USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 15
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" Oh," said Robinson, "you ought to have seen the poor Indians run then !"
They gave but one random shot each, and fled as fast as possible toward the swamp. But it was too late. The mounted Kentuckians burst through them like a cyclone, and then wheeled about to cut off their retreat, while the infantry came up on the double-quick and barred their escape in that direc- tion.
" Oh," the chieftain would continue, "it was awful !"
Robinson admired his conqueror so much that he named one of his sons " Anthony Wayne," and always expressed the most profound respect for that dashing soldier.
The Senecas had runners at the scene of conflict, and it is quite probable, too, that quite a number of them were there in readiness to participate in the expected slaughter of the Americans. Hence, when they brought back the news of the tremendous punishment inflicted on their Western friends, all the Iroquois in Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania resolved to be "good Indians." The clamor for war was no longer heard, neither did Corn- planter seem inclined to give away any more moccasins.
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122
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
It was assumed, however, by the general government that the Iroquois had not received fair treatment at the hands of the State authorities and grasp- ing, unscrupulous land corporations. Therefore, in the fall of that year (1794) the chiefs, sachems, and warriors of the Six Nations were summoned to meet Colonel Thomas Pickering, the United States commissioner, in council at Can- andaigua, N. Y., and there state their grievances. They responded promptly to the summons, and a treaty was concluded with them November 11, 1794, by the provisions of which the United States agreed to give the New York Iroquois $10,000 worth of goods, and an annuity of $4,000 annually in cloth- ing, domestic animals, etc. It was also fully agreed that the Senecas should have all the land in New York west of Phelps's and Gorham's Purchase, except the reservation a mile wide along the Niagara. Thus were Cornplanter's followers in New York provided for, and to those reservations did they all go from Pennsylvania, except one hundred or more who remained with him at Jennesadaga.
On the part of the Indians the articles of this treaty were signed by Corn- planter, Half Town, Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, and fifty-five other chiefs of the Six Nations. It was the last council at which the United States treated with the Iroquois as a confederacy. William Johnston, an English adherent, came there and was discovered haranguing some of the chiefs. It was believed that he was acting in behalf of the British, to prevent a treaty, and Colonel Pickering compelled him to leave quite unceremoniously.
On the 4th of July, 1796, Fort Niagara was surrendered by the British to the United States; Fort Ontario, at Oswego, being given up ten days later. This strengthened the impression made on the Indians by Wayne's victory, and confirmed them in the disposition to cultivate friendly relations with the Americans.
During the same year Cornplanter made a rather remarkable little speech at Fort Franklin to an assemblage composed of both whites and Indians. He thanked the Almighty for permitting him and his white neighbors to meet together again in peace. And continuing, as if in extenuation of the hostile attitude assumed by him two years before, said that he had met many people, and that all nations were liars; that the Western Indians, as well as the whites, had lied to him; that he had been deceived in council and told things which were lies, but believing them to be true, had repeated the same to his young men and warriors, and thus he had been made a liar. He lamented that such had been the case, and hoped that honesty, truthfulness, and sobriety would prevail in the future in the dealings betwen his people and the whites.
In the mean time events of a more pacific nature had taken place in, and in relation to, the region soon to be known as Warren county, which will here receive a passing notice. Thus, soon after the passage of the celebrated Actual Settlement law of April 3, 1792, "a company of Hollanders seeking an invest-
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FROM 1791 TO 1800.
ment of their surplus funds, purchased the claim of John Adlum and Samuel Wallace to a large body of lands in this part of the State. For these they had warrants issued and surveys made in the names of Herman Le Roy and John Linklain. These names were used to evade the law, which, at that time, for- bade aliens from holding titles to lands in this State. On these warrants most of the land in this county, north and west of the Allegheny River and Cone- wango Creek, was surveyed and appropriated and originally owned by the Hol- land Land Company. In January, 1794, the same company of Hollanders procured one thousand warrants for nine hundred acres each, and in what was then called the New Purchase, being for land east of the Allegheny river. A part of these warrants were located on and covered most of the land in this county east of the river."1
On the 18th of April, 1795, "in order to facilitate and promote the prog- ress of settlements within the Commonwealth, and to afford additional secu- rity to the frontiers by the establishment of towns," an act was passed by the State Legislature, providing for laying out towns at Presque Isle, at the mouth of French Creek, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, and at Fort Le Bœuf.
This act provided, so far as it related to the town to be laid out at the mouth of the Conewango, that the commissioners to be appointed by the governor "shall survey or cause to be surveyed three hundred acres for town lots, and seven hundred acres of land adjoining thereto for out lots, at the most eligible place within the tract heretofore reserved for public use at the mouth of Conewango Creek; and the lands so surveyed shall be respect- ively laid out and divided into town lots and out lots, in such manner, and with such streets, lanes, alleys, and reservations for public uses, as the said commissioners shall direct; but no town lot shall contain more than one third of an acre, no out lot shall contain more than five acres, nor shall the reserva- tions for public uses exceed in the whole, ten acres; and the town hereby last directed to be laid out, shall be called 'Warren,' and all the streets, lanes, and alleys thereof, and of the lots thereto adjoining, shall be and remain common highways."
The same act further provided that the troops stationed or to be stationed at Fort Le Bœuf should be used to protect and assist the commissioners, sur- veyors, and others while engaged in executing the provisions of the act. The commissioners appointed by the governor to make surveys, etc., were General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott. Their duty was well performed during the same year (1795), and in August of the following year the lots in the new towns of Warren, Erie, Franklin, and Waterford were first offered for sale at auction at Carlisle, Pa.
At this time, too, the agents of the Holland Land Company were busily engaged in directing the survey of lands lying west of the Allegheny River.
1 Judge S. I'. Johnson.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
They offered special inducements to actual settlers, and soon after a few of the latter class found their way into the heavily timbered region now known as Warren county. The interests and necessities of the land company hastened occasional entries into the unbroken forests. The law of their title, as it then stood, required an actual resident settlement to be made on every four hun- dred acre tract within two years, to give it validity as against a squatter. While the company made no attempt at a strict compliance with this require- ment of the law, they adopted the policy of importing and locating settlers on their lands at convenient points and distances apart, both as a decoy to west- ern-bound emigrants and as a police to protect their other lands from the entry of intruders. To these men they sometimes gave settlement contracts, donat- ing to each settler one hundred acres upon their perfecting a settlement upon a certain tract, by " a residence thereon for five years, erecting a messuage for the habitation of man, and clearing two acres for every one hundred acres contained in one survey." For the supply of their surveyors and settlers, as early as 1795 they erected a block storehouse on the bank of the river near the mouth of the Conewango, which was the first building ever erected by Eng- lish-speaking whites within the limits of the present borough of Warren. To this depot they shipped supplies from Pittsburgh by keel boats. This first structure remained in a good state of preservation for many years, and its grimy roof and walls afforded shelter and protection to considerable numbers of the early residents during the first days passed by them in Warren.
In 1798, by an act of Assembly, the Allegheny River from its mouth to the northern boundary of the State, Conewango Creek from its mouth to the State line, and Brokenstraw Creek from its mouth up to the second fork were declared to be public and navigable streams for the passage of boats and rafts.
On the 11th of April, 1799, another act was passed requiring the governor to direct the surveyor-general to make actual surveys of the reserved tracts of land adjoining the towns of Warren, Franklin, Erie, and Waterford, which had not been laid out in town or outlots, and to lay off the same into lots not exceeding one hundred and fifty acres in each. Also that in each of the " said reserved tracts the quantity of five hundred acres be laid off for the use of such schools or academies as may hercafter be established by law in the said towns." Under this law Colonel Alexander McDowell, of Frankin, then dep- uty surveyor, was appointed to make the surveys, which duty he faithfully dis- charged in the summer of 1799. This is the origin of the reserve tracts that bound the town of Warren on the north, and of the academy lands that adjoin them on the west, and are skirted by the river.
Soon after the organization of the county of Warren "the trustees of the Warren academy lands, with a surprising lack of foresight, commenced to lease these lands, in fifty acre lots, to settlers for ninety-nine years, upon annual rents that were scarcely more than nominal. By this oversight, and the negligence of
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THE ERA OF FORMATION, FROM 1800 TO 1819.
the representatives in the Legislature from this county to procure the passage of a law to authorize the sale of the legal title to these lands, the educational interests of the borough and county have lost the use of a great many thou- sand dollars, and the young men of the town and county desirous of an educa- tion, for forty years had to go without it, or go elsewhere to acquire the nec- essary academic education to entitle them to admission into a college, except during the short time the Warren Academy was kept in operation under the administration of Hon. R. Brown and others." I
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ERA OF FORMATION, EARLY SETTLEMENTS, ETC., FROM 1800 TO 1819.
Formation of Warren County-Its Original Boundaries-Temporarily Attached to Crawford County-Crawford County Organized-Erection of Brokenstraw Township-It Becomes the First Election Distriet of Crawford-Warren County Annexed to Venango in 1805-Broken- straw Still Continues as the Sole Township of Warren County-It's Taxable Inhabitants in 1806-Who were the First Settlers-A Ilooted Question-An Order to Ereet New Townships -Early Inn-Keepers-Division of the County into Two Townships-Their Names and Bound- aries-Their Taxable Inhabitants in 1808-Visited by Western Indians-A Want of Confidence -Council Held with Cornplanter-Veterans of the War of 1812-15-A Transfer of Lands by the Holland Land Company-Cornplanter as He Appeared in 1816-The Taxables of the County During the Same Year-Subsequent Rapid Increase in Population.
T HE year 1800 was made memorable in the history of Pennsylvania by the erection of several new counties in the northwestern quarter of the State, from territory which had been temporarily attached to organized coun- ties whose seats of justice were hundreds of miles distant. Thus, by an act of the State Legislature passed March 12, of that year, the counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango, and Armstrong were formed from territory previously embraced by Westmoreland, Washington, Allegheny, and Lycoming counties.2 Warren was formed from Allegheny
1 Hon. S. P. Johnson.
2 Soon after its acquisition from the Indians, by the treaties of Forts Stanwix and Mcintosh, the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, as its boundaries were then described, was attached to the county of Westmoreland, by an act of the Supreme Executive Council, passed April 8, 1785; it being referred to in the said act, as " a part of the late purchase from the Indians." On the 24th of Septem- ber, 1788, Allegheny county was formed from portions of Westmoreland and Washington, with bound- aries from the mouth of Puckety's Creek, " up the Allegheny River to the northern boundary of the State; thence west along the same to the western boundary of the State; thence south along the same to the River Ohio; and thence up the same to the place of beginning," i. e., the mouth of Flaherty's Run, on the south side of the Ohio River. Lycoming county was formed from Northum- berland, April 13, 1796, and its western boundary, for a great distance, was the Allegheny River. 9
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
and Lycoming counties, and the clause of the act relating to its boundaries reads as follows :
" That so much of the counties of Allegheny and Lycoming, as shall be included within the following boundaries, viz. : Beginning at the southeast corner of Crawford county, in the north line of the sixth donation district ; thence the course of the said line eastwardly across the Allegheny River, until it shall intersect the line dividing Johnson's and Potter's districts, in the county of Lycoming; thence northerly along the said line to the line of the State of New York; thence westwardly along the line of the said State to the corner of Erie county ; thence southerly by the eastern boundaries of the counties of Erie and Crawford, to the place of beginning."
The same act further provided that the place for holding courts of justice within the county should be the town of Warren. Also, that the governor be empowered to appoint three commissioners to run, ascertain, and mark the boundary lines of the county ; that the commissioners be paid the sum of two dollars per day while so engaged, and that the boundaries described be run " on or before the 15 day of June next." William Miles, Thomas Miles, and John Andrews, the latter being then a resident of the county, were named in the act as commissioners for Warren county, but what their duties were, or what they did, if anything, does not appear.
It was further provided by this act that the counties of Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Warren, and Erie (" until an enumeration of the taxable inhabitants within the aforesaid counties respectively shall be made, and it shall be other- wise directed by law ") should form one county under the name of Crawford county. Meadville thus became the seat of justice for a vast, sparsely settled region, and people of to-day can hardly realize the vicissitudes experienced by the pioneers who, when obliged to visit the county seat to transact legal or other business, or were summoned to attend courts, etc., were compelled, in going and returning, to travel from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty miles through dense forests, and along winding, partly-overgrown Indian trails - providing the "trails" led in the right direction - otherwise the undertaking was still more hazardous.
Only a few weeks had passed after the passage of the above-mentioned act ere the county of Crawford was duly organized as a separate division of the State, and its first officers installed in office. The first session of court was held in the upper story of William Dick's residence, on the northeast corner of Water street and Cherry Alley in Meadville. The record of this session begins as follows : " At a Court of Common Pleas held and kept at Meadville, for the county of Crawford, the seventh day of July, Anno Domini, One thousand eight hundred, before David Mead and John Kelso, Judges present, and from thence continued by adjournment until the ninth day of the same month inclusive." Mead and Kelso were only associate judges, and not learned in the law. Their
127
THE ERA OF FORMATION, FROM 1800 TO 1819.
attention at this time was chiefly directed to the admission of attorneys, to the erection of townships, the issuing of licenses, and the appointing of certain township officers.
During the second session of the court of Crawford county, held at the place above described in October, 1800, Hon. Alexander Addison presiding, the first grand jury met. It was during this term, also, that the township of Brokenstraw (the original township of Warren county) was erected. The order of court respecting this subdivision reads as follows : " In pursuance to sundry petitions presented, the court directed the following Townships to be laid off." " Also all that part of Warren County situate west of River Alle- gheny and Conawango Creek be erected into a township and the name thereof to be Brokenstraw." (See Docket No. 1, page II, Judicial Records of Craw- ford County.) Judge Addison resided at Pittsburgh, and was a gentleman possessed of a fine mind and great attainments, but he was subsequently im- peached and removed from office, because of his absolute refusal to allow an associate judge to charge a jury after his own charge had been delivered.
On the 21st of February, 1801, another act was passed relating to the new county of Warren, by the provisions of which it was denominated the First Election District of Crawford County, and the electors residing therein were directed to hold their general elections at the house of Robert Andrews, who then lived in the Brokenstraw valley, or where Pittsfield now stands.
This arrangement continued until April 1, 1805, when an act was passed providing for the organization of Venango county from and after September I of that year. By the same legislative act Warren county was detached from Crawford and annexed to Venango for judicial and all other purposes of gov- ernment ; thus becoming part of the Sixth Judicial District, of which the Hon. Jesse Moore was then serving as president judge.
Venango county was duly organized in the fall of 1805, and the first term of court was held at Franklin, in December of that year. During the follow- ing year the first assessment rolls for the newly organized county were com- pleted. Those rolls have been carefully preserved (as seems not to have been the case with early papers of the same class in Crawford county), and from them we have obtained the most complete and authentic list of the original pioneers of Warren county now available, and now published for the first time. Brokenstraw was still the only township in Warren county, and its taxable inhabitants in 1806, together with the amount and kind of taxable property owned by each, were as follows :
Addison,1 Alexander, 2 outlots in Warren.
Armstrong, George, 2 outlots and 2 inlots in Warren.
Adams, William, 400 acres land, I horse.
Arthur, John, 170 acres land, I cow, 4 oxen and 3 of saw-mill. Andrews, Robert, 900 acres land, 2 horses, 3 cows, I saw-mill and 2 inlots in Warren.
1 This was Judge Addison, of Pittsburgh. And here we are reminded that of those named in the following list of taxables, only those who were assessed for personal property can be countedl with cer- tainty as actual residents during the years mentioned.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Andrews, James, single man, 1 inlot in War- ren.
Andrews, John, 600 acres land, 4 horses, 2 cows, 4 inlots and I outlot in Warren.
Arthur, William, 70 acres land, I cow, 1 horse, 1 inlot in Warren.
Arthur, Robert, single man, 2 outlots in War- ren.
Anderson, Samuel, 150 acres, I cow.
Baldwin, Jonathan, single man, 400 acres land, 1 cow.
Brown, John, 400 acres land, I cow, 2 horses. Brown, James, single man, 100 acres land, I cow.
Barr, John, 100 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen.
Budd, Benjamin, single man.
Biles, Charles, 400 acres land, I cow.
Buchanan, Andrew, I cow.
Bonner, Robert, 400 acres land, I cow, 1 grist-mill.
Banjer, Mathew, 134 acres land.
Bell, John, 400 acres land, I cow, 1 horse.
Bell, Mary, 100 acres land.
Bell, Robert. I cow, single man.
Cole, Benjamin, 100 acres land, I cow.
Culbertson, James, 400 acres land.
Crawford, John, I cow.
Chamberlain, Stout, 200 acres land, I cow, 1 horse.
Coneway, George. 400 acres land.
Carpenter, William, 100 acres land, 2 horses, 2 COWS.
Carpenter, John, single man, I horse.
Cochran, William, I cow, I horse.
Culbertson, James, Jr., 250 acres land, I cow, 2 oxen, 2 inlots in Warren.
Corbett, Daniel, 250 acres land, I horse, I cow, I inlot in Warren. Corbett, William, I inlot in Warren.
Corbett, Isaac, I inlot in Warren.
Call, Daniel, 200 acres land, 2 cows, I horse, 2 oxen.
Call, Dennis, 200 acres land, I cow.
Cunningham, Richard, single man, 400 acres land.
Carr, David, 200 acres land at mouth of the Brokenstraw.
Craig, Isaac, 1,080 acres land.
Davis, Elljah, 100 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen. Davis, Abraham, single man, 100 acres land, I OX. Davis, John, 100 acres land.
Dougherty, Charles, single man.
Dickson, John, 100 acres land, I cow, I horse. Davis, William, 150 acres land, I cow, 2 horses.
Davis, Thomas, 150 acres land.
Eagan, William, 700 acres land, I horse, 2 oxen, I inlot in Warren.
Eddy, Zachariah, 400 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen, I inlot in Warren.
Evers, Andrew, 200 acres land, 2 oxen.
Evans, William, single man,
Elder James, 400 acres land, I horse, I cow, 2 oxen.
Elder, John, 400 acres land, 1 cow, single man.
Ford, Samuel, 400 acres land, single man.
Felton, John, 100 acres land.
Ford, William, single man, 400 acres land, I horse, 1 inlot in Warren.
Foster, William B., single man, I horse.
Frampton, John, 50 acres land, I cow.
Frampton, Nathaniel. 100 acres land, I horse, I COW.
Ford, John, 100 acres land, I cow, 2 oxen.
Frew, Hugh, 200 acres land, 3 cows.
Fenton, George W., single man.
Gray, Joseph, 400 acres land, 1 cow, 1 horse,
2 inlots in Warren, 550 acres "up the Creek."
Groves, Thomas W., 200 acres land, 2 cows. Granger, Eli, single man.
Gibson, Samuel, 400 acres land, I inlot in Warren.
Gibson, Gideon, 2 cows, 2 oxen, 2 inlots in Warren.
Gilson, John, 2 cows, I horse, 2 oxen, 2 inlots in Warren.
Gibson, Erastus, 2 inlots in Warren.
Gibson, Jacob, 400 acres land, 3 cows, 2 oxen. Grippin, William, single man.
Goodwin, Joseph, single man, I cow.
Huffman, Philip, 400 acres land, 2 cows, 2 horses
Hildebrandt, George, 400 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen.
Hildebrandt, George, Jr., 400 acres land.
Hildebrandt, Solomon, 400 acres land.
Hicks, John. 400 acres land, 2 cows.
Hicks, Levi, 400 acres land, 2 cows, I horse. Hicks, Gershom, I cow.
Hare, Michael, 100 acres land, I cow. Ilare, James, 100 acres land.
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THE ERA OF FORMATION, FROM 1800 TO 1819.
Hunter, Robert, 400 acres land, I cow, 2 oxen. Henderson, Richard, 400 acres land, I cow. Henry, William, single inan.
Hunter, Garrett, 400 acres land.
Huffman, Jacob. 100 acres land, 2 cows, I horse.
Houghy, John, 400 acres land.
Hood, John, 100 acres land, 2 cows, I horse. Irvine, Callender, 800 acres land east of the
Allegheny River, 200 acres land opposite Warren.
Irvin, James, 400 acres land, I cow, 2 oxen.
Jackson, Daniel, 130 acres land, 2 cows, I horse, 2 oxen, 2 inlots in Warren, I saw-mill. Jackson, Daniel, Jr., 400 acres land, 2 cows, I inlot in Warren.
Jackson, Ethan, 200 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen, I horse, 2 inlots in Warren.
Jackson, Elijah, 150 acres land, 2 cows.
Jones, Isaiah, 329 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen. Jones, Daniel, 3 cows, I inlot in Warren.
Justice, James, 250 acres land, 2 cows, I horse. Justice, John, 2 oxen.
Jones, Edward, single man.
Jobes, Samuel, single man, I horse.
Kennedy, Thomas R., 5 outlots in Warren. Linn, James, 100 acres land, I cow, I horse. Long, George, 400 acres land, I cow, I horse, 2 oxen, I saw-mill.
Long. John, single man.
Long, John, Sent, 200 acres land.
Lapsley, William, 400 acres land, I cow, I horse.
Lynch, George, 1 cow.
Miller, John, single man, 100 acres land.
Mckinney, Michael, 200 acres land, 2 cows, I horse.
Marsh, Mulford, 400 acres land, I cow, 2 oxen. McGinty, Daniel, 400 acres land.
Morrison, Jeremiah, 133 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen, } pt. saw-mill, I inlot in Warren.
Morrison, Samuel, 133 acres land, 2 oxen, } part saw-mill, I inlot in Warren.
Morrison, James, 183 acres land, 2 cows, 2 oxen, § part saw-mill.
Morrison, John, 400 acres land, 2 cows, I horse, 2 inlots in Warren
Morrison, James, Sent, 4 oxen, 3 cows.
Morrison, William, single man, 2 inlots in Warren.
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