USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 15
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Robert Fitz Randolph was born in Essex County, New Jersey, in 1741, of Scotch ancestry. He removed with his family to Northampton County in 1771, and two years later to Northumberland County. Driven from his home by Indian hostilities, he fled, in 1776, to Berks County, but returned in the following year, and joined the regiment of Colonel William Cook, and with it fought in the battle of Germantown, October 3d, 1777. Having been discharged soon afterwards, he returned to his home; but the savages
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having made another fierce attack upon the settlement, he returned with his family to his native State, where he again enlisted in the Continental army, with which he served to the end of the Revolutionary War. At the return of peace, he returned to Northumberland County, and settled on Shamokin Creek, where he resided until 1789, when he removed to the Venango Valley with his family, and settled upon the tract which had been patented by his son James, one of the party of nine who were the original settlers. He was in his seventy-second year when the war of 1812 broke out. The blood of his younger days was stirred, and at the first call for troops he started for Erie, with four of his sons and two grandsons, to offer his services to his country. Upon his arrival at Lake Conneauttee, near Edinboro, he was persuaded by some of his friends to return home on account of his age. He died on the 16th of July, 1830, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.
Of Robert Fitz Randolph's children, Edward took a prominent part in the early settlement of the county. He was born in Lehigh County, March 1, 1772, and was in his eighteenth year when the family removed to this county. ' He served as a volunteer in 1791. In 1792, he went to Pittsburg in the government employ, in transporting provisions to Fort Venango, near Franklin. In September of 1793. he was engaged to go down the Ohio, with Colonel Clark, in charge of a boat-load of ammunition for General Wayne's army, then organizing at Fort Washington, now Cin- cinnati. In the spring of 1795, Captain Russell Bissell commenced the erection of a fort at Erie, and in August, Edward and Taylor Fitz Randolph were employed as teamsters to go to Erie to assist in the construction of the fort. Their father furnished three yokes of oxen, and Cornelius Van Horn one yoke, for this purpose. Mr. Fitz Randolph was married, in 1797, to Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of Benjamin Wilson, and settled on a farm in Vernon Township, where he lived until his removal to the west, where he died.
CHAPTER XII.
VIRGINIA AND PENNSYLVANIA CONTROVERSY FINALLY SETTLED.
W HEN THE Virginia convention, on the escape of Lord Dun- more. the Royal Governor, took the supreme authority of the Virginia colony in its own hands, measures were adopted for re- taining the district of Pittsburg west of the Laurel Hills in its control, as though the matter of jurisdiction was already settled in favor of Virginia. Captain John Neville was authorized to raise a company of one hundred men and march to and take possession of Pittsburg. Another company was summoned from the Monongahela country. The colony of Virginia was divided into sixteen districts, of which West Augusta was one, com- prising all the territory drained by the Monongahela, Youghiogheny and Kiskiminitas and streams falling into the Ohio. . \ proposition was made by certain commissioners sent out by the Continental Congress,-Joseph Yates and John Montgomery for Pennsylvania, and Dr. Thomas Walker and John Harvey for Virginia, -- to Pittsburg to treat with the Indians, that in order to settle the disputed authority temporarily, county courts should be held under the authority of Pennsylvania north of the Youghiogheny River, and of Virginia south of that stream; but no attention was paid to this advice, probably being equally distasteful to each party.
At the session of the Virginia Assembly, held in 1776, the western por- tion of what is now Pennsylvania was divided into three counties, viz .: Yohigania, Ohio, and Mononghalia, and courts were established to be held monthly under justices of Virginia appointment.
The Revolutionary War was now fairly inaugurated, and as the British were using every endeavor to enlist the Indians in their cause against the colonists, issuing commissions freely to disaffected Americans to lead them, and to fit out expeditions from Canada to attack the settlers from the rear.
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it became evident near the close of 1776 that the Indians were standing in hostile attitude. Accordingly, Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, wrote, under date of December 13th, to Lieutenant Dorsey Pentecost, advising him of the hostile temper of the savages, and that he had ordered six tons of lead for the West Augusta district, and counseling that he call a meeting of the militia officers of the district to determine on safe places of deposit. "I am of opinion," he says, "that unless your people wisely improve this winter you may probably be destroyed. Prepare, then, to make resistance while you have time."
According to the request of Governor Henry the militia officers desig- nated the points suitable for magazines, and called for three tons of gun- powder, ten thousand flints and one thousand rifles.
On the 28th of February, 1777, Governor Henry again wrote, request- ing that a detail be made of a hundred men "to escort safely to Pittsburg the powder purchased by Captain Gibson. I suppose it is at Fort Louis, on the Mississippi, under the protection of the Spanish government. I have ordered four four-pound cannons to be cast for strengthening Fort Pitt, as I believe an attack will be made there ere long. Let the provisions be stored there, and consider it as the bulwark of your country." It will be observed that all this legislation and military preparation is had under the authority of the assembly and the Governor of Virginia, for the govern- ment and protection of territory rightfully belonging to Pennsylvania, which was at this time, and remained until 1780, a part of Virginia, which the authorities of Pennsylvania determined not to quarrel about until such time as its charter limits could be fixed and vindicated by competent authority.
We come now to a passage in this early history which shows a phase that might have been realized, which would have changed the whole future of western Pennsylvania,-no less than the project for a new State, which was to be designated by the cuphonious title of Westsylvania. A very elaborate petition was drawn, which recited the inconveniences on account of distance from the seats of government of Virginia and Pennsylvania, of the necessity of having to cross lofty and interminable ranges of mountains, of claims and counter claims to land, and the unsettled boundaries between the two States. This petition was presented to the Continental Congress, was received and ordered filed, but was never acted on, probably because a life and death struggle for existence with the mother country demanded
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all the attention of that body, and for the reason that the Congress had no jurisdiction as yet over territory beyond the united colonies.
The language of this petition is unique, and, in detailing wrongs. cumulative. In reciting the effect of the authority of the two colonies, it proceeds to point out "the pernicious effects of discordant and contending jurisdictions, innumerable frauds, impositions, violences, depredations, feuds. animosities, divisions, litigations, disorders, and even with the effusion of human blood to the utter subversion of all laws-human and divine-of justice, order, regularity, and in a great measure even of liberty itself." It details "the fallacies, violences and fraudulent impositions of land jobbers, pretended officers and partisans of both land offices and others under the sanction of the jurisdiction of their respective provinces, the Earl of Dun- more's warrants, officers' and soldiers' rights, and an infinity of other pre- texts." It gives the details of claims of private parties and companies to fabulous tracts of land, the titles to which rest on the pretended purchase of the Indians. "This is a country," it proceeds, "of at least of 240 miles in length, from the Kittany to opposite the mouth of the Scioto, seventy or eighty miles in breadth from the Alleghany Mountains to the Ohio, rich, fertile and healthy even beyond credibility, and peopled by at least 25,000 families since 1768." It concludes by asking that "the territory embraced in the limits set below be known as the province and government of West- sylvania the inhabitants be invested with every other power, right, privilege and immunity vested, or to be vested, in the other AAmerican colonies; be considered as a sister colony, and the fourteenth province of the American Confederacy: beginning at the eastern bank of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Scioto, and running thence to the top of the Alleghany Mountains, thence with the top of the said mountains to the north limits of the purchase made from the Indians in 1768 at the treaty of Fort Stanwix aforesaid; thence with the said limits to the Allegheny, or Ohio River, and thence down the said river as purchased from the said Indians at the aforesaid treaty of Fort Stanwix to the beginning." There was another project for a new State to be known as Vandalia or Walpole. but none so formal or enforced with such elaborate arguments as in this petition for Westsylvania, though many members of the Walpole Com- pany were influential and possessed of wealth, both in England and the colonies.
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The interest which Virginia manifested for this Monongahela and Ohio country was first aroused by the reports of the beauty of the scenery, the fertility of the soil, and the salubrity of the climate. The desire to obtain vast tracts of this country led to the formation of the Ohio Company with a grant of a half-million acres, which was subsequently swallowed up in Walpole's grant of fabulous extent. To defend these grants against the French, Washington's embassy to Le Boeuf was authorized, and military expeditions of Washington, Braddock, Forbes, Boquet and Stanwix were undertaken. After the French had been finally expelled, Virginia was more eager than ever to hold these claims, to justify them, and to establish Virginia civil polity. But the failure of the British government to vindicate its authority broke the validity of the claims of these companies, and for eight years, while the Revolutionary War lasted, it was left in doubt, whether these titles would eventually be established or lost. During that period, therefore, Virginia continued anxious to assert its authority. But when the surrender of Cornwallis and the breaking of the military force of Britain upon this continent led to a treaty of peace, which left the Continental Congress in supreme authority, then the titles of the Ohio and Walpole Companies, which claimed their legal status from the British government, were left without validity, and were valueless.
When Lord Dunmore assumed the Governorship of Virginia, hie pro- posed to assert his authority with a high hand, regardless of the rights of other parties, and Patrick Henry, who succeeded to the gubernatorial power, seemed disposed to take up the cudgels which Dunmore had dropped. But when the delegates from Virginia to the Continental Con- gress met those from Pennsylvania, the whole subject of disputed authority and mutual boundary seems to have been fairly and candidly canvassed and more moderate views entertained. And, as we have seen, the paper drawn up by the combined wisdom of these delegates was the first word that had a quieting effect. There were very able men in those delegations. John Dick- inson, the author of the Farmer's Letters, was an accomplished scholar and statesman, and Benjamin Franklin was possessed of practical sense amounting to genius. Besides, the congress sat at Philadelphia, where a strong influence centered favorable to the claims of Pennsylvania. A senti- ment was early manifested on the part of both colonies to have commission- ers appointed to settle the dispute.
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The terms of the settlement between Pennsylvania and Maryland were very explicit, with one exception. The terms proceeded upon the supposi- tion that the perimeter of the circle drawn with a radius of twelve miles from New Castle would at some point cut the beginning of the 40° of north latitude; whereas, this parallel fell far to the south of it. This left the be- ginning of the boundary unfixed and uncertain, and was the cause of much wrangling and contention, not only on the part of Virginia, but also of Maryland. But the matter of five degrees of longitude and three of latitude was as definite and unchangeable as the places of the stars in the heavens. Earthquakes might change the surface, and the subsidence of the land might yield the place to the empire of the waves, yet the boundaries unchanged could be easily identified. Some observations had been made at Logs- town, a few miles below Pittsburg, on the Ohio, by which it was evident that this place was considerably within the boundaries of Pennsylvania, both from the west and south. On any clear night the altitude of certain stars would give the latitude of the place, and a good chronometer would show by difference in time the longitude. The Virginia delegates in Congress were scholars enough to understand that. It is probable that they saw at the outset that the Pennsylvania title was good, and would eventually pre- vail. This accounts for the conciliatory temper manifested in that com- munication quoted above.
During the past few years the government of Pennsylvania have had commissioners engaged in rectifying the boundary lines of the State and planting monuments to mark them. By an act approved on the 7th day of May, 1885, the reports and maps of these commissioners, together with the complete journal of Mason and Dixon, from December 7, 1763, to January 29, 1768, have been published. From that volume many facts upon this subject have been drawn.
It appears that as early as the 18th of December, 1776, the assembly of Virginia passed a resolution agreeing to fix the southern boundary of Pennsylvania from the western limit of Maryland due north to the begin- ning of the 4Ist parallel, and thence due west to the western limit of the State. This was a concession on the part of Virginia, as it had previously claimed all west of the summits of the Alleghany Mountains to the New York line. This would have made a break northward from the western boundary of Maryland, and would have left the counties of Fayette and
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Greene, and a portion of Washington, in Virginia. The Pennsylvania au- thorities would not agree to this. Propositions and counter propositions continued to pass between the assemblies of the two colonies, resulting in nothing until the sessions of 1779, when it was determined to submit the whole matter in controversy to the arbitrament of commissioners. In a letter of 27th of May, 1779, Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, com- municated to the council of Pennsylvania the intelligence that commission- ers had been appointed. On the 27th of August, 1779, the commissioners of the two States met at Baltimore-James Madison and Robert Andrews on the part of Virginia, and George Bryan, John Ewing and David Ritten- house for Pennsylvania. Their proceedings were in writing.
The first paper was drawn by the Pennsylvania delegates, in which the points in controversy were fully argued, and this demand made: "For the sake of peace and to manifest our earnest desire of adjusting the dispute on amicable terms, we are willing to recede from our just rights [the beginning of the 40° north] and therefore propose that a meridian be drawn from the head springs of the north branch of the Potomac to the beginning of the 40° of north latitude, and from thence that a parallel be drawn to the west- ern extremity of the State of Pennsylvania, to continne forever the boundary of the State of Pennsylvania and Virginia." This would have made a break southward at the western extremity of Maryland and would have carried into Pennsylvania a large tract of what is now West Virginia, nearly the whole of the territory drained by the Monongahela and its tributaries, a tract equal to four counties of the size of Crawford.
This proposition the Virginia commissioners rejected in an elaborate argument, in which all the points made by the Pennsylvanians were consid- ered, and they close with the following counter proposition: "But we trust, on a further consideration of the objections of Virginia to your claim, that you will think it advantageous to your State to continue Mason and Dixon's line to your western limits, which we are willing to establish as a perpetual boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania on the south side of the last mentioned State. We are induced to make this proposal, as we think that the same principle which effected the compromise between Pennsylvania and Maryland should operate equally as strong in the present case." This proposition was the line which eventually prevailed and is the present boundary.
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But the Pennsylvania commissioners were unwilling to give up the ter- ritory reaching down to the beginning of the 40°. They, accordingly, made this compensatory proposition: "That Mason and Dixon's line should be extended so far beyond the western limits of Pennsylvania as that a meridian drawn from the western extremity of it to the beginning of the 43° of north latitude shall include so much land as will make the State of Pennsylvania what it was originally intended to be, viz: three degrees in breadth and five degrees in length, excepting so much as has been heretofore relinquished to Maryland." This would have put on to the western end of the State a nar- row patch embracing the Panhandle and a part of Ohio, stretching up to the lake, which should be equal in area to the block of West Virginia, which Pennsylvania would give up if Mason and Dixon's line should be adopted.
This proposition was promptly rejected, and the following substituted: "Considering how much importance it may be to the future happiness of the United States that every cause of discord be now removed we will agree to relinquish even a part of that territory which you before claimed but which we still think is not included in the charter of Pennsylvania. We, therefore, propose that a line run due west from that point where the merid- ian of the first fountain of the north branch of the Potomac meets the end of the 30' of the 39° of northern latitude, five degrees of longitude to be computed from that part of the river Delaware which lies in the same par- allel, shall forever be the boundary of Pennsylvania and Virginia on the southern [northern] part of the last mentioned State." This gave Penn- sylvania a break into West Virginia not to the amount of four counties, but less than two; but it also provided that the western boundary of Penn- sylvania should, instead of being a due north and south line, conform to the meanderings of the Delaware, being at all points just five degrees from the right bank of that stream.
To this the Pennsylvania commissioners made the following reply: "We will agree to your proposal of the 30th of August of 1779 for running and forever establishing the southern boundary of Pennsylvania in the latitude of thirty-nine degrees thirty minutes westward of the meridian of the source of the north branch of the Potomac River, upon condition that yon con- sent to allow a meridian line drawn northward from the western extremity thereof as far as Virginia extends, to be the western boundary of Pennsyl-
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vania." This would have given a narrow strip of Virginia westward of Mary- land and a due north and south line for the western boundary as at present.
This proposition was rejected by the Virginia commissioners; but they submitted in lien thereof the following: "We will continue Mason and Dix- on's line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed to the river Delaware, for your southern boundary, and will agree that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the State be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever." This ended the conference and forever settled the southwestern boundary of our good old common- wealth, and brought to an end a controversy that at one time threatened to result in internecine war.
So far as it could be done in theory the controversy was now at an end, though the approval of the two State governments was yet to be had, and when that was secured the actual running of the lines and marking the boundaries, which, as the sequel proves, were subject to delays and irritating contentions. The labors of the commissioners, who held their sittings in Baltimore, were concluded on the 31st of August. 1779. The Assembly of Pennsylvania, at the sitting of November 19th, 1779, promptly passed a resolution "to ratify and finally confirm the agreement entered into between the commissioners from the State of Virginia and the commissioners from this State." In good faith Pennsylvania promptly acted. But the Virginia Assembly delayed, and in the meantime commissioners had been appointed to adjust and settle titles of claimants to unpatented lands. Although the commissioners had come to settlement of differences on the last day oi August, as late as December of this year Francis Peyton, Phillip Pendleton, Joseph Holmes and George Merryweather, land commissioners from Vir- ginia for the West Augusta district, embracing the counties of Yohogania, Ohio and Monongahela, Virginia counties, but Westmoreland County, under Pennsylvania authority, came to Redstone, on the Monongahela, and held a court at which a large number of patents were granted to Virginia claim- ants to vast tracts of the choice lands along the Monongahela Valley to the prejudice of Pennsylvania claimants, though it was now known that all this country, by the award of the Baltimore conference, was within the limits of Pennsylvania. Though Virginia could claim that the award had not been ratified by the Virginia Assembly, yet high-minded statesmanship would have held that all questions of the nature of actual sale of lands should have
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been held in abeyance at this stage of the settlement. The survey of lands thus adjudicated averaged in quantity from 400 to 800 acres to each claim- ant, and the number of claims passed upon was almost fabulous.
Seeing that the Virginia parties were intent on pushing their claims. Joseph Reed, President of the Pennsylvania Council, addressed a letter to Continental Congress in these uncompromising terms: "We shall make such remonstrance to the State of Virginia as the interest and honor of this State require; if these should be ineffectual we trust we shall stand justified in the eyes of God and man, if, availing ourselves of the means we possess we afford that support and aid to the much injured and distressed inhabit- ants of the frontier counties, which their situation and our duty require." This was a broad hint coming from the highest authority in the common- wealth, that the time might come when force would be necessary to enforce just rights. On receipt of this notice the Congress passed a resolution rec- ommending that neither party dispose of any more of the disputed lands. But the Virginia commissioners, sitting at Redstone, refused to be gov- erned by the recommendation of Congress. Again was Congress addressed on the 24th of March, 1780, in more forceful language by the Pennsylvania authorities. "If Pennsylvania must arm for her internal defense, instead of recruiting her continental line, if the common enemy, encouraged by .our divisions, should prolong the war, interests of our sister States and the com- mon cause be injured or distressed, we trust we shall stand acquitted before them and the whole world; and if the effusion of human blood is to be the result of this unhappy dispute we humbly trust the great Governor of the universe, who delights in peace, equity and justice, will not impute it to us." But still Virginia authorities would not desist. Finally Pennsylvania au- thorities, having promptly ratified the agreement of. the joint commission- ers to run out the Mason and Dixon line, the Virginia Assembly agreed to the provision if all the lands in possession of Virginia settlers should remain firm in their possession, on whichever side of the line their claims should be found.
This, though unjust on the part of Virginia, was agreed to for the sake of peace, and on the 21st of February, 1781, John Lukens and Archibald McLean were appointed on the part of Pennsylvania, and on the 17th of April James Madison and Robert Andrews, on the part of Virginia, to make the surveys. Thomas Jefferson was at this time Governor of Virginia, and
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