History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Davis, A. J. (Aaron J.), b. 1847
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 862

USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania > Part 7

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1 From an inscription on a plate buried by Céleron at the mouth of French Creek.

HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.

and the big river Wesahawaucks," they came in sight of the French fort on the 7th.

This simple chronicle is all that breaks the obscurity involving the condition of this country at that remote period ; it is only a gleam, an incidental but inter- esting mention in the note-book of a plain, practical man who took down only the most salient features of his journey, and then with a brevity we must regret. However, in a negative way we may gather some information concerning the state of this country at that distant day. From the day Post left the Susque- hanna till he arrived at Venango his little party appears to have traversed a vast solitude ; there is no mention of either white men or savages, except of their own number. At Chinklacamoose there were some signs of Indians in some " poles painted red," which were stuck in the ground and served as stakes for prisoners ; but here in Clarion county there is no mention even of a sign of red men. This was partly due to the war which occupied many at distant points ; but it also serves to confirm the statement that, except in the hunting seasons or in returning from an incursion to the Susquehanna, they were rare in the district embracing Clarion and northern Jefferson counties. No Indian villages were located in the county, the nearest being Goschgoschunk (near Tionesta), Venango, Punxsutawney, and Oldtown, opposite the mouth of Town Run in Armstrong county, and lying on the Venango trail. Oldtown was a prehistoric village of the Shawanese, and in 1790 there were only vestiges of it. The most tangible part of Post's journal relates to the river. Nowhere else but here and in Heckwelder do we meet with " Tobeco." The French name was " rivière au Fiel," River of Hate.1 The circumstance which gave it this name is a mystery. The oldest English maps and mentions, the two above excepted, are unanimous in calling it "Toby's," or "Toby Creek." But Post and Heck- welder2 give us the clue to the true origin of "Toby," and enable us to pro- nounce false the popular legend which assigns it to a hunter and trapper of that name, who annually came up the river in pursuit of game. What hunter ascended the Clarion so long before 1758 as by that time to have identified it with his name ? Toby is from Tobeco, which in turn is either a corruption of Topi-hanne, i. e., alder stream, from whence Tobyhanna, a tributary of the Lehigh is derived ; or it more probably comes from "Tuppeek-hanne," the stream that flows from a large spring ; an origin implied from the clearness and sweetness of its waters.

The Indian nanie for Redbank Creek was Lycamahoning, from " leguai " which in the language of the Delawares signifies sand, and "mahonink," where there is a lick -i. e., Sandy Lick Creek, which translation it actually bore, to- gether with the original, up to about 1820, when it was relegated to its southern branch. It was styled Redbank, too, at an early date-at least as early as 1798;

1 Father Bonnecamp's map.

2 Indian Names.

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO 1784.

it is a descendant of "rivière au Vermillion," or Red River, as this stream was called by the French. How this name came to be applied to it is involved in doubt ; the most reasonable conjecture derives it either from its outcropping red ore or the deposits of Mauch Chunk red shale in its banks.

Paint Creek, which has several companions in this State, comes from the Algonquin " Wallamink," " where there is paint," from the iron ore exposed along its edges, whence the aborigines in this vicinity got their pigment for war- paint. Tom's Run received its appellation from an Indian who bore that Chris- tian name; Town Run, from the old Indian town opposite its mouth. The " Weshauwaucks " spoken of by Post is East Sandy ; this designation is not found elsewhere, and its origin is unknown.

To return to our Moravian: He crossed the river near the fort and recon- noitered circumspectly, being fearful of detection. "I prayed the Lord," he quaintly says, "to blind them as he did the enemies of Lot and Elisha, that I might pass unknown." The Indians with him penetrated the works and re- ported a garrison of only six men. Finding no number of Indians near Ve- nango, he proceeded down the right bank of the Allegheny or Ohio, as it was then called, to the Shawanese villages in Butler and Allegheny counties, where he held numerous conferences and harangued them, with varying results.

In the same year Fort Du Quesne was captured by General Forbes, and in the following (1759) the French abandoned Venango and Le Bœuf in order to strengthen Fort Niagara. In 1763 the little garrison at Venango shared the fate of all the northern posts in Pontiac's war; the men were massacred and the fortifications leveled by flame. Northwestern Pennsylvania then relapsed into barbarism, and its history from this period to the Revolution is, with one excep- tion, a blank. It was abandoned by the authorities to the uncurbed sway of the wild denizens of its forests, and in many years-except an occasional hunter and fur trader, half savages themselves-but one man had the courage to pen- etrate its depths. This was David Zeisberger, an intrepid Moravian missionary. He came into Forest county in 1767, and so rare had been a white face that on his arrival at the first Seneca village, in Warren county, a messenger was dispatched in haste to the neighboring town to notify the chief of the stranger's appearance.

BRODHEAD'S EXPEDITION.

Colonel Brodhead left Fort Pitt August II, 1779, with a force of 600 men, to chastise the Senecas and Munseys of the upper Allegheny. He met with little opposition,1 and succeeded in burning Conewango, Buchloons, and Yah- roongwago, large Seneca villages in Warren county and Southern New York. He returned by way of French Creek, where he ravaged another town. At the mouth of that stream the army crossed the Allegheny and took " the old

1 For Brady's Bend and Captain Brady, see appendix.

HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.

Venango road," which led them through Clarion county. They crossed the Clarion at Bullock's Ford, near Callensburg, so named from the circumstance of the cattle being driven over the river there, then, and during the war of 1812. At Bullock's Ford a soldier died and was buried on the river's bank. Snow fell on the homeward march. The command reached Fort Pitt September 14.

Colonel Brodhead writes of this expedition :1 " Too much praise cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every corps during the whole expedition. Their perseverance and zeal during the whole march through a country too in- accessible to be described, can scarcely be equaled in history. Notwithstand- ing that many of them returned barefooted and naked, they disdained to com- plain. It is remarkable that neither man nor beast has fallen into the enemy's hands on this expedition, and I have a happy presage that the counties of Westmoreland, Bedford, and Northumberland, if not the whole western territories, will experience the good effect of it."

Among Brodhead's officers on this campaign were the noted partisans, Captains Jack and Brady. Adam Sheffer, grandfather of William and H. K. Sheffer, of Salem township, enlisted from Ligonier valley, with the Westmore- land militia, and took part in it as a private.2

TRAILS.

Two important paths crossed Clarion county - the Susquehanna (Big Isl- and)-Venango, and the Venango-Kittanning, known as the " old Venango road." The Susquehanna- Venango entered the county at about the same place as the turnpike does. It crossed the Clarion at Clugh's Riffle, about a mile northwest of Strattanville. The Venango trail passed the county line in northwestern Salem township ; crossed the river at Bullock's Ford, near Cal- lensburg, and then striking southeasterly crossed the Redbank at the mouth of Town Run. This was the route taken by Brodhead on his return. It inter- sected the Kittanning path to Standing Stone (Huntingdon), in northern Indi- ana county.

The Allegheny River was then the great highway between the southern and northern part of Western Pennsylvania, as well as the route of French voyageurs from the lakes to the Ohio and Mississippi. It was regarded as con- tinuous with the Ohio, and was so called, at least for a considerable distance up, as late as 1790.

There is no river in America, the Hudson excepted, linked with such stir- ring struggles and associated so intimately with the romance of the wilderness as the Allegheny. And the scenes of that romance found a worthy setting in the beauty of its banks and the clearness and volume of its waters; issuing

1 Letter to Washington.

2 The following Revolutionary soldiers resided in this county : Adam Sheffer, Salem township ; James Brown, Porter township; Thomas Meredith, Limestone township; Hugh Callen, Licking township; John Buchanan, Perry township.

FROM 1784 TO SETTLEMENT OF COUNTY.

from the untrodden forests of the north, drinking in many a shady creek, rounding with bold curves many a sylvan promontory, now rippling over a pebbly channel, and again expanded into a placid lake; beauties of which the ax of the woodsman and the disfigurements of commerce have not alto- gether robbed it. Its banks have seen the fleet canoes of the Delawares and the Senecas ; its clear waters have reflected the embattled bateaux of Celeron and Contrecœur, with bronze cannon and hundreds of gleaming bayonets, with the dark-skinned pilots and the black-robed Jesuit or Récollet; and, above all, the lily flag of France to be planted in the wilderness alongside the cross and proclaim the empire of Louis, his most Christian majesty of France! Again the solitary Moravian missionary, quaint and simple in manners and attire, and his faithful Indian converts, have glided down on their way to the "huts of peace," and perhaps roused the echoes from its rocks by a weird psalmody in the tongue of the Algonquin. Its hillsides, too, have heard the tramp of Brodhead's little army; have rung with rifle volley and the scream of the savage; and when danger in the form of the ruthless sons of the forest was abroad, the watch-fires of the yeomen guards and the challenge of the sentinel cast a glamor over the valley.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE PURCHASE OF 1784 TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

The Purchase - Pickering & Co .- Small Warrantees - The Fox Estate - Lewis and Peters - The Holland Land Company - The Bingham Lands - Mifflin Warrants - Franklin College - Northumberland and Lycoming - David Mead - The State Commissioners.

T 'RUE to the principles of equity pursued by Penn in his dealings with the natives, the government of Pennsylvania extinguished the last claim of the Indians by purchasing all the remaining territory in the original limits of the State which had not been included in the treaty of 1768. That treaty made the northwest bounds of possession as follows : The Ohio and Allegheny from the Ohio line to Kittanning, thence by a straight line to Upper Canoe place, on the head waters of the Susquehanna, now Cherrytree, in Clearfield county, thence by that river to the mouth of Pine Creek, below Lockhaven, thence north by Pine Creek to the New York line.

At a treaty held at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, N. Y.), the chiefs of the Six Nations, by deed dated October 23, 1784, conveyed to this Commonwealth all the residue of the State lying north and northwest of this line. This treaty was confirmed at Fort McIntosh (Beaver) by the Delawares and Wyandots,

HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.

who claimed the southern part of the included territory, and a deed was exe- cuted by them January 21, 1785. The new acquisition covered the north- western third of the State, and of course the present Clarion county. It was called the " Late Purchase," or " New Purchase."

April 8, 1785, the Assembly incorporated with Allegheny and Westmore- land all the territory within the New Purchase not previously assigned to any county. All west of the Allegheny and Conewango Creek, with Westmore- land, and all on the east, including therefore Clarion county, with Northum- berland.

Individual property in Clarion county dates from the opening of the land office, May 1, 1785. A rush ensued for warrants in the New Purchase. Their area at first was limited to 400 acres each, with the privilege of ten per cent. excess ; soon after the limit was widened to 1,000 acres and allowance. The consideration money at first was £30 for 100 acres, or 80 cents per acre, and the surveyor's fees. From the Ist of March, 1789, to the 3d of April, 1792, £20 ($53.333) per 100 acres, exclusive of surveyor's fees ; from April 3, 1792, to September 1, 1817, £5 ($13.333); after that date {10, or $26.663.

By an act passed in 1792, to encourage colonization on the extreme frontier -actual settlement was required to gain a title for land west of the Alleghe- ny, " unless prevented by enemies of the United States." The determination of the validity of titles under this proviso was a much-vexed question, and gave rise to general and almost endless litigation. Happily Clarion county escaped this by reason of its geographical position ; for by the time a similar act went into effect east of the Allegheny, most of the land here had been warranted, the Indians were no longer a constant menace, and the frontier was comparatively secure. At the same time the absence of the settlement proviso for warrants east of the Allegheny and Conewango, together with the fact that the greater portion of the land was in the hands of a few, retarded development of this country for fifteen years, and accounts for the paradox that Northern Armstrong, Clarion, Jefferson, Forest, and part of Warren county remained in primitive savagery till 1800, while in 1790 Butler, west- ern Venango, and Crawford counties were comparatively populous.

The deterrent effects of intermittent Indian warfare are also to be taken into consideration; but this extended equally to the east and west of the Alle- gheny. In 1795 the law requiring applicants to make actual settlement was extended to the new purchase lying east of that river, and remained in force till 1817. Among the first to take out warrants in Clarion county were

PICKERING & CO.

These consisted of Timothy Pickering, Tench Coxe, Samuel Hogdon, Dun- can Ingraham, jr., Andrew Craiger, and Morris Fisher. Colonel Pickering was a native of Massachusetts, but was then a resident of Philadelphia. He

OUTLINE MAP of CLARION ~ COUNTY Showing the Territory Covered by the larger

WARRANT or PATENTEES. Expressly Prepared i

RICHP PETERS

W !! BINGHAM

Drawn by ~ GEO. J. RIED ~ Scale 3 miles =1 Inch

Sandy cel

HOLLAND CO

J. MIFFLIN afterward

WILLINK AND CO.), 1

Fox & B's PENNA.

&bl

Fux

FRANKLIN COLL.

THOMAS

UVENCIONES

Canoe

CLARION

9 13

Co.

DBIN

PE TERS

IST

LER 6

Jul

Various

WARRANTIES

CARSON, HAMILTON

Fox

LATSHAW and others

GESTOX

P. & Co.

Black Fun Run

WM BINGHAM

and othersi

MC CARTNEY

WISTAR

P. AND CO.

BRODHEAD & THOMAS

HOLLAND

Co.

&Co

E BRADY

EW BETHLEHEM.

133 JOHNSTON & BRADY

No 4 ELK

NO10 SALEM

Tp NO16 LIMESTONE Tp

415

S KNOX

11 RICHLAND

17 PERRY

237 R.MY CLENACHAN

6 PAINT

12 LICKING

18 TOBY

Nº 1 FARMINGTON TP

7 HIGHLAND

13 PINEY

19 PORTER

2 WASHINGTON

8 MILL CREEK,,

14 MONROE

20 REDBANK

3 ASHLAND "

9 BEAVER

15 CLARION

21 MADISON

TYM BINGHAM

Geo & SAM Fox.

INGERSOLL &

PICKERING

piney

and

16.

LATIMER, SLOAN, HETRICK,

RIVER

PICKERING & CO.

VARIOUS LATE WARRANTEES

Che

MIFFLIN & JOHNSTON

afterward Fox.

LATER WARRANTEES

HOLLAND CO

COOPER)

HOLLAND CO.

PICKERING

Redband

Creek.

GEO. HARRISON

Puisse

and

S VILLE

INGERSOLL

CIST

ALLEGHE

DALLAS

Cla

BING- Harl

RIMERANUNG

No 22 BRADY TP

FROM 1784 TO SETTLEMENT OF COUNTY.

had been commander of a Pennsylvania regiment in the Revolution, and be- came secretary of war during the same period. He bore a prominent part in Indian difficulties and treaties concerning this State, and afterwards became postmaster-general and secretary of State of the general government. Throughout all he displayed executive ability. An article of agreement was drawn up by the company, April 6, 1785, stating that they were desirous of purchasing considerable quantities of land in the New Purchase, on the opening of the land office on the first of the succeeding month, and appointing Pickering, Coxe, Hogdon, and Ingraham a committee to procure warrants and manage the affairs of the company. It was likewise stipulated that the mem- bers of the company should be joint tenants, that the lands purchased by their committee should be conveyed to them as such in fee, and that a con- tract should be made with General James Potter, of Centre county, to select their warrants, show them to the surveyors, and see the proper returns made to the surveyor-general's office. Of the 68,000 acres to be purchased by the company, Potter was to receive one-fourth for his services. This agree- ment was carried out. The warrants were taken early in May, 1785, and sur- veyed late in October of the same year, and in the spring of 1786. Those in Clarion county are scattered ; two of them, 185 and 441 - the latter contain- ing 1,137 acres-cover respectively New Bethlehem, Fairmount, and West Millville and vicinity.1 The vicinity of Brinkerton was included. Taking in one in the northwestern corner of Porter township, Pickering territory extends for its full length, and on each side of the north and south dividing line be- tween Piney and Monroe, and then veers off to the right, along Brush Run to its head.

General Potter having died, Pickering et al. conveyed 'his share, 17,000 acres, March 3, 1795, to his sons-in-law and executors, Andrew Gregg and James Poe, for the use of his heirs.

From the year 1785 to 1789 inclusive, a considerable number of four and five hundred acre tracts were taken up by various small holders, mostly re- siding in Philadelphia.

In 1785 a tract of 300 acres called "Troy," No. 559, situated on " Lick Creek," i. e., Licking, " a branch of Toby's Creek," was granted to David Mc- Keechan, of Philadelphia, who conveyed it in 1796 to John Wilson, also of Philadelphia. This warrant is now largely the property of Mr. E. Over, of Licking township. John Wilson, the purchaser, was a banker, and bought out about the same period a number of the smaller owners ; he also purchased a number of warrants from the Holland Company, but forfeited them by breach of conditions. In 1785 warrant 382-now covered by the farms of Wilson Mc- Kee and H. Henry-was drawn by Captain Miles, of Warren, and one in Piney, on the Licking township line, No. 404, was warranted to John Taylor. Patrick

1 See map.

HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.

Moore in the same year purchased two warrants in eastern Licking, 323 and 327, now occupied in part by Michael Over ; these were sold by the sheriff of Lycoming county, and bought by Charles Huston, to whom they were pat- ented. The valley of Licking Creek and its tributaries seems to have been a favorite territory for the smaller speculators. In 1785 one tract on Lycama- honing Creek (Redbank) was warranted to Elias and Peter Miller, of Bedford county ; conveyed to James Coulter. Warrants 723 and 725 were conveyed in 1785 to Colonel Andrew Porter, afterward surveyor-general.

Among other warrantees in Perry, Licking, and Piney townships are John Buchanan, deputy surveyor ; James Hamilton, John Grier, and Philip and Jo- seph Creigh, the latter on Cherry Run. William Amberson, James Amber- son, and Henry Reid warranted considerable land in Perry, Porter, and Redbank townships. In Perry township the Amberson tracts lie chiefly along the Allegheny, north of the Bingham lands. In 1786 two tracts in Richland township on Turkey Run were surveyed to Walter McFarland and conveyed by him to John Range, of Mt. Pleasant township, Adams county ; in 1787 one tract in Clarion township was issued to William Todd and by him con- veyed to Joseph Baldridge; 1787 Robert McLenahan conveyed tract 287, " Elliot's Vale," to William Elliot; it was situate at "the first fork of Lick Creek " and includes the site of Callensburg ; 1787 one tract was warranted to John Sloan, afterward sheriff of Armstrong county.

In 1788 James Reed became owner of one tract in this county ; and sev- eral patents were issued to Isaac Mason, John Cross, and Cornelia Cross, exec- utors of Robert Cross, merchant of Philadelphia. A few were granted to Ed- ward Price, merchant of the same city, for lands near Licking Creek. About the same period John Duncan warranted several tracts in eastern Licking, and John Clark one on the Clarion River, on the southern side, about one mile from its mouth ; sold by him in 1792 to Thomas Hamilton, of Kittanning.

THE FOX ESTATE.

May 18, 1785, the brothers, George and Samuel Fox, and Leonard Dorsey entered into partnership for the purpose of buying land in the New Purchase. John Kelly, of Northumberland, afterward Union county, was to locate and supervise the surveying of the warrants and for this was to receive one-third interest in the property. Between the years 1785 and '89 a number of small warrants were granted to them ; two in Perry township, along the Alle- gheny, south of the junction of the Clarion, Nos. 184 and 139; one, 198, form- ing the northwest corner of Salem township ; some along the Clarion in Lick- ing township, and two, Nos. 424 and 434, covering the corner common to Licking, Toby and Piney townships. Of these, in 1790, Kelly received one- third. About 1795 the Foxes took out eight one-thousand-acre warrants in this region ; of these seven lie along the Allegheny, north of the Clarion, and

FROM 1784 TO SETTLEMENT OF COUNTY.

are connected ; the eighth, No. 5731, lies in northern apex of Toby township. These were patented in 1796 and became the sole property of Samuel Fox. The Fox estate was much enlarged by the purchase of the Millcreek Mifflin lands in 1798, and those farther south in 1816.

FRANKLIN COLLEGE WARRANTS.

In 1787 the State appropriated large bodies of land in the west to Dickin- son and Franklin Colleges-the latter of Lancaster. About the western half of Salem township and the corner of Ashland left out by the Holland line, are covered by these warrants, numbering twelve in all, 805 to 816 inclusive.

Next in order, in 1789, come the

BRODHEAD AND THOMAS LANDS.

They were warranted-except the Beaver-Salem tracts-to Joseph Thomas, in trust for Thomas and Daniel Brodhead, then surveyor-general, and embrace land in Redbank, Porter, Monroe, Beaver, and Salem townships. The Beaver- Salem tracts were purchased by Thomas and Brodhead from John Barron, the warrantee; these consist of nine four- and five-hundred-acre warrants, 3840- 3848 ; the first two in the western part of Beaver township, south of the Hol- land Company's line; the balance forming a tier in eastern Salem, embracing about one-third of the township. The southern lands were warranted at a later date; there are seventeen tracts of 1,000 acres each, numbered 5581-5592, and from 5596 to 5601. The Brodhead-Thomas territory in Clarion county covered an area of 27,300 acres. The latter tracts cover nearly the entire eastern half of Porter and western half of Redbank townships; the Pickering territory invades it in the vicinity of New Bethlehem and West Millville, and forms a hiatus about Brinkerton. In 1796 the territory was patented and di- vided, Brodhead 'receiving the Beaver-Salem section (which he conveyed the same year, with the exception of warrant 3,841, to Robert Brown, of Kittan- ning) ; and warrants 5592, 5593, 5594, 5595, 5596, 5597 in Redbank and Porter ; and Thomas the remainder. Tracts 5601 and 5602 seem to have been previously sold.

Next in the order of taking out warrants is

THE HOLLAND COMPANY.

This was an unincorporated syndicate of wealthy citizens of Amsterdam, with whom Robert Morris had, about 1781, negotiated a large loan for the use of the colonies, to enable them to carry on the struggle for independence. and for which he assumed personally a partial responsibility. In consequence he assigned an immense body of land in western New York to the agents of the company. It is said that the State of Pennsylvania had contracted a debt to this company, which it liquidated by land ; but there is some mystery in this regard. Holland was at that time distracted by the vicissitudes consequent on

HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.

the French Revolution, and her capitalists may have sought investments in the distant and youthful republic, deeming them the safest. However this may be, on December 12 and 13, 1792, the Commonwealth granted 1, 180 warrants of 990 acres and allowance each in the New Purchase, and lying east of the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek, to Wilhem Willink, Nicolaas Van Staphorst, Christiaan Van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven and Rutger Jan Schimmelpeninck. Subsequently, Pieter Stadnitzki was added to the company. This was under the law of 1789, enabling aliens, under certain conditions, to hold and sell land in this State for a limited time; a law which seems have been specially devised for the Holland Company. They held the land in joint ten- ancy with the right of survivorship. About the same time they purchased a large number of West Allegheny warrants, and in order to secure them made vigorous efforts to introduce settlers upon them ; a fact which accounts for the priority of colonization in that section. Previously all warrants, from the man- ner of drawing the numbers, were styled "lottery warrants," but in the case of extensive purchasers-the Holland Company, Bingham, and others-the sys- tem was changed to adapt it to their demands. Some of the Holland warrants were issued to Le Roy and Lincklaen, their New York agents. Their first Pennsylvania agent was Paul Busti, an Italian, who resided at Blockley's Re- treat, the present site of the Philadelphia almshouse. Busti had general super- intendence of the property (the Hollanders never became citizens or exercised personal supervision), with power of conveyance and contract. Busti not only bought and sold lands for the company, but also acquired an individual title to much, as did Huidekoper, their local agent for the west Allegheny. Prior to 1811 Robert Beatty, of Armstrong county, was the sub-agent in this vicinity.

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History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Davis, A. J. (Aaron J.), b. 1847 Publication date: 1887 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 862

Author: Davis, A. J. (Aaron J.), b. 1847
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 862