Tusca- rora mountain, and running along the summit of that mountain to the gap near the head of Path valley ; thence with a north line to the Juniata ; thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Shaver's creek ; thence northwest to the line of Berks county "-which had been formed from Philadel- phia, Chester and Lancaster counties, March 11, 1752 ; "thence along the Berks county line north- westward to the western bounds of the Province ; thence sonthward according to the several courses of the western boundary of the Province to the southwest corner of the Province ; thence eastward with the southern line of the Province to the place of beginning"-from which, and from Berks, Northumberland county was separated by act of March 21, 1772, and then extended to the north and west boundaries of the Province ; and from it Lycoming county was formed by act of April 13, 1795, and comprised all the northwestern part of the State beyond Huntingdon, Mifflin and West- moreland counties.

WESTMORELAND COUNTY

was formed out of Bedford county by act of Feb- ruary 26, 1773 : "Beginning in the Province line where the most westerly branch, commonly called the South or Great branch, of Youghiogheny river crosses the same ; thence down the easterly side of the said branch and river to the Laurel hill ; thence

ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES.

along the ridge of the said hill northeastward so far as it can be traced, or till it runs into the Alle- gheny hill ; thence along the ridge dividing the waters of the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers to the purchase. line at the head of Susquehanna ; thence due west to the limits of the Province ; and by the same to the place of beginning," from which Washington county was separated by act of March 28, 1781. It was provided by act of April 8, 1785, "That all the land within the late purchase from the Indians, not heretofore assigned to any other particular county, shall be taken and deemed, and they are hereby declared to be, within the limits of the counties of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and that from the 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 Northumberland and Westmoreland counties in the aforesaid late pur- chase."

ALLEGHENY COUNTY

was formed out of parts of Westmoreland and Washington counties by act of September 24, 1788 : "Beginning at the mouth of Flaherty's run, on the south side of the Ohio river ; from thence by a straight line to the plantation on which Joseph Scott, Esq.,' then lived,' on Montour's run, to include the same ; from thence by a straight line to the mouth of Miller's run, on Chartier's creek ; thence by a straight line to the mouth of Perry's Mill run, on the east side of the Monongahela river ; thence up the said river to the mouth of Becket's run ; thence by a straight line to the mouth of Sewick- lay creek, on Youghiogheny river ; thence up Turtle creek to the main fork thereof ; thence by a northerly line until it strikes Rickety's creek ; thence down said creek to the Allegheny river ; thence up the Allegheny river to the northern boundary of the state ; thence along the same to the western line of the state; thence along the same to the river Ohio, and thence up the same to the place of beginning." To which another portion of Washington county was annexed in 1789; and a tract of between two and three hundred thousand acres, on Lake Erie, purchased by the Governor of Pennsylvania, March 3, 1792, from the United States (to which it had been ceded by New York and Massachusetts), for $151,740.45, continental money, was declared, by act of April 3, 1792, to be a part of Allegheny county.

ARMSTRONG COUNTY

was formed out of parts of Allegheny, Westmore- land and Lycoming counties by act of March 12,

1800. All that portion west of the Allegheny river was taken from Allegheny county ; all that portion on the east side of that river, between the Kiskiminetas river and the then northern boundary of Westmoreland county, viz, a line due west from the purchase line at the head of the Susquehanna, striking the Allegheny river a short distance below. the mouth of Cowanshannock creek, was taken from Westmoreland county; and all that part between the northern boundary of Westmoreland county cast of the Allegheny river and Clarion river was taken from Lycoming county which had been formed out of Northumberland county by act of April 13, 1795.

The original boundaries of Armstrong county were : "Beginning on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Buffalo creek, the corner of Butler county," which was also erected by act of March 12, 1800 ; " thence northerly along the line of said county of Butler to where the northeast corner of the said county of Butler shall strike the Allegheny river ; thence from the said corner, on a line at a right angle from the first line of the county of Butler, until the said line shall strike the Alle- gheny river ; thence by the margin of said river to the mouth of Toby's creek"-Clarion river- " thence crossing the river and up said creek to the line dividing Wood's and Hamilton's districts ; thence southerly along said line to the present line of Westmoreland county ; thence down the [Kiski- minetas] river to the mouth thereof on the Alle- gheny river ; thence across the said river to the westwardly margin thereof ; thence down the said river to the mouth of Buffalo creek, the place of beginning." By act of March 11, 1839, that part east of the Allegheny river and between Red Bank creek and the Clarion river was detached from Armstrong and annexed to Clarion county. Thus it appears that the territory of Armstrong county has been successively included in the counties of Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland and Bedford, wholly, and in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Allegheny and Lycoming, partly.

It may not be so well and generally known a hundred years hence as it is now why our county received the name which it bears. It may then be a matter of greater interest and curiosity than it now is to know why it was thus christened. The writer, therefore, turns back in the chronological order of events beyond the middle of the last cen- tury.

CONTEST BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 2

Author: Smith, Robert Walter Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins Number of Pages: 790

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790