History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 35

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 35

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" Question asked by Henry Taylor at Isaac Williams, if Baltzer Shill- ing did not make a practice of Running about Through the woods and Marking and Hazing trees and calling that his Improvements and that in a Great Number?

" Answered, he knew it well to be his constant practice."

Deposition of John Williams, Jan. 30, 1784 :

"That in the faul of the year 1770, that he seen Henry Taylor Living in a new Cabban on the Rich Hills which he understood was built by said Taylor, as he Frequently Lodged at his house at the Monongahela River, when going and returning from Chartiers; that he seen said Taylor having Surveying Instruments to Run out hie Land; that when he was hunting there he saw New Marked lines which was Called Tay- lor's Lines; at that time he seen no Improvements on or within said lines but what was called Taylor's, and that Cabban on the Rich Hill where Taylor was living in was the first he knew or ever seen on the forks of Chartiera Creek; That said Taylor Hired him that same faul to farther Improve the said Land, . . . that he Deadened some Timber and Cut and Split five hundred rails on the Rich Hill Tract, five hundred rails on the White Oak Ridge Tract, that he built a good Cabban and Split five hundred rails on another Tract, for which the said Taylor paid him before he left the Settlement a Riffle Gun and four Dollars Cash, and the next spring when the said Taylor Returned from Cecil County, Maryland, he paid me the Remainder Honorably, being Eight pounds pennsylvania money."

Deposition of Hugh Sidwell, July 4, 1783:

"That he built a cabin about Christmas, 1770, and suld his claim to Isaac Williams for Henry Taylor for twenty shillings."

Deposition of Isaac Grier, Jan. 12, 1783.

" That in ye year 1770, about the last of November or the beginning of . December, he this Deponent did assist Henry Taylor to Build a Cabban on the Waters of Chartiers Creek, on a piece of Rich land, to ye southwest of the Cabban where the said Taylor now lives in, now known by the name of the burned Cabban & after Finishing the afsd Cabban on Friday, spent the Next Day in same being Satirday and the next Day being Sunday Bet on our way towards the Monongahela River, where we met with Van Sweringen, Baltser Shilling, James Hendricks & another young man to me unknown who I understood had been surveying Lands. We lodged that night at John Williams hunting Camp; said Sweringham, Shilling, Hendricks, and stranger Passed on towards afsd River; the next day being Monday saw the afsd Sweringham, Baltzer Shilling, Mr. Hend- ricks & stranger at Shillings Cabban near Pigeon Creek, and we then and there saw Joseph Alexander and his father on their way out to Char- tiers to see some Land, and Farther this Deponent saith not."

Deposition of Frederick Lamb, Jan. 2, 1784 :

" That some time in the Month of April in the Year 1772, he came.to Polser Shilling where he was doing some work on a certain Tract of Land where Richard Yates now dwells on, he had seen on a Tree a small distance from them, with HT on it, which at the time he thought it had been Henry Taylor's Claim and he asked the said Pulser was not this Henry Taylor's Land; Polser answered, Yes, it is his Claim, and that he was working there on purpose to affront said Taylor; and he wanted Taylor to come there on purpose to quarrel with him, and give Taylor a Thrashing, and would Black his eyes well. He then told Polser that Henry Taylor was a civil man and would not fight with him and that twas better to let it alone. Then Polser said he would go up and let Van Sweringen have it, for Van was not ashamed of any mean action and he knew Van to be Roague enough to cheat Taylor out of the Land."

147

CIVIL AND LEGAL-BEDFORD COUNTY ERECTED.

County, Md. On the 1st day of February, 1771, be- fore his return in the spring following, he obtained orders of survey for his improvements, one of which recites :

"Whereas Henry Taylor of the County of Cecil in Maryland, hath requested that we would grant him to take up one hundred and fifty Acres of Land on the Middle Fork of Chartiers Creek, Bounded on the North-East by Robert Hamilton's Land and on the Path leading from Catfish Camp to Pittsburg, includ- ing his Improvements in the County of Cumberland: Provided the same Land does not interfere with any Manor or appropriated Tract in the said County of Cumberland," etc. The warrant is signed, "John Penn."

In the month of October, 1770, George Washington made a journey by way of Braddock's road and Fort Pitt and down the Ohio River to the Kanawha, and kept a diary of his observations. As of date the 23d of the month he describes his approach to the two Cross Creeks, one emptying into the Ohio from the east and the other from the west, and proceeds : " About three miles or a little more below this, at the lower point of some islands which stand contiguous to each other, we were told by the Indians that three men from Virginia had marked the land from hence all the way to Redstone; .. . at this place we encamped."

It is indicated from what has already been written of our early settlements, and it plainly appears upon a full examination, that the lands lying between the Monongahela and the Ohio were settled from the outer limits to the central portion by approaches from the mouths and up the courses of the streams flow- ing into the rivers. The pioneers first stopped along the rivers themselves, then gradually followed up the branches into the upper lands. And accounts hereto- fore published have stated, and investigations made in the preparation of this work have confirmed the statement, that by the year 1774 there was scarcely a section of the lands lying between the two rivers which did not contain the cabin of the pioneer.

It has been seen that in February, 1771, when the warrant heretofore quoted was issued to Henry Tay- lor, the land the survey of which it authorized was described as in the county of Cumberland. Cumber- land County, the sixth county of Pennsylvania estab- lished, was erected by the act of Assembly passed Jan. 27, 1750, just about the time when the earliest settlers reached the valley of the Monongahela. It embraced all the lands lying westward of the Susque- hanna River and north and west of the county of York, extending by a shading of inhabitants growing lighter and lighter with the approach to this Western wilder- ness. The seat of justice being for a little while at Shippensburg, and afterwards where it is to-day, at Carlisle, it is apparent that its jurisdiction was not felt to any extent by the settlers of our county ; still

the inhabitants were not without the protection of the law, for Thomas Gist, son of Christopher Gist, settled at Mount Braddock, in Fayette County, was com- missioned a justice of Cumberland County in 1770,2 and in the same year Col. William Crawford was also appointed a justice of that county.2 His home was opposite where Connellsville now is, on the Youghio- gheny River.

Bedford County Erected. - It was not a long while, however, after our first settlers arrived until the seat of justice was brought a little nearer to their new homes, for on March 9, 1771, Bedford 1771. County was erected out of a part of Cumber-

land. Like the latter county, Bedford was originally of wide dimensions, and the reason assigned for its formation was "the great hardships the inhabitants of the western part of the county of Cumberland lie under from being so remote from the present seat of jurisdiction and the public offices." To indicate its great extent it may be stated that its bounda- ries were: "Beginning where the province line crosses the Tuscarora Mountain, and running along the summit of that mountain to the gap near the head of the Path Valley; thence with a north line to the Juniata ; thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Shaver's Creek ; thence northeast to the line of Berks County ; thence along the Berks County line north- westward to the western boundaries of the province; thence southward, according to the western boundary of the province,3 to the southwest corner of the prov- ince; and from thence eastward with the southern line of the province to the place of beginning."

An examination of the records shows that the settlers west of the mountains had much more to do in the administration of justice that when they were within the jurisdiction of Cumberland County with its seat of justice at Carlisle. Still, for the reason that it was not yet definitely established that that portion of the county lying between the Monongahela and the Ohio was within the boundaries of Pennsylvania, the then inhabitants of that locality seem not to have re- ceived much notice from the county authorities.

The first court of Bedford County was held at Bed- ford, one hundred miles east from Pittsburgh, on April 16, 1771, and George Wilson, Esq., who lived near the mouth of Georges Creek, in what was after- wards Fayette County, was one of the justices. Among the first justices of the peace were Col. (then Captain) William Crawford and Thomas Gist, hereinbefore mentioned as justices of the county of Cumberland, and Dorsey Pentecost, then living on his "planta-

1 The Monongahela of Old, 116.

2 Butterfield's Crawford's Exp., 94.

3 Observe here that at this date, 1771, it is not indicated what the west- ern boundary of the province was, whether it was a meridian line, or whether it corresponded with the sinuosities of the Delaware, which was the eastern boundary, nor is it, of course, indicated where that bound- ary lay. This will be explained in the chapters upon the Boundary Con- troversy.

148

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

tion" called "Greenway," in the Youghiogheny set- tlement, but who came to the eastern branch of Char- tiers Creek about 1777, and was afterwards the second president judge of Washington County.

Dorsey Pentecost was a member of the first board of county commissioners of Bedford County, as was also John Stephenson, a half-brother of William Crawford, and residing in the same locality, near what is now Connellsville. The third paper put on record by the first recorder of deeds is " a mortagage made this 14th January, 1771, between Francis Howard, now of Fort Pitt, Ensign in his Majesties 18th regi- ment of Foot, and Edward Hand, Surgeon's Mate in said reg't, for 1636 acres of land lying on both sides of Chartiers Creek."1 This land is referred to in an extract from the records of the Quarter Sessions of Westmoreland County, hereafter quoted. Upon the deed books of Bedford County is also a curious deed, dated February, 1770, from Anonquit, Enishera, and Connehracahecat, the first a chief and the others two deputies of the Six Nations, for " our full leave and liberty of us, and for and in behalf of the said Six Nations, to settle on a tract of land on the north side of the Alligania River opposite to Fort Pitt, in form of a Cemi Circle from said landing, &c." The deeds of the Indians to private persons, however, were of no validity.

The territory belonging to Washington County as originally erected, that is, lying between the Monon- gahela and the Ohio and extending from Pittsburgh to the southern boundary line (thus including Greene County), was embraced within two of the original Bedford County townships, to wit, Pitt and Spring- hill, the former embracing the northern part and the latter the southern.

At the first session of the court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, held at Bedford, for Bedford County, the 16th of April, 1771, the court proceeded to divide the county into townships. The limits of Pitt and Springhill townships were as follows :

"Pitt .- Beginning at the mouth of the Kiskeminetas and running down the Allegheny River to its junction with the Monongahela, then down the Ohio to the western limits of the Province, thence with the western boundary to the line of Spring Hill, thence with that line to the mouth of Red Stone Creek, thence down the Monongahela to the mouth of Youghioghena, thence with the line of Hempfield to the mouth of Brush Run, thence with the line of said township to the beginning.

" Spring Hill .- Beginning at the mouth of Red Stone Creek and running thence a due west course to the western boundary of the Province, thence south with the Province line to the southern boundary of the Province, then east with that line to where it crosses the Youghiogheny to Laurel Hill, thence with the line of Tyrone to Gists, and thence with that line to the beginning."

The official assessment rolls for these townships for 1772 show that Pitt township had fifty-two land- holders, twenty tenants, and thirteen single freemen ; Springhill, three hundred and eight landholders, eighty-nine tenants, and fifty-eight single freemen ; and we find many familiar names given as residing

either at that date or soon afterward in the original Washington County.

The assessment roll for 1772 of Springhill town- ship shows the following names among others : Thomas Brown (Ten-Mile), Jeremiah Beek (Beck), William Brashear, William Crawford (the Quaker, afterwards of East Bethlehem), Josiah Crawford, Oliver Crawford, John Casteel, Henry Enoch, John Garrard, John Garrard, Jr., Zachariah Goben (Gapen), James Harrod, William Harrod, Levi Harrod, Thomas Hughes (Muddy Creek), Andrew Link, Jacob Link, John Moore, David Morgan, John Masterson, Daniel Moredock, James Moredock, John Swan, Robert Sayre, Abraham Teagarden, George Teagarden, Henry Vanmetre, Gabriel Cox, Bernard Eckerly, James Car- michael, Samuel Eckerly, John Hupp, William Tea- « garden, and John Williams. Among the names from the Pitt township list are Jacob Bausman, who settled this side of the Monongahela, at Pittsburgh, in the original Washington County, and was the grand- father of John Bausman, late of Washington, Pa .; John Barr, John Campbell, Samuel Heath, and John McDonald.2 But few of the many familiar names have been copied, not only to avoid errors,-because Springhill and Pitt townships embraced territory east of the Monongahela as well as to the west of it,-but also for the reason that the purpose is merely to indi- cate with what great rapidity our western country was being filled with settlers as soon as it was possible to acquire lawful titles after the peace of 1764, the treaty of 1768, and the opening of the land-office in 1769.

CHAPTER X.

THE CIVIL AND LEGAL HISTORY .- (Continued.)

Westmoreland County Erected-The Provincial System-Westmoreland County Records-The Revolution-The Revolutionary Judicial Sys- tem-Westmoreland Courts Reorganized.

Westmoreland County Erected .- And now, by the 1st of January, 1773, the pioneers west of the mountains had become stronger in numbers and so well established that they determined 1773. to possess, if possible, the machinery of courts of justice and of other offices created for the protec- tion of property and preservation of rights for their own immediate use. So, on Jan. 26, 1773, there is found in the journal of the House of Representatives the following :

" A petition from a Number of the Freeholders and Inhabitants on the West-Side of Laurel-Hill, in the County of Bedford, was presented to the House and read, setting forth that they labor under very great Hardships and Inconveniences in being so remote from the Courts of Justice, and the public offices in the said County, many of the Petition- ers living at the Distance of an Hundred Miles from the County Town, and the Roads so very bad at some Seasons as to be almost impassable ;

1 Dr. Egle's History of Pennsylvania, 365.

2 The Monongahela of Old, 200.

149

CIVIL AND LEGAL-WESTMORELAND COUNTY ERECTED.

-that in consequence thereof, the Fees of the Sheriff and other Officers are much increased, and become a heavy Grievance to the Petitioners, who therefore most humbly pray the Honourable House, to erect the said Part of the County of Bedford, Wost of Laurel Hill, into a separate County.1

Ordered to lie on the Table."

Another petition of like tenor was presented to the House and read on January 30th, and on the same day the consideration of the petitions was resumed. On February 12th the Governor acquainted the House that he should be ready to pass the bill which had been prepared in accordance with the petitions referred to, when presented to him for that purpose. The act, as passed and approved by the Governor on the 26th of the month, provided :

" That all and singular the lands lying within the province of Penn- sylvania, and being within the boundaries following, that is to say ; be- ginning in the province line, where the most westerly branch, com- monly 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 Allegheny Hill [Mountains]; thence along the ridge dividing the waters of Sus- quehanna and the Allegheny River, to the purchase line, at the head of Susquehanna; thence due went to the limits of the province, and by the same to the place of beginning ; shall be, and the same is hereby de- clared to be, erected into a county, henceforth to be called Westmore- land.2

Thus Westmoreland County, including, as it did when erected, all of Fayette, Greene, Washington, Allegheny west of the Allegheny River and south of the Monongahela River, and all of Beaver south of the Ohio, as well as all of Indiana and that part of Armstrong east of the Allegheny River, was of magnificent proportions. The Laurel Hill range of mountains divides the county from Somerset and Cambria. The next range west is the Chestnut Ridge, and between the latter and Laurel Hill is the beautiful valley of Ligonier, about ten miles wide. West of Chestnut Ridge the county assumes the character of "an original table-land or inclined plane, scooped out into hills and valleys by the action of the water. Near the larger streams the hills are higher and more precipitous ; between the sources of the smaller streams they rise in gentle undulation, nicely suited to the purposes of agriculture. From the summit of Chestnut Ridge the country seems to spread out into a vast verdant plain."3

This territory was destined to be for years the theatre of interstate strife, as well as of the worst forms of border warfare. The frontier line, dividing the settle- ments of the pioneers from the Indian country, had now moved to the west of the mountains, and while our early people were habituating themselves to the orderly recognition of the law, terror and outrage, as well as a conflict of jurisdiction, made their homes to be homes of unrest.

By the provisions of the organic act, the courts of

Westmoreland County were to be held at the house of Robert Hanna until the court-house should be built. Hanna's settlement was about three miles northeast of the present Greensburg. Having opened a house of public entertainment, a number of other dwellings had been established near Hanna's place, and here were held the courts of Westmoreland County until some time after the county of Washington was erected. At this place, called Hanna's Town, were the first courts of justice ever held by an English-speaking people west of the Alleghany Mountains; and as the territory afterwards constituting our own county, and our own early settlers had, as will shortly appear, much to do with the courts and officials of Westmoreland County, it will be proper to give in some detail a sketch of the organization of that county, as the names cited will hereafter become quite familiar.

The first justices of Westmoreland County were included in a general commission issued by the Su- preme Executive Council on Feb. 27, 1773. It em- braced the following well-known names: William Crawford, then living opposite the present Connells- ville, afterwards the colonel in command of the ex- pedition against the Sandusky Indians; Arthur St. Clair, afterwards a major-general in the Revolution ; Thomas Gist; Alexander McKee, afterwards, with Simon Girty, a deserter to the British-Indians; Rob- ert Hanna; William Louchry ; George Wilson, living near the mouth of Georges Creek, opposite Greene County ; Eneas Mackay, Joseph Spear, Alexander McClean, James Caveat, and others. On Jan. 11, 1774, affairs at Pittsburgh assuming a threatening as- pect by reason of the proceedings of Dr. John Con- nolly in the establishment of the Virginia jurisdiction, to be discussed at length hereafter, additional justices were added to the commission, among whom were Van Swearingen, then living east of the Monongahela, opposite Greenfield, afterwards becoming the first sheriff of Washington County; Alexander Ross, a trader and speculator at Pittsburgh, and a Tory when the Revolution soon afterwards began; Andrew Mc- Farlane and Oliver Miller, both afterwards Washing- ton County men. In 1777, Edward Cook, the proprie- tor of Cookstown, now of Fayette County, and James Marshall, thought to be the James Marshel after- wards the first county lieutenant, recorder, and regis- ter for Washington County, became justices for Westmoreland County. All these justices were " commissionated" by the Governor to be justices of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the peace and of the County Court of Common Pleas for the said county, and William Crawford, being the first named in the commission, became by a well settled usage the presiding justice ; in 1775, however, having accepted a commission from the Governor of Virginia during the boundary controversy, he was dismissed from his office as a Pennsylvania magistrate.

The record of the Provincial Council for Saturday, Feb. 27, 1773, reads as follows :

1 6 Votes of Assembly, 433.

2 The reader will observe that here again, as in the erection of Bed- ford County, there is no attempt to define the western boundary.

8 Day's Historical Collections, 680.

150

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

" A Law having passed yesterday for erecting a part of the County of Bedford into a separate County, called Westmoreland, and Arthur St. Clair, Esq., the Present Prothonotary, &c., of Bedford, having requested the governor to Grant him the offices in the new County, in lieu of those he now holds in Bedford County, His Honor was this day pleased to ap- point him to the Several offices following, in the said County of West- moreland, by three Separate Commissions, under the Great Seal of the Province, viz .: Prothonotary or principal Clerk of the County Court of Coinmon Pleas, Clerk or Register of the Orphans' Court, and Recorder of Deeds."1

The courts of Westmoreland County are now or- ganized, and, as the extracts soon to be given from their records will show, the people west of the Monon- gahela were within the benefits afforded thereby. Up to this time no roads had ever been established by authority of law south of Pittsburgh and between the two rivers, and whatever legal jurisdiction had been exercised was, like the condition of the settle- ments themselves, of a kind not very concentrated.

The Provincial System .- It should be remem- bered, too, that at this time Pennsylvania was still a proprietary province, its people bearing allegiance to the English sovereign. To understand the form of government, soon to be changed (not very radically, it is true, except as to the sovereign power), it must suffice to say that the proprietary form of government was one in which the proprietary was granted the ownership of the lands, and became the Governor of the people to whom the lands were conveyed by him, subject only, as to his political power, to the supreme sovereignty of the king. By the charter granted by Charles II. in 1681,2 he conveyed to Mr. Penn, his heirs and assigns, all the territory within the limits specified :

" And him, the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, we do by this our royal charter, for us, our heirs and successors, make create and con-

1 X. Col. Records, 77. As we shall meet with Arthur St. Clair frequently hereafter, a brief sketch may be acceptable. He was born in the town of Thurso, in Caithney, Scotland, in 1734 ; was educated at the University of Edinburgh ; studied medicine with the celebrated Dr. William Hunter, of London, but in 1757 entered the military service of Great Britain in the Sixtieth, or Royal American, Regiment of Foot, and became a sub- ordinate of Gen. Amherst in America. He was with Gen. Wolfe in the reduction of Quebec and the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Sept. 13, 1759, and resigning from the British army in 1762, first removed to Bed- ford, then to Ligonier valley in 1764. In 1770 he was appointed surveyor for Cumberland County, and the same year became a justice of the courts and a member of the Council for that county. When Bedford County was created, in 1771, he was made a justice of its courts, prothonotary, clerk, and register. When the conflict of jurisdiction occurred between Pennsylvania and Virginia, he was a zealous Pennsylvanian, but the Revolution coming on, he entered the Continental service, was made a major-general, became an intimate with Gen. Washington, and served with distinction to the end of the war. In 1783 he was a member of the Council of Censors (St. Clair Papers, 116); delegate to Congress, 1785-87, and president of that body in 1787; appointed Governor of the North- western Territory in 1788. In January, 1790, fixed the seat of justice for the Territory at Cincinnati, naming the place after the order of which he was president in Pennsylvania from 1783 to 1789. In 1791 suffered a severe defeat in an engagement with the Indians of the Miami and the Wabash. He resigned his commission of general in 1792, and in 1802 he was removed by President Jefferson from his governorship. Being the life-long friend of Washington, he was also an ardent Federalist. Re- tiring ta a small log cabin on Chestnut Ridge, he spent the remainder of his days in poverty. Truly republics are ungrateful !

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 35

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216