USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 23
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The territory now within the bounds of Beaver County has, in the course of the development of the counties of Pennsyl- vania, belonged to several of the most important of those divisions of the Commonwealth. Nominally it was a part of YOL. 11 .- 16
853
35#
History of Beaver County
Cumberland County. erected in 1,50, but there were at that time no permanent settlers within it. Next came Bedford County, erected in 1771, and at the first Court of General Quarter Ses- sions of the Peace, held at Bedford. for Bedford County, April 16. 177t. the court proceeded to divide the county into townships, all that part lying south of the Ohio and west of the Mononga- hela being included in Pitt township on the north and Spring Hill township on the south. The first of these townships, namely. Pitt. covered a portion of what is now Beaver County. Its limits were defined as follows:
Pitt .- Beginning at the mouth of the Kiskeminetas and running down the Allegheny river to its junction with the Monongahela, then down the Ohio to the western limits of the Province, thence with the western boundary to the line of Spring Hill. etc.
This took in what is at present embraced in the south side of Beaver County, which, at that date, was still without in- habitants except, possibly, a few Indian traders.
There followed, in 1773, the erection of Westmoreland County, which adopted for its territory west of the Mononga- hela River the lines of the two townships previously estab- lished by Bedford County, retaining also the names-Pitt and Spring Hill. Therefore Pitt township, Westmoreland County, also covered the present south side of Beaver County.1
Washington County was erected in 1781.' and Allegheny County in 1788,3 and from territory taken from these two coun- ties Beaver County was formed, March 12. 1800.+ Washington County contributed that portion of the county in the small triangle lying west of a line identical with the dotted line in the Draft of Four Townships situated South of the Ohio. marked "Allegheny and Washington line 1789." (See Draft H, page 880). Allegheny County contributed all the rest of the county on the south side of the Ohio River, and all on the north side of that stream on both sides of the Big Beaver Creek.
Before considering the formation of the townships in Beaver County itself, it may be of interest to inquire what townships
* But Westmoreland County, as previously stated (see vol. i., p. 305), must also have extended its jurisdiction north of the Ohio. Early deeds for lands lying on the north side of that stream in what is now Beaver County frequently locate those lands in West- moreland County.
* P. L., 1781, p. 400; Carey & Bioren, vol. ii., p. 232.
' Carey & Bioren, vol. iii., p. 277: 2 Smith's L., 445.
· " See Bioren vol. iii., p. 421 : 3 Smith's L., 429.
855
History of Beaver County
covered the different parts of its territory while that territory was still in these parent counties. And first, as to that portion of Beaver County north of the Ohio River-to what township division of Allegheny County did it belong? From Vol. I. of the Minutes of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny County the first sixteen pages are torn out and lost, but the first existing record (at page 54), being the minutes for March Sessions, 1790, recognizes in the appointment of constables the following town- ships: Moon, St. Clair, Mifflin, Elizabeth, Versailles, Plum, and Pitt. We learn from the minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of the State that these townships were formed by the court at its first session after the erection of the county.' The township for which we are enquiring-that, namely, which cov- ered what is now Beaver County north of the Ohio River-was the last named, Pitt. Pitt township included in its comprehen- sive limits all that part of Allegheny County north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny rivers, and remained unaltered for seven years. The changes which followed are hard to under- stand because of the meagerness of the records, and the lack of uniformity in the use of names as given on the maps of the early times, but in the interest of history we shall here transcribe
" As stated above the minutes of the court of Allegheny County are defective, but the action of that court creating the original townships has been preserved to us in the minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, from which we make the following extract :
"The certificate of the division of the county of Allegheny into townships or districts by the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for the purpose of electing Justices of the Peace, which was received and read in the Council on the fifteenth day of May last, was this day read the second time in the following words:
"'At a Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery, holden at Pittsburgh for the county of Allegany, on the eighteenth day of December last, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, before George Wallace, Esquire, President, and Joseph Scott, John Johnston and John Wilkins, Esquires, Justices of the same Court, the Court proceeded to divide the county of Allegany into townships in the follow- ing manner. to wit :
". Moon township: Beginning at the mouth of Flakerty's run; thence up the Ohio river to the mouth of Chartier's creek; thence up the said creek to the mouth of Miller's run: thence by the line of the county to the place of beginning.'"
Then follows the description of the other townships, St. Clair, Mifflin. Elizabeth, Ver- sailles, and Plum, which we do not quote as they have no connection with the history of any part of Beaver County, and Pitt, the one which covered all of what is now Beaver County north of the Ohio River, is defined as follows:
"'Pitt township: Beginning at the mouth of Pockety's run; thence up the Allegany river and by the line of the county to Flakerty's run; thence up the Ohio river to the mouth of the Monongahela river: thence up the said river to the mouth of Turtle creek; thence up Turtle creek to the mouth of Brush creek; thence by the line of Plumb creek to the place of beginning.'""
The approval of the Council, confirming the described township divisions is then recorded as follows:
"Whereupon it was Resolved, That the division of the said county into townships or districts, as before described. be, and the same is hereby confirmed." Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council, Sept. 4, 1789 .- Col. Rec., vol. xvi., pp. 149-150.
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857
History of Beaver County
all that we are able to find in the documents that have survived the accidents of the century past. The sources of information remaining to us are Docket No. I of the Court of Quarter Ses- sions of Allegheny County, Reading Howell's map of Pennsyl- vania of 1791, and the map of the Depreciation Lands (see drafts A and B accompanying).
At the December Sessions of the court in 1795 two new townships were struck off from Pitt, namely, "Irvine" and
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"Mead" I and at June Sessions following a new township called
"Erie" was formed from Mead, and one called "Deer" from Gappen's and Moor's districts.2 These had no connection
1 "On application of a number of Inhabitants on the waters of French creek &c-stating the large extent of Pitt Township and praying that it may be divided .- It is ordered that a New Township be erected off Pitt Township to consist of Benjamin Stokely's and Alex- ander McDaniel's surveying Districts called 'Irvine Township.'
"And that part of said Township of Pitt which consists of Power's, Rees's, and Nichol- son's Districts to be erected into a New Township called ' Mead Township.'" (Quarter Ses- sions Docket No. 1., No. 1. December Sessions, 1795, p. 130.)
? "On application the court erect a new Township off the Township of Mead to consist of Reese's District only called 'Erie Township.'
"It is also ordered that Gapin's and Moore's Surveyor Districts be erected into a New Township called 'Deer Township.'
"And that Jonathan Leet's District be erected into a New Township called 'Pine Township.'
"The Districts of John Hoge and Thomas Stokely erected into a New Township called . Beaver Township.'"" (Docket No. 1, June Sess., 1796, p. 152.)
0
858
History of Beaver County
with the territory afterwards included in the limits of Beaver County.
But at the Sessions last named. June. 1;96. Jonathan Leet's District (on the map of Depreciation Lands. D. Leet's) was erected into a new township called "Pine township." and the districts of John Hoge and Thomas Stokely (the latter lying for the most part north of the limits of what was afterwards Beaver County: see drafts A, B, and G) were erected into "Beaver township." (see note 2, ante p. 857). This. then, as will be seen by the accompanying drafts, put all of the original territory of Beaver County which lay west of the Big Beaver Creek in Beaver township and all of that territory east of Big Beaver in Pine township, Allegheny County, except so much of Thomas Stokely's District as was included in the first district of Donation Lands as far east as the Butler County line. These divisions remained unchanged until 1797, when Pine township was divided by the east line of Breading's District of Depreciation Lands, and the part west of that line was called "Sewickley township." : Sewickley township, Allegheny County. covered then, with the exception just noted, all that part of Beaver County east of the Big Beaver. As one of the original townships of Beaver County, Sewickley covered, with the same exception, the same territory, North Beaver township, as will be seen below, cutting off from it about six miles of its northern end.
Second, as to the portion of the county south of the Ohio River, contributed to it in 1800 by Allegheny and Washington counties. Previous to 1786 all of what is now the south side of Beaver County lay in the then Washington County townships, Smith ? and Robinson; all that portion of the territory west of Raccoon Creek being in Smith, and all east of it in Robinson. In
1 "It being represented to the Court by the County Commissioners as well from the information and complaints of others as from their own knowledge that the Townships of Pine and Deer are too large and inconvenient for the assessment and collection of taxes .- It is ordered that the said Township of Pine be divided by the East line of Braden's Survey- or District of depreciation lands and that the lower division thereof be a new Township and called Sewickley Township and that the Township of Deer be divided by the East line of Cunningham's Surveyor District of depreciation lands, -and that the upper division thereof be a new Township called Buffaloe Township." (Quarter Sess. Docket No. 1, Dec. Term, 1797, p. 265.)
Pine township was very large. Even after this division was made it extended nearly 23 miles up the Ohio and Allegheny rivers.
"Smith township was the last one of the original thirteen Washington County town- ships set off. It was by the suggestion of Judge James Edgar (one of the trustees) named in honor of the Rev. Joseph Smith, of Buffalo and Cross Creek congregations, whose labors often extended over what is now Beaver County territory. He was the author of Old Redstone. (See Crumrine's Hist. of Wash. Co., p. 910.)
859
History of Beaver County
January of that year (1786), a petition of certain inhabitants of Smith township, praying for a division of that township, was presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions. The petition was granted by the court, and the action confirmed by the Supreme Executive Council on the 2d of September following.' The part of the township set off by this division was named Hanover, and embraced the territory lying north of Harman's Creek and Brush Run to the Ohio River, bounded on the east by Raccoon
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Creek and west by the Virginia line.2 This division left that por- tion of Beaver County which we are now considering, in the then Hanover and Robinson townships of Washington County. (See drafts C and D.)
No further change occurred until about a year after the erection of Allegheny County (September 24, 1788), when, on a petition of sundry of its inhabitants, all of the northern part of Washington County, east of a straight line from the point where the Ohio River intersects the State line to White's mill on Raccoon Creek, was by an Act of the Legislature bearing date
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1 Col. Rec., vol. xv., p. 76.
' See Crumrine's Hist. of Wash. Co., p. 802.
History of Beaver County
WANT! !! ; So. annexed to Allegheny County.' The territory //' that line remained in Hanover township. Washington Nii All the erection of Beaver County. March 12, 18co. That wwwachip was then divided. all of the township north of a With Mas-ac due east from the State line to White's mill 1 being
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included in the new county of Beaver, the name Hanover being retained in both counties, Beaver and Washington.
' See Bioren vol. ii., p. 402. The language of this Act reads in part as follows:
"Whereas, the inhabitants of that part of the county of Washington which is included in the boundaries hereinafter mentioned have by their petition represented to this house their remote situation from the seat of justice, and prayed to be annexed to the county of Allegheny, and the prayer of the petitioners appearing just and reasonable etc."-it i .: enacted that the territory bounded by the following lines shall be included in Allegheny County, namely:
"Beginning at the Ohio river, where the boundary line of the State crosses the said river; from thence in a straight line to White's mill, on Raccoon creek; from thence by a straight line to Armstrong's mill, on Miller's run; and from thence by a straight line to the Monongahela river, opposite the mouth of Perry's run."
. White's mill was built in 1780. and was probably the first mill in what is now Beaver County. It was at what is now Murdocksville, and this place is interesting as being the point of intersection of the lines of three counties. viz., Beaver, Washington, and Allegheny, and from the fact that five townships corner here, viz., Hanover and Independence in Beaver County, Hanover and Robinson in Washington County, and Findlay in Allegheny County. Thomas Martin White of Darlington township is a grandson of the then owner of White's mill, his father, John White, having been born and reared there.
861
History of Beaver County
After the annexation to Allegheny County of this large sec- tion of Washington County, what disposition was made of it as regards township lines? There is no map of Allegheny County of that period showing townships, and there is a break in the Minutes of the Court of Quarter Sessions from 1793 to 1820, two books having been lost or burned at the time of the burn- ing of the Allegheny County court-house, May 7, 1882. But from what is yet remaining of those minutes, that is, up to 1793, and from the Road Dockets and Miscellaneous Dockets, it would appear that this annexed territory was considered a part of one of the original Allegheny County townships, namely Moon. The dockets uniformly show under the head of Moon township the petitions for roads, etc., coming up from the inhabitants in every part of the annexed region. This is the case up to 1800, when Beaver County was formed; and until 1804, when Beaver County ceased to be connected with Allegheny County for judicial pur- poses,-all that part of the county, even as far down as Georgetown, is spoken of as Moon township. The following ex- tracts will illustrate this:
MOON TOWNSHIP
I December 1791 .- A road to lead from Thomas White's mill on reckoon creek to Jacob Bausman's ferry opposite to the town of Pitts- burgh.1
I June 1793 .- A road to lead from Michael Chrisler's ferry [now Shippingport, Beaver County] in Moon township to Brodhead's road.
I March 1797 .- A petition for a road to lead from Brodhead's road to Isaac Lawrence's ferry on the Ohio river opposite Samuel Johnston's in Beaver Town.
I September 1798 .- A petition for a road to lead from the county line near James White's to Beaver Town on the Ohio river.
I June 1799 .- A petition for a road to lead from the home of David Scott to the landing place opposite of Big Beaver creek, petitioned for some time since should be vacated,
4 December 1799 .- A petition for a road to lead from Thomas Smith's ferry on the Ohio river in the lower end of Moon township to John Eaton's at the county line between Washington and Allegheny counties.
5 March 1803 .- Petition for a road from William Guy's, Senior, in Moon township to Brodhead's road leading to Beaver Town and it is computed that distance will be two miles nigher than the best road.
7 June 1803 .- Petition for a road leading from George Town to Pittsburgh. A remonstrance against this road filed.
1 Jacob Bausman was the great grandfather of the editor.
862
History of Beaver County
These extracts are all incon Road Docker No. : Llegheny County. For the interess which it has in meet and in the names of its signera, scomring as it does some of the carly cendents of the county, we gome here als, a orgy a 12 of a section to a road, as follows:
The Petition of a number of the Behabreach of the Townsing af Much humbly shewerk -
That a road is way made varted from a med by the name of Brand- head's mad on a ferry we the free diver opprette a Great below the mouth of Big Beaver Creek a read from here has been traveled for many years as it is the oriy ret that vagyna can travel from Photosys or Wash- ington to Beaverton and has been already of great stay at the Muhabi- tants of the Township of Moon and particularly so to persons migrating to the settlements worth and west of the Ober river ton ains road bas zot yet been laid out by ankonty in vomquence of which it's greatly out of repair.
Your petitionera therefore humbly pray the Court to appoint men to. view the premises, & if four or more of them shall see necessary that they lay out a road beginning on Biratheart's rad from one to three miles from the River Ohio, and from that place to proceed on sich a com as they may think best v, the above described ferry, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray
John Baker Henry Baker
John Dosds John Oark
William Cooly
Thomas Banks
Daniel Hea ::
mark
James Tod David Mc Keay
Daniel Waggle, Jun.
Win. Jordan
John Waggle John Baker, Sr. Andrew Johnston
Reuben Reion
John Smith
James Smith
John Parkinson
William Gray.
Daniel / Waggie
September. 1799.
Coming now to 1800, the date of the erection of Beaver County, we may ask what were the names of the original town- ships? There is no record of the court of Allegheny County showing any action taken in the matter of township divisions for the new county of Beaver, and it is to that court we should look for such action, since Beaver County was connected with
863
History of Beaver County
Allegheny County for judicial purposes until 1804, four years after its erection; neither is there any legislative action of the Assembly touching the matter so far as we have been able to discover. We have, however, several sources of information which determine the question for us. The first of these is the tax books which are still preserved in Beaver, and which show returns from the sections of the county south of the Ohio, and north of that river on both sides of the Big Beaver. From these it appears that there were in 1800 three townships on the south side of the Ohio, namely, Hanover, First Moon and Second Moon, and three on the north side, namely, North Beaver, partly on the east and partly on the west of Big Beaver Creek; and South Beaver on the west, and Sewickley on the east, of that stream.
In addition to the tax books we have the Warrant and Sur- vey books of the county, a careful examination of which shows the same townships existing in 1800 as those named in the tax books.
Through the courtesy of Mr. W. R. Merriam, Director of the United States Census, we have also obtained from the census of 1800 for Beaver County the names and population of the differ- ent townships of that date. It will be seen that the townships are therein named as above. The Director says:
The United States Census for 1800 showed the population of Beaver County by townships as follows 1:
Townships
Population
First Moon.
527
Hanover
421
North Beaver
338
Second Moon.
1,056
Sewickley
853
South Beaver
2,581
Total.
5,776
The original townships, i. e., the townships formed at the date of the erection of the county (1800) were therefore, we repeat, North Beaver, east and west of the Big Beaver Creek; South Beaver, west of the Big Beaver; and Sewickley, east of the
1 This report for Beaver County is also published in A Geographical Description of Pennsylvania by Joseph Scott, Philadelphia, 1806. Therein mention is made of 3 slaves in Second Moon and I slave in South Beaver.
:04
History n: Bearer County
sig beaver-all worth i he Chi: River; and Hammer. FIX Moon, anu Secondi Moon, somri it he Ohio. (See Ing' E .
'et us now conskier bereiative positions of the three south site
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DRAFT E. SHOWING TOWNSHIPS OF BEAVER COUNTY AT DATE OF ITS ERECTION (1800).
townships, with the aid of the accompanying draft (marked E).
Hanover township, as formed in 1800, embraced all the ter- ritory contributed by Washington County to the new county
865
History of Beaver County
of Beaver, that is to say, all within the triangle formed by the State line, the line drawn at a right angle from the State line to White's mill, and the line running from that mill to the inter- section of the Ohio River with the State line.
Second Moon township lay immediately east of Hanover, embracing all the territory between the eastern line of that township and Raccoon Creek, with the Ohio River for its north- ern boundary.
First Moon was bounded on the north by the Ohio River, on the east by the same stream, on the south by Allegheny County, and on the west by Second Moon.
This is the correct statement of the form and position of these townships, but as there has been doubt in the minds of some as to which of the two Moons lay next to Hanover town- ship, we will submit the proof of the statement as follows:
On page 136 of Beaver County Survey Book, No. 1, is a dia- gram of a certain survey, which is thus described:
The above is a draught of a tract of land surveyed May 2, 1811, in pursuance of a warrant granted to John Ansley, dated the 14th day of March, 1811, situate in First Moon Township, Beaver County, adjoining lands of Robert Agnew, Alexander Gibb, William Nelson and William Lockhart, containing 108 acres and 51 perches and an allowance of 6 per cent.
The draft shows the tract bounded on the west by "the heirs of George Shaffer," whose lands are known to have been east of Raccoon Creek, and therefore as the lands designated in the just mentioned survey are said to lie in First Moon township, we have the position of that township as east of Raccoon Creek.
On the 6Ist page of the Beaver County Warrant Book is this entry :
Sept. 1, 1810 .- Joseph Robertson enters his warrant for fifty acres of land dated the 28th day of December, 1793,-Situate in the county of Allegheny now Beaver, First Moon Township, adjoining lands of James McKee, Major Ward and Logstown old survey and Short-
This "old survey" is of lands in what is known as Logstown Bottom and vicinity, opposite the site of the old Indian town of Logstown, and in the present township of Hopewell. This proves that Hopewell township is a part of First Moon, and
866
History of Beaver County
that the latter township was in the extreme eastern part of the south side of Beaver County along the Ohio River.
And the position of Second Moon is clearly indicated in the two following entries:
May 24, 1804 .- William Frazier enters his warrant dated December 3, 1803, for 100 acres of land situate in 2d Moon Township in the county of Beaver, adjoining lands of John Nelson, David Kerr, John Thompson & others on the waters of Service creek, etc.I
Herein is proof positive that Second Moon township lay west of First Moon and pushed in above the northern line of Hanover clear down to Georgetown, for the lands of the men named in these entries, notably those of David Kerr, John Nelson, and the Laughlins, are known to all as being about Hookstown. We give one more entry from the Warrant Book to show how far west above Hanover township Second Moon stretched :
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