History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 10

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Many with stout hearts, level heads, and ready hands availed themselves of these privileges, and some by special permit, others by official influence, took up lands in various parts, but especially near the forts. There were others who availed themselves of the power delegated to these commandants, and got their permits to reoccupy lands which they had previously occupied before the time of Braddock, and which they had firat possessed under the cover of Virginia, or more directly of the Ohio Company.

The saine technicality about titles did not exist in Virginia. And now we touch upon a subject which in the annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania assumes .great proportions. The early civil history of this region is the history of conflicting boundary claims.

Virginia by her charter from James the First, 1609, claimed all the territory from the Atlantic Ocean which, bounded by a straight line on the northern limits, extended " up into the land throughout fromn sea to sea, west and northwest," which line, if now al- lowed as then claimed, would take in Maryland, most of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and all West and Northwest up to 54° 40'. This patent was, in 1624, at the instance of the company, revoked, and although never afterwards restored, was made the pretext by Virginia of great and most arrogant pretensions.1

The line of Penn's province was, as is well known, from the fortieth degree of north latitude " in a straight line westward" to the limits of five degrees of longi- tude from the Delaware.' Now a degree of longitude is between sixty-eight and sixty-nine geographical miles, and the five degrees, had they been marked and measured, would have reached, as we see, beyond the Monongahela. But it came to be believed by the authorities of Virginia that these five degrees would not reach over the mountains.'

Frederick Rhorer, the original of which is in the possession of Caleb Cope, Enq. :

" By Arthur St. Clair, late Lient. in his Majesty's Sixtieth Regt, of foot, having the care of his Minjesty's fort at Ligonier.

" I have given Permission to Frederick Rorer to cultivate a certain Piece of Lund in the neighborhood of Fort Ligonier, over a certain creek, which empties itself into the Loyal Hanning, known by the name of the Coal Pitt Creek ; beginning at a White Oak standing on a spring and marked with the letters FXR and running from thence to another Tree marked with the same letters and standing on another Spring called the Falling Spring, and from these two marked Trees towards the ad [said ] Coal Pitt Creek supposed to contain two hund. acres he the said Frederick Rorer being willing to submit to all orders of the Con- mander in Chief the commanding officer of the District, and of the Garrison.

"Given under my hand at Ligonier this 11th day of April, 1767. " AR. ST. CLATS.'

1 By reason of the alleged point from which to start the ideal line, takeu from the misprint of Jolin Smith's map, the only one at the date of the charters, which point was placed nineteen m les too far to the south, arose the controversy between the proprietaries of Maryland and Pennsylvania, which after long litigation wus finally decided by the Lord Chancellor of England.

" But the Pennsylvanin authorities, when they were asked to help ex- pel the French, expressed with some equivocation a doubt, among other stronger objectious, whether the intrusion was on their territory.

3 Verch, "Secular History" in "Cent. Mein.," p. 300, and numerous other authorities.

It would, however, had this question never risen, have been a futile and useless thing to attempt to keep out this class of settlers who wanted to come into these parts from coming in. In the history of Pennsylvania it is noticeable that the settlements mostly preceded the treaties.

Immigrants, therefore, in spite of all remonstrance and in the face of all dangers, came into this region. Virginia offered inducemeuts ; Pennsylvania imposed objections. Those, then, who did come in found argu- ments ready at hand in favor of sustaining the claims of Virginia. They alleged that Virginia bad fought for the land, had organized expeditions against the hostile Indians, had sent Washington with Braddock against the French, and had succeeded most effectu- ally in reclaiming a region to which she bad mani- fest right, and had always watched over her settlers, giving them lands cheap and not burdening them heavily with taxes, and that therefore their allegiance, on all grounds natural as well as civil, was due to her in preference to Pennsylvania.

The region, too, was readier of access through her undisputed territory than through that of Penn- sylvania. The Braddock road, used before the time of Pontiac's war (1764) in preference to the Forbes road, was after that time the great highway for emi- grants to and through those parts, and many, indeed, froin the interior of Pennsylvania preferred it to the other, which was regarded as more difficult and inse- cure.

In 1765 many emigrants from Maryland and Vir- ginia removed over the mountains for the purpose of settling there." These settled mostly in the Fayette part of what was then of Cumberland County, be- tween the mountains and the Monongahela River, some about the Turkey Foot (Confluence), some in the river bottoms of Greene and Washington Coun- ties, with a nucleus at Redstone (Brownsville), but most in the southern part of what is now Westmore- land, and by this time the old plantations which had been before deserted were mostly reoccupied.

We then, in short, observe that although the Penn- sylvania authorities did not allow to private individ- uals the privilege of settlement, yet by a resistless impulse they forced themselves upon the forbidden ground. This the Indians complained of, for it was alleged, perhaps with reason, that there were many killed by the whites without provocation, and the Indians being always at war among themselves, it was not improbable that some of them in passing and re- passing from one place to another were thus killed. When we are further acquainted with the character of these settlers it will not seem at all improbable. The authorities, both of Pennsylvania and of Vir- ginia, were active in their professions, in their local treaties, and in their supervising legislation to mollify

4 This statement takes in its purview those settlers under the Ohio Company's grant and ut Gist's.

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SETTLEMENT FROM 1759 TO 1769.

those disaffected; but they with a grum and stoical persistence always put forward their grievances, and played on the same string. As early as 1766, Crogan complained of the persons settling at Redstone, and insisted that the government pursue vigorous meas- ures to deter the frontier inhabitants from murdering the Indians and from encroaching on their grounds, at least till the boundaries were definitely fixed be- tween the two colonies. Of George Crogan, the Indian agent, it may be said that he was one of the most suc- cessful Indian diplomatists that was ever in the ser- vice of any State. By his tireless efforts many years of war were averted, and thousands of lives were saved.

The running of Mason and Dixon's line in 1767 as far as to its second crossing at Dunkard Creek, in now Greene County, indicated that all these intruders were within Pennsylvania. The Governor of Vir- ginia (Fauquier) did not gainsay it, and left the proprietaries to fight it out with the intruders as best they could. Governor Penn, in 1768, called the spe- cial attention of the Assembly to this, and said their removal was indispensable to avert war.

In these proceedings it is seen that there was a de- sire on the part of those representing the interests of the government and people to conciliate the Indians and to secure their perpetual friendship. They were thus under obligation to proceed according to the white man's ideas of justice. Surveys made over those lands not alienated by treaty deed were de- clared to be void and illegal. They professed not to sell any lands beyond those not purchased. Many acts were passed prohibiting any one from thus set- tling, and by an act of Feb. 3, 1768, any one neglect- ing to remove from such settlements after legal notice was, after being duly convicted, to be punished with death without benefit of clergy. But this act was not intended to extend to those then settled, or to those who thereafter settled, on the main roads leading through the Province to Fort Duquesne, and so set- tled with the approbation of the commander-in-chief of His Majesty's forces or their lawfully authorized officers, or in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt under such permission. And any person presuming to en- ter on such unpurchased lands for the purpose of marking trees or making surveys was to be punished, on conviction, by a fine of fifty pounds and three months' imprisonment. This act was violated by those who settled about Redstone and the Turkey Foot, and perhaps by others farther northward and back of the Forbes road.1

The reasons for enacting laws so highly penal are recounted at large. From the advices furnished by the officers in charge of the garrisons, and from those who were brought in close contact with the natives, there was at this time immediate danger of another Indian outbreak. Most of these penal laws were

temporary only in their effect,-that is, they were made for particular emergencies, and were intended to be in force only for a short time. And as these laws died out many of those who had left when warned off returned, and others intruded themselves on the lands. Some, however, did not leave, either from entreaty or force; such were those at Redstone and at Turkey Foot.2 Proclamations were of little effect, and before it was too late it was of necessity that the Indian complaints should be redressed, or at least pa- tiently listened to. So far did the desire of the gov- ernment extend to keep the Indians at rest, that there was a severe penalty in money and in imprisonment for those who even hunted and pursued wild beasts without the lawful limits.

When those settlers at Redstone and the Turkey Foot remained in open defiance of the act of Febru- ary, 1768, and of the proclamation commanding them to quit, an effort was made to peaceably induce them to do so. As these settlers were for the greater part Scotch-Irish from their settlements in Pennsylvania, the Rev. John Steele, of Carlisle, and three others, early in March, 1768, were sent to warn them off, and to represent to them the desire and the will of the government of the Province. Shortly after this he was at their settlement. The people hearing of his coming appointed a meeting among themselves. At this meeting he read to them the act of Assembly and the proclamation of the Governor, explaining to them the law and giving the reasons for it, and endeavored to persuade them to comply therewith. He repre- sented that their compliance was the most probable method of getting the favor of the proprietaries.

On the 30th of March (1768) thirty to forty of the settlers met the deputies at Gist's, that being the point designated as the most convenient for those from the Cheat River and Stewart's Crossing (Con- nellsville), whither messengers had been sent with this request. On the 31st they were at the Great Crossings, from where they sent copies of the proc- lamation to those at Turkey Foot.3

While at Redstone he was met by a number of Mingoes, who sent by him a speech to the Governor. They said firmly that the whites must go away, but they would wait on the issue of a talk to be held by George Crogan and their great men. The treaty in prospect came off at Fort Pitt in April and May, 1768. Between 1000 and 2000 Indians were there, of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanese, and other tribes. Hereat many presents were distributed, and, strange and inconsistent as it may appear, the only

Col. Crawford, in a letter to James Tilghman, Aug. 9, 1771 (Archives, iv. 424), says that he had information that there was a bond or article of agreement entered into between a number of the inhabitants of Mononga- hela and Redstone that each would join and keep off all officers of the law, under a penalty of £50, to be forfeited by the party refusing to join against all officers whatsoever. See also Col. G. Wilson's letter to A. St. Clair, wherein he mentions the resolves of the inhabitants to oppose Penn's laws, Aug. 14, 1771 (Archives, iv. 437). 3 Ibid.

1 Steele's Letter to Gov. John Penn, Prov. Records, p. 316.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

complaints made were by the Pennsylvania commis- sioners against the Indians for selling their lande to the settlers, and for the interference of the Mingoes at the Redstone Conference.1

But the settlers did not remove, nor did any of them "suffer death without benefit of clergy" for re- maining, for by this and from other things they felt assured that among them there was no immediate danger of war, for they were a willful-minded, stub- born set of men, inured to roughness all.their lives.

But all signs indicated that another Indian war was brewing, a war which promised to be a general one. The hostiles had been quiet as long as was usual, and their mutterings all round the settlements of the whites from Western New York to Western Virginia were audible. To none was it more instinctively per- ceptible than to Sir William Johnson, the one man to whom. more than to any other the Board of Trade and Plantations intrusted the management of the royal and'colonial interest arising from trouble with the tribes. This war was thereupon averted by the intervention of . Jhnson, whose influence over the Six Nations was unbounded. At his suggestion a great council was held at Fort Stanwix, in New York. Here all grievances were redressed, chains brightened, tomahawks buried, etc. By the terms of this treaty made with the Six Nations, November 5, 1768, all the territory extending in a boundary from the New York line on the Susquehanna, past Towanda and Tyadaghton Creek, up the West Branch, over to Kittanning on the Allegheny, and thence down the Ohio and along the Monongahela to the Province line was conveyed to the proprietaries. This was called the NEW PURCHASE. Of the most of this re- gion was afterwards erected Bedford and then West- moreland Counties.

The New Purchase, or that of 1768, on our map be- gins at the Susquehanna in Bradford County; thence, following the courses of those local streams which then were designated by their Indian names, the line meanders in a south and west direction through the counties of Tioga, Lycoming, Clinton, to the north- east corner of Clearfield; passing through Clearfield from the northeast to the southwest corner, it reaches a point at Cherry Tree where Indiana, Clearfield, and Cambria meet; thence in a straight line acroes In- diana County to Kittanning, on the Allegheny River; thence down the Allegheny to the Ohio, and along the Monongahela till it strikes the boundary line of the State on its southern side.

Let us now glance at the settlements of this "most- west-land" at the date of this treaty, 1768. First then there was Christopher Gist, agent and surveyor of the Ohio Company, who enjoys the distinction of being the first white settler west of Laurel Hill, in Pennsyl- vania, who came to stay. In 1752-53 he located at

Mount Braddock, now Fayette County, and induced eleven other families to settle near him, some of whom were his relations. This settlement was not far from Connellsville, and on the Obio Company's road.

In 1754, when the French expelled the English Virginiane from the Obio and its tributaries, William Trent, George Cogan, Robert Callender, and Michael Teaf were partners in the trading business, and having suffered by their ejectment, they applied to the government of Pennsylvania with a carefully prepared statement of their losses. From their ac- count and statement, which was supported by amdavit, they had at that time ten acres of corn, with large fields cleared, near Sharpsburg (at Etna borough), which they were obliged to leare; also one house at the Sewickley bottom, about twenty-five miles from Fort Duquesne, up the Youghiogheny, with fields fenced and grain in the ground, these last being val- ued at three hundred pounds.

Previous to 1754 the more southern part, presumed to be in Virginia, we have said, was visited by settlers from Maryland, some of whom remained. Among these was Frederick Waltzer, who lived four miles west of Uniontown. These, with the exception of a few agents among the Indians who for the time being were compelled to abide at some certain place, and of those who settled in Tygart's Valley, are said to have been the first prior to Braddock's expedition (1755). But whatever settlers there then were, after the battle at the Monongahela they had to leave their clearings. Some of them returned soon after, and others not till 1761 or later.

Under Col. Bouquet and the commandants at Fort Pitt, many settlements were made near Pittsburgh in 1760 and 1761, which in 1769 were located. William Jacob settled at the mouth of Redstone Creek in 1761, and by removal in 1763. James Goudin in 1762 raised a house at Eleven-Mile Run, which flows into the Monongahela. The Byerly settlement, near Har- rison City, dates from 1758. John Irwin settled at the mouth of Bushy Run, not far from Byerly's, in 1768. John Frazer, John Ormsby, Sr. and Jr., and Oliver Ormsby had made improvements on Turtle Creek prior to 1762.

There is much evidence to make one believe that before the time of Pontiac's war, about 1762, there were more settlers occupying lands at no great dis- tance from the great roads and the military posts than we have any specific or absolute knowledge of. What their numbers or their names were we have no pos- sible account. The Byerly settlement, for instance, had an accession of several families, as is discovered among the decisions of the Supreme Court of the State. Some lands about Fort Ligonier, and even at a distance from the fort on the summit of Chestnut Ridge, were cleared by inhabitants of Cumberland County, who at that date had not yet removed their families hither. On these clearings were raised po- tatoes and corn, and the product in some instances,

1 Vosch, "Sec. Hist.," p. 303. "Minutes of Conference," etc., Prov. Rec. Rapp, " Hist. Western Pa.," App'x, p. 181, et seq.

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SETTLEMENT FROM 1759 TO 1769.

and these certainly before 1768, was sent over the mountains for those there. These lands were held by mere occupancy, taken by "tomahawk title," as they called it, after a manner of title partially, under some conditions, allowed by the laws of Virginia, but in this purchase, under the laws of Pennsylvania, being in itself no title. Some lands along the Conemaugh, and in the Ligonier Valley along the Indian trail, and subsequently the main road from Ligonier to Kittanning, and some along the trail by the Loyal- hanna, were thus occupied. It is true that warrants were afterwards laid upon many of these improve- ments, and the titles were confirmed to those who, settling upon them, had a prior claim.1 But some tracts were passed or sold before they were warranted, or, in other words, before a title could be given. Hence one source of litigation which for two genera- tions engrossed the closest application of the best legal minds in the West, a subject to analyze which, unless to a student of the law, would be unprofitable and a great labor.

It is inferred that up to 1768 no considerable settle- ments were made in Southwestern Pennsylvania other than those in Fayette and its borders, for none others were complained of. Mr. Steele estimated their num- ber at that time at one hundred and fifty families, which would not exceed eight hundred souls. In this, however, he did not include many in the Wash- ington County region beyond the Monongahela, but confined his report particularly to the Redstone, the Youghiogheny, and the Turkey Foot settlements.2 Of these he reports eight or ten families in the Turkey Foot, which, by the way, he did not visit in person, and "a few families" near the crossings of the Little Yough. This estimate does not include the settlers around Fort Pitt, Fort Burd (Brownsville), Fort Ligonier, and the great roads leading to these forts,

1 Although this law of Feb, 3, 1768, was in a certain sense not regarded, and was soon rendered uugatory and inoperative by the treaty of 1768, yet there are in the records of the Supreme Court cases from Westmore- land County brought up under this law; and some lost all claim they had in lands which they had illegally occupied. In the case of Chris- topher Rudebaugh, who had settled on the Forbes road under permit from Cul. Bouquet, commandant at Fort Pitt, in 1761, the title to a portion thereof passed from his descendants because he had not avalled himerif of the privilege of getting a warrant when the land-office was opened in 1769. (See Bioren's Laws of Pennsylvania, title, "Land Office.")

" " The names of inhabitants near Redstone: John Wiseman, Henry Primer, William Liun, William Colvin, John Vervalson, Abraham Ty- gard, Thomas Brown, Richard Rodgers, Henry Swatz, Jos. McClean, Jesse Martin, Adam Hatton, Jolin Verwald, Jr., James Waller, Thomas Donter, Captain Colburn, John Delong, Peter Young, George Martin, Thomas Down, Andrew Gudgeon, Phil. Sute, James Crawford, Jolin Peters, Michael Hooter, Andrew Linn, Gabriel Conn, John Martin, Hans Cook, Dauiel McCay, Josias Crawford, ' one' Provence.

" Names of those who met us at Giesse's (Christopher Gist's) place :

"One Bloomfield, James Lynn, Eze. Johnson, Richard Harrison, Phil. Lute, J. Johnson, Thos. Giesse, Chas. Lindsay, James Wallace, Henry Burkham, Lawrence Harrison, Ralph Hickenbottom. " Names of the people at Turkey Foot:

" Henry Abrahams, Ese. Dewit, James Spencer, Benjamin Jennings, John Cooper, Ese. Hickman, John Enslow, Henry Enslow, Benjamin Pursley." As reported by Rev. Steele.

who had been allowed military permits, nor Col. Crogan's settlement along the Allegheny. Of these latter the number has been estimated at three hun- dred.'

And now there began a loud knocking at the door. During this time the eastern portion of the Province was beginning, as they called it, to be "thickly set- tled." Lands were getting scarce ; the younger sons of the older settlers must be provided for, for our ancestors were emphatically an agricultural race, and nothing so satisfied them as an acquisition of land. Besides these there were many emigrants whom petty tyranny, landlordism, misgovernment, and the ex- pectation of betterment drove to these shores, and who were waiting for a place to shelter their heads, willing and over-anxious to begin life in the new. The Indian race could not stand before the white race, and was receding before it. The wandering proclivities of the former and the aggressive proclivi- ties of the latter were mutually understood. But no inducement was offered, for as yet no title could be given to those who wanted to enter upon these vacant lands and make them their own. Public policy, and the irresistible clamor of those on the outside, made it apparent that the peopling of this extensive domain could not much longer be delayed.

It is here proper to state that it was the policy and the practice of the proprietaries-that is, Penn and his heirs and successors-to reserve large portions of land for their personal use in certain districts all over the Province. In the year 1700, Penn issued his warrant to the surveyor-general to reserve for him and his heirs five hundred acres out of every township of five thousand acres. These reservations were called manors, and over them and in them the proprietary had exclusive jurisdiction, both as landlord and as judge in matters of law. In accordance with this order there were two reservations of the Penns within West- moreland County. One was called the Manor of Den- inark, and was situated on Bushy Run. It contained four thousand eight hundred and sixty-one acres. Bouquet's battle of August, 1763, was fought on, after- ward, this manor. The station of Manor, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, designates its location. The other reservation was called Penn's Lodge. It con- tained five thousand five hundred and sixty-eight acres, and lies in the southern part of the county, Sewickley township marking its location. The latter manor lies in a fine agricultural district, while the former is rich in deposits of bituminous coal.‘ Had

3 Veech, "Sec. Hist.," 303, and " Sterlo's Letter."

It is generally conceded that Smollett (" Hist, of England") did not know what he was talking about when he said that the erection of Fort Pitt (1759-60) " gave perfect security to about 4000 settlers, who now re- turned, etc.," which statement has sometimes been quoted. It is not correct, unless he meant to convey the idea that Fort Pitt covered, with its handful of soldiers, the whole of Western Pennsylvania and Western Virginia from the mountains to the rivers, which is simply absurd.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 10

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: