History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 17

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 17

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*See affidavits II Archives, 76-83

*V Col. Rec., 225.

THE BOUNDARY LINE.

alleged that considering the various ineqali- ties of the ground, such radii could not extend equally, consequently from them no true arc of a circle could be found, and insisted upon geometrical and astronomical mensuration. Thus the proceedings of the Commissioners stopped and they wrote to their respective principals for further instructions relating to that point. *

In the meantime Charles, Lord Baltimore, died, and was succeeded by his son, Fred- erick, and there were further proceedings in chancery, bill of review and supplemented bill. At length, on the 4th of July, 1760, the final agreement between the proprietaries was executed. It recites the original charters to Lord Baltimore and William Penn, and refers to the very long litigation and contests which had subsisted from 1683, and the many orders in Council pronounced relative thereto. The agreement of the 10th of May, 1732, is given at length, and the decree of the Lord Chancellor and other proceedings. And after its long recitals says:

"Whereas the parties to these presents, Frederick, Lord Baltimore and Thomas and Richard Penn, have come to an amicable agreement in manner as hereinafter men- tioued," and then proceeds to describe and make provisions for fixing the circle and running the line, and provides for the attornment of the tenants and occupiers of the lands under the respective proprietaries. This agreement, of 1760, was enrolled in Chancery in England. The original is now deposited with the Secretary of the Com- monwealth.t

*Proud.

+It appears in full in the fourth volume of the Pennsylvania Archives, old series. This original agreement was produced iu evidence at Bedford, October, 1806, on the trial of Ross' lessee us. Cutshall, reported in 1 Biuney, 390, and admitted after, argu- ment, and decided to be proper evidence by the Supreme Court on an appeal, because it was an ancient deed, ascertaiu- ing the boundaries of the then provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and may be considered in the light of a State paper, well known to the courts of justice, and which had heeu ad- mitted in evideoce on former occasions. (2 Sm. 135). Aud also in the case of lessee of Thomas Lilly vs. George Kitzmiller, at York, iu May, 1791), (1 Yeates. 28), a case of title arising out of the Mary- land patent called Digges' Choice. And in the case of Thomas vs. Stigars, in 1846 (5 Barr, 480), where it was held that the court will take notice of the agreement between Lord Baltimore and Penn relating to the boundary between the two provinces, and that the true interpretation to he put upon the agreement was the one adopted by the State of Maryland, to-wit: that the agreement embraced all cases, the inception of title whereof commenced prior to 1760, and which were completed or consum- mated before the final designation of boundary in 1768. And in the case between the same parties in 1854, (11 Harris, 367), ia which it was held that the agreement of July 4, 1760, between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, construed under the light of the other agreements and documents concerning that contro- versy does not confirm any Maryland titles to land in Peno- sylvania west of the Susquehanna, except those that existed by grant and occupation at the date of that agreement, and that are not more than one-fourth of a mile north of Mason and Dixon's Line-the starting point for temporary line on the west side of the Susquehanna having been marked one-half a mile further north than on the east side of the river. This last mentioned litigation, concerning valuable lands in Fulton Couuty, continued until 1861 (3 Wright, 486), in which the case was finally decided by affirming the decision in the last preceding case.

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.

The Commissioners appointed under this last agreement met at Newcastle the 19th of November, 1760, and entered upon their du ties. From November, 1760, to the latter part of October, 1763, the Commissioners and surveyors were laboring in attempts to trace out the radius of twelve miles, and the tangent line from the middle point of the west line across the peninsula. As late as the 21st of October, 1763, no practical solu- tion of this problem had been effected, though there was a close approximation to the true tangent. On the 22d of October, 1763, the Pennsylvania Commissioners in- formed the Maryland Commissioners that they had lately received a letter from the pro- prietors of Pennsylvania, dated the 10th of August last, acquainting them that they and Lord Baltimore had agreed with two mathe- inaticians, or surveyors, to come over and assist in running the lines agreed on in the original articles, who were to embark for Philadelphia the latter end of August, and that their arrival might soon be expected. On the 1st of December, 1763, the articles of agreement were read between Lord Balti- more, and Thomas and Richard Penn, and Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who su- perseded the former surveyors in the marking out of the boundary lines. They immediately entered upon their duties, and were employed in tracing and marking the lines until the 26th of December, 1767, when they were honorably discharged.

To ascertain the most southern point of the city of Philadelphia, the Mayor and Recorder, and two of the city regulators, on the 3d of December, 1763, went with the Commissioners and Messrs. Mason and Dixon to the street called Cedar or South Street, the south side of which street the Mayor, Re- corder, and Regulators informed the Com- missioners to be the southern boundary of the limit of the city. By which information and a view of some old deeds of lots bound. ing on Cedar Street, and of a plat of the city, the Commissioners were satisfied that the north wall of a house, then occupied by Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle, was the most southern part of the city of Phila- delphia. The latitude of the north wall of this house was determined by Mason and Dixon from astronomical observations, in 1763-64, with a zenith sector, to be 39°, 56', 29.1". The point, fifteen English statute miles due south of that parallel, was com- puted by them to be in latitude 39º, 43', 18". This was computed by Col. Graham, in 1850,

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

from knowledge of the dimensions and figure of the earth to be in latitude 39º, 43', 26.3". From the northern extremity of the said due north line, a line was to be run due west, continuing upon a parallel of latitude until the western limits of Maryland and Pennsyl- vania should respectively be reached, which, in the case of Pennsylvania, was defined to be five degrees of longitude west of the river Delaware. On the 24th of November, 1764, the Commissioners agreed that the post set up by Messrs. Mason and Dixon, and by them marked west, shall be deemed and ac- counted fifteen miles south of the parallel of the most southern bounds of the city of Philadelphia, and that Messrs. Mason and Dixon shall be instructed immediately to pro- ceed in running the west line directed by the articles from the said post till it reaches the river Susquehanna, where an observation shall be made by them. And stones shall be set up and marked with the arms of Lord Baltimore on the one side and the arms of the proprietors of Pennsylvania on the other, as the articles require and direct. On the 17th of June, 1765, the surveyors produced their minute books, and it appeared that they had extended the west line to the west side of the river Susquehanna. On the 18th of June, 1765, the Commissioners gave Messrs. Mason and Dixon instructions to proceed with the running of the west line westward of the Susquehanna as far as the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania were settled and inhabited .* The consent of the Indians had to be obtained to the line being contin- ued. On the 16th of June, 1767, Sir Will- iam Johnson, his Majesty's agent for Indian affairs, had obtained the consent of the In- dians to the tracing of the west line to its western extremity, that is to say, till it should reach to a distance of five degrees of long1- tude west from the river Delaware. On the 18th of June, 1767, the Commissioners, in giving the surveyors instructions for contin- uing the west line, cautioned them in regard to a conciliatory and proper conduct toward the Indians. On December 25. 1767, the surveyors had extended the parallel of lati- tude to the distance of 230 miles, 18 chains, 21 links from the beginning of said line, and 244 miles, 38 chains, 36 links from the river Delaware near to a path called the In- dian war-path, on the borders of a stream called Dunham's Creek, but that they were prevented by the Indians deputed to attend them by Sir William Johnson from continu-

ing the said line to the end of five degrees of longitude (the western limits of the province of Pennsylvania), which in the latitude of the said line they found to be 267 miles, 58 chains, and 90 links-the said Indians alleg- ing that they were instructed by their chiefs in council, not to suffer the said line to be run to the westward of the said war-path. Col. Graham notes that, from our better knowledge of the dimensions and figure of the earth, we should compute the five degrees of longitude to be equal to 266.31 miles, or 266 miles, 24 chains, and 80 links. On the 26th, the Commissioners approved the conduct of he surveyors in desisting from running the parallel upon the opposition made by the Indians; and they agreed to discharge Messrs. Mason and Dixon from their service, they having finished the lines they had been sent over by the proprietors to run. The final report of the Commissioners was made to the proprietaries of the two provinces on the 9th of November, 1768, in which, among other things, in reference to the due east and west line fifteen miles due sonth of Philadelphia, they reported that they had extended the same 230 miles, 18 chains, and 21 links due west from the place of beginning, and 244 miles, 38 chains, and 36 links due west from the river Delaware, and should have continued the same to the western bounds of the province of Pennsyl- vania, but the Indians would not permit it. They marked, described, and perpetuated the said west line, by setting up and erecting therein posts of cut stone about four feet long and ten or twelve inches square, at the end of every mile, from the place of begin- ning to the distance of 132 miles, near the foot of a hill called and known by the name of Sideling Hill, every five-mile stone having on the side facing the north the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the side facing the south, the arms of Frederick, Lord Baltimore, graved thereon ; and the other intermediate stones are graved with the letter P on the north side and the letter M on the south side. These stones were prepared in England, and sent over as the line progressed. Thirty-nine of them were placed along the southern boundary of York County, and are mostly well preserved. They were of that species of limestone known as oolite The country to the westward of Sideling Hill being so very mountainous as to render it in most places extremely difficult and expensive, and in some impracticable, to convey stones or boundaries, they had marked and described the line to the top of the Allegheny ridge,

*There is a tradition that the surveyors had with them a bear, which, however, was tame, but excited much curiosity among the inhabitants along the line.

THE BOUNDARY LINE.

which divides the waters running into the rivers Potomac and Ohio; they raised and erected thereon, on the tops and ridges of mountains, heaps or piles of stoues or earth from about three and a half to four yards in diameter at bottom, and from six to seven feet in height ; and that from the top of the said Allegheny ridge, westward, as far as they continued the line, they set up posts at the end of every mile, and raised around each post heaps or piles of stones or earth.

During the administration of William F. Johnston, Commissioners were appointed by the Governors of the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, to ascertain and refix the boundaries where those States join each other. Joshua P. Eyre, Esq., was ap- pointed on the part of Pennsylvania ; George Read Riddle, Esq., on the part of Delaware; Henry G. S. Key, Esq., on the part of Maryland, and Lieut .- Col. James D. Gra- ham, of the United States Topographical Engineers, was detailed by the War Depart- ment at the request of those States for that particular service. In their report they say that they saw that much science and many intricate mathematical problems were in- volved, that not only required the talents of men as Commissioners distinguished in the annals of our country, and surveyors to carry out the agreement of the proprietary govern- ments of 1760, but finally enlisted the ser- vices of those distinguished mathematicians, Messrs. Mason and Dixon. The report of Col. Graham, from which the preceding account is gathered, presented a general view of the scientific operations of Messrs. Mason and Dixon, and of their predecessors, in tracing the various lines which constitute important portions of the boundaries of the States. He investigated the notes of Mason and Dixon, which were in the archives of the State of Maryland. The following informa- tion, taken from his report, is interesting to us as Pennsylvanians. The Boundary Com- missioners and Col. Graham, proceeded to the northeast corner of Maryland, or point of intersection of the due north line with the parallel of latitude fifteen miles south of the parallel of the most southern limit of Phila- delphia. This point is in a deep ravine, on the margin of a small brook and near its source. The stone monument, with the arms of Lord Baltimore and Thomas and Richard Penn graveu thereon, which had been placed by Commissioner Ewing, by order of the Board of Commissioners in 1768 to designate this point, was missing. From the tradition of the neighborhood, it appeared, that some years ago after it had fallen nearly prostrate

from its place, owing to the encroachment of the stream, upon whose margin it stood, some Individual had taken it away for a chimney piece. A stake was found firmly planted in the ground, which they were informed by the neighbors near by, occupied its place. In examining the tangent and curve the report says : "With a radius of twelve miles, such a curve is so flat that it is difficult in walking over ground intersected with forest timber, fences and other obstructions, to dis- tinguish without the aid of instruments the deflections of the lines connecting monuments on its circumference nearly a third of a mile apart." An impression prevailed in the neigh- borhood, that the stone originally planted at the point of intersection of the due north line with the arc of the circle of twelve miles radius, corresponding with the true point of junction of the three States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, was also missing. The true position of the lost monument was found, and they marked and perpetuated it by planting a new monument. In making the excavation at the depth of about three feet below the surface a cnt stone unmarked, was found, of precisely the same form, dimen- sions and quality as the unmarked stones on the arc of the circle, and at the intersection of the circle with the due north line. Iu turning to the proceedings of the Commis- sioners under the dates of the 17th and 18th of June, 1765, it was found that such a stone was placed by them to 'mark that point. It was not until the year, .1768, that a second stone, marked with the arms of the proprie- taries, was also placed at that point. It was within the memory of the neighboring inhab- itants that the stone which stood at this point in a tottering posture, to within a few years of 1849, bore the arms, so often de- scribed, upon it. The unmarked stone of 1765 had, says the report, probably been buried at the base of the one bearing the arms, when the latter was placed at the same point by Commissioner Ewing in 1768. The evidence afforded by the disinterment of the old stone showed that the point fixed upon was the northeast corner of Maryland, cor- responding with that originally established by Mason and Dixon. The new stone re-mark- ing this important point was planted with its base resting on each, about five feet below the surface of the ground, and its top rising about two feet above the ground. It is of cut granite and of the following dimensions, viz: about seven feet long, and squares sixteen by eighteen inches. It is marked with the letter M on the south and west sides, and the letter P on the north and east sides. Under

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

this letter, on the north side, the date 1849 is engraved in deep cut figures.

There were striking discrepancies between some of the measured distances in 1849, and those of Mason and Dixon. In regard to Delaware, an impression prevailed among her citizens that a considerable portion of her territory had been abstracted by the cur- tailment of her rightful radius of twelve miles around Newcastle. It was determined that the actual length of the radius or dis- tance from the spire of the court house at Newcastle (the center of the town). to the same point on the curve as marked by the old monuments, should be accurately ascertained by triangulation. The records of the U. S. Coast Survey office afforded distances, and the accuracy of the Mason and Dixon survey was closely tested. The radius of twelve miles had been determined by the simple method of measuring over the surface of the ground with a surveyor's chain, for which purpose a vista was opened through the for- est as the work progressed .* It was a surprise that the length of the radius should have been so correctly obtained by such a method. The report says: "There must have been, by mere chance, a compensation of the errors in- cident to such a measurement over so great a distance." For it appears that the angle formed by the north line and the radius from Newcastle was so near a right angle, that the mark or post was declared the true tan- gent point, but the angle was never actually measured. The report further says: "The tangent stone stands on low ground, very near the margin of a morass, known by the name of Cat Swamp. Looking from thence to the east, the ground is pretty flat for half a mile, and then it rises by a rapid ascent to the ridge running northward from the sum- mit of Chestnut Hill, distant one mile. This ridge entirely shuts out the view of the whole country to the east of it from the tangent stone and must, at least, have limited the view of the radius when the angles it formed with the tangent and north lines were measured by Messrs. Mason and Dixon. These angles were then probably affected by whatever er- rors in direction may have arisen in running eleven miles from Newcastle." It was then ascertained that the tangent line did not form a right angle with the radius of twelve miles drawn from the spire of Newcastle Court House to the point occupied by the tangent stone. The angle, at the tangent stone formed

#The line is stated to have been measured horizontally-the hills and mountains with a sixteen and a half-foot level; and the vista cut through the forest, eigbt yards wide, was "seen about two miles, beautifully terminating to the eye in a point." -Egle's Hist. of Penna.

by these two lines, differs 8' 32.9" from a right angle. It was found by computation that the small deviation of 463" in direction. or thirteen feet, one and one-half inch from a straight line at the end of eleven miles in running this radius from Newcastle Court house, would be sufficient to produce the dif- ference in the measurement of the angle at the tangent post, supposing the view to the east to have been limited to the distance of one mile, as it evidently must have been from the nature of the ground. "Even this is in- dicative of a very small error in direction in tracing this radius, when we reflect that it was prolonged through the forest by ranging staves or poles in line one beyond another, as the surveyors advanced with their work ; a method, so inaccurate for tracing a straight line that we are surprised it should have been resorted to in so important an undertaking. This was not, however, the work of Messrs. Mason and Dixon, but of their precedessors, who were less versed in science and in the use of the higher order of geodetic instru- ments than were Messrs. Mason and Dixon.

The arc of the circle west of the due north line and the radius terminating in the tan- gent stone, were traced and determined cor- respondent with one and the same center, by the surveyors under the agreement of 1760 and those of 1849, that is to say, the spire of the court house at New Castle. The de- cree of Lord Hardwicke of 1750, touches these two points, and the position of Cape Henlopen. The discrepancies in regard to the arc of the circle west of the due north line and the angle formed between the radius and the peninsular or tangent line, at the tangent stone, cannot be attributed to any difference respecting the center of the circle. The radius run out by the surveyors, in 1761, indicated by a line drawn from the spire of the court house in New Castle, to the posi- tion of the tangent stone, should be revolved about the center of its circle (the spire afore- said), through an arc of 8' and 34" and one-tenth of a second to the south, and then produced two feet four inches westward, and the line called the tangent line, should be revolved westward about its southern ex- tremity, at the "Middle Point" of the Cape of Henlopen line through the inappre- ciable angle of 1.2", and then these two lines would meet at right angles, at the distance of 157.6 feet southward from the present position of the tangent stone. The slight variation thus required in the azimuth of the tangent line, proves the surprising accuracy of its direction as determined by Messrs. Mason and Dixon, and how truly it divided

THE BOUNDARY LINE.

the provinces, in accordance with the articles of the ancient agreement, as far as it ex- tended, which is given by Mason and Dixon in their notes of survey to be 81 miles, 78 chains and 31 links, or 17.2 yards less than 82 miles. The chord of the arc of the circle west of the north line should have begun at a point 157.6 feet southward of the present position of the tangent stone, and have ended at a point 143.7 feet north of the present position of the stone set by Mason and Dixon, and the Commissioners of their day, to mark its termination, and constituting now the point of junction of the three States. The report says : "It is our opinion that the stones on the arc, west of the north line, stand as originally placed." The tangent stone could never have been moved from its original position, and that stone and the in- tersection stone remain in the positions given to them by the surveyors in 1765. They both stand upon their proper lines of direction, which would have been scarcely preserved had they been moved by mischievous interference. The tangent stone stands precisely upon the same right line, with the three monuments to the southward of it on the tangent line, and the intersection stone stands as truly on the north line. Those who believed that the tangent stone had been disturbed in its posi- tion because of the fragments of stone of a similar character which for some time lay strewed at its base, were not carried so far 1 back by tradition as the period when this point was marked by two similar stones. en- graved alike by the arms of the proprieta- ries, and placed side by side, " the better to distinguish and ascertain the tangent point." " The fragments, which we were told of while engaged in the reconnoisance, were the re- mains, no doubt, of the missing companion of the one we found a little inclined in pos- ture, but firmly planted in the ground, it was, when taken up, unbroken and perfect in form." In 1764-65, from the tangent point, Mason and Dixon ran a meridian line north- ward until it intersected the said parallel of latitude at the distance of five miles, 1 chain and 50 links, thus and there determining and fixing the northeast corner of Maryland.

In 1765 Mason and Dixon described such portion of the semicircle around Newcastle, as fell westward of the said meridian or due north line from the tangent point. "This little bow or arc " reaching into Maryland, " is about a mile and a half long, and its middle width about one hundred and sixteen feet ; from its upper end, where the three States join, to the fifteen mile point, where the great Mason and Dixon's Line begins, is

a little over three and a half miles ; and from the fifteen mile corner due east to the circle is a little over three-quarters of a mile -- room enough for three or four good farms."* This was the only part of the circle Mason and Dixon ran. The report of Col. Gra- ham says the error in the curve of Mason and Dixon is not one of moment as regards extent of territory, as it abstracts from Del- aware and gives to Maryland only about 18.78 of an acre. Their long west line or paral- lel of latitude we have had no occasion to test, except for a short distance, but the great care with which their astronomical observa- tions, contained in the old manuscript at Annapolis, were made, leaves no doubt of the accuracy of that part of their work. " The want of a proper demarcation of the boundaries between States is always a source of great inconvenience and often of trouble to the border inhabitants ; and it is worthy of remark, that as our survey progressed and while making the necessary offsets to houses on the east of the north line, we discovered that there was an impression among many, that the boundary of Delaware extended up to the north line, from the junction to the northeast corner of Maryland. Mr. W. Smith, a gentlemen who has once served as a mem- ber of the Legislature of Delaware, resides a full half mile within the State of Penn- sylvania, measured in the shortest direction from his dwelling house to the circular boundary. We find also, by careful measure- ment, that Christiana- Church is in Penn- sylvania, full one hundred yards west of the circular, boundary. The dwelling-houses of Messrs. J. Jones, Thomas Gibson, Thomas Steel and J. McCowan, are all within the bounds of Pennsylvania, according to our trace of the circle from computed elements."

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 17

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104