History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 7

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323

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The commissioners by whom these negotiations were conducted were Samuel J. Atlee, William Maclay, and Francis Johnston. In January, 1785, they met the Wyandot and Delaware Indians at Fort McIntosh, (Beaver), and concluded an agreement by which the claims of the latter to the region in question were relinquished.

Obligations assumed by the state antecedent to the acquisition of this territory governed its disposition. Among the evils entailed by the long continuance of the Revolutionary war was a depreciated currency, affording merely nominal remuneration for the services of soldiers and officers in the Continental army. In order to encourage enlistment to the credit of the quota of the state, the legislature passed a resolution on the 7th of March, 1780, declaring its intention to provide adequate compensation for the officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line and citizens of the state in other departments of the government service, who should serve until the close of the war or die in furthering the interests of the American cause. The faith of the commonwealth was pledged to effect a settlement on the basis of a sound currency, and also to supplement this pecuniary compen- sation by donations in land. The depreciation in the value of the "bills of credit " issued by congress and the state had been gradual; and in order that an equitable discharge of its obligations might be facilitated, an act was. 4

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

passed in April, 1781, fixing a scale of depreciation varying from one and one-half to seventy-five per cent., varying for each month from January, 1777, to March, 1781. The pay of officers and soldiers was adjusted in conformity with this scale; the state acknowledged its indebtedness by issu- ing depreciation certificates, for the redemption of which a part of the lands west of the Allegheny river was appropriated in 1783, the year before the cession of that territory by the Indians. The depreciation lands were included within the following boundaries:

Beginning where the western boundary of this state crosses the Ohio river; thencc up the said river to Fort Pitt; thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Mogul- bughtiton creek; thence by a west line to the western boundary of the state; thence south by the said boundary to the place of beginning.

Mogulbughtiton creek is sometimes identifed with Pine creek and some- times with Mahoning; but however this may be, the northern line of the depreciation lands, which was surveyed by Alexander McClean and acquired a wide popular significance, coincides with the northern line of Beaver county. The fifth section of the same act (March 12, 1783) designated the donation lands with boundaries as follows:

Beginning at the mouth of Mogulbughtiton creek; thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of the Cognawagna (Conewango) creek; thence due north to the northern boundary of this state; thence west by the said boundary to the northwest corner of the state; thence south by the western boundary of the state to the northwest corner of lands appropriated by this act for discharging the certificates herein mentioned, and thence by the same lands east to the place of beginning.

This included all that part of the state north of McClean's line and west of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek. (The Erie Triangle was not acquired until 1792.) It is thus seen that the state appropriated a very considerable part of her domain in the effort to deal justly with her de- fenders, and with great propriety the donation and depreciation lands have been called "The twin progeny of patriotism and necessity."

It is with the donation lands that these pages are more particularly con- cerned. The first legislation of a comprehensive nature affecting this sub- ject was the act of March 24, 1785, referring to the resolution of March 7, 1780, and the act of March 12, 1783, and directing a mode of distribution at once elaborate and complicated. The comptroller general was directed to compile a complete list of all persons who were entitled to become bene- ficiaries under the act, and from this data the quantity of land necessary was computed, allowing two thousand acres to a major general; one thousand five hundred acres to a brigadier general; one thousand acres to a colonel; seven hundred and fifty acres to a lieutenant colonel; six hundred acres to a surgeon, chaplain, and major; five hundred acres to a captain; four hun- dred acres to a lieutenant; three hundred acres to an ensign and surgeon's mate; two hundred and fifty acres to a quartermaster sergeant, sergeant major, and sergeant; and two hundred acres to a corporal, private, drum-

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mer, and fifer. The lots were to be of four descriptions, comprising, re- spectively, five hundred, three hundred, two hundred and fifty, and two hundred acres. The surveyor general was authorized to appoint deputies, who were required to make oath to perform their duties with fidelity and impartiality.

On the 3rd of May, 1785, the comptroller general made a report to the supreme executive council embodying the names of all who were entitled to receive lands. The surveyor general was directed to proceed with the sur- vey, and two days later nominated as deputy surveyors William Alexander, Benjamin Lodge, James Christie, Ephraim Douglass, Griffith Evans, James Dickinson, John Henderson, William Power, Jr., Peter Light, Andrew Henderson, James Dickinson, James Hoge, David Watt, and Alexander McDowell, whose appointment was forthwith confirmed. The territory in question was divided into ten districts, numbered in regular order from the depreciation lands to the northern boundary of the state and extending westward latitudinally from the Allegheny river and Conewango creek. Their relative locations are best indicated by reference to county lines. The line of Crawford and Erie counties coincides with the northern line of the eighth; the line of Venango and Crawford, with the northern line of the sixth; the line of Mercer and Crawford, with the northern line of the fifth; and within this county the line of the fifth and sixth districts was the mutual boundary of Plum and Sugar Creek townships until the formation of Oakland and Jackson. It thus appears that the sixth, fifth, and fourth districts were situated in this county to the extent of their entire width and the third also in part. The respective deputies appointed for these districts were James Christie, for the sixth; Benjamin Lodge, for the fifth; Andrew Henderson, for the fourth; and Griffith Evans, for the third.

As the north and west boundaries of the state had not yet been estab- lished, the surveyors were instructed to begin their work as far in the interior as possible. Specific directions were given for marking the number of the lot at the northwest corner, which thus became the "ear-mark" of the tract, the legal and original index to its location, and in many instances the only method of identifying the lot indicated on the "General Draft" with the actual ground to which it referred. A broad flat surface was cut on the tree, and in this the figures forming the number were sunk with a die. The impression thus made is said to have been distinguishable half a century later; a slight discoloration of the bark, perceptible only to an accom- plished woodsman, indicated the place on the tree where the mark had been made, and by removing the supervening growth it was plainly visible. The usual procedure with the surveyors was to run the southern line of the dis- trict as a base line; the north and south lines were then run at such intervals as the size of the tracts might require, and at regular distances determined in the same manner, the numbers of the lots were marked; at every corner,

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

instead of running the east and west lines through, it was customary merely to blaze the trees several rods in either direction, and as a consequence, owing to the character of the topography and the carelessness of chain car- riers, east and west corners were not on an east and west line and the lots, instead of being rectangular parallelograms, assumed a variety of irregular shapes. In adjusting the legal complications that subsequently resulted from this the courts decided that a straight line to be run from corner to corner was the legal line. When a sufficient extent of territory had been platted a connected draft was required to be filed with the master of the rolls; and in 1818, many of the original land-marks having become oblit- erated, the legislature declared these drafts sufficient evidence of the loca- tion of a lot.

The act of March 24, 1785, provided for the appointment of an agent to examine the donation lands and report upon their general condition, indi- cating especially such as were unfit for cultivation. General William Irvine was assigned to this duty, and in August, 1785, reported unfavorably as to the value of the lands in the eastern part of the second district, which were accordingly withdrawn. This territory thus acquired the name of the "Struck District."

A provision of the law of 1783 directed that the officers and privates entitled to land should make application within two years after the close of the war, with an extension of one year for executors and heirs. The distri- bution was effected by lottery and conducted by a committee of three mem- bers of the executive council, in whose custody the wheel was kept. Many having failed to apply within the period specified, the time was extended by various laws, and in 1792 the officers of the land office were directed to draw lots for such persons as were entitled to them according to the list furnished by the comptroller general. The final legislation on this subject was the act of March 26, 1813, by which the land office was closed against all appli- cations after October 1st, of that year. While thus extended over a term of years for the benefit of exceptional cases the great body of donation lands had been located and patented within a few years after the passage of the act of 1785. The surveys were principally made in 1786 and 1787.

The propriety of reserving certain tracts advantageously situated in the western frontier for such purposes as future developments might determine was first suggested to the executive council by Andrew Ellicott and recom- mended to the assembly in 1788. In the following year that body author- ized the survey of reservations at Fort Venango, and at the mouth of the Conewango on the Allegheny river, at Fort Le Bœuf, at the head of navi- gation on French creek, and at Erie. These surveys were made by John Adlum and reported to the council in September, 1789. It was stipulated that none of these reservations should exceed three thousand acres in extent. That at Fort Venango included the site of the town of Franklin; it was situ-

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ated on both sides of French creek, and the principal objects to which the proceeds of its sale were applied were the building of the first court house of the county and the Venango academy. A tract of several hundred acres north of French creek remained unsold for many years, and was commonly known as the "Academy Reserve."

The Cornplanter reservation at the mouth of Oil creek comprised the principal part of the site of Oil City. It was surveyed by Alexander McDowell, and contained a little more than three hundred acres. The pat- ent was issued March 16, 1796. It remained in possession of Cornplanter until 1818.

The benevolent intentions of the state having been subserved, a method of promoting settlement in the northwestern part of its territory was the next subject for legislative consideration. The frontier was constantly menaced by Indian depredations, and very few of the owners of donation lands ever removed to them. There still remained thousands of acres that had not been applied to the redemption of depreciation certificates or drawn in the apportionment of donation lands; and, with the idea of bring- ing these lands into market as a source of revenue to the state, as well as to encourage immigration and thus place a barrier between the hostile Indians on the west and the incipient settlements in the western interior portions of the state, an act was passed on the 3rd of April, 1792, for the general disposition of all vacant lands within the purchases of 1768 and 1784. This was the first legislation relative to lands in that part of the county east and south of the Allegheny river. That part of the purchase of 1784 was offered for sale at five pounds per hundred acres; northwest of the Ohio and Allegheny and Conewango creek, the price was fixed at seven pounds, ten shillings per hundred acres. No condition of settlement was attached to the former; but the latter were offered only " to persons who will cultivate, improve, and settle the same, or cause the same to be cultivated, improved, or settled." Provision was made for two methods of acquiring title-either to purchase a warrant at the land office for a tract of land to be surveyed, paying the purchase money and fees into the state treasury, and completing the title by settlement and improvement within the speci- fied period of two years; or to effect the settlement and improvement in the first place and make payment afterward. The former was the method of the land jobber; the latter, of the actual settler. The lands were remote from previously settled localities, and even if an Indian war had not effectually prevented immigration, the advantage was largely with the purchasing class as opposed to the class who would be obliged to make a settlement first and depend upon the results of their labor for the means to discharge their obligations to the state.' While the prospective settler was waiting for the long deferred tranquillity that would permit a residence on the frontier, the capitalist proceeded at once to procure warrants and

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

lodge them with the deputy surveyors for execution. A duplex system of this nature naturally resulted in legal complications affecting the validity of land titles throughout the period of early settlement, retarding the growth and development of the country to an incalculable extent.

The favorable opportunity for investment offered by the terms of sale as proposed by the state in the act of 1792, led to the organization of vari- ous corporations for the purchase, improvement, and sale of lands. Of these the Holland Land Company was most largely interested in this county. It was composed of capitalists in the United Netherlands, who had advanced large sums to Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, to aid in the prosecution of that struggle; and at its close, either form choice or neces- sity, received payment in lands in western New York, and later extended their acquisitions into Pennsylvania. The company was composed of Will- iam Willink and eleven associates, among whom were Nicholas Van Stap- horst, Peter Stadnitski, Christian Van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven, and Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck of the city of Amsterdam. The first lands acquired in Pennsylvania consisted of a number of one thousand acre tracts east of the Allegheny river, in the purchase of 1784, some of which are sit- uated in Pinegrove township, this county, while many others were located in that part of the county since attached to Forest.

One of the largest transactions in the history of Pennsylvania land titles was a purchase aggregating half a million acres, negotiated for this com- pany in 1793 by its agents at New York, Herman Leroy and William Bay- ard, from James Wilson of Philadelphia, a judge of the United States. supreme court. The land in question consisted of nine hundred and twelve tracts of four hundred and thirty acres each, situated between French creek . and the Allegheny river, which John Adlum had agreed to secure for Judge Wilson by a contract, bearing date April 26, 1793; and two hundred and fifty tracts of four hundred and thirty acres each, to be taken from lands. entered for Judge Wilson by James Chapman, convenient to the lands first named in point of location, the Holland Company reserving the privilege of substituting other lands east of French creek if not satisfied with the latter tracts, the whole amount being four hundred and ninety-nine thousand, six. hundred and sixty acres, not including the allowance of six per cent. for roads. The consideration was thirty-four thousand, eight hundred and sixty pounds in specie, of which the company retained four thousand and sixty-seven pounds for fees and expenses of surveying; three thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two pounds, fourteen shillings, for fees in patenting the tracts; two thousand, six hundred and fourteen pounds, ten shillings, with which to pay the receiver general of the land office for the excess of thirty acres in each warrant; and nine hundred and seventy-eight pounds for in- terest on the purchase money since the date of application. A very large . proportion of the lands in Venango county north of French creek and the

LAND TENURE.

Allegheny river, and particularly that part of this territory east of Oil creek, was included in this extensive purchase, which was consummated on the 21st of August, 1793.

The management of the affairs of the company was intrusted to a general agent with his office at Philadelphia. Theophilus Cazenove filled this posi- tion from the organization of the company until 1799, when he was suc- ceeded by Paul Busti; he served until July 23, 1824, and was followed by John J. Vanderkemp, the incumbent of the office until 1836. The local agent for the counties of Crawford, Erie, Warren, and Venango had his headquarters at Meadville. Samuel B. and Alexander Foster, jointly, were stationed there in 1796-97-98 and part of 1799; Major Roger Alden was appointed in 1799 and served until the 1st of January, 1805, when H. J. Huidekoper assumed charge, continuing in that capacity until December 31, 1836, when he purchased from the company its remaining lands in the counties for which he had been agent with smaller interests in Otsego and Chenango counties, New York, and Berkshire county, Massachusetts, for the sum of one hundred and seventy-eight thousand, four hundred dollars. The final conveyance was executed December 23, 1839.

The policy of the company, although directed in the main toward the enhancement of its property, was characterized by an enterprising and liberal spirit. A large store was established at Meadville in 1795 and dis- bursements exceeding five thousand dollars had been made up to that date. Supply depots of implements, utensils, and provisions were established in the following year, settlers were invited to locate on the lands, and funds for bringing families into the country liberally advanced. Settlers who became residents upon its lands were required to erect a house within one year and to improve ten acres within two years of the date of settlement. Improvement and settlement in compliance with the law of 1792 secured one hundred acres without compensation, with the privilege of purchasing the remainder of the four hundred acre tract at one dollar and a half per acre. This gratuity was continued until 1805. Twenty-two thousand dol- lars were expended in 1796 and sixty thousand dollars in 1797 on roads and in assisting settlers in various ways. In 1798 mills were erected, one of which, on a branch of Oil creek quite near the county line, is referred to in a description of the boundaries of Allegheny township in 1800. The ex- penditures of that year amounted to thirty thousand dollars; and in 1799 forty thousand dollars were expended upon roads, mills, etc. Purchasers of lands were given long terms of credit, usually eight years with a frequent. extension to sixteen or twenty; the interest was expected to be paid promptly but in periods of exceptional stringency the agent accepted cattle at the local prices, driving them across the mountains to the markets of Philadel- phia and other eastern cities. The extent of the expenditures of the com.". pany was thus summarized by Judge Yeates:

HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

The Holland Land Company have paid to the state the consideration money of one thousand, one hundred and sixty-two warrants, and the surveying fees on one thou- sand and forty-eight tracts of land (generally four hundred acres each) besides making very cousiderable expenditures by their exertions, honorable to themselves and use- ful to the community, in order to effect settlements. Computing the sums advanced, the lost tracts by prior improvements and interferences, and the quantity of one hun- dred acres granted to each individual for making an actual settlement on their lands, it is said that, averaging the whole, between two hundred and thirty and two hundred and forty dollars have been expended by the company on each tract.

The general opinion regarding land companies has not been uniformly favorable throughout western Pennsylvania. Their interests and those of the settlers frequently came in collision, and although legislation subsequent to the act of 1792 was almost invariable in favor of the settler, the decisions of the courts were not infrequently favorable to the companies. O. Turner in his History of the Holland Company in the State of New York, after an exhaustive treatment of the subject, expresses his estimate of its general character in the following terms:

Few enterprises have ever been conducted on more honorable principles than was that which embraced the purchase, sale and settlement of the Holland purchase. In all the instructions of the general to the local agents the interest of the settlers and the prosperity of the country were made secondary in but a slight degree to their se- curing to their principals a fair and reasonable return for their investments. In the entire history of settlement and improvement of our widely extended country large tracts of the wilderness have now here fallen into the hands of individuals and become subject to private or associate cupidity when the aggregate result has been more favorable or advantageous to the settlers.

And Alfred Huidekoper, in a lecture delivered at Meadville in 1876, reviewing the policy of the company and the attitude of public opinion toward it, says:

The history of the company is but a repetition, perhaps, of a common experience in life. It was encouraged at first to purchase a wilderness aud put its money into the state treasury; this was an acceptable thing to do; when it sought reimbursement out of the property so acquired, it incurred both professional and popular opposition, as large associations are apt to do. Keeping the even tenor of its way withi fairness of purpose and integrity of action, it can safely entrust its record to the hands of the his- torian.

The lands of the Holland Company east of the Allegheny river in this county were sold to an affiliated corporation, the Lancaster Land Com- pany, early in the century; and after a brief period of associate ownership, the latter effected an amicable apportionment of its holdings among the different stockholders in proportion to their respective interests, the lands in this county passing in this manner to Henry Shippen, Samuel Miller, and others. These lands are situated principally in Pinegrove township.

The North American Land Company was another of the extensive cor- porate warrantees of public lands in Pennsylvania. Nearly the whole of Mineral township and the northwestern part of Irwin comprised the interests

LAND TENURE.

of this company in Venango county. Its original organization has not been ascertained; but in 1816 the surviving trustees were Henry Pratt, John Ashley, and James Greenleaf, and the board of managers was composed of John Vaughan, John Miller, Jr., Robert Porter, Henry Pratt, and John Ashley. Their holdings at that date in the counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, and Venango aggregated six hundred and twenty-five tracts of the usual area of four hundred acres; which, by deed of June 1, 1816, were transferred to Henry Baldwin of Pittsburgh and Stephen Barlow of Fairfield, Connecticut, for the sum of ninety thousand dollars. It was from Barlow and Baldwin that purchasers derived title.

The acquisition of extensive individual holdings in that part of the county east and south of the Allegheny river was greatly facilitated under the act of 1792 by the fact that title could be perfected within that region without any restrictions as to settlement and improvement. There were two such holdings in this county, known respectively as the Astley and Bing- ham lands. The former comprised twenty contiguous tracts in district No. 6, containing twenty thousand acres and the usual allowance of six per cent. for highways; the surveys were made in the month of July, 1793, in pur- suance of twenty warrants granted to John Nicholson bearing date April 20, 1792, and numbered respectively 1124 to 1149 inclusive, with the exception of 1129, 1133, and 1141-1144. By deed of July 18, 1795, a transfer was made to Henry Phillips, John Travis, William Crammond, and James Cram- mond, to whom the patents were issued November 5, 1799. William Cram- mond, the surviving member of this copartnership, sold the lands in ques- tion at public auction September 1, 1803, at the Merchants' coffee house in Philadelphia to Matthew McConnell, representing Thomas Astley and James Gibson, to whom a deed was made May 26, 1804. Crammond, Astley, and Gibson were all connected with the Pennsylvania Population Company, to. which Nicholson transferred the great majority of his warrants, but it does not appear that the title to what are popularly referred to as the Astley lands was ever vested in that corporation. Astley and Gibson, beside the twenty thousand acres in Venango county, were also joint owners of thirty- seven thousand acres in Wayne, eighty-five thousand in Luzerne, thirty thousand in Erie and Crawford, fifteen thousand in Berks, twelve thousand in Lycoming, seven thousand in Allegheny and Butler, and three thousand in Northampton; and in 1815, by deed of May 24th, Gibson transferred a moiety in all this vast domain to Astley, who thus became individual owner and so continued until his death. The lands in this county are situated in the central and western part of Cranberry township. The tracts were orig- inally surveyed with north and south, east and west lines, but after the opening of the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike a resurvey was made by William Connely with the line of that highway as a base line. It was not until after this that sales were made to actual settlers to any extent,

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History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 7

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co. Number of Pages: 1323

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323