History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 62

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 62


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).


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"I presume the Gentn who remonstrated against the commission of the peace for the County being Issued, are on cool reflection convinced that it was not nor could it be a private election as to time, that being settled by act of Assembly, and as to the privity of place I believe great part was ocationed by some persons pulling down and secreting the ad- vertisements which the trustees published for that purpose. However, I think all are nearly satisfied on learning that there is a mode pro- vided whereby those Townships that have not elected at all may be sup- plied, and also a way to displace such as by their conduct show themselves unworthy the honour and trust of a magistrate, some of which rank (I am sorry I have it to tell you) I expect will shortly be told out to the as- sembly, and that one of those recommended by these very Gentn will be in the list. So liable to mistakes is human nature, the best proof of mankind is Tryal ; but I confess when this proof is obtained at the expense of disgracing an hon'ble commission or betraying the trust of a people its too dear ; but when a good man and good officer is found I can't think the discontent of a frowning, freting party too high a price, This county is just like other parts of the world, Let a petition be formed to burn the church and some Signers may be got to it."


* * % *


*


The General Election .- It will be observed that although the first terms of the courts have passed, the county is yet without representatives in Council and in the Assembly, a sheriff, a coroner, and county commissioners of her own; persons for these offices had not yet been chosen.


The Constitution of 1776 1 provided that the day for holding the general elections throughout the State should be the "Second Tuesday of October forever," 2 which in 1781 was the 9th day of that month, and on that day were chosen persons to fill the positions re- ferred to. It was to this election Mr. Scott made reference in the early part of his letter, and it would seem that the oath of allegiance and fidelity required by the instructions of the Supreme Executive Coun- cil to be taken by each elector was dispensed with by consent of both parties into which our people were divided, and the result of this violation will presently appear.8


. 1 See Sections IX, and XVII., Chapter II.


2 Unchanged until the Constitution of 1874, ninety-eight years.


3 This general election by the people of the whole county was held at what was regarded as the court-house. Such elections were held at the county-seat until 1787 ; see act of 1785, III. Carey & Bioren, 91. By the act of Sept. 27, 1787 (III. Ibid., 212), the county for the first time was divided into election districts six in number, and their boundaries de- scribed. The places for holding the elections in each district as num- bered were as follows :


1. House of Jacob Cline, on Muddy Creek.


2. House of Sheshbazer Bently, on Pigeon Creek.


3. House of Daniel Shaughan, on Chartiers Creek (?).


4. Court-house, Washington.


5. House of Joshua Meek, Raccoon Creek (?).


6. House of George Blazer, Kings Creek.


It would be unprofitable to follow the subsequent changes innumer- able made in the election districts.


The returns of this general election traveled slowly on their way to Philadelphia, at least it was not until Nov. 30, 1781, that there was the following record of the proceedings of the Supreme Executive Council : +


" A return of the general election of the county of Washington was read, by which it appears that the following gentlemen were duly elected, vizt .:


"Councellor, Dorsey Pentecost.


"Representatives, James Edgar. John Cannon.


" Sheriffs, Van Swearingen, Andrew Swearingen.


"Coroners, Wm. McFarlane, Wm. McComb.


"Commissioners, George Vallandigham, Thomas Crooks, John Mc- Dowell.


"On consideration,6


" Resolved, That Van Swearingen, Esquire, be appointed Sheriff of the county of Washington, and that Wm. McFarlin be appointed Coroner of the said county, and that they be commissioned accordingly."6


4 XIII. Col. Records, 134.


5 So far as the elections for sheriffs and coroners were concerned, under the Constitution of 1776 the election was but a recommendation, as will be remembered, and the Council could commission either of the two chosen as " fit persons."


6 Dorsey Pentecost and John Canon are well known to us.


James Edgar, celebrated in our early annals for his upright and influ- ential character, was born in York County, Pa., Nov. 15, 1744, was a member from that county of the Provincial Conference which met at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, June 18, 1776, to make provision for & " new government in this province on the authority of the people only;" on July 8, 1776, elected (and served) as a delegate from that county to the convention which framed the Constitution of 1776; a member from that county of the Council of Safety, 1777 ; member of Sup. Ex. Council from that county in 1777; removed to and settled in Smith, now Cross Creek township, Washington County, in the fall of 1779; with John Mc- Dowell, member of the Board of Censors for Washington County in 1783 ; commissioned, with William McFarland, an associate justice, Sept. 30, 1788, and held that office till his death. In 1794 he was prominent in the Whiskey Insurrection on the side of law and order. He died in Smith township, on June 8, 1814.


Van Swearingen was son of John Swearingen, of Springhill township, Fayette County, who had come from Berkeley County, Va. He was a justice of Westmoreland County, and resided opposite the present Green- field until Washington County was erected, that is, when at home, as he was a noted frontiersman, known as "Indian Van," and was a cap- tain from Aug. 9, 1776, in Col. Mackay's regiment, the Eighth Pennsyl- vania line, in the Revolution. Samuel Brady, his son-in-law then, or afterward, and the famous Indian scout, was also a captain in same reg- iment. In 1784 he was succeeded by Col. James Marshel as sheriff of Washington County, and in 1785 removed to a tract purchased from Capt. Isaac Cox, embracing Cox's fort, just above Wellsburg, upon which he resided till his death Dec. 2, 1793, in the fifty-first year of his age. His will is recorded in our register's office, in Book I., p.220. The writer has a letter from Van Swearingen, dated March 17, 1791, to Capt. Josiah Swearingen, in which he says, "I am going to give you the Late nuse in this neiborhood. The Indens lately killed & took seven people 2 miles from my fort & fore others in the woods in this neiborhood. Brady & others 25 folowed or scouted after savedges returned with 4 skilps & a grate quantity of plunder. Thay wounded Indins that escapt & killed a squaw By axident which thay did not scalpt."


William McFarland, son of Col. Daniel McFarland (who settled at the locality of Ten-Mile village, coming from New Jersey, probably as early as 1776 or 1777, and who died in 1817, aged eighty-seven), was born in New Jersey about 1756, and came with his father to the West ; Sept. 30, 1788, commissioned as a justice of the courts; his son James was the father of Hon. N. C. McFarland, of the United States Land Office; his daughter Sarah was the mother of Abel M. Evans, of Ten-Mile village; his daughter Mary, the mother of Hon. John A. Dille, Morgantown, W. Va .; his daughter Phobe, the mother of Miss Phobe Clark and her sister, the wife of William H. Underwood, late register of wills; and his son Samuel was well known as Maj. McFarland; a citizen of Wash- ington at his death in 1868,


George Vallandigham has been known as a justice of the extinct Vir- ginia courts, lived at the present Noblestown, on the P. C. & St. L. Rail- way, and is said to have been the grandfather of Hon. C. L. Vallandig-


239


CIVIL AND LEGAL-EARLY JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS.


Early Judicial Proceedings .- The result of hold- ing this general election without the oath of allegiance and fidelity was that Pentecost, Canon, and Vallan- digham, hitherto ardent Virginia partisans, and Crooks and McDowell, a little identified with that side, were elected to most important offices. The Virginians were in the majority.


The organization of Washington County as a civil municipality, adapted for the protection and preserva- tion of the rights of person and property, is now com- pleted, though her troubles are not quite at an end. It has already been seen that for several years the old contest still survived, and there is a trace of the old trouble in the records of the second term of the Court of Quarter Sessions, held on the 1st day of January, 1782.


The second, third, fourth, and fifth causes entered to that term in the said court are each entitled, Res publica vs. Gabriel Cox. Number 2 was an 1782. indictment for assault, on information of Isaac


Gibson ; Number 3, an indictment for assault, on information of Richard Parkinson ; Number 4, an indictment for assault and battery, on information of Hugh Sterling; and Number 5, an indictment for assault and battery, on information of Hugh Scott. The first two causes were continued, but coming up at the next term, held April 2, 1782, were tried and Col. Cox was acquitted. The jury in Number 2 was composed of David Steel, Jeremiah Riggs, Nathan Ellis, William Howe, Thomas Bond, Edward Miles, Brice Virgin, James Curry, James Kykendall, Rezin Virgin, John Wall, and George Myers. The jurymen in Number 3 were the same, except Peter Hanks in place of Rezin Virgin. To the bills found in Numbers 4 and 5 special pleas of misnomer were filed, but after the verdicts of not guilty in Numbers 2 and 3 were rendered, each of the other causes was ended with a "Noli Prosequi." There were other indict- ments against John Vanata and Michael Tygart, which evidently had their origin in the same matter as those against Gabriel Cox.


These causes will now be explained. The arrest of the persons named, and their trials for as- sault and battery, brought about complaints to the Virginia authorities, who in turn complained to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania; where- upon that body called upon Thomas Scott, the clerk of the court, for a report of the facts and circum- stances.1 Thus called upon, Mr. Scott wrote a letter to President Dickinson, dated Aug. 15, 1783,2 in ex- tracts from which a full explanation of the prosecu- tions referred to is given :


. . . The case of Col. Cox is shortly thus : prosecutions were Insti- tuted against him for assaults and Batteries in useing compulsory meas-


ures to draw forth the militia of Washington County, By virtue of orders issued by Col. Penticost In Character of Lieutenant of Yohogania county, for the Service of Gent. Clark's expedition down the Ohio in 1781. Which orders, as well the people who were thus compelled to service, as the Generality of the people of the county could not conceive to have proceeded from the authority of Virginia; not only because of the previous agreement of the Several Legislatures, but from the orders Given by that State on that occasion, to the Lieutenant of Monongalia county, viz. : that he should confine his authority to the South side of Dixon's and Mason's Line Extended, although the Greater part of that county lay north of that line; on this Ground as well as on full convic- tion of the Legal extension of the Jurisdiction of this State, the people very Generally disobeyed these orders, and these prosecutions were com- menced.


" This being the true State of this Gentn's Case, and although his conduct on the occasion was exceedingly disrespectful to the court, He coming at the head of a party in a Tumultious & contemptious Manner, continuing about the Streets in that Manner until evening, and the same night an attempt was made upon the house in which the court was held, and part of it Thrown down; yet so far was personal resentment and party Spirit from mingling with the proceedings of the Court, that a disposition to soften the prosecution was observable in most of the offi- cers, and Col. Cox was actually acquitted. How this Can be termed a Judgment against him for a Considerable sum, &c., I cannot understand. It is true that on account of his behaviour already mentioned, I charged him Clarks [clerk's] fees. There was Indictments against one other Gent, who was also acquitted and discharged without fees; and there is a Suit depending against two others for things of the same nature, done at the same time ; But there never was a decision of Court against any Virginia officer, as such, for any cause whatever."


Mr. Scott does not tell us, what may have been the case, that the jurymen who sat in Col. Cox's cases, having been the most of them former Virginia adhe- rents, may have been out with him the night that a part of the house in which the court was held was "Thrown down."


At this the second term of court, held as stated Jan. 1, 1782, Thomas Smith and David Espy, resident members of the Bedford bar, were admitted as attor- neys. Mr. Smith afterward became a justice of the Supreme Court. Quite a number of proceedings were instituted for the laying out of roads, and it seems to have been considered that the roads previously estab- lished under authority from the Virginia courts had no legal existence, and that it was necessary that they be again laid out by order of the Quarter Sessions of Washington County. So viewers were appointed to view a road from " Basset Towns to near Fort Pitt ;" on another from " Basset Town to Redstone Ferry on Monongahela River ;" on another from " Basset Town to the mouth of a gut about forty pearches below the mouth of Pigeon Creek;" on another from "Basset Town to Fort Decker on the Ohio ;" on another from " John Canon Esquire's Mill to Samuel Johnson Es- quire's Mill;" on another from "Body's (or Boly's) Mill to Fort Pitt." There were at this term twenty- eight criminal prosecutions,-one felony, ten assaults, seven tippling-houses, and there were seven prosecu- tions against females for fornication and bastardy.4


ham, the noted Ohio Democrat during the Rebellion. Thomas Crooks settled near Hillsboro', on the National road; John McDowell lived not far from the Chartiers Presbyterian Church, near Canonsburg.


1 See for correspondence, X. Penn. Archives, 56; XI. Ibid., 499; X. Ibid., 65, 72, 78.


2 X. Ibid., 81.


8 The writer has been and is quoting from the original minutes; when the record came to be fully made up afterward the name " Washington" is substituted for " Basset Town" in this and other places.


4 There were many such causes in our early courts, but it was the custom universally observed that on application to the Supreme Execu- tive Council the fines imposed were mercifully remitted.


240


HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


1783. At December sessions, 1783, is found the fol- lowing curious and interesting record :


" The court fix the following Rates upon Tavern Keepers : £ s. d.


Breckfast of Tea Coffe or Chocolate, with a beef Stake Mutton Chap or other Relish. 01 6 Do. With Bread and butter & tost, without Relish 01 3


Do. of Cold Victuals .. 0 0 10 Dinner of Roast and Boil, Consisting of more than one course, with proper Sauce & Table Drink, viz: Small Beer, Cider or Weak Grogg. 02 0


Common Diuner of Roast and Boil, with do 01 G Supper of Tea, Coffe or Chocolate with other proper materials 01 3


Do. of other Warm Victuals .... C Do. of Cold Victu ils. 0 0 10


Lodging in Good beds with Clean Sheets 00 4


A horse 24 Hours at Good Timothy or Clover Hay 00 €


01 6


Do. at Good Pasture. 00


Corn or oats pr quart ..


Winsky full proof pr Gill 01


Toddy pr Bowel Containing 12 pint Whisky with Loaf Sugar


01 ()


Beer pr quart ..


00 € Cider pr quart .. 00 €


Half pint Good Rum made into Tody with Loaf Sugar. 01 6


01 0


Half pint Good Rum.


0 1 10 Pint of Good Medara Wine


Which Rates were published by the cryer of the court and Set up to public view according to Law,"1


By an act of Assembly passed Jan. 22, 1777,2 in force in 1783, the Spanish milled silver dollar was made equivalent to 78. 6d .; the Pennsylvania shilling was therefore 13} cents, and the cost of a good meal and sufficient drink can easily be ascertained.


It is not intended to follow up the records of the courts any further or to detail the facts of the causes celebrès, civil or criminal, which have had their place in our judicial history. Search is made only for those matters which will illustrate the development of the people into a better life. And the next inquiry is, were the whippping-post, the stocks, the pillory and the ducking-stool ever among the civilizing institu- tions of Washington County ? As to the ducking- stool, the only instance of its erection in any part of the State west of the Alleghanies is the one ordered to be erected "at the confluence of the Ohio with the Monongohale," by the Augusta County Court on Feb. 22, 1775. No traces of the pillory have been found. But as to the stocks, upon the minutes of the board of county commissioners for 1784 is found the entry of an item for the tax levy as follows: "Laid on for making stocks by order of Henry Taylor, Esq., £4." And the existence of the whipping-post in the county must be admitted when the following record is read :


" Pennsylvania Indictment, Larcency. A true Bill. 1784. 08. Deft. being arrd. pleads non cul. & de hoe. &c. ... And how to wit. Dec. Ses- Bions, 1784, A jury of the County being called came. ... who being duly Impannelled, Tried & sworn, Upon their respective Oaths say that the Prisoner C- S- is guilty in manner & form as he stands Indicated. The judgment of the Court is that he restore the Gouds stolen to the owner, if not already done, pay the like sum to the State &c., & be publicly Whipped with 25 Lashes on his bare Posteriors well laid on, pay the Costs of Prosecution & stand Committed till the whole be complied with.


" By the Court."3


! This and other like orders subsequently made were by virtue of an act of Assembly passed May 31, 1718.


$ Dall. L., App., 48.


3 Copied from the original minutes. The full record to No. 3 Decem- ber Sessions, 1784, is in slightly different language.


Henry Taylor continued to act as the presiding justice by virtue of being the first named in the gen- eral commission. But on Oct. 6, 1783, Dorsey Pente- cost resigned his seat as a member of the Supreme Executive Council,4 and applied to be appointed pro- thonotary and clerk for Washington County, and to have Mr. Scott transferred to the like offices for the new county of Fayette, then lately erected.5 The Council, however, appointed Gen. Ephraim Douglass prothonotary and clerk for Fayette, and declined to remove Mr. Scott, but soon provided a place for Col. Pentecost, still pursuing the policy of conciliation toward the old Virginia partisans. The Council had the power to commission specially an appointee as president justice for any county,6 although such power was not always exercised, and on Oct. 31, 1783,7 that body " Resolved, That Dorsey Pentecost, Esquire, be appointed a Judge in and President of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Washington," thus displacing Henry Taylor as president of that court, although he continued to act as the judge of the Quarter Sessions. Dorsey Pentecost held the office conferred upon him until Nov. 29, 1786,8 when the Supreme Executive Council issued an 1786. order of which the following is a copy, taken from the original before the writer :


" Pennsylvania ss. [SEAL.] Charles Biddle.


The Supreme Executive Council for the Com- monwealth of Pennsylvania.


" To all to whom these presents shall come, GREETING:


" Know ye that-Whereas we have heretofore appointed Dorsey Pen- tecost, Esquire, of the County of Washington, to be President of the Court of Common Pleas, and a justice of the said Court of Common Pleas for the aforesaid County, and commissionated him accordingly ;- And whereas the said Dorsey Pentecost has removed from the County aforesaid and is now settled in a Neighboring State,-We have therefore thought proper to Supersede the said appointment and Commissions, and do hereby supersede, revoke and make null and void the same, any- thing in the said Commissions contained to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding.


" Given in Council under the hand of the Honorable Charles Biddle, Esquire, Vice President and the seal of the State at Philadelphia this twenty ninth day of November, Anno Domini one thousand Seven hun- dred and eighty six.


" Attest, " JAMES TRIMBLE, "for J. ARMSTRONG. " Secy."


Reorganization of Courts .- This last proceeding left the courts constituted as they had been prior to the appointment of Dorsey Pentecost 1788. as president, and they so remained until there was a reorganization on Sept. 30, 1788, as evidenced by the proceedings of Council of that date : 9


"Henry Taylor, Esquire, was appointed and Commissionated a Justice of the Peace for the district of the township of Strabane : James Edgar, & | Justice of the Peace for the District of the township of Smith, and Wil- liam McFarland, a Justice of the Peace for the district of the township of Amwell, in the county of Washington, upon returns made according to law, for the said several districts.


4 XIII. Col. Records, 702. 6 See XII. Col. Records, 546. 8 See XV. Ibid., 124.


6 X. Penn. Archives, 181. 7 XIII. Ibid., 732. ? Ibid., 552.


004


3


Do. with Brown Sugar ..


241


CIVIL AND LEGAL-REDUCTION OF LIMITS-NEW COUNTIES.


" Henry Taylor, James Edgar, and William McFarland, Esquires, woro also appointed and commissionated Justices of the Court of Common Pleas in and for the county of Washington.


"On Motion,


" Ordered, that said Henry Taylor, Esquire, be appointed and commis- sionated President of the Court of Common Pleas, of the Court of Gen- eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace and of Jail delivery, and of the Or- phane' Court of the county of Washington.


" Two returns of Justices from the districts of the townships of Cecil and Dickinson,1 in the county of Washington, were read and not al- lowed, as the whole of Dickinson and part of Cecil district has been struck off to the county of Allegheny."


- -


Thus Henry Taylor 2 is now specially commissioned as the president judge of the courts of this county, which offices he held until Alexander Addison suc- ceeded him, commissioned under the constitution of 1790.


Reduction of Limits-New Counties .- But, as is observed, before the adoption of that Constitution, Washington County began to be reduced materially in her limits, two portions of her best territory being taken to help form two new counties on the north, while an entire new county is carved out of her pos- sessions on the south. These reductions will now be made clear from the acts of Assembly authorizing them.


The first portion taken from Washington County was by the act of Sept. 24, 1788,3 the preamble of which recites the inconveniences of the inhabitants of parts of the counties of Washington and West- | moreland from being situated so far from the "seat of judicature in their respective counties," etc. ; and, that they should be relieved in the premises,


"SECT. II. Be it enacted, &c., That all those parts of Westmoreland and Washington counties lying within the limits and bounds herein- after described shall be, and hereby are, erected into a separate county, that is to say, beginning ut the mouth of Flaherty's run, on the south side of the Ohio river ; from thence, by a straight line, to the plantation on which Joseph Scott, Esquire, now lives, on Montour's run, to include the same ; frim thence by u straight line to the mouth of Miller's run, on Chartiers creek ; thence by a straight line to the mouth of Perry's mill run,4 on the east side of Monongahela river; thence up said river, to the mouth of Becket's run; thence, by a straight line, to the mouth of Sewickley creek, on Youghiogheny river; thence down the said river to the mouth of


1 Dickinson township, Washington County, had been erected from that part of Peters lying along the right bank of the Chartiers, down to the river, in the winter of 1784-85. The return of the first constables elected therefor was to March term, 1785, of the Quarter Sessions.


2 Henry Taylor, as we have seen, had come to the " Rich Hills," where his grandson, Matthew, now resides, in the fall of 1770, from Cecil County, Maryland. Late in life he built the brick house on the property lately owned by William McClane, now by George Munce, where he lived until his death, Oct. 8, 1801, sixty-three years of age. He was the father of nine children,-Matthew, Henry, George, John, James, Jo- seph, Jane (married a Daggs), Mary (married a Patton), and Eliza (mar- But, a little prior to the act last quoted, another new county was erected to the north of us, to ried Dr. Layton). By his son Matthew he was the grandfather of Matthew, now on part of the old homestead, and William H. Taylor, of Washington. J. F. Taylor, Esq., a member of the Washington har, is a , which a contribution was made by Washing- 1800. great-grandson, as is also the present excellent prothonotary, John W. ton County, by virtue of an act of Assembly dated March 26, 1800:10 Seaman. On the 19th April, 1793, which was during Wayne's expe- dition against the Indians, he was commissioned by Governor Mifflin " Brigadier General of the Brigade composed of the Militia of the County of Washington, other than the Townships of Greene, Cumber- 5 III. Carey & Bioren, 362; II. Smith L., 492. 6 Now Murdochsville. land, Morgan, Franklin and East Bethlehem, in the said County." These townships, except the last named, were in what is now Greene ! 7 V. Carey & Bioren, 140; III. Smith L., 262. County. 9 Near J. B. Wise, Esq., West Bethlehem.




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