History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658

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The Act of March 12, 1783, authorized the location and survey of a large tract of land for which holders were at liberty to offer these warrants in payment. That act is substantially as follows :

That for the more speedy and effectual complying with the intention of the law aforesaid, there be and hereby is, located and laid off, a certain tract of land as follows: Beginning where the western boundary of the State crosses the Ohio river; thence up the said river to Fort Pitt; thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Mogulbughtiton creek; thence by a west line to the western boundary of the State; thence south by said boundary to the place of beginning, reserving to the use of the State 3,000 acres in an oblong of not less than one mile in depth from the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and extending up and down the said rivers from opposite Fort Pitt as far as may be neces- sary to include the same, and the further quantity of 3,000 acres, on the Ohio, on both sides of Beaver creek, including Fort McIntosh, all which remaining tract of land is hereby appropriated as a further fund for the purpose of redeeming the certificates aforesaid.

The surveyor-general was authorized to lay out these lands in lots of not less than 200 acres or more than 350 acres. That officer assigned the territory to seven deputies-the Depreciation Lands within this county being surveyed by El- der, Cunningham, Jones, Douglas, Nicholson, Alexander and Bredin, after whom the districts are respectively named, but only the northern part of Bredin's survey being in the county. The northern line of these surveys passes through the villages of North Oakland, Holyoke and Portersville, being about four miles and three- quarters north of the court-house and a short distance north of Prospect borough, and the tract embraced the whole county south of that line.

The Donation Lands, surveyed under the Act of March 12, 1783, embraced the territory within the following described boundaries : From the mouth of the Mahoning creek up the Allegheny to the mouth of Conewango creek; up that creek to the New York State line ; thence west to the northwest corner of Penn- sylvania; thence south along the western line of this State to the place due west of the point of beginning, and thence east along the northern line of the Depreciation Lands to the mouth of Mahoning creek.

This Act of March, 1783, was passed to fulfill the pledges contained in the Act of March 7, 1780, providing lands for officers and men of the Continental Line,

PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS.

regularly mustered in and out of the Army of the Revolution. On March 24, 1785, surveyors were authorized to lay this large tract out in lots of 500, 300, 250, and 200 acres. Officers ranking from captain to major-general and two-thirds of the number of lieutenant-colonels were to receive the 500 acre lots; while the 300 acre lots were intended for surgeons, surgeon's mates, chaplains, majors, ensigns and one-third of the lieutenant-colonels ; the 250 acre lots for non-commissioned officers from the rank of quarter-master sergeant to that of sergeant-major, and the 200 acre lots for lieutenants, corporals, drummers, musicians and private soldiers.

A system of drawing lots was introduced, in which a major-general could draw four tickets, a brigadier three, and a colonel two for the largest lots. A lieutenant- colonel could draw one ticket for 500 acres, and one for 250 acres ; a surgeon, a chap- lain or a major, two 300 acre lots ; a captain, one 500 acre lot ; a lieutenant, two 200 acre lots ; an ensign or surgeon's mate, one 300 acre lot ; a sergeant-major, sergeant or quarter-master sergeant, one 250 acre lot, and a musician, corporal or private, one 200 acre lot. Each class of lots was placed in a wheel, on the system of the mod- ern Louisiana Lottery, and the holders of certificates or warrants could partici- pate in the drawing. A later act provided for the exploration of the two classes of lands. Gen. William Irvine was appointed inspector, and, on his report, the bad lands in the Second Donation District, were withdrawn from the several wheels and the land covered by such numbers became known as the " Struck District." The Donation Lands embraced all that section of the county north of the Depreciation Lands, in Franklin, Muddy Creek, Brady, Clay, and Worth townships, which formed the First Donation District, and in Clay, Washington, Cherry, Slippery Rock and Brady townships, which formed the Second Donation District.

The " Struck Lands" may be said to comprise all that part of the county not included in the two principal classes-since discovered to be a great oil and gas field-all of which were sold under the law of 1792, together with the " triangle " in Erie county, acquired in 1792, and the unassigned lands in the Depreciation and Donation districts. The price of such lands was placed at seven pounds and ten shillings for every hundred acres, subject to a six per cent allowance for roads to be surveyed, but no tract was to exceed 400 acres. The whole plan was based on the idea of actual settlement and improvement, such as is now enforced in homesteading United States lands.

To the Indians all this appeared unjust. They saw one white man trying to rob his neighbor, the speculator trying to defraud the State, and themselves beaten in this commercial jugglery. Goaded on by the English to vengeance, and by their own ideas of right and justice, the Indians took up arms against their persecutors and border warfare resulted. Military expeditions, battles and numer- ous skirmishes between the soldiery, the settlers and Indians followed, until August, 1795, when Gen. Anthony Wayne reduced the remnant of the western tribes to submission and made a path for the whites to every acre of land in the wilderness.

It was impossible for the pioneers who located warrants here under the old acts or bought lands under the Act of 1792, to effect a settlement in this county prior

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

to the proclamation of Wayne's treaty, and the homestead or improvement sections of that act were nullified by the circumstances of the case; so that it was not difficult for the speculator to step in and nullify the law, even as effectually as the Indians did prior to August, 1795, and keep on in this course until 1805, when the United States court, through Chief Justice Marshall, gave judgment on the main question, and special acts of the legislature settled the many little points in controversy growing out of the varied interpretations of the act of 1792.

Robert Morris, who was a most active spirit in Revolutionary days. pur- chased 311 warrants, or orders for surveys, in Cunningham's district, issued to men who served in the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army. The area, covered by such warrants embraced almost 90,000 acres, including the site of the present borough of Butler. In other counties this wholesale system of land pur- chase was carried on, until loaded down with real estate the patriot lost all, and from 1796 to 1802 was in a debtor's prison. He died on May 8, 1806.

At sheriff's sale in Philadelphia, in 1807, Stephen Lowrey, of Maryland, purchased 107 warrants, which covered many tracts on which the pioneers had made permanent improvements, and the real troubles between the contending speculators and the occupiers began, to continue unabated until the oppressed settlers determined to take justice into their own hands.

In 1815 the Duffy farm, adjoining the borough of Butler on the west, was the scene of a little drama which had no small influence in settling the agrarian question. The land was part of the Morris tract, he leasing his title on the pur- chase of a warrant credited to Christian Stake. In the sale of the Morris estate, Stephen Lowrey became the owner of the tract, and claimed it in 1815. Prior to that year, however, Abraham Maxwell located upon it, erected his cabin and cleared some land. All this was done on the advice of the pioneer lawyer, General William Ayres. Early in 1814 Samuel Robb rented the farm from Maxwell, and was in possession when a suit in ejectment against both was en- tered by Lowrey in the United States court. Judgment for the plaintiff fol- lowed, and Deputy-Marshal Parchment was dispatched to obtain possession of the property. Robb assured him that he would not surrender his leasehold easily, and the news of the trouble spread throughout the settlement.

The officer did not then attempt to use violence, but later, in October, 1815, he organized a posse to aid him in carrying the law into execution. This posse assembled at the old tavern, now the site of the Willard Hotel, with Stephen Lowrey in their midst. There also were the sturdy farmers gathered. Both parties were well armed. The officers and the law they represented were not popular, the claims of Lowrey were discountenanced and the settlers were deter- mined not to pay a second time for their homes. The marshal's party left, taking the creek road to the Robb cabin,-the farmers adopted another route, and the scene was transferred from the old tavern to the historic cabin on the Maxwell improvement. l'archment was met at the door by Robb, who refused him admis- sion. Then the contestants entered into a logical explanation of their views, Lowrey and Maxwell being the principal speakers. They conversed apart from the crowd, near the rail fence, which ran from the cabin to the road, with Max- well's back to the fence.

PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS.

While thus engaged the report of a rifle rang out on the sharp morning air, and instantly Maxwell fell backwards. crying out "I'm shot, I'm shot." Stephen Lowrey was accused of being the instigator of this crime, and the wrath of the farmers was fanned to the point of desperation. Maxwell was carried by his friends into the cabin, and messengers hurried to the village for Doctor Miller. Threats were launched against the landlord and his party, which his protestations of innocence of the crime and his sincere expressions of sorrow, could not quell. The marshal and posse retreated guardedly and disappeared. Doctor Agnew, of Pittsburg, arrived that evening to attend to the wounded man, and, at the end of two months, Maxwell was removed from the scene of the first agrarian drama in Butler county to his own cabin.

From October. 1815, to July, 1818, the speculators resorted to compromise and arbitration rather than to law. On July 9, 1818, Dunning McNair, of Glade Mills, then called Woodville, gave notice, through The Butler Palladium and Republican Star, that as Col. Stephen Lowrey made sales and received money for lands in Cunningham's district, which were the property of Robert Morris and said McNair, now the latter gives advice to buyers to deal directly with him, as he cannot conceive by what authority Mr. Lowrey had power to interfere. This notice was continued unanswered until March 17, 1819, when Stephen Lowrey published " A friendly and salutary caution" in the same paper. He invited all persons interested to call upon him in the town of Butler, when he would show them in whom the title to the lands was really vested.

Under the Acts of 1792. 1795 and 1799, the lands reverted to the State, and the time for applying for Donation lands was extended to ISIO. Meantime the members of the board of property, misconstruing an Act of April, 1802, placed tickets for the bad-lands in the wheel from which the soldiers drew. Under the act of reversion. Andrew McKee bought 200 acres in the Second Donation Dis- trict, for which a patent was issued February 8, 1804. Enoch Varnum claimed the greater part of the tract, as a settler and improver of 1797, and the State Supreme court decided in his favor some time prior to 1828. The legislature accepted the law ; but, in justice to McKee, who held a patent from the State, an indemnity was granted. Thus the claim of the actual settler was recognized and the error of the board of property corrected.

For almost sixty years this question of squatter sovereignty slept, until the oil fields were opened, when it was revived in several localities, the case growing out of the ownership of the Purviance lands at Renfrew, being one of the most stirring agrarian cases since 1815, when the scene on the present Charles Duffy farm was enacted.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PIONEERS.

INTRODUCTION-CHARACTER OF THE FIRST SETTLERS-THE CABIN HOME-EARLY HUNT- ERS AND TRAPPERS-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS-PIONEERS PREVIOUS TO 1796- TAXABLES OF 1803-RAPID GROWTH-STATISTICS OF POPULATION.

A HUNDRED eventful years have come and gone since the first permanent set- tlement was made within the limits of Butler county. The adventurous and daring men and the no less brave and daring women who laid the foundations of the present populous and prosperous county in the heart of a great wilderness, have all passed away. They are sleeping in honored graves, amid the scenes that wit- nessed their fearless discharge of duty, and their patient endurance of privations incident to frontier life. A few of their sons and daughters are yet living, to recall the experiences of those early days, and in their reminiscent moods, trace the events of the intervening years, and, by contrast with the present, show the wonderful changes that have taken place. These remarkable men and women, " who have come down to us from a former generation," may be said to be the only connecting links between the pioneer days and the present, unless it be the graves in which the pioneers themselves are sleeping. The material witnesses or landmarks, such as the old cabin homes, the log school house, the log church and the early mill, have crumbled into ruins, or have been removed to make a place for more modern structures. The tidal wave of progress has swept them away forever, their memory even growing dimmer with each receding year.

The deeds of daring of the men and women who endured so much, in the face of savage foes and forest dangers, to create homes for themselves and their posterity have not been and will not be forgotten or permitted to perish from the memories of men so long as time shall last. They were the stalwart and sturdy sons, and the fearless daughters of many lands, who, loving liberty as they loved life itself, sought its fullest and freest enjoyment on the western frontier of the young Republic of the New World. While many came from foreign lands-from Ire- land, from Scotland, from France, from Holland, from Germany and from other countries east of the Atlantic, not a few were from the older settled portions of this and other States. These latter, belonging to a class that has constantly grown larger instead of less, were afflicted with earth hunger, They wanted more room and more land than they could secure in their old homes. They felt 100 crowded, even in sparsely settled districts, and preferred forest solitudes and pioneer perils to the comforts and security of organized society.

It was thus, from over the ocean and from the Eastern States and older coun- ties of the State itself, that Butler county was first settled. Sturdy men with strong arms and stout hearts felled her forests. Brave women, faithful to every

THE PIONEERS.

duty of wife and mother, endured the loneliness of the wilderness, and met the many perils and dangers of every-day life, with a fortitude and heroism deserving of immortal remembrance. The sons and daughters they reared, amid the hard con- ditions that surrounded them, have proven worthy of an ancestry so noted for manly independence, sturdy self-reliance, unremitting industry and incorruptible integrity.

The home of the pioneer was the rude log cabin erected in the midst of the forest. Beneath its roof he found shelter for himself and family. His neighbors and friends and the wayfaring stranger always found the latch-string of the door ready to their hands on the outside, and a warm-hearted and free-handed welcome and a generous hospitality awaiting them on the inside. For the protection of his home against the prowling beasts of the forest and the marauding Indian, the settler relied upon his trusty rifle. The latter was also called into almost daily service in providing meat for his table.

These sturdy settlers led simple, wholesome and neighborly lives. They knew nothing of the complex formalities of the social intercourse of to-day, nor would it have been possible for them to have observed them if they had. They nevertheless lived happily and were constantly helpful to one another. The "ceaseless round of toil" was varied, now and then, by wedding festivities, dances, neighborhood frolics, hunting parties, house-raisings and other social gatherings calculated to break the monotony of their lives, bring them into closer friendship, and foster the neighborly spirit so necessary where neighbors were so few and so far apart.

The log cabin was, ahnost without exception, constructed of round, unhewn logs. Necessity made the pioneer his own carpenter and builder, and his tools were usually limited to a spade, an ax and a hatchet. With these he built as best he could. Occasionally some settler. better circumstanced than his neigh- bors, would take the time and go to the expense of building a cabin out of hewn logs and covering it with a shingle roof ; but the cruder structure must be accepted as the typical pioneer home. It was usually one story high and con- tained but one room. Sometimes, when the family was numerous, a " loft" or attic was added, used for sleeping purposes and reached by a ladder. The roof, covered with clapboards, was supported by pole rafters. The interstices between the logs were filled with small "chunks" of wood, and then plastered within and without with mud mixed with straw. The windows were square holes cut in the side of the cabin, greased paper being used to admit the light instead of glass. The heavy doors were of hewn puncheons and were swung on wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with a buckskin latch-string on the outside, answered from the rising to the retiring of the family, when the door was " barred" on the inside for the night by a heavy cross-piece fitted into latch-like receptacles on either side. Stoves were unknown. A capacious stone fire place, with its huge back log to protect the chimney, which ran up outside the wall, and was made of cross pieces of wood daubed with mud, furnished a cheerful fire both for heating and cooking purposes. The bedstead was a home-made affair fitted into the walls in a corner of the cabin, and the chairs used were puncheon benches with holes bored near the ends into which the supporting legs were fitted.

HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.

These primitive dwellings like their builders, have passed away, yet asso- ciated with them in the minds of the venerable living, are many happy mem- ories. They were the homes of their infancy, their childhood, their youth, their young manhood and their young womanhood, the scenes of their childish sports, their love-making and their weddings. Beneath their roofs many a loved son or daughter saw the light of this world for the first time, and many a venerable and age-worn parent or grandparent, wife or mother, husband or father, and many a brother or sister, or beloved child, sank into that dreamless sleep which we call death. What wonder, then, that those, who with whitened locks, bowed heads and tottering steps are drawing near the grave, should cherish in tender memory the cabin homes of their childhood, and live over again in reminiscent tales the days that have gone from their lives forever.

It was not until after the close of the Revolutionary War, and the revival of the migratory and land-hunting spirit among the people of the older counties, as well as a renewal of immigration from foreign lands, that the section of the State north of Allegheny county, and west of the Allegheny river, began to attract the attention of the settler. Although the land was not open for settlement until 1795, adventurous spirits made their appearance within the boundaries of Butler county as early as 1790. This advance guard, composed mainly of hunters and trappers, whose purpose seems to have been to " spy out the land," cannot be regarded as the actual pioneer settlers of the county. Their usual custom was to come here at the beginning of the hunting season, remain through it, and at its close return to their homes to market the products secured by trap and gun.

The Seneca Indians, who had a village in the county near Slippery Rock creek, at this time, were friendly to the whites, and the early hunters and trappers were kindly received by them. The Delawares and Shawnees, however, who were hostile, opposed the westward march of civilization, and made it dangerous for settlers to venture into the county until after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Nevertheless, a few of the more daring, principally the old hunters and trappers, took the risk of coming here between 1792 and 1796, but it was not until the latter year that the settlement of the county may be said to have been begun in earnest.

The first men who came into the county with the purpose of becoming per- manent settlers were David Studebaker and Abraham Snyder of Westmoreland county. They crossed the Allegheny river at Logan's ferry in the autumn of 1700 : camped for the night on the site of Butler borough, and then proceeded to an Indian village, on the Slippery Rock, about two miles north of the present site of Mecanicsburg. Here they were entertained by the Indians, with whom they remained about three months, spending the time in hunting and fishing, and in exploring the country. They then returned to their home, and reported what they had seen and experienced during their absence. In 1792 David Studebaker again came to Butler county, bringing with him his youngest sister as house- keeper. They took possession of the little cabin, erected during his former visit, and became permanent settlers. After a time, the young girl, unable to longer endure the loneliness of the forest, begged to be taken home. Her brother com- plied with the request and brought back an older sister to take her place. His

THE PIONEERS.

father, Joseph Studebiker, who in early boyhood was taken captive by the Indians and held by them for nine years, and who afterwards served as a Revo- lutionary soldier under Washington, joined him later.

James Glover, a native of Essex county, New Jersey, and a Revolutionary sollier, having served through that struggle, " from the first to the close," at the beginning in the New Jersey and later in the Pennsylvania Line, is credited with coming into the county in 1792, and, in the fall of that year, erecting a hunter's cabin near a deer lick in what is now Adams township. This cabin he occupied during the hunting seasons, until 1795, when he made a clearing around it. In 1796 he entered 400 acres of land, built a better cabin, became a permanent settler, and remained in the county until his death, in 1844, in the ninety-first year of his age. Glover, who was a blacksmith, and who had rendered valuable service while in the Continental Army. as an armorer, settled in Pittsburg after the close of the war, where he worked at his trade. A few years later he purchased a farm across the river, in what is now the very heart of Allegheny, and took up his residence upon it. About 1815 or 1816 he leased this farm-the ownership. of which he retained after coming to this county-in perpetuity for $75 a year This and a few other leases of a similar character, caused the legislature to after- ward pass a law prohibiting leases in perpetuity.

Peter McKinney, another Revolutionary soldier and noted hunter, so his descendants claim-built his cabin in what is now Forward township. in 1792. It is said that in his youth he came with his parents from Ireland, both of whom died in this country. leaving him an orphan, and that, after their death, he was apprenticed to a man named Turnbull. He served in the Pennsylvania Line, dur- ing the Revolutionary War, as a drummer and fifer, and afterwards saw service during the Indian troubles. He was married at Braddock Field, Westmoreland county, in 1791, to Mary Shorts, who came with him to Butler county in 1792. The cabin home of the young couple was built on what is now known as the Dambach farm. His daughter Elizabeth, born March 23, 1792, is said to have been the first white child born in the county. Ilis wife died in 1839, and his own death occurred in 1844. In 1839, he erected a tavern on the site of Petersville, in Connoquenessing township. In 1819 the town was laid out by his sons, William S. and C. A. Mckinney, and named in his honor.

David Armstrong, accompanied by his son, George, and his daughter, Rebecca, came here in 1794, from Westmoreland county, making the journey on horseback. They made their temporary home in a tent or wigwam until fall, when the father and daughter returned to Westmoreland county. The follow- ing spring, the entire family came to Butler county and settled in Worth town- ship, on the land held for them during the winter by the son, George.

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History of Butler County, Pennsylvania, Part 5

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown Number of Pages: 1658

Author: Brown, Robert C., ed; Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.); Meagher, John, jt. comp; Meginness, John Franklin, 1827-1899, jt. comp
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Chicago : R. C. Brown
Number of Pages: 1658