History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 14

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).

The council proceeded in the usual way, with high- sounding speeches, hollow assurances of friendship, Finally a reluctant consent to the proposition of the commissioners was gained from the Six Nations' chiefs. At a session held with these chiefs on the 9th of May, "It was agreed by them to comply with the request of the commissioners in sending messengers to the people settled at Red Stone, Youghiogany, and the presentation of divers belts and strings of wam- pum, and the distribution among the Indians of pres- ents to the amount of £1500; but as the deliberations progressed it became more and more apparent that there existed among the savages no deep-seated dis- satisfaction against the settlers ; that nearly all the | Monongahela, to signify to them the great displeasure indignation at the encroachments of the whites was of the Six Nations at their taking possession of the lands there and making settlements on them, and also that it is expected they will, with their families, remove without further notice. They accordingly ap- pointed the White Mingo and the three deputies sent from the Six Nations' country to carry a message to that effect, and the commissioners agreed to send Mr. John Frazer and Mr. William Thompson to accom- pany them, with written instructions in behalf of the government of Pennsylvania." felt and expressed by the gentlemen acting for the Pennsylvania authorities; that these were extremely angry with the Indians because in a few instances they had sold small tracts to white men, and be- cause they were now exhibiting a decided disineli- nation to demand the immediate removal of the set- tlers. Almost the only Indian of the Six Nations who complained was Tohonissahgarawa, who said, "Some of them" (the settlements) "are made di- rectly on our war-path leading to our enemies' country, " Monday, May 9, 1768, P.M. : and we do not like it. . . . As we look upon it, it will "The Indian messengers having agreed to set out for Red Stone Creek to-morrow, the commissioners, as an encouragement to them for the trouble of their journey, made them a present of some black wampum. They then desired Mr. Fraser and Capt. Thompson to hold themselves prepared for accompanying the In- dian messengers in the morning, and wrote them a letter of instructions." In those instructions they said,- be time enough for you to settle them when you have purchased them and the country becomes yours." The commissioners addressed the Indians, telling them that when Steele and his associates had visited the settlers the latter had promised to remove. "But, brethren," continued the commissioners, " we are sorry to tell you that as soon as the men sent by the Gover- nor had prevailed on the settlers to consent to a com- pliance with the law, there came among them eight " As soon as you arrive in the midst of the settle- ments near Red Stone Creek, it will be proper to con- vene as many of the settlers as possible, to whom the Indians may then deliver their message, which shall be given to you in writing; and we desire you will leave a few copies of it with the principal people, that they may communicate the same to those who live at any considerable distance from them. . . . You may then acquaint them that they must now be convinced by this message and the speech of the Six Nations that they have hitherto been grossly de- ceived by a few straggling Indians of no consequence, who may have encouraged them to continne on their settlements, and that they will now be left without the least pretense or excuse for staying on them any longer. . . . But should you find any of those incon- siderate people still actuated by a lawless and obsti- nate spirit to bid defiance to the civil authority, you may let them know that we were under no necessity of sending, in the name of the Governor, any further notice to them, or of being at the pains of making them acquainted with the real minds of the Indians, to induce them to quit their settlements, for that the powers of the government are sufficient to compel Indians who live at the Mingo town, down this river, and desired the people not to leave their settlements, but to sit quiet on them till the present treaty at this place should be concluded. The people, on receiving this advice and encouragement, suddenly changed their minds, and determined not to quit their places till they should hear further from the Indians. Now, brethren, we cannot help expressing to you our great concern at this behavior of those Indians, as it has absolutely frustrated the steps the Governor was taking to do you justice by the immediate removal of those people from your lands. And we must tell you, breth- ren, that the conduct of those Indians appears to us very astonishing; and we are much at a loss to ac- count for the reason of it at this time, when the Six Nations are complaining of encroachments being made on their lands. . .. But, brethren, all that we have now to desire of you is that you will immedi- ately send off some of your prudent and wise men with a message to the people settled at Red Stone, Youghiogheny, and Monongahela, to contradict the advice of the Indians from the Mingo town, and to acquaint them that you very much disapprove of their

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

them to pay due obedience to the laws, and they may depend on it they will be effectually exerted if they persist in their obstinacy. You may likewise assure them that they need not attempt to make an offer of terms with the government respecting their removal, as we hear some of them have vainly proposed to do, by saying they would go off the lands immediately on condition that they should be secured to them as soon as the purchase is made. It is a high insult to government for those people even to hint at such things." .

The two gentlemen whom the Pennsylvania com- missioners had designated, Messrs. John Frazer and William Thompson, being ready to set out on their contemplated journey from Fort Pitt to Redstone Creek, the Indian messengers were sent for, and at last made their appearance at the fort, but said that, after due consideration of the business on which it was proposed to send them, they had decided that they could by no means undertake it, and immedi- ately returned to the commissioners the wampum which had been given them. Upon being interro- gated as to their reasons for now declining to perform what they had once consented to, they answered that three of them were sent by the Six Nations' council to attend the treaty at the fort, and having received no directions from the council to proceed farther, they chose to return home in order to make report of what they had seen and heard. They further added that the driving of white people away from their settle- ments was a matter which no Indians could, with any satisfaction, be concerned in, and they thought it most proper for the English themselves to compel their own people to remove from the Indian lands. After this refusal of the Indians who had been ap- pointed to carry the message from the Six Nations, the commissioners in vain attempted to persuade or procure others to execute the business, though they used great endeavors for that purpose, and they thought it both useless and imprudent to continue to press on the Indians a matter which they found they were generally so much averse to, and therefore they concluded to set out on their return to Philadelphia without further delay. But in a short time after- wards Guyasutha1 came, with Arroas (a principal warrior of the Six Nations), to the commissioners, to whom the former addressed himself in effect as fol- lows :

" Brethren,-I am very sorry to find that you have been disappointed in your expectations of the Indian messengers going to Redstone, according to your de- sire and our agreement ; and I am much afraid that you are now going away from us with a discontented mind on this account. Believe me, brethren, this

thought fills my heart with deepest grief, and I coukl not suffer you to leave us without speaking to you on this subject and endeavoring to make your minds easy. We were all of us much disposed to comply with your request, and expected it could have been done without difficulty, but I now find not only the Indians appointed by us but all our other young men are very unwilling to carry a message from us to the white people ordering them to remove from our lands. They say they would not choose to ineur the ill will of those people, for if they should be now removed they will hereafter return to their settlements when the English have purchased the country from us. And we shall be very unhappy if, by our conduct towards them at this time, we shall give them reason to dislike us and treat us in an unkind manner when they again become our neighbors. We therefore hope, brethren, that you will not be displeased at us for not performing our agreement with you, for you may be assured that we have good hearts towards all our brethren, the English."

Upon the conclusion of this speech the commis- sioners returned to Guyasutha many thanks for his friendly expressions and behavior, assuring him that the conduct of all the Indians at the treaty couneil met their full approbation, and that they were now returning home with contented minds. They said to him that they had urged the chiefs to send a message by their own people to the Redstone and Monon- gahela settlers, entirely on account of the great anxiety they had to do everything in their power to forward the designs of the government, to do the Indians justice, and to redress every injury they complained of; but, as they found that the course proposed was repugnant to them, that they (the commissioners) would not press the matter further, though it appeared to them to be a proper and necessary course, and one which they regretted to be obliged to abandon. "They then took leave of the Indians in the most friendly manner, and set out on their return to Philadelphia."

This unlooked-for conclusion of the treaty council at Fort Pitt ended the efforts on the part of the pro- prietary government of Pennsylvania to expcl the pioneer settlers from the valleys of the Monongahela, the Youghiogheny, and the Redstone.

The aboriginal title to the lands composing the present county of Fayette, as well as those embraced in a great number of other counties in this State, was acquired by the proprietaries of Pennsylvania by the terms of a treaty held with the Indians at Fort Stanwix (near Rome, N. Y.) in the autumn of 1768. In October of that year there were assembled at the fort, by invitation of Sir William Johnson, superin- tendent of Indian affairs, a great number of chiefs of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes (composing the Six Nations), with other chiefs of the Delawares and Shawanese tribes, and on the 24th of that month these were ecn-

1 This Guyasutha, or Kayashuta, was a chief who met Washington on his first appearance in this region in the fall of 1753. He was friendly to the English as against the French, but in the Revolutionary war took sidea agatuat the settlers, and was the leader of the Indian party which burned Hannastown, the county-seat of Westmoreland, in 1782.

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

vened in council with representatives of the royal authority and of the governments of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey. The principal white persons present at the council were " the Honorable Sir William Johnson, Baronet, his Majesty's super- intendent of Indian affairs; his Excellency William Franklin, Esq., Governor of New Jersey ; Thomas Walker, Esq., commissioner for the colony of Vir- ginia ; Hon. Frederick Smith, chief justice of New Jersey ; Richard Peters and James Tilghman, Esqrs., of the Council of Pennsylvania; George Croghan and Daniel Claus, Esqrs., deputy agents of Indian affairs ; Guy Johnson, Esq., deputy agent and aeting as secretary, with several gentlemen from the differ- ent colonies ; John Butler, Esq., Mr. Andrew Mon - tour, and Philip Phillips, interpreters for the Crown."

The council was opened by Sir William Johnson, who stated that Lientenant-Governor Penn, of Penn- sylvania, had been there and waited a considerable time, but was foreed by press of business to return, leav- ing Messrs. Peters and Tilghman as his commissioners. He also explained to the chiefs the business on which he had called them together, and then, after some preliminary talk, the council adjourned for the day. Afterwards its sessions were continued from time to time until the 5th of November, when a treaty, known in history as the treaty of Fort Stanwix, by which the chiefs of the Six Nations ceded to Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, for the consideration of ten thousand pounds, an immense tract of land in Pennsylvania, deseribed in the treaty by a great number of bounda- ries which it would be tedious to quote. This great purchase may, in a general way, be described as com- prehending all of the present territory of the counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, Washington, Greene, Som- erset, Cambria, Columbia, Wyoming, Sullivan, and Susquehanna, nearly all of Wayne, Luzerne, Mon- tour, Northumberland, Union, and Indiana, and parts of Beaver, Allegheny, Armstrong, Clearfield, Centre, Clinton, Lyeoming, Bradford, Pike, and Snyder.

The Indian title to this great traet having now been acquired by the Penns, measures were immediately taken to prepare the newly-purchased lands for sale to settlers. On the 23d of February, 1769, they pub- lished an advertisement for the general information of the public, to the effect that their Land Office in Philadelphia would be open on the 3d of April next following at ten o'clock A.M. to receive applications from all persons inelined to take up lands in the new purchase, upon the terms of five pounds sterling per one hundred acres, and one penny per aere per annum quit-rent.

"It being known that great numbers of people would attend [at the Land Office on the day of open- ing], ready to give in their locations at the same instant, it was the opinion of the Governor and pro- prietary agents that the most unexceptionable method of receiving the loeatious would be to put them all together (after being received from the people) into a

box or trunk, and after mixing them well together to draw them out and number them in the order they should be drawn, in order to determine the preference of those respecting vacant lands. Those who had settled plantations, especially those who had settled, by permission of the commanding officers, to the westward, were declared to have a preference. But those persons who had settled or made what they called improvements since the purchase should not thereby acquire any advantage. The locations (after being put into a trunk prepared for the purpose, and frequently well mixed) were drawn out"1 in the man- uer above deseribed.

Prior to the opening of the Land Office in 1769, the settlers west of the Alleghenies (with a very few ex- ceptions2) held the lands on which they had located solely by occupation, on what were then known as "tomahawk improvement" claims. The manner in which the settler recorded his tomahawk claim was to deaden a few trees near a spring, and to eut the initials of his name in the bark of others, as indicative of his intention to hold and occupy the lands adjacent to or surrounded by the blazed and deadened trees. These "claims" constituted no title, and were of no legal value, except so far as they were evidences of actual occupation. They were not sanetioned by any law, but were generally (though uot always) recog- nized and respected by the settlers; and thus, in the applications which were afterwards made at the Land Office for the various traets, there were very few col- lisions between rival elaimants for the same lands.

The plan of drawing the names of applicants by. lot, which was adopted at the opening of the Land Office in April, 1769, as before noticed, was discon- tinued after about three months, and then the warrants were issued regularly on applications as reached in the routine of business at the office. In the first three months there had been issued daily, on an average, over one hundred warrants for lands west of the mountains and below Kittaning. The surveys of lands within the territory which now forms Fayette County were begun on the 12th of August, 1769, by the three brothers, Archibald, Moses, and Alexander McClean, of whom the first two were deputy survey- ors, while Alexander (who afterwards succeeded to that office and became a more widely-famed surveyor than either of his brothers) was then a young mau of about twenty-three years of age, and an assistant sur- veyor under them. During the remainder of that

1 Addison's Reports, Appendix, p. 395.

" These very few exceptions were persons who hield military permits for settlement near the forts and on the lines of army roads; also those to whom " grants of preference" had been given. Veech says only one " grant of preferenico" was issued in Fayette County, viz., to Hugh Crawford, dated Jan, 22, 1768, for 500 acres, for his services us " Inter- preter and conductor of the Indians" in the running of the extension of Mason and Dixon's line in 1767. And in a few instances the Indians sold lands direct to settlers in this county,-as to Gist, the Browns, and to some of the Provances, at Provauce's Boffom, on the Monon- galiela.

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.

year they made and completed seventy official surveys in Fayette County territory; and in the following year they executed eighty more in the same terri- tory, besides a large number in the part which is still Westmoreland County, and some in Somerset and Washington.

In the next succeeding five years there were but few surveys of land made in what is now Fayette ter- ritory, viz .: In the year 1771, twelve surveys; in 1772, fourteen surveys ; in 1773, eleven; in 1774, seven ; in 1775, two. During the Revolution, Pennsylvania adopted the recommendation of Congress to cease the granting of warrants for wild lands to settlers. This was intended to discourage settlements (temporarily) and thus promote enlistments in the Continental army. It is doubtful whether this measure had the effect in- tended, but it closed the Land Office, thus preventing settlers from acquiring titles to their lands, and from procuring official surveys, of which none were made in the present territory of Fayette County from 1775 to 1782, in which latter year three surveys were made here, and the same number in 1783. On the 1st of July, 1784, the Land Office was reopened by the State of Pennsylvania,1 and from that time until 1790, the number of surveys made each year in what is now Fayette County were as follows : In 1784, twenty ; in 1785, two hundred and fifty-eight; in 1786, one hun- dred and fifty ; in 1787, eighty-eight; in 1788, sixty- two; in 1789, twenty-eight; and in 1790, nineteen. Two or three years afterwards they began to grow a little more numerous, but never again reached any- thing like the previous figures.

During the Revolution, when Pennsylvania had closed her Land Office and issued no warrants for wild lands west of the Alleghenies, the government of Virginia pursued an opposite course in the issuance of " certificates" (corresponding to the Pennsylvania warrants) for lands in this same section of country. The reason why this was done by Virginia was be- cause she claimed and regarded as her own, the terri- tory which now forms the western part of Pennsyl- vania as far eastward as the Laurel Hill. On this territory (extending, however, farther southward ) she laid out her counties of Yohogania, Monongalia, and Ohio, the latter bordering on the Ohio River, and the two others lying to the eastwar of it, covering all of what is now Fayette County. It was on lands in these Virginia counties that the "Virginia certifi- cates" were issued in great numbers, principally in 1779 and 1780. A board of commissioners, appointed for the purpose, granted to such bona fide settlers as would build a cabin and raise a crop a certificate for four hundred acres, of which the purchase price was ten shillings per one hundred acres. The cost of the certificate was two shillings and sixpence; this latter

being all that the settler was compelled to pay down on his purchase of four hundred acres. Thus the pur- chaser of lands from Virginia paid less than one-tenth the amount which he would have been compelled to pay to l'ennsylvania for the same lands. For this reason he often chose to take the cheaper Virginia title, and when he had so purchased it was but natural that he should incline towards Virginia partisanship, at least so far as to desire the success of that government in its boundary controversy against Pennsylvania. The greater part of the lands in the present counties of Washington and Greene were taken up on these Vir- ginia certificates, but the reverse was the case in the territory that is now Fayette, where nearly all the settlers took titles from Pennsylvania, and where few Virginia certificates are found. The reason for this was that prior to the close of the Revolution many, and probably by far the greater part of the people, believed that the State line would eventually be es- tablished on the Monongahela, giving sole jurisdiction east of that river to Pennsylvania, and all west of it to Virginia.

But in the settlement of the controversy between the States it was agreed "That the private property and rights of all persons acquired under, founded on, or recognized by the laws of either country be saved and confirmed to them, although they should be found to fall within the other; and that in the decision of disputes thereon, preference shall be given to the elder or prior right, whichever of the States the same shall be acquired under such persons paying within whose boundary their lands shall be included the same pur- chase or consideration money which would have been due from them to the State under which they claimed the right; and where such money hath, since the Declaration of Independence, been received by either State for lands which, under the before-named agree- ment, falls within the other, the same shall be re- funded and repaid ; and that the inhabitants of the disputed territory now ceded to Pennsylvania shall not before the 1st of December in the year 1784 be subject to the payment of any tax, nor at any time hereafter to the payment of any arrears of taxes or impositions heretofore laid by either State; and we do hereby accept and fully ratify the said recited con- ditions and the boundary line formed."

And in the adjustment of claims which succeeded the settlement of the controversy the rule was ob- served to recognize the validity of the oldest titles, whether acquired from Virginia or from Pennsylvania. So the Virginia certificates (when anteduting all other claims to the said lands) were as good and valid as if they had been warrants from the Pennsylvania Land Office, and the titles were afterwards perfected by the issuance of Pennsylvania patents on them. The price of lands, which was £5 per one hundred aeres under the Pennsylvania proprietaries, and under the State till 1784, was then reduced to £3 108., and the quit- · rent (one penny per acre per annum), which had pre-

1 There was no longer any proprietaryship by the Penns, this having ceased on the passage of " An Act for vesting the estates of the late pro- prietarles in this Commonwealth." This, usually called the " Divesting Act," was passed Nov. 27, 1779.

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

viously been required, was then discontinued, but in- terest was demanded from the date of first improve- ment. Again, in 1792, the price was further reduced to £2 10s, per one hundred acres, with interest as be- fore. This continued till 1814, when the price was placed at $10 per one hundred aeres, with interest from date of settlement.

CHAPTER IX.

DUNMORE'S WAR.

Ix the Indian hostilities of 1774, known as " Dun- more's war," the territory now Fayette County saw little, if anything, of actual fighting and bloodshed; yet, in the universal terror and consternation eansed by the Indian inroads and butcheries on the west of the Monongahela, it came near being as completely depopulated as it had been twenty years before by the panic which succeeded the French victory over Washington.

The Dunmore war was the result of several col- Jisions which took place in the spring of 1774, on the Ohio River above the mouth of the Little Kanawha, between Indians and parties of white men, most of whom were adventurers, who had rendezvoused there preparatory to passing down the river for the purpose of making settlements in the then new country of Kentucky. The circumstances which attended the beginning of those hostile collisions were afterwards narrated by Gen. George Rogers Clarke, who was himself present and a prominent actor in the scenes which he describes. The account, which bears date June 17, 1798, is as follows :

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.

History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314