History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 28

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 28

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Under this arrangement and these instructions, Col. McClean, with Joseph Neville on the part of Virginia, ran the temporary line in the fall of 1782. The boundary thus run was an extension of Mason and Dixon's line from the point where it was left in 1767 twenty-three miles, and from that point (which was afterwards proved to be about one and a half miles too far west ) due north to the Ohio River. On the 23d of February, 1783, McClean reported the completion of the work to the Council of Pennsyl- vania.

The permanent boundary line was run and estab- lished trom the Maryland line westward to the south- west corner of the State of Pennsylvania in 1784, under the direction of James Madison, Robert An- drews, John Page, Andrew Ellicott, John Ewing, Lukens; the first four of whom were appointed by Virginia, and the others by Pennsylvania, commis- sioners "to determine by astronomical observations the extent of five degrees of longitude west from the river Delaware, in the latitude of Mason and Dixon's line, and to run and mark the boundaries which are common to both States, according to an agreement entered into by commissioners from the said two States at Baltimore in 1779, and afterwards ratified by their respective Assemblies." About the beginning of June Commissioners Ewing and Hutchins set-out for the southwest corner of the State, as marked by the temporary line of 1782, where they met Madison and Ellicott. Rittenhouse and Lukens proceeded to Wilmington, Del., where they were afterwards joined by Page and Andrews. At each of these points an observatory was erected, where the respective parties, by many weeks of careful astronomical observations, carefully adjusted their chronometers to the true time.

"The astronomical observations being completed, on the 20th of September the Eastern Astronomers set out to meet the other commissioners in the west in order to compare them together. Messrs. Ritten_ house and Andrews carried with them the observa- tions made at Wilmington, while Messrs. Lukens and Page returned home, not being able to endure the fatigues of so long a journey, nor the subsequent labor of running and marking the Boundary line.

1 Pa. Arch., vol. ix p. 50G.

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SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE.

Mr. Madison continued with the Western Astrono- mers till the arrival of Messrs. Rittenhouse and Au- drews, when the affairs of his family and publick station obliged him to relinquish the business at this stage and return home, after concurring with the other commissioners as to the principles on which the matter was finally determined." 1

The difference in time between points five degrees of longitude distant from each other is twenty min- ntes, but on comparing chronometers it was found that the two observatories were twenty minutes one and one-eighth seconds apart. The observatory at Wilmington was also 114 chains 13 links west of the intersection of Mason and Dixon's line with the Del- aware River. This showed that the western observa- tory was 134 chains 9 links west of the end of the five degrees of longitude. That distance was thereupon measured back eastward on the line, the line cor- rected, and the permanent southwest corner of the State marked by a substantial post. In the joint report of the commissioners, dated Nov. 18, 1784, they say, "The underwritten commissioners have continued Mason and Dixon's line to the termination of the said five degrees of longitude, by which work the southern boundary of Pennsylvania is completed. The continuation we have marked by opening vistas over the most remarkable heights which lie in its course, and by planting on many of these heights, in the parallel of latitude, the true boundary, posts marked with the letters P and V, each letter facing the State of which it is the initial. At the extremity of this line, which is the southwest corner of Penn- sylvania, we have planted a squared, unlettered white- oak post, around whose base we have raised a pile of stones. The corner is in the last vista we cut, on the east side of an hill, one hundred and thirty-four chains and nine links east of the meridian of the Western Observatory, and two chains and fifty-four links west of a deep narrow valley through which the said last vista is cut. . .. The advanced season of the year and the inelemency of the weather have obliged us to suspend our operations, but we have agreed to meet again at the southwest corner of Penn- sylvania on the 16th day of next May to complete the object of our commission." In accordance with this agreement they met in the following year, ran and established the west line of Pennsylvania due north from the southwest corner of the Ohio River, and made a report of the same on the 23d of August. In 1786, Col. Alexander McClean and Col. Porter ran and completed the State line northward from the Ohio River to the lake.

SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE.

Of the people who emigrated from the east to settle west of the Laurel Hill prior to 1780, a large proportion were from Virginia and Maryland, and

many of them who had held slaves east of the moun- tains brought those slaves with them to their new homes in the West, for at that time the laws of Penn- sylvania recognized and tolerated the " peculiar insti- tution" as fully as did those of Virginia. Among these were the Crawfords, Stevensons, Harrisons, Mc- Cormicks, Vance, Wilson, and others. A most dis- tinguished (though non-resident) holder of bondmen in Fayette County was George Washington, whose improvements on his large tract of land in the present township of Perry were made principally by their labor. Frequent allusions to these "servants" are found in letters addressed to Col. Washington in 1774 and 1775 by Valentine Crawford, who resided on Jacob's Creek, and acted as general agent in charge of Washington's lands and affairs of improvement in this region. A few extracts from those letters are given below, viz .:

" . "JACOB'S CREEK, May 7, 1774.

. Your servants are all in very good health, and if you should incline selling them, I believe I could sell them for cash out here to different people. My brother, William Crawford, wants two of them, and I would take two myself. .. . "

" GIST's, May 13, 1774. " I write to let you know that all your servants are

well, and that none have run away.2 . . . "

"JACOR'S CREEK, June 8, 1774.

" .. . I will go to Simpson's [ Washington's estate in the present township of Perry ] to-morrow morning and consult him farther on the affair, and do every- thing in my power for your interest. The thoughts of selling your servants alarmed them very much, for they do not want to be sold. The whole of them have had some short spells of sickness, and some of them cut themselves with an axe, causing them to lay by for some time. One of the best of Stephens' [Washington's millwright] men eut himself with an adze the worst I ever saw anybody cut in my life. He has not been able to do one stroke for near a month. This happened in digging out the canoes. . . . "

" JNCOR'S CREEK, July 27, 1774.

" DEAR COLONEL,-On Sunday evening or Monday morning, William Orr, one of the most orderly men I thought I had, ran away, and has taken a horse and other things. I have sent yon an advertisement 3 of

2 At the time when these letters were written there was a general panie among the servants as well as the settlers on account of the cum- mencement of the Indian hostilities known as " Dunmore's war." This panic caused a suspension of work ou Washington's improvements on his tracts in the neighborhood of the present village of Periyopolis, and this, together with the fact that the servants through dread of In- dian incursions and massacre were inclined to run away, was the cause of the proposition to sell them.

3 Following is a copy of the advertisement referred to:

" FIVE POUNDS REWARD.

"Run away from the subscriber, living on Jacob's Crerk, near Stew- art's Crossing, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on Sunday night, the 24th instant, a convict servant man named William Orr, the prop- erty of Col. Gorge Waslington. Ile is a well-made man, about five feet

1 Report of the Pennsylvania Commissioners.

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IHISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

him. I am convinced he will make for some ship in Potomac River. I have sent two men after him, and furnished them with horses and money. I have also written to my brother, Richard Stevenson [a half- brother of Crawford's], in Berkeley, and James Me- Cormick to escort the men I sent, and to forward this letter and advertisement to you. . . . I have sold all the men but two, and I believe I should have sold them but the man who is run away had a very sore foot, which was ent with an axe and was not long well, and John Smith was not well of the old disorder he had when he left your house. I sold Peter Miller and John Wood to one Mr. Edward Cook for $45, the money to be applied to the use of building your mill. I sold Thomas Mc Pherson and his wife and James Lowe to Maj. John MeCul- loch and Jones Ennis for £65, payable in six months from the date of sale. To my brother I sold William Luke, Thomas White, and the boy, John Knight. He is either to pay you for them or he loses them in case you can prosecute your designs down the river [the opening of a plantation on the Virginia side of the Ohio, between Wheeling and the Little Kanawha]. I took John Smith and William Orr on the same terms; so that, in justice, I am accountable to you for the man if he is never got. I should have sold the whole of the servants, agreeable to your letter, if I could have got cash or good pay, but the confli- sion of the times put it out of my power. . . . I only went down to Fort Pitt a day or two, and two of my own servants and two militiamen ran away. I fol- lowed them and caught them all down at Bedford, and brought them back. While I was gone two of your men, John Wood and Peter Miller, stole a quan- tity of bacon and bread, and were to have started that very night I got home, but a man of mine dis- covered their design. I sold them immediately, and would have sold the whole if I could, or delivered them to Mr. Simpson, but he would not be concerned with them at any rate."

ten inches high, and about twenty-four years of age. He was born in Scotland, and speaks that dialect pretty much. He is of a red com- plexion and very full-faced, with short, sandy-colored hair, and very re- markable thumbs, they both being crooked. He had on and took with him an obl felt hat bwound with black binding, one white cotton coat and jacket with black horn buttons, one old brown jacket, one pair of snuff- colored breeches, one pair of trowsers made in sailor's fashion, and they are made of sail-duck, and have not been washed, a pair of red leggins and shoes tied with strings, two Osnaberg shirts and one Ilolland shirt marked . V. C,' which he stole, and a blanket.

"He stole likewise a black horse, abont fourteen bands high, branded on the near shoulder and buttock ' R. W.', and shod before. He had neither bridle nor saddle that we know of. I expect he will make to some seaport town, as he has been much used to the seas. Whoever takes up said servant atud secures him, so that he and horse may be had again, shall receive the above reward, or three pounds for the pian alone and reasonable charges if brought home paid by me.

" VAL. CRAWFORD, " For COL. GEORGE WASHINGTON.

" July 25, 1774.

" X. B .- All masters of vessels are forbid taking him out of the coun- try on their peril.

"V. C."

" JACOB'S CREEK, June 24, 1775.

"I am very sorry to inform you I received a letter from Mr. Cleveland of the 7th June, wherein he seems to be in a good deal of distress. Five of the servants have run away and plagued him much. They got to the Indian towns, but by the exertions of one Mr. Duncan, a trader, he has got them again. He has sent three of them up by a man he had hired with a letter to my brother William or myself to sell them for you, but the man sold them himself some- where about Wheeling on his way up, and never brought them to us. He got £20 Pennsylvania cur- rency for them, and gave one year's credit. This was very low, and he did not receive one shilling. This was contrary to Cleveland's orders, as the latter wanted to raise some cash by the sale to purchase provisions."

It is noticeable that Crawford, in the correspondence above quoted, never uses the word " slave," but always " servant." Among the people employed on Wash- ington's improvements in Fayette County there were a few African slaves (some of whom lived until within the memory of people now living), but they were principally white bondmen, such as, until the open- ing of the Revolution, were continually sent to America from Great Britain for crime or other causes and sold into servitude on their arrival by the mas- ters of the vessels which brought them over. The following advertisement of such a sale is from the Virginia Gazette of March 3, 1768:

"Just arrived, The Neptune, Capt. Arhuckle, with one hun- dred and ten healthy servants, men, women, and boys; among whom are many valuable tradesmen, viz. : tailors, weavers, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters and joiners, shoemakers, a stay-maker, cooper, cabinet-maker, bakers, silversmiths, a gold and silver refiner, and many others. The sale will commence at Leedstown, on the Rappahannoe, on Wednesday, the 9th of this ( March). A reasonable credit will be allowed on giving approved security to

" THOMAS HODGE."

On the 1st of March, 1780, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania passed " An Act for the gradual Abolition of Slavery," which provided and declared "That all persons, as well Negroes and Mulattoes as others, who shall be born within this State from and after the passing of this act shall not be deemed and considered as servants for life or slaves ; and that all servitude for life or slavery of children in conse- quence of the slavery of their mothers, in the case of- all children born within this state from and after the passing of this act as aforesaid, shall be and hereby is utterly taken away, extinguished, and forever abolished. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That every Negro and Mulatto child born within this State after the passing of this act as aforesaid (who would in case this act had not been made have been born a servant for years, or life, or a slave) shall be deemed to be, and shall be by virttte of this act, the servant of such person, or his or her assigns, who would in such case have been entitled to the service

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of such child, until such child shall attain unto the age of twenty-eight years, in the manner and on the conditions whereon servants bound by indenture for four years are or may be retained and holden. .. . "

The law required that, in order to distinguish slaves from all other persons, each and every owner of slaves at the passage of the act should, on or before the 1st of November, 1780, register in the office of the court of the county his or her name and surname and oe- cupation or profession, with the name, age, and sex of his or her slaves or " servants for life or till the age of thirty-one years;" and it further enacted, "That no man or woman of any nation or colour, except the Negroes or Mulattoes who shall be registered as afore- said, shall at any time hereafter be deemed adjudged or holden within the territories of this commonwealth as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women," except in the cases of slaves attending on delegates in Congress from other States, foreign min- isters and consuls, or non-resident travelers in or through this State, and also in the cases of slaves em- ployed as seamen on vessels owned by persons not residents in this State. In October, 1781, was passed " An Act to give relief to certain persons taking refuge in this State with respect to their slaves," which pro- vided that such refugees might hold their slaves not- withstanding the act of March 1, 1780, but the opera- tion of the law of 1781 was to cease at the end of six months after the termination of the war of the Revo- lution.

On the 13th of April, 1782, the General Assembly passed " An Act to redress certain Grievances within the counties of Westmoreland and Washington." This act was designed for the relief of certain per- sons living within the so-called counties of Yoho- gania, Monongalia, and Ohio, who had taken the oath of allegiance to Virginia, and had, at the time of the passage of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in this State, and for a considerable time thereafter, supposed that their places of residence were outside the limits of the State of Pennsylvania, and had on that account neglected or been prevented from registering their slaves within the time required by the provisions of the act. All such persons, in- habitants of the counties of Westmoreland and Wash- ington, who could produce proof of their having taken the oath of allegiance to Virginia before the establishment of the boundary line between the two States was agreed to, and whose names should be found in the records of the above-mentioned Virginia counties, were, by the act of 1782, " declared to be to all intents and purposes free citizens of this State;" and it was further enacted,-

" That it shall and may be lawful for all such in- habitants of the said counties who were on the 23d day of September, 1780, possessed of negro or mulatto slaves or servants until the age of thirty-one years to register such slaves or servants, agreeable to the di- rections of the act aforesaid for the gradual abolition

of slavery, on or before the 1st day of Jannary next, and the said master or masters, owner or owners of such slaves or servants shall be entitled to his or their service as by the said act is directed, and the said slaves and servants shall be entitled to all benefits and immunities in the said act contained and ex- pressed." And the clerks of the Orphans' Courts, registers of the probate of wills, and recorders of deeds for Westmoreland and Washington Counties were empowered to call on the late clerks of the Vir- ginia counties of Yohogania, Monongalia, and Ohio for the papers and records in their custody relating to the taking of oaths of allegiance, probates of wills, granting of letters of administration, and recording of deeds; and the said. ex-clerks of the Virginia counties were required to deliver up such records and documents entire and undefaced, under penalty of a fine of five hundred pounds for refusal or neglect to do so, and such records and documents were then to become a part of the records of Westmoreland and Washington Counties.

The passage of the law for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was very offensive to most of those who had come into this region with their servants from the other side of Mason and Dixon's line. It has been said (but with how much of truth is not known) that Gen. Washington was greatly dis- pleased by the enactment, and the story even goes so far as to assert that he regarded it as a personal af- front, and that this was the cause of his disposing of his real and personal property in Fayette County. However this may have been, it is certain that a large proportion of the Virginians and Marylanders who had settled with their slaves west of the Laurel Hill became so ineensed at the adoption of this meas- ure, and the establishment at about the same time of the boundary line, by which, to their surprise, they found themselves in Pennsylvania and not within the bounds of Virginia, as they had supposed, that they sold out their possessions in the Monongahela country and removed with their slaves to the Southwest. This was one of the principal causes for the commencement of the very extensive emigration from this section of country to Kentucky,1 which set in about 1780, and

1 Judge Veech says, concerning this matter, " The passage of this law and its becoming a ' fixed fact' abont the same time that this was [found to be] Pennsylvania territory combined to induce many of our early settlers to sell out and migrate to Kentucky, which about this date had opened her charms to adventure, settlement, and slavery. Fayette gave to that glorious State many of hier best pioneer settlers, among whom were her Popes, her Rowans, her Metcalfes, ber Hardins, and others. The flight to Kentucky started from the mouth of Redstone, in Kentucky boats, which landed at Limestone (Maysville). The current was kept up during the decade of 1780-90, and to some extent afterwards, but now it began to blend with another current which ran into the cheap and tempting plains of Ohio. . . . These early removals to Kentucky brought to our county overpowering numbers of settlers from Easteru Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who availed themselves of the opportu- nity to bny out the improvements of the settlers upon easy terms. Of this class of new settlers were the Friends, who settled about Browns-

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

continued during a succeeding period of ten or fifteen years.

Among the number of residents of Fayette County who registered slaves under the requirement of the law of 1780 are found the following-named persons :

Edward Cook, registered Oet. 12, 1780, seven slaves, viz .: James, aged 45; Sall, 35; Davy, 24; Joshua, 22: Esther, 17; Nelly, 16; and Sue, 1 year.

Zacharialı Connell, Oct. 28, 1780, two slaves, viz. : Tom, aged 32, and Luce, 40.

Thomas Brown, Dec. 27, 1782, six slaves.

William McCormick, Dee. 30, 1782, five slaves. James Finley, 1781 and 1782, eight slaves.

Van Swearingen, 1780, nine slaves, and in 1781 four more.

William Goe, 1782, ten slaves.

Robert Beall, 18 slaves; Walter Brisco, 9; Mar- garet Hutton, 9; Isaac Meason, 8; James Cross, 8; Andrew Linn, 7 ; Sarah Hardin, 7; Nancy Brashears, 12; Richard Noble, 7; Benjamin Stevens, 6; James Dearth, 6; John Stevenson, 5; Samuel Kincaid, 5; Peter Laughlin, 5; John Mckibben, 5; Edmund Freeman, 4; James Blackiston, 4; Isaac Pierce, 4: Augustine Moore, 4; Hugh Laughlin, 4; Benjamin Davis, 4; James Hammond, 4. Each of the follow- ing-named registered three slaves, viz .: Providence Mounts, John Minter, Margaret Vance, William Har- rison, Dennis Springer, Thomas Moore, Joseph Grable, Robert Harrison, Isaac Newman, John Wells. Among those registering two slaves each were Richard Steven- son, John Hardin, Mark Hardin, Robert Ross, Philip Shute, John Mason, John Laughlin, Otho Brashears, Jonathan Arnold, and Rezin Virgin.

An act supplementary and amendatory to the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was passed on the 29th of March, 1788. Among the several provisions of this act was one declaring that all persons owners of children born after March 1, 1780, who would, under the act of that date, be liable to serve till twenty-eight years of age, must, in order to hold such children to servitude, cause them to be registered on or before April 1, 1789, or within six months after their birth.

In addition to the owners of slaves already men- tioned, there are found the following names of per- sons registering slaves in Fayette County in and prior to the year 1803, viz. :

Monallen Township.

John Moore, wheelwright. Sarah Brown, single wo- Ann Brown, widow. man.

Bazil Brown, farmer. Nancy Workman, widow.

ville, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians generally."-Monongahela of Old.

Col. Israel Shreve, the purchaser of Gen. Washington's lands in Perry township, Fayette Co., in a letter dated Dec. 26, 1789, and addressed to his brother in New Jersey, said, --

" Land does not vise much in this place, owing to the great emigration down the river. It seems as if people were crazy to get afloat on the Ohio. Many leave very good livings, set ont for they know not where, but tuo otten find their mistake.""

Bullskin Township.

Betsey Beall, widow. William Boyd, Esq. Elizabeth Stephenson, sin- Presley Carr Lane, Esq. gle woman.

Spring Hill Township.

Mary Moore, widow. Thomas Tobin, farmer.

John Wilson, farmer. Thomas Clare,

Catharine Swearingen. Joshua Brown,

John McFarland, major militia. Georges Township.

George Tobin, farmer. Hugh Cunningham, far- mer.

Brownsville. John McCluer Hazlip, William Crawford, mer- farmer. chant.

Joseph Thornton, mer- chant.

German Township.

John Huston, hatter and Andrew Rabb, miller.

merchant. Thomas Graham, mer-

Ephraim Walter, farmer. chant, Geneva.

Robert McLean,

Dunbar Township.

John Canon, farmer. John Rogers, farmer and

James Paull, " inn-keeper.

Joseph Torrance, farmer. Jacob Murphy, farmer.

Washington Township.

Hezekiah MeGruder, far- mer.

John Patterson, Esq. James Lynch, farmer.

Daniel Canon, farmer.

Heirs of Samnel Culbert-

Samuel Burns, farmer. son.

John Goe, farmer.

Franklin Township.

Benjamin Stephens, far- James Paull, Esq. mer. John Patterson, farmer.

Hannah Crawford, widow. Samuel Work, farmer.

John McClelland, farmer. Agnes Canon, widow.

Benoni Dawson, farmer. John Byers, farmer.

Union Township.

Ephraim Douglass, Esq. John Wood, saddler and

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 28

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