USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 19
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dary of the Province, thence south with the Province line to the southern boundary of the Province, then east with that line to where it erosses the Youghiogheny to Lanrel Hill, thence with the line of Tyrone to Gist's, and thence with that line to the beginning."
" The official assessment rolls," says Crumrine, in his history of Washington County, "for these townships for 1772, show that Pitt Township had fifty-two landholders, twenty tenants, and thirteen single freemen; Springhill (which embraced Greene County), three linndred and eight land-holders, eighty-nine tenants, and fifty-eight single freemen. * * The assessment roll for 1772 of Spring- hill Township shows the following names among others: Thomas Brown (Ten-Mile), Jeremiah Beek, (Beck), William Brashear, Will- iam Crawford, (the Quaker, afterwards of East Bethlehem), Josiah Crawford, Oliver Crawford, John Casteel, Henry Enoch, John Gar- rard, Jr., Zachariah Goben, (Gaben), James Harrod, William Harrod, Levi Harrod, Thomas Hughes (Muddy Creek), Andrew Link, Jacob Link, John Moore, David Morgan, John Masterson, Daniel More- dock, James Moredock, John Swan, Robert Syre, Abraham Teagar- den, George Teagarden, Henry Michael, Samnel Eekerly, John Unpp, William Teagarden and John Williams. Among the names from the Pitt Township list are Jacob Bansman, John Barr, John Campbell, Samuel Heath and John McDonald." But the large numbers em- braced in the tax list of 1772, show how rapidly the country filled up when once the way was open. When we consider that the right to acquire land had only existed for four years, when this assessment was made, we must conclude that these lands had a special charm for the pioneer.
But the necessity of making a journey of a hundred miles, over rugged mountains, and by roads that were little more than bridle paths through the forest, in order to reach the county seat, proved too burdensome, and after the lapse of five years, February 26, ' 1773, a new county was organized on this side of the Alleghanies, embracing a part of the original county of Bedford, and designated Westmoreland. The act of incorporation defining its legal limits was in these words: "That all and singular the lands lying within the province of Pennsylvania, and being within the boundaries fol- lowing, that is to say: beginning in the province line, where the most westerly branch, commonly called the South or Great branch of the Youghiogheny River crosses the same; then down the easterly side of the said branch and river to the Laurel Hill; thence along the ridge of the said hill, north-eastward so far as it can be traced, or till it runs into the Alleghany Hill; thence, along the ridge dividing the waters of Susquehanna and the Allegheny rivers to the purchase line, at the head of the Susquehanna. thence dne west to the limits of the province and by the same to the place of beginning; shall be,
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and the same is hereby declared to be, erected into a county, henee- forth to be called Westmoreland."
It will be seen by reference to any map of this part of the State, that the northern boundary " to the purchase line at the head of Susquehanna, thenee dne west to the limits of the province," em- braces a considerable territory north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers which had not yet been acquired by purchase of the Indians, the Fort Stanwix purchase being confined to lands east and south, or the left bank of these streams. But it is probable that this stretch of legal authority was made to accommodate persons who had fixed their eyes on some delectable spots on the right bank, as for example Allegheny City.
" By the provisions of the organic act." quoting Crumrine, "the courts of Westmoreland Connty were to be held at the house of Robert Ilanna, until the Court House shall be built." Robert Hanna. one of the early pioneers in these then western wilds, had seated himself at a point near the site of Greensburg, the county seat of the present county of Westmoreland. Here he had opened a house for public entertainment, and around him had gathered the cabins of a number of the hardy settlers, the whole taking the pretentious name of llanna's Town. This point was on the line of the new road opened by General Forbes in his expedition to Fort Pitt in 1758. and is on the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The courts were held here for a number of years, and hence, it be- came a place of considerable importance, figuring extensively in the contentions that ensned to State authority over this territory. The commissions issued to justices of the peace for this county embraced many names that became prominent in the future history of the State and the nation: Arthur St. Clair, afterwards a prominent Major-General in the American army under Washington, and the leader of the unfortunate expedition against the Indians in 1789; William Crawford, the land agent of Washington, and the leader of an expedition against the western Indians; Alexander MeClean, who completed the survey of Mason and Dixon's line; Alexander McKee, Robert Hanna, William Louchry, George Wilson, Eneas Mackay. Joseph Spear and James Caveat. In the following year, when the integrity of Pennsylvania territory was threatened by the encroach- ments of Virginia, led by Dr. Connolly, additional justices were commissioned, among whom were Alexander Ross, Van Swearingen. who lived just opposite Greenfield, on the left bank of the Mononga- hela River, and who became the first sheriff of Washington County, then embracing Greene: Andrew Mac Farlane, Oliver Miller, and subsequently, in 1777, Edward Cook and James Marshel. William Crawford, having been first commissioned, was the presiding justiee.
The machinery of legal business for the new county was set in
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motion with very little ceremony, as the following record of the Pro- vincial Council for February 27, 1773, abundantly shows: "A law having passed yesterday for the erecting a part of the county of Bed- ford into a separate county, called Westmoreland, and Arthur St. Clair, Esq., the present prothonotary, &c., of Bedford, having re- quested the Governor to grant him the offices in the new county, in lieu of those he now holds in Bedford county, His Honor this day was pleased to appoint him to the several offices following, in the said county of Westmoreland, by three separate commissions, under the great seal of the Province, viz: Prothonotary, or principal clerk of the county court of Common pleas, Clerk, or Register of the Or- phans' Court, and Recorder of Deeds."
St. Clair thus became a sort of fac totum of the new courts. Having served in a similar capacity in Bedford County, he was well fitted to discharge the duties, and set the wheels of government in motion. He seems to have been a man of talent and something of a scholar. He was a Scotchman by birth, was educated at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, studied medicine with the celebrated William Hunter, of London, entered the military service in the Royal Amer- ican regiment of foot, the Sixtieth of the line, came to this country with Admiral Boscawen and served under Gen. Amherst. He was with Wolfe at the reduction of Quebec on the plains of Abraham. In 1762 he resigned his commission in the British army, and settled first in Bedford, and later in the Ligonier valley. In 1770 he was appointed Surveyor of Cumberland County, was commissioned a justice of the courts, and was sent a member of the Supreme Execu- tive Council. In the conflict between Virginia and Pennsylvania he ardently espoused the Pennsylvania side. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary war he entered the service, rose to the rank of a Major-General in the Continental army, and became the intimate friend and adviser of Washington. At the close of the war he was made a member of the Council of Censors, served in the Continental Congress from 1785 to 1787, and in the latter year was made presi- dent of that angust body. Ile was appointed Governor of the North- western territory in 1788, and two years later fixed the seat of government of the territory at the point where Cincinnati now is, which name he gave to the place in honor of that order of old soldiers styled the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was president over the Pennsylvania chapter from 1783 to 1789. In an engagement with the Indians on the Wabash he was badly defeated in 1791. In 1802, upon the admission of Ohio as a State into the Union, he de- clined election as Governor and retired to a log cabin in the Chest- nut Ridge in Westmoreland County, ruined in fortune. He made unsuccessful application to Congress for certain claims due him, and
Samuel Thompson
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finally died in poverty, on the 31st of August, 1818, aged eighty- four years.
At the first session of the Court of Quarter Sessions held in the newly erected county of Westmoreland at the house of Robert Hanna, Judge William Crawford presiding, an act was passed dividing the county into townships, by which the two townships of Pitt and Springhill retained the same boundaries as those previously quoted. Upon the petition of inhabitants of Springhill Township, which . embraced Greene County, the court appointed the following named persons, John Moore, Thomas Scott, Henry Beason, Thomas Brown- field, James McClean and Phillip Shute viewers to lay out a road: " To begin at or near the month of a run, known by the name of Fish Pot Run, about two miles below the mouth of Ten Mile Creek, on the west side of the Monongahela River, (it being a convenient place for a ferry, as also a good direction for a leading road to the most western parts of the settlements), thence the nearest and best way to the forks of Dunlap's path, and General Braddock's road on the top of Laurel Hill."
This road, thus early authorized to be laid out and constructed, became a very important thoroughfare to the West. A strong cur- rent of emigration was setting from the east to the Ohio country, and this was the nearest and best overland course, whether by the Braddock (the Virginia) or the Forbes (the Pennsylvania) military roads, and was long traveled by settlers seeking the Western country. Though early opened, and probably by a route judiciously selected, it was undoubtedly a very rough thoroughfare, especially in early spring-time when farmers were hurrying forward to commence the season's work. John S. Williams, in the American Pioneer, as qnoted by Crumrine, describes the trip of his family from North Carolina to Marietta in 1802: " The mountain roads, if roads they could be called, for pack-horses were still on them, were of the most dangerous and difficult character. I have heard an old mountain tavern-keeper say that, although the taverns were less than two miles apart in years after we came, he has known many emigrant families that stopped a night at every tavern on the mountains."
The records of the county court for the succeeding three years show a number of roads were laid ont in the townships of Pitt and Springhill, a few cases of larceny, of riot, of misdemeanor, a number of cases against the noted Baltzer Shilling, and in the year 1775 that Elizabeth Sinith was arraigned for felony, for which offence she plead guilty and received the following sentence of the court: " Judgment that the said Elizabeth Smith be taken this afternoon, being the 11th instant, between the hours of three and five, and there to receive fifteen lashes on her bare back well laid on; that she pay a fine of eighteen shillings and five pence to his Honor the Governor; 11
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that she make restitution of the goods stolen; that she pay the costs of proseention and stand committed till complied with."
In April, 1776, the county court was held for the last time under the authority of the King. The Revolution had now been fairly inaugurated, and there were no further sessions held until January 6, 1778, when the supreme anthority of the Continental Congress was recognized.
On the 23d of Jannary, 1775, a convention of delegates from the several counties of the Province met at Philadelphia, in which resolu- tions were passed expressing a strong desire that the ancient harmony might be restored between the King and the colonies; but if the attempt should be made to force the colonics to submission then we hold it our indispensable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America. Recognizing the dependent condition of the colonies upon the mother country for cloths and military supplies the people were recommended " on no account to sell to the butchers or kill for the market any sheep under four years old. And where there is a necessity for using any mutton in their families, it is recommended to them to kill such as are the least profitable to keep." It was also recommended to cultivate hemp, and engage in the manufacture of madder, saltpetre and gun powder, and a large number of articles of prime necessity in building and in housekeeping, which had previously been imported. The convention adjourned subject to the call of the Philadelphia dele- gates, who were constituted a committee of safety.
By a resolution of the Continental Congress of the 15th of May, 1776, it was recommended that all dependence upon the government of Great Britain cease, and that such governments in the several colonies be adopted, as the exigencies of the situation demanded. Accordingly, delegates from the several counties assembled on the 18th of June, 1776, in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, Edward Cook and James Perry representing Westmoreland County, and proceeded to " Resolve, 1. That the said resolution of Congress of the 15th of May last is fully approved by this conference. 2. That the present government of this province is not competent to the exigences of our affairs. 3. That it is necessary that a provincial convention be called by this conference for the express purpose of forming a new govern- ment." It then made provision for the electing of delegates to such convention, fixing eight as the number to be sent up from each county, and the qualifications of electors. As the payment of a tax within one year was one of the qualifications, and as Westmoreland had been exempted by law from the paying of any tax for the space of three years, the electors of this county were exempted from the operation of this item of qualification. When all the qualifications of members to be elected and electors were settled, the convention
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proceeded to divide the counties into election districts, fix the place of holding elections, and appoint judges of elections. The county of Westmoreland was divided into two election districts, the first all the territory north of the Youghioghany, with voting place at Han- na's Town, and the second all to the south of that stream and voting place at Spark's Fort, now Perry Township, Fayette County. James Barr, John Moore and Clement McGeary were appointed as election officers for the northern district, and George Wilson, John Kile and Robert McConnel for the southern. The day fixed for holding these eleetions was the 8th of July, 1776, just four days after the passage of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. As the news traveled very tardily in those days, the probability is that the people of Westmoreland County had not heard of it when the election was held. The eight members elected to the Provincial Convention were John Carmichael, Edward Cook, James Barr, John Moor, James Smith, John McClellan, Christopher Lavingair and James Perry.
Heretofore the primal source of authority in the government had been the King of Great Britain; now it was to emanate from the people, and these back-woodsmen, eight from each county, were to try their hands in the great experiment of self-government --- " a government of the people, by the people and for the people."
The convention thus chosen met in Philadelphia on the 15th of July, 1776. As the members were separately to make oath on being qualified to a renunciation of all allegiance to King George III., and as they in their representative capacity spoke for all their constituents, it is evident that by that aet the whole legal and governmental mna- chinery of the Province was at an end. There was no King supreme over all, no proprietary, no council, no judges, justices, sheriff's, constables, in short no provincial, county or township officers, but all was theoretically in a state of nature. But the moment this eon- vention was organized it proceeded to take up the wand of authority which had been dropped. The convention thus constituted was organized by the election of Benjamin Franklin, president, and on the 24th of July elected what was designated a Council of Safety, composed of twenty-five members, to which was assigned the execu- tive department of the government-the duties of King and Gov- ernor. Of this council Thomas Rittenhouse was chosen chairman, and Jacob S. Howell secretary. By this act the proprietary government was entirely superceded. It may here be observed that John Penn, who had been appointed Governor in August, 1773, was the son of Richard, the second of the three sons of William Penn, viz: John, Richard and Thomas. At the time of his appointment as Governor, his father was proprietor of one-third of the Province, and his uncle, Thomas, two-thirds, the latter
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having inherited the share of his elder brother, John, who died in 1746. By the assumption of power by the Council of Safety the vast proprietary estates of the Penns reverted, amounting, as is shown by an estimate commenced by Thomas Penn and completed by Franklin, to ten millions of pounds sterling, or $50,000,000. But the new government was not disposed to deal harshly by the pro- prietors; for, by an act of November 27, 1779, for vesting these estates in the Commonwealth, there was reserved to the proprietors, all their private estates, including the tenths of manors and they were granted one hundred and thirty pounds sterling "in remem- brance of the enterprising spirit of the Founder," and "of the ex- pectations and dependence of his descendants." Parliament in 1790, on account of the inability of the British Government to vindieate the authority of the Proprietors as decided in the result of the Revo- lutionary struggle, and "in consideration of the meritorious services of the said William Penn, and of the losses which his family have sustained," voted an annuity of four thousand pounds per annum to his heirs and descendants. This annuity has been regularly paid to the present time, 1888.
On the 6th of August, the Council of Safety was organized by the election of Thomas Wharton, Jr., president, which office was equiva- lent to that of Governor. A new constitution was framed and finally adopted on the 28th of September unanimously, taking effect from the date of its passage. It provided for an annual Assembly, and for a Supreme Executive Council, to be composed of twelve members elected for a term of three years. Members of Congress were chosen by the Assembly. Assemblymen were eligible for four years in seven, and councilmen but one term in seven years. This constitu- tion could not be changed for a period of seven years. At the end of that time a board of censors were to determine whether or not there was need of change. If such need existed they were em- powered to convene a new convention for that purpose.
The Assembly which convened in January, 1777, passed an act early in the session providing that "each and every one of the laws or acts of General Assembly that were in force and binding on the inhabitants of the said province on the 14th day of May last shall be in force and binding on the inhabitants of this State, from and after the 10th of February next, as fully and effectnally to all intents and purposes, as if the said laws, and each of them, had been made and enacted by this General Assembly; and all and every person and persons whosoever are hereby enjoined and required to yield obedi- ence to the said laws, as the case may require, and the common law and such of the statute laws of England as have hereto- fore been in force in the province, except as is hereafter excepted." This act of the Legislature revived the operation of the former laws
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in the province as completely as though each one had formally been re-enacted. It was also enacted that all the several courts held in the State should continue to be held at the times and with the same formality as before, " and every officer of all and every of the courts of this State that is or shall be appointed shall have, use, and exercise the same or like powers that such officer or officers of the same title, character and distinction might, could or ought to have had, used and exercised under the charter and laws of Pennsylvania, until dis- placed. And all constables, overseers of the poor, supervisors of the highways, and the wardens and street commissioners of the city of Philadelphia that were last appointed or elected in the said province are hereby authorized and strictly enjoined, and required to exercise their several and respective powers, and execute, do and perform all the business and duties of their several and respective offices until others are appointed."
It was also further provided "that every action that was in any court in the province of Pennsylvania, at the last term the said court was held, except discontinued or satisfied, shall be and is hereby declared to be in the same state, and on the same rule, and may be prosecuted in the same manner in the courts in each respective county, to be hereafter held and kept, as if the authority of such court had never ceased; and if any recognisance has been taken and not returned and prosecuted as the laws direct, saving the style; and where any person had obtained a judgment before any justice of the peace for any debt or sum of money, and such judgment not dis- charged, the person in whose favor the judgment is, may (on produc- ing a transcript of such judgment to any justice of the peace in the county where the defendant dwells or can be found) demand and obtain an execution for the money mentioned in such judgment, which shall be of the same force and effect as if the judgment was obtained before the justice that granted the execution."
Thus the thread of authority was taken up by the new peoples' government, where the King's and the Proprietor's government had dropped it, by that notable act of the Continental Congress assem- bled in Carpenter's Hall. Philadelphia, on the ever memorable 4th of July, 1776, entitled the Declaration of American Independence.
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CHAPTER XIV.
SUBJECTS OF CONTENTION -- ALLEGIANCE ON THE DELAWARE OR ON THE JAMES -- LARGELY SETTLED BY VIRGINIANS AND MARYLANDERS- " WEST AND NORTHWEST "- SETTLERS INNOCENT-WRIT OF QUO WARRANTO-KING'S PROCLAMATION-VIRGINIA ONLY A ROYAL COLONY -- MASON AND DIXON'S LINE CONTINUED-WALPOLE GRANT COVERED AN EMPIRE-CORRESPONDENCE OF GOVERNORS- FRY HAD ASCERTAINED LATITUDE OF LOGSTOWN -- BUILD A FORT- PROPOSE COMMISSIONERS-CIVIL COMMOTION-WILSON'S LETTER -SETTLERS OPPOSE PENN'S LAWS AND ASK FOR A VIRGINIA COURT-MATERIAL OF FORT PITT SOLD -- GOVERNOR DUNMORE --- CONNOLLY'S PROCLAMATION-CONNOLLY ARRESTED -- SHERIFF PROCTOR ARRESTED-CORRESPONDENCE OF GOVERNORS-FORMAL NOTICE OF PENN- CONNOLLY COMES WITH A DETACHMENT OF MILITIA-HIS POSITION-COURT'S ANSWER-CONNOLLY ARRESTS JUSTICES-LETTER OF MACKAY TILGHMAN AND ALLEN SENT TO VIRGINIA-DUNMORE ARBITRARY-PENN COUNSELED PEACE- CLAIMS COMPLICATE- DUNMORE'S WAR-NEEDLESS -- LOGAN'S REVENGE ON TEN MILE CREEK --- SETTLERS FLEE-ARMIES OF LEWIS AND DUNMORE-PROCLAMATION OF DUNMORE -- PENN'S COUNTER PROCLAMATION -- VIRGINIA COURT AT PITTSBURG-ARRESTS AND COUNTER -- LEXINGTON AND CONCORD-PATRIOTISM-ADVICE OF CONGRESSMEN- -FATE OF CONNOLLY.
B UT the early inhabitants of the southwestern corner of the State scarcely had one subject of contention settled before another arose. Aside from the great impediments to settlement encountered in the rugged and mountainous country to be passed in reaching it. and its great distance from the abodes of civilization, the emigrants had to meet the counter claims of the English and the French to this whole Mississippi Valley, which was fought out on this ground; then, the hostility of the Indians in asserting their claims to this territory, which resulted in the conspiracy of Pontiac, likewise con- tended for with great bitterness in this valley, and finally settled by victories gained on this ground; then the lack of right to settle all this stretch of country not yet having been acquired from the In- dians, and the jeopardy of their necks as the penalty of the new law unless they quickly removed from their homes,
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