USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
May 12, 1813 .- James Dawson enters a warrant for one hundred and fifty acres of land situate on the waters of Mill creek in Second Moon Township, Beaver County, adjoining lands of Robert D. Davison, Alexander Laughlin, Sen'r, Robert Laughlin and others, dated the 27th day of Feb'y, 1813.2
The draft of this warrant in Survey Book No. I shows the land named therein as lying between Mill Creek and Little Mill Creek. This proves that Second Moon township ran in above the north- ern line of Hanover down to the State line, and that Hanover's northern line was, at the erection of Beaver County, made iden- tical with the Allegheny County line of 1789 (see draft E).
We have now shown that the three original townships on the south side were located in the following order-Hanover on the west, Second Moon in the center, and First Moon on the east. Where, now, was the division line between First and Second Moon? We think it was nearly or quite Raccoon Creek. The proof of this is found in two drafts in Survey Book No. 1.3 The first of these drafts is of the land of Daniel Beer, dated February 13, 18II. His land is described as being in First Moon town- ship, and as being bounded on the west by Raccoon Creek. In the other draft, that of Daniel Morgan, dated August 13, 1810,
1 Warrant Book, p. 50 ' Id., p. 64. ' Pages 135-137.
867
History of Beaver County
the land is described as being in Second Moon township, and as having eastern boundaries common to the western boundaries of the first named tract. That is to say, a tract in Second Moon is bounded on the east by Raccoon Creek, and a tract in First Moon is bounded on the west by the same stream, showing that stream to be the dividing line between those townships.
But changes were soon made in these six original townships, as we shall now show. The first Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Jail Delivery sat in Beaver, February 6, 1804. At this court constables were appointed for the borough of Beaver and the following townships: First Moon, Second Moon, Han- over, South Beaver, Little Beaver, Big Beaver, North Beaver, North Sewickley, New Sewickley. This list of townships shows that between 1800 and 1804 there had been created Little Beaver and Big Beaver townships, and a division made of the territory of Sewickley into two townships. This was done by the court of Allegheny County. The original petitions for these divisions are filed in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Quar- ter Sessions of that county, among the road petitions,' and we reproduce them here in full, showing the order in which they were presented and in which the new townships came into existence.
The first petition was presented some time in 1801, and is as follows:
To the Honorable Alexander Addison and his Associate Judges of the Court of the County of Allegheny:
The Petition of a number of the Inhabitants of South Beaver Town- ship HUMBLY SHEWETH
That the said Township of South Beaver is so large that it is incon- venient and injurious to a great part of the Inhabitants of said Town- ship to attend Township meetings, &c., at so great a distance .- They therefore pray that the said Township may be divided Beginning where Little Beaver [creek] crosses the State line; thence up said creek to the Big Lick; thence to the stream on which John Kelso's mill is erected; thence down said stream to the mouth where it empties into Big Beaver Creek, or in such way as your Honors may think most proper. Your Petitioners therefore pray for a division and that said Township be called Little Beaver Township, and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray
James McDowell, John Lozer, James Graham, Jacob Lautzenbriefer, John Savier, Christopher Barr, Benjamin Shepherd, John Davison,
1 No record of these petitions is made in the Road Dockets-the original papers are themselves filed among the old road petitions.
868
History of Beaver County
John Shouse, George Hillis, Robert Hall, John McCready, Joseph Wilson, Thomas Boel, James Stevenson, William Hinson, John Ratliff, William Stevenson, William Davidson, William Robinson, John Beard, Jr., Thomas Smith, Francis Porter, John Sprott, John Sharp, Samuel C. Moore, James Gorrell, George Mason, Thomas Stratton, Samuel Parks, David Clark, Joseph White, Sr., John Lawrence, James McCown, John Thomas, Thomas Rogers, William Wilson, George Baird, James Boies, William Justus, William Lowrey, Peter Young, Joseph White, Robert Warnock, Samuel McClure, Elnathan Cory, Brice McGeehon, William Gabey, William Houston, Saml. Adams, David Hays, Robert Johnston, James Johnston, Samuel Fields, William Johnston, James Johnston, John Dobbin, John Marshell.
This petition seems to have been held under advisement, and on September 30, 1801, another was presented, as follows:
To the Honorable Alexander Addison and his Associate Judges of the Court of the County of Allegheny:
The Petition of a number of the Inhabitants of South Beaver Town- ship HUMBLY SHEWETH
That your Petitioners labour under considerable difficulty on account of our Township being too large for Township meetings, making roads, collecting taxes, &c. And as a Petition has been laid before your Honors for a division of said Township, the line to Run nearly East & West, we therefore Pray for a division of the North part of said Township that a line be run parallel with the State Line to make Both Townships as nearly of an equal size as may be and that the West part be called Field Town- ship and the East part Meadow Township, or in what way your Honors may think best.
Your Petitioners as in duty bound will pray:
David Clark, James McDowell, John Marshell, James Stevenson, Joseph McNutt, Samuel Horner, Elnathan Cory, Peter Lozer, Robert Warnock, Robert McMin, Joseph Chapman, James Chapman, John Young, John McCready, William Lowrey, Andrew Moore, John Beer, Wm. Plumer, John Beard, John Reed, Robert Andrews, Brice McGeehon.
The viewers or commissioners appointed by the court made their return as follows:
We the commissioners of Allegheny County, do recommend a Divi- sion of the within mentioned Township agreeably to the prayer of the within Petition.
James Robinson Nat. Irish I Wm. McCandless.
This petition was also continued under advisement, and in the following year, 1802, the decree of the court confirming the Nathaniel Irish had been an officer in the Revolutionary Army.
869
History of Beaver County
division was made, but the court gave the names Little Beaver and Big Beaver to the new townships instead of those suggested in the petition.' A diagram, probably made by the commis-
Donation Line
Bearer -
Little Beaver
in Bewer
7
Citace Line
Little
Дошок Вести
Big Beaver Creek
Township
Ohio-
DRAFT F.
" We have found in the files of petitions in the office of the Cierk of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny County one reading as follows:
"Petition from divers Inhabitants of Field and parts adjacent in the county of Allegheny -Petition for a road or cartway from John Sprott's mill through Field township to inter- sect a road from Steubenville nigh the house of Thomas Wilson at the western boundary of Pennsylvania."
This petition is endorsed "1801, Beaver," and the names of persons and localities mentioned in it are well known in the northwestern section of Beaver County. The per- sistence of names is here shown; the petitioners saying "Allegheny," though they were then living in Beaver County. No Field township ever existed in Beaver County, as we . VOL. 11 .- 17.
870
History of Beaver County
sioners, is filed with this petition, and is herewith reproduced (Draft F). On the back of it is this note:
The object of the petitioners of South Beaver township is to have the township divided into three townships agreeably to the Draught here presented.
We have now accounted for two of the new townships formed between 1800 and the date of the holding of the first court in Beaver, viz., 1804. These are Little Beaver and Big Beaver, both on the west side of Big Beaver Creek. The other new town- ship created in that period was on the east side of the Big Beaver, which in 1800 was all Sewickley township, south of the eastern half of North Beaver. We cannot find any clear record of the division of that township into North Sewickley and New Sewick- ley, the names of which appear, as we have said, in the appoint- ment of constables at the first court of Beaver County in 1804. In the files of Allegheny County there is nothing but the follow- ing petition:
To the Honorable Alexander Addison, etc .:
The Petition of a number of the Inhabitants of the lower part of Sewickley township Humbly Sheweth THAT your Petitioners for a long time have labored under the inconvenience and disagreeable necessity of working on the roads to the utmost bounds of the township, a distance of at least thirty miles .-
Your Petitioners therefore pray that you may in your wisdom think proper to make a division of said township; by having a line run between the Depreciation land and that of the actual settlers commencing at lands of Joseph Robinson on Big Beaver, Adam Wolf and William French's (on Brush creek), thence to continue a straight line to the Boundary of the next District, and your Petitioners will ever pray:
William Woods, T. Lukens, A. Atkinson, John Conely, Samuel Wade,
see from the above cited action of the court that the name was rejected; but the people had adopted that name for what was made Little Beaver township, and retained it for some time. This strange retention of names by the people is also shown in the first dupli- cate tax book (1802) for South Beaver township in which Samuel Johnston is named as the collector for the township with Thomas Beatty his assistant in Meadow township, and John Reed in Field township. Here we see the people persisting in using the names Meadow and Field which had been rejected by the court for Big Beaver and Little Beaver.
The present township of Big Beaver is the result of legislative action following the erection of Lawrence County in 1849, when several of the northern townships of Beaver County were divided and part of their territory contributed to Lawrence. By Section 2 of an Act approved Feb. 28, 1850, it was enacted
"That that part of Big Beaver township within the county of Beaver, is hereby erected into a separate township, to be called Big Beaver; and the same is hereby erected into a separate election and school district, and the qualified voters thereof shall hereafter hold their general and township elections at the house of Mrs. Eliza Miller, in said township."
· P. L., 106.
871
History of Beaver County
Richard Waller, E. Byers, Wm. Orr, James Orr, Noah Custard, James Akin, Joseph Oliver, Ezekiel Jones, A. Wolf, Mattison Hart, Robert Woods, John Foster, James Moor, Timothy Doty, Alexander Aken, Robt. French, Jacob Yohe.
It is probable that this was the petition which led to the division in 1801 of Sewickley township, Beaver County, into North Sewickley and New Sewickley. In the list of township officers appointed by the Court of Allegheny County in 1802, New Sewickley is named.
At the May and August terms of the Court of Quarter Ses- sions at Beaver in 1804, petitions were presented from sundry inhabitants of North Beaver township praying for a division of that township. On one of these petitions the court acted favor- ably, and directed the formation of two townships,-one on the east of Beaver and Shenango creeks, to be called Shenango township; and one on the west side to retain the name North Beaver. We give below both of the petitions referred to. It is interesting to see the names of so many early citizens of the county. The first petition read as follows:
To the Honorable the President and Associate Judges of the County of Beaver at their General Quarter Sessions of the peace held at Beaver Town in and for said county May term, 1804.
The Petition of a number of the inhabitants of Beaver County, HUMBLY SHEWETH:
That the township in said county now called North Beaver township is twenty miles long at least and six miles and a half broad, which renders it inconvenient for the inhabitants in general to attend their township meetings to choose township officers, and your petitioners therefore pray that said township may be divided so as to divide it as nearly equal as possible.
Your petitioners beg leave further to present that Big Beaver creek and the Shenango which are natural boundaries will divide it nearly equal and that that part on the west side of Beaver and Shenango creeks be called West Beaver township and that part on the east side of said creek be called East Beaver township and your petitioners as in duty bound will pray, etc.
Edward Wright, Alexander Fullerton, James Hope, Martin Willis, James Fullerton, John Sterritt, John Clarke, Benjamin Wells, George Baird, Thomas Cloud, John Patterson, Charles Clark, Abrm. Dehaven, - McCombs, Andrew Patterson, William Woods, Robert Patterson, John Hunter, John Nisbet, James Pollock, James McGinley, Thomas Luke, Moses Cannon, James Vanater, David Justice, John Miller, Sam'l Sample, Thomas Irvine, Jacob Wettenberger.
872
History of Beaver County
This petition is endorsed:
Petition for the division of North Beaver township May Sessions 1804. Continued over to August Term 1804.
And the following paper is filed with the petition:
Petition granted, and the Court direct that the Township be Divided in the following manner, that is, Beginning on Big Beaver creek where the Southern line of North Beaver Township crosses said creek; thence up the same to the forks thereof; thence up Shenango creek to where the Northern line of said Township crosses the same, and that part of the Township aforesaid which lies east of said Beaver and Shenango creeks to be called Shenango township and the part on the west side to retain the name, North Beaver township.
The second petition referred to is as follows:
To the Honorable Jesse Moore, Esquire, Pres't of the Court of Common Pleas of the sixth Circuit and his associates, now composing a court of Quarter Sessions of the peace in and for the county of Beaver:
The petition of a number of the inhabitants of North Beaver township, in said county. HUMBLY SHEWETH
That your petitioners labor under great inconvenience on account of the length of said township which is nearly twenty-four miles and only about seven miles in breadth, We therefore pray that a division of said township be granted by your Honors in the following manner, viz. Beginning on Shenango creek where the county line crosses said creek and down the same to Big Beaver creek, and down said creek to where said township line crosses the same which will divide said township about equally into two different townships and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray, etc .:
Samuel Whann, William Moore, William Martin, John Bell, Benjamin Cunningham, John Martin, James McKee, Hezekiah Holladay, Samuel English, James Frew, George Killdos, Alexander Frew, Henry Clinds, John Frew, Alexander Frew, Sen'r, Samuel Springer, John Jones, Thomas Morrow, Jehu Lewis, Benjamin Kirkindall, Ball Sharp, William Squeer, Neathenl Squeer, William Cairns.
This petition is endorsed on the back:
August Term 1804 .- Petition for the division of North Beaver Town- ship. Granted on another petition.
The minutes of the Court of Quarter Sessions has the fol- lowing entry of the decree in this matter:
On the petition of a number of the inhabitants of North Beaver Township for the division of said Township .- The court order that the township be divided in the following manner (viz.) Beginning on Big Beaver creek where the southern line of said township crosses said creek,
873
History of Beaver County
thence up the same to the forks thereof. Thence up Shenango creek to where the northern line of said township [crosses the same] and that part of the township aforesaid which lies east of said Beaver and Shen- ango creeks to be called SHENANGO township, and the part on the west side to retain the name of NORTH BEAVER township.1
The general impression in the county has always been that North Beaver township was entirely on the west side of the Big Beaver. We are sure that many of our readers will be sur- prised, as we ourselves were on first finding these various docu- ments, to learn that it ran along the northern section of the county, from the State line to the Butler County line, being nearly equally divided by the Big Beaver and Shenango Creeks.2 For a long time we were greatly puzzled in trying to discover the reason why this township, as originally formed, should have had such unusual proportions, it having been nearly twenty miles in length by about six in width. While studying the data we possessed the explanation of the difficulty suddenly came to us, and, with the aid of the draft on page 874 (Draft G) we think we can easily enable the reader to see it.
1 August term, Quarter Sessions Docket No. 1., p. 21.
* A petition had been presented to the court of Allegheny County in 1802 asking for the division of North Beaver in nearly the same terms as those in the petitions later pre- sented to our own court and given above. We first discovered this old petition in the Allegheny County court-house and sharing as we did the general belief that North Beaver township lay wholly west of the Big Beaver Creek, we could not understand it. Finding later the other petitions, we came to a correct understanding of the matter. The first petition reads as follows:
"To ALEXANDER ADDISON, Esquire.
"The President and Associate Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the county of Allegheny
"The Petition of a number of the Inhabitants of North Beaver Township in the County of Beaver Humbly Sheweth
"That the Inhabitants of said Township do labour under great difficulties on account of the great length of the same, being twenty miles long and six miles broad-
" We therefore pray that you would please to order the same to be divided into two Townships, East Beaver and West Beaver Townships, and allow the Big Beaver creek and Shenango creek to be the Division Line between said two Townships, and the Boun- aries of the same to be as follows :- viz .-- the West Beaver Township to begin at the Penn- sylvania Western Boundary, where the South Boundary of the first district of Donation land joins it, thence East by said Donation district line to Big Beaver creek, thence up the same creek to the Shenango, thence up the Shenango to the North Boundary of Bea ver County; thence West by said County Boundary to the West Boundary of Pennsylvania, thence South by the said West Boundary to the place of Beginning: and the East Beaver Township to begin at the Shenango where the North Boundary of the County of Beaver crosses, thence down said Shenango creek to Big Beaver creek, thence down Big Beaver creek to where it crosses the South Boundary of the first District of Donation lands, thence East by the same to the East Boundary of Beaver County, thence North by the East Boundary of Beaver County to the North Boundary of said County, thence West by the said North Boundary to the place of Beginning, and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray &c.
"Hugh Mckibben, John Sterrett, Wm. Dickey, James Fullerton, James Campbell, Thomas Clive, William Gibson, Hugh Gibson. James Hope. Adam Hope, Robert Smith. Wm. Espy, Pra's Nisbet, John Nisbet, John Dinning. Leonard Dobbin, William Woods, John Semple. Samuel Semple, James McGinley. Nicholas Briant, Edward Wright, Thomas Luke, Robert Patterson, Thomas Woods, Abrm. Dehaven, James Wilson, Eben'r Thomas, John Toms. William Cogswell, Charles Clarke, William Carson, Jeremiah Banin, Joha Hamilton, John Patterson, Robert Brewster, Robert Barnett, David Tidball, Joseph Gilmore. Sept., 1802."
874
History of Beaver County
It will be remembered that at its June Sessions in 1796, the court of Allegheny County erected out of John Hoge's and Thomas Stokely's surveyors' districts (see Draft A and ante, page 857) a new township called Beaver township. It will also be remembered that the northern boundary of Beaver County, as originally erected, was made "the north line of the first donation district." There was thus included in the new county of Beaver
ip, Ally Co.
~
IT. Stokely's.
~N. Beaver Ip. E. Beaver Co 1" Donation District.
Line between. Deprotection of Dewa" Lands.
Town
Here's FLEETS
Beaver
Re Kintor
BRE IDIMOS ALEXANDERSF
DIRO
RIVER
Line.
Beaver Co.
DRAFT G.
(as the broken line in Draft G marked "Beaver Co. Line" will show) so much of Beaver township, Allegheny County, as lay within the limits of that district (the first Donation District) west of the Butler County line, and those of John Hoge's Dis- trict of Depreciation Lands. Then, in the division of the new county into townships, the portion of old Beaver township re- maining in it was evidently divided by the line between the
875
History of Beaver County
first Donation District and Hoge's (see petition under note ? on page 873). the narrow strip to the north receiving the name North Beaver township, and Hoge's District to the south being called South Beaver township.
Borough township was formed at November Sessions, 1804, in response to a petition which we now give, and from which it will be seen that the borough of Beaver was once a part of South Beaver township. and that the bounds of Beaver borough and of Borough township were identical:
To the Honorable the justices of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of t Peace &c. of Beaver County, of Vouember Sessions, 1804.
The Petition of a number of the inhabitants of South Beaver Town- ship HUMBLY SHEWETH
That South Beaver Township is very large that the inhabitants of the Borough of Beaver are subject to taxation for making and repairing the roads throughout said Township whereas they have more than they can well do within the bounds of the Borough of Beaver leaving out the lanes, streets, &c .. your Petitioners further state that it would be much more convenient for the inhabitants within the bounds of the Borough to have said Township divided so that the lines of the Borough as now established by law be the lines of a new Township which said Township to be called
Your Petitioners therefore pray that said Township may be divided and the line of the Township to be erected be that of the Borough afore- said, and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray
A. Lacock. Samuel Lawrence. J. Lawrence, D. G. Mitchell, John Hannah, John Johnson, Samuel Johnston, Levi Jones, Geo. Holdship. R. Moore. Israel Pickens, James Allison. Jr .. David Hayes.
At the same Sessions, November, 1804. the prayer of the petitioners was granted. and it was ordered by the court "that the bounds of the borough of Beaver as established by law be the bounds of the new township to be called Borough township.":
At the May term. 1805, South Beaver township was divided into Ohio and South Beaver townships. Sundry inhabitants in the territory affected had expressed to the court their desire for this division in the following petition:
" Road Docket No. 1. No. 31, November Sessions. 1804 This petition reveals a fact, as surprising as it is interesting. viz. that at that early period the incorporation of a town did not always relieve its citizens from the burdens of taxation in the parent township. See under Beaver borough the steps by which this township has been reduced to its present limite.
876
History of Beaver County
To the Honorable Court of Quarter Sessions for Beaver County :-
The Petition of sundry Inhabitants of South Beaver Township in Beaver County most respectfully sheweth that your Petitioners labor under considerable Difficulties and Inconvainancys in attending Town- ship meetings, working on Public roads and Township officers performing their several offices-from the Distance they have to Travel occasioned by the Excessive Largeness and Extensive bounds of said Township. .
Your Petitioners respectfully Prays your Honors would take the Premises into consideration and grant them relief by Dividing the afore- said Township into Two Townships by a Division Line, to wit beginning on the line of the State, at a deep gully between James Gorrel's and Jehu Coulson's thence a Direct course to Alexander Reed's Including said Reed in the Division next the Ohio river from thence to George Conkle's striking Bready's run at the East side of said Conkle's Plantation In- cluded in the above Division, thence down the north side of the Bottom of said run to Big Beaver creek, the Division next the Ohio river to be called Ohio Township and the other Division to retain the name of South Beaver Township,-or whatever other names or Division line, as to your Honors may appear most practicable, &c.
And your Petitioners shall ever Pray .-
David Drennan, William Duncan, James Drennan, Chas. Phillis, Alexander Reed, Neal Mclaughlin, David Withrow, Samuel Robb, James Grimes, James Freel, Henry Woods, John Cotton, Henry Corkendall, James Phillis, Thomas Blackmore, Paul Reed, Henry Barnes, Joseph Smith, James Cotton, Ezekiel Moore, George Mason, Sen'r, William Reed, John Clindinning, Alexander Grant, John Bavington, John Hunter, Edward Neville, Solomon Carlile, John Hampton, Wm. Steel, Saml. Calhoon, George Mason, Jesse Smith, Abrm. Buskirk, David Calhoon, James Witacre, Saml. Caughey, John Shireers, Benoni Dawson, Robert Barnes, Philip Mason, Thos. Hoyt, Willum Calhune, Jacob Hackathorn, John Cross, Robert Hunter, John Campbell, Benjamin McGaffick, John McGaffack, Charles Beventon, Alexander Todd, Thomas McCoy, Daniel Martin, H. Johnston, Jonathan Grant, James Kennedy.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.