History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 8

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474

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a sister colony, and it occurred in the year following the erection of Washington County.

THE VIRGINIAN CONTROVERSY.

Not far from the location of that great canal the United States is now completing, a noted English trav- eler stood on a mountain top and saw both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. No doubt this reported fact bewil- dered their Majesties of England and led to granting dominion privileges "from sea to sea." Such expansive expressions and others even more vague in ancient grants relating to Virginia, coupled with a burning desire for control, led that colony through its appointed rulers to contest with Pennsylvania for all land west of the Alleghenies.

The charter obtained by William Penn in 1681 was in settlement of an ancient claim against the English gov- ernment. Having thus paid a consideration for his grant he was treated as a purchaser for the value, and he and the other Penns who took title from him were called proprietors. The Virginia governors, Dinwiddie and the last of all, Lord Dunmore, (in office from 1772 until the Virginians on account of his oppressions drove him away in 1775), were royal governors appointed by England. They did not claim to own the land, as Penn did, but as representing the King they desired to lord it over all lands adjoining Pennsylvania and on the south and west. Whatever land Pennsylvania failed to occupy, or could be enveigled into receding from or into conceding to the King, would come under Virginian domination. This led the Virginian officials to deny Pennsylvania's boundary claims, and, as far as possible, to diminish Penn's land area. It accounts for the Christopher Gist settlement near the eastern line of the present Fayette County by a Virginian corporation so early as 1753, and for the efforts of the young Vir- ginian, George Washington, as envoy, as lieutenant col- onel, and as aid to Gen. Braddock.

The Virginians were an aggressive people. When the British passed the Stamp Act in 1765, introducing internal taxation in the colonies, Franklin, of Pennsyl- vania saw no other course but submission, but Virginia was the first to formally deny the right of Parliament to meddle with internal taxation, and to demand the repeal of the law. She had a Patrick Henry, and many such, whose proud independent spirits were so admired by the illustrious Pitt that he was impelled to exclaim in the very face of Parliament, "In my opinion this kingdom has no right to lay a tax on the colonies. America is obstinate! America is almost in open rebellion! Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted." It was the instinct and energy of the Virginians which first opposed the French aggressions along the rivers in western Pennsyl- vania, and opened the way to defeat the French project

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

of cutting off the English colonies from all access to the west. These alone started the armed opposition "which unconsciously changed the history of the world."

Had this region been left entirely to the watchfulness of Pennsylvania we might now be upon French soil. The Quaker influence had left her people unprotected, with- out militia, and non-combatant. Her legislative body refused money to resist the French encroachments of 1753 and '54, and indicated their indifference by doubt- ing whether the Forks of the Ohio was within Penn's purchase. The governor of Pennsylvania, who seemed to be more aggressive than his State Council, weakly suggested that it "appeared" or "there was great rea- son to believe" that the French forts and The Forks were really within the limits of Pennsylvania. The cor- respondence between the two governors, Dinwiddie and Hamilton, indicates fear of French possession by one and distrust of the Virginia possession by the other. The latter seemed more interested in locating a boundary line, while the former closed the fruitless correspondence on April 27, 1754, by sarcastically commenting on the failure of the Proprietary Government in not contribut- ing its assistance to hold the Ohio, especially when there is "doubt if the land we go to possess is not in your grant."

The French possession of this land and the war which followed occupied the attention and seems to have pre- vented further correspondence about the boundary for twenty years, but in the meantime both governors be- came active for possession. Pennsylvania gained a great advantage by the "new purchase" from the Indians, extending to her western boundary, and opening at Philadelphia on April 3, 1769 her land office for sale and settlement of lands west of the mountains. In this move toward locating actual settlers Virginia was greatly handicapped. When Canada was ceded to England by

the French at the close of the French and Indian war, it became necessary to make a royal decree relating to Indian rights and limiting the governmental authority to be exercised by her. The proclamation dated October 10, 1763, stated that, "Whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our interest and the security of our colonies that the several nations or tribes of Indians, with whom we are connected and who live under our protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such parts of our dominions and territories, as not having been ceded to, or purchased by us, are reserved to them or any of them as their hunting grounds; We do therefore, with the advice of our privy council, declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that

. no governor or commander-in-chief of our col- .

onies or plantations in America, do presume, for the present, and until our further pleasure be known, to grant warrants of survey, or pass patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest, or upon any land whatever, which not having been ceded to or purchased by us, as aforesaid, are reserved unto the said Indians."

The restraining hand of his Majesty was upon Vir- ginia never to be removed until shaken off by the War of the Revolution some seventeen years later. Even under so great a restraint the Virginians made a bitter contest for this land and were a most valuable assistance to the settlers at the time of the later Indian invasions. The weakness of Pennsylvania's defence of her settlers, coupled with an undefined and limited boundary and a higher price for her land, made many friends for her opponent.

The effect of these uncertainties produced conduct and complications without a parallel in history.

CHAPTER V

EVENTS OF 1768-1773.

Chief Justice Agnew's Remarks on Complicated Titles-Land Office Opened-Two Roads to the East-Nearest County Seat Carlisle-Some Entries in 1769-John Gibson's Land Opposite Logstown-Entered in Virginia -Indian Peter's Entry-Catfish's Camp-Hunter-Hoge-Shirtee Creek-McKee's Land at its Mouth- Morganza-George Washington's Lands in Fayette and Washington Counties-His Banquet at Pittsburg- Croghan's Claim-Rankin Settlement in 1770-Lund Washington Land-Bedford County Erected-Objec- tions to Paying Tax-Sheriff Waylaid-Ft. Pitt Abandoned by the English.

The Hon. Daniel Agnew in his "Settlements and Land Titles," page 182, uses the following language which applies to all of Washington County: "The variety of the original land titles in Beaver County exceeds that of any other county in the State. On the south side of the Ohio" (which was originally in Washington County), "we have all the various titles under warrants, im- provements and licenses, both of the Proprietary and the State governments applicable to the purchase under the treaty of 1768; to which may be added Virginia entries by settlement under the 'corn' law of the State of 1778 and by special grants, recognized by Pennsylvania in her settlement of boundaries with Virginia." We will not attempt to explain these titles except incidentally and briefly in showing how our people lived through these troubles.

Pennsylvania having made her "new purchase" by the treaty at Fort Stanwix, proceeded to open her land office at Philadelphia April 3, 1769, when there was a great rush to secure claim or title to some of the rich Indian lands. The stubborn little band of "about 150 families" about Redstone and Turkeyfoot, and those settlers and traders about Fort Pitt, had previous to this time been deterred from settling west of the Mononga- hela River, and now they can only sit still and await results. The only two roads opened west of the moun- tains did not extend into Washington County. The one opened by the Virginians and extended by Lieut. Col. Washington and later by Gen. Braddock (in 1755) let the travel from Virginia and Maryland into Fort Pitt from the southeast by way of Cumberland, and also from eastern Pennsylvania by way of Carlisle. The other road, known as the Forbes Road, was cut through by Gen. Forbes directly from the east to relieve Fort Pitt in 1758, and let in through Carlisle, Bedford and Fort Ligonier the Pennsylvania and New Jersey immigrants. Col. Burd and a detachment of soldiers had in 1759

opened a road across the Braddock Road on top of the mountains to Redstone, and built Fort Burd where Brownsville now stands. This opened the way to Fort Pitt by river. At the junction of the two roads on the mountain is yet to be seen the large rock engraved with the Indian name for the Half-King.

The nearest county seat in Pennsylvania was at that time Carlisle, our county seat, although 21 days distant according to the time occupied by Rev. Steele when he came to induce our settlers to leave. Carlisle was about two-thirds of the distance to Philadelphia where the advertisements were made of the proposed land sale. Of course not many of the actual settlers could be at that sale to point out their locations and make applica- tion for survey.

On that opening day there were 3,200 applications filed for lands, most of which no doubt were in the "new purchase." The selection of lands was allowed by lot, and the first choice seems to have fallen to John Gibson, who although an early fur-trader, was among the very first to locate in what was once Washington County.

The land he obtained is in that part of Washington County which now lies in Beaver County, and is men- tioned in Bausman's History of that county in a quota- tion from what seems to be the affidavit of said Gibson as follows:

"In 1769 at the opening of the Land Office in the Province of Pennsylvania, an entry was made of 300 acres of land to include the old Indian corn field opposite Logstown, for the use of John Gibson, Sen., he having drawn at a lottery the earliest number, and the land was surveyed for him in the same year by James Hendricks, Esq., District Surveyor; that in 1771 he, John Gibson, settled upon the land, built a home, and cleared and fenced 30 acres of ground, and in 1778 sold his claim to Mathias Slough of Lancaster, Pa."

This land was about six miles above Beaver River and

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

in this house the year after it was built, the Rev. David McClure could not sleep well (he wrote) on account of the "howling of the wolves." This same minister was made very nervous near the same place by the sudden appearance of John Logan, the peaceful Indian, who then had a camp at Logstown opposite John Gibson's choice land, and had a dwelling place or "cabin" also at the mouth of Beaver River, where the white travelers were accustomed to stop for lodging and entertainment.

In 1770 George Washington probably took breakfast with John Gibson on this land or at his trading post across the river; or he may have breakfasted with Logan, the friend of the white man, either here or at the mouth of the Beaver, for as late as 1772, the village at Beaver River was commonly called Logan's Town. This same Logan a few years later brought terror to every family in Washington County.

The word "entry" meant filing a claim in the land office to prevent any other person from settling upon the land thus claimed. To the claimant a "warrant" is issued which entitles him to have a survey made of his lands. Gibson's entry indicates that the white men preferred the corn fields or such land as the Indians had cleared, and that the claim would be made without regard to the Indian occupation. To illustrate the un- certainty of the times and of the public mind we may be pardoned for anticipating events by stating, that eleven years later John Gibson "entered" 400 acres of land at Logstown, apparently the same land as above men- tioned.

This later entry dated June 23, 1780, was filed at Redstone or at Cox's Fort within the bounds of our county, and with a board of commissioners acting under the laws of Virginia. His action shows lack of faith in his former Pennsylvania entry. Born at Lancaster, Pa., educated to the extent of some classical studies; a soldier with Gen. Forbes' expedition against Fort Du- quesne; settled at Fort Pitt and at Logstown as a trader; captured in the Indian war of 1763 but saved, although his two companions were burned at the stake; adopted by a squaw to be a son and hunter for her support, instead of her dead son (a life for a life) but surrendered a year later; a commissioner to make peace with the Shawanese; a colonel during the Revolution in command at Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh and Fort Laur- ens in Ohio-if any one had opportunity to learn which State had jurisdiction Col. Gibson was the man.

His action in acknowledging the land office authorities of Virginia was not treasured up against him, for he later was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of Pennsylvania, a judge of the Court of Allegheny County, Major General of Militia, and Secre- tary of the Territory of Indiana until it became a State, and for a time acted as its Governor.

There may have been a number of Indians residing here or having a "lodge in the wilderness," but so far as history tells us, only one obtained a Pennsylvania title for land within our limits. This was William Peters, a friendly Indian who attempted to live a peace- ful life. We quote the following from the surveyor's record in Washington County Recorder's office:

"In pursuance of an order, No. 2844, dated 5th of April, 1769, the above is a Draught of a tract of land called Indian Hill, containing 339 acres and the usual allowance of 6 per cent for roads etc., situate on the west side Monongahela, surveyed 7th of Oct., 1769, for William Peters alias Indian Peter,

by JAMES HENDRICKS, D. S.

"To John Lukens, Esq., Surveyor General."

This land was bounded on the south and east by a curve of the river, and on land by two straight lines almost at right angles to each other, running west and south. It was afterward purchased by Neal Gillespie, great-grandfather of the Hon. James G. Blaine, and the town of West Brownsville is on a part of this ground. Here is where the Indians were assembled opposite Fort Burd, when the Rev. Steele, in the previous fall, urged the settlers to remove from the eastern side of the river, to prevent, as he argued, an Indian uprising.

History is silent as to the origin or the end of Indian Peter, but the name Peters had some importance in those days. Peters Creek empties into the Monongahela in this county. Henry Peters and Abraham Peters, chiefs or sachams of the Mohawk Nation, were the first signers to the treaty, July 6, 1754, by which Thomas and Richard Penn obtained land lying east and west of the Alleghenies for £400. (Penna. Laws, Vol. 2, p. 120.) And Richard Peters, with Conrad Weiser, Esq., were appointed commissioners in 1758 to release to the Six Nations that portion of said lands lying to the north- ward and westward of the Allegheny Hills, because the Indians insisted they had been misled and overreached in that transaction.

Another Indian's improved land was "entered" the same year. Catfish occupied the land "on the path from Fort Burd to Mingo Town," where is now the town of Washington, and no doubt he raised corn and beans, as was done by many others of that tribe. Some- one saw the goodly land, and on June 19th, three claims were filed in the names of three children of Joseph Hunter of Carlisle, in County of Cumberland. November 11, 1769, a survey was made on warrants Nos. 3516-7-8, for over 300 acres each, adjoining each other.

Joseph Hunter, after using the names of his children to get for himself three times as much as the laws would have allowed him alone, sold his claim, April 23,

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

1771, to David Hoge, of the same place, by deed describ- ing the land as :

"All that tract or parcel of land situate, lying and being on the Head Forks or Branches of Shirtee Creek and Taking Both sides thereof about Thirty miles from where Shirtee empties into the Ohio, known by the name of Cat Fishes Camp, containing twelve hundred acres, be the same more or less. The said tract of land was sur- veyed by a Pennsylvania Right. To be held under the purchase money, interest yearly quit rents now due and to become due for the same to the Chief Lord or Lords of the Fee thereof. We warrant against every person whomsoever the proprietors only excepted."

His wife joined in this deed (signing by her mark), and three days later their three children, Abraham, Joseph and Martha (the first signing by mark), made a similar conveyance to Hoge for the same lands. The consideration in the father's deed was £100 and that of the children was five shillings.

It does not appear that any of the above parties ever lived upon these lands, but the rights of David Hoge were transferred to his two sons, and they purchased the rights of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1788, seven years after the town of Washington (then Bassettown) had been laid out and our County Court put in operation.

Shirtee Creek, mentioned in these deeds, is a nick- name for Chartier's Creek. It rises southwest of Wash- ington and flows into the Ohio at MeKees Rocks, about four miles below the center of Pittsburg. Another name for it, in many of the early documents, is Shurtee. These names were no doubt used by the early settlers in a sarcastic way, indicating contempt for Peter Chartier, from whom the creek received its name on account of his having a trading-post near its mouth. He had been licensed by Pennsylvania courts to trade with the Indians, but had afterward sided with the French. Before the French and Indian war, he had removed from this region, where he was not held in good repute by the English. Shingiss, the fierce Delaware chief, headed a village about the same place prior to said war, and no doubt these clearings, abandoned in 1756, were on the ground which Alexander McKee, in 1768 or 1769, located upon and improved, and which he was obliged to abandon as a renegade ten years later. The town of Mckees Rocks is on or near the Shingiss clearings.

Another interesting property was obtained this same year by Dr. John Morgan, of Philadelphia, and was soon afterward called Morganza. The four applications, entered the day the land office opened, were made in the names of persons unknown in this community, and these four conveyed their rights to Dr. Morgan May 1, not 30 days after entering claim. Dr. John may have been prompted to use these, his acquaintances, to get more

land than the law allowed him to take in his own name, and this perfectly legitimate plan may have been sug- gested by his brother George, who in 1789 became the owner of these lands as devisee of John. George was a member of the large trading firm of Wharton, Boynton. & Morgan, organized in 1760, and he may have selected the Morganza tract, for he had been sent into this Ohio River region to establish trading posts, and had been somewhat of a traveler. He founded New Madrid, the first English colony in the Province of Louisiana, and was the first American to make the trip from the mouth of the Kaskaskia to the mouth of the Mississippi, which he did in 1766. He held the important position of Indian Agent for the middle Department with headquarters at Pittsburg, from 1766 to 1779, a most trying time in our history.

Morganza is about two-thirds of the distance from the mouth of Chartier's Creek to Catfish's Camp, in Cecil Township, and is now occupied by the Morganza Reform School. Maj. Andrew G. Happer, husband of a great-granddaughter of said Col. George Morgan, is- a member of its board of managers, appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania.

George Wasington obtained 1768 acres in what is now Fayette County by the above indicated method, on the opening day. His entries were filed April 3d in his own name and that of four others, by the celebrated William Crawford, who was afterward burned at the stake. The efforts to obtain title to that tract and also to 2,813 acres in our Mount Pleasant Township have been narrated by several historians and will be again re- ferred to in the present history. Owing to the uncertainty of jurisdiction or for some other reason, Washington did not obtain patents for the Fayette County lands until 1782. His Fayette County titles were obtained under the laws of Pennsylvania, but those of Washington County lands he secured from Virginia. He and his agent Crawford were much hindered in ob- taining lands in the latter county by Col. George Croghan, who formerly had traded at Logstown and at the mouth of the Beaver, but who at this date and for twenty years past, was one of the most important men about Pittsburg. Croghan had obtained in 1759 a deed from four chiefs of the Six Nations, for 100,000 acres of land on the south side of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, covering from the mouth of Turtle Creek to Rac- coon Creek and extending 10 miles up that creek. He also claimed another 100,000 acres lying south of the above tract. From these lands he made conveyances by descriptions to extend as far south as Chartier's Creek, on the western side of which he conveyed 14,013 acres, and on Robinson's Run and Raccoon Creek north of that he conveyed 31,4851/2, acres.

In the beautiful October weather of 1770, when George

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

Washington was going down the Ohio looking for lands, he was in the company of Col. Croghan, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Magee (probably the Alexander McKee above referred to, who soon after became an English Tory, causing the forfeiture of his lands). After leaving the village of Pittsburg they dined at Magee's (or McKee's) at two o'clock, and the next morning Washington break- fasted at Logstown above Beaver Creek, probably enter- tained by John Gibson or Indian Logan. Col. Croghan was explaining that he owned all the land between Rac- coon Creek and the Monongahela River "and for 15 miles back," under a purchase from the Indians con- firmed by his Majesty, King of England. He was offering as a specially attractive piece the land on Raccoon Creek, where the branches thereof interlock with the waters of Shurtees Creek, "as a body of fine, rich level land." He gives the visitor a special price, provided he can sell it in 10,000-acre lots. But Washington writes in his diary: "At present, the un- settled state of this country renders any purchase dan- gerous." The question of title confounded the wise as well as the most simple-minded. Croghan's title was never recognized by either Pennsylvania or Virginia, and these hundreds of thousands of acres were lost to him.

Washington on this trip purposed not only to look up about 3,000 acres of good "level land" for himself, but to find lands to reward the officers and soldiers who had engaged in the expedition to drive out the French, under a proclamation of Virginia to give them 200,000 acres of land around the forks of the Ohio. That was the proclamation which had aroused the temper and been bitterly resented by Pennsylvania officials, and had caused them to be lukewarm in assisting Virginia to chastise the Indians.

Pittsburg in 1770 had about twenty houses, made of logs, ranged along the Monongahela shore, inhabited, as Washington writes, by Indian traders. These traders were nearly all Pennsylvanians, but most of the other inhabitants there, and those who came in soon after, were Virginians. Rev. David Jones, a Baptist minister, who visited the town in 1772, described it as "a small town, chiefly inhabited by Indian traders and some mechanics; part of the inhabitants are agreeable and worthy of regard, while others are lamentably dissolute in their morals."

On November 22d, Washington stayed in Pittsburg all day and gave a dinner party at Samuel Semples, who kept "a very good house of public entertainment" in the village which was about 300 yards from the fort. At this dinner were seated George Washington, then about 38 years old, the officers of the fort nearby, Dr. Craik, who had been in several battles with his host, Capt. William Crawford, whose most horrible fate is

to come in a few short years; Dr. John Connolly, who soon hereafter figures as the most domineering enemy of Pennsylvania jurisdiction; old Colonel Croghan, uncle of Connolly; and probably Alexander McKee, soon to become notorious. Our Virginia gentleman has at his table at least two guests who soon became English Tories and fought against him, and a third, Croghan, who was a strong Virginia sympathizer and for a time was suspected by the loyal Americans.

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History of the city of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens 20th century, Part 8

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1474

Author: McFarland, Joseph Fulton; Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1474