USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > The boundary controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia; 1748-1785. Minute book of the Virginia Court held at Fort Dunmore (Pittsburgh) for the District of West Augusta, 1775-1776 > Part 2
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On January 1, 1774, Dr. John Connolly had posted a printed advertisement at Pittsburgh, and throughout the vicinity, announcing that Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, had been pleased to nomi- nate and appoint him " Captain, Commandant of the Militia of Pitts- burgh and its Dependencies," and proposed " moving to the House of Burgesses the necessity of erecting a New County, to include Pitts- burgh ;" a Virginia county, of course. This official announcement created some consternation among the good people of the Pennsylvania jurisdiction. Arthur St. Clair, prothonotary of Westmoreland county, caused Dr. Connolly to be arrested, but the prisoner, after a few days confinement in the county jail at Hanna's Town, prevailed upon the sheriff to permit him to visit Pittsburgh, pledging his honor to return before the next court in April. He did return, but in a manner en- tirely unexpected. He returned with from one hundred and fifty to
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one hundred and eighty men, " with their colors flying, and Captains, &c., had their swords drawn." "The first thing they did was to place sentinels at the court-house door, and then Connolly sent a mes- sage that he would wait on the magistrates and communicate the reasons of his appearance :" so says the letter of Thomas Smith to Governor Penn, dated April 7, 1774. Connolly explained his appear- ance, saying among other things, " My orders from the Government of Virginia not being explicit, I have raised the Militia to support the Civil Authority of that Colony vested in me." The Pennsylvania Court at Hanna's Town rose the next day, April 8th, and AEneas Mackay, Devereux Smith, and Andrew McFarlane, three of the justices residing at Pittsburgh, returned to their homes at that place ; and the next day, April 9th, all three were arrested upon the order of Dr. Connolly and sent under guard to Staunton jail, in the valley of old Virginia. Arriving at Williamsburg the prisoners met Lord Dunmore, who heard their story and told them "that Connolly was authorized by him as Governor of Virginia to prosecute the claim of that Colony to Pittsburgh and its Dependencies ; and, as to taking of prisoners, he Connolly, only imitated the Pennsylvania officers in Respect to Con- nolly's imprisonment by them." Dunmore, moreover, released them, and permitted them to return to their homes.
Then followed a series of arrests and counter-arrests, long continued, resulting in riots and broils of intense passion. Every one who, under color of an office held under the laws of Pennsylvania, attempted any official act, was likely to be arrested and jailed by persons claiming to hold office under the government of Virginia. Likewise were Virginia officials liable to arrest and imprisonment by the Pennsylvania partisans.
It is impossible to go into any detail in narrating special instances of these extraordinary commotions among the pioneers of a wilderness, all of them occupying homes of rude construction, their roof-trees and firesides all the time to be guarded from the incursions of their savage Indian foes. This condition of things must be remembered in think- ing of these scenes ; and an illustration of the state of the times among our white fathers themselves may be found in extracts from a letter dated August 4, 1771, a little prior to the assumptions of John Con- nolly, written by George Wilson, residing on the Monongahela near the mouth of George's Creek, in what is now Fayette County. George Wilson was then one of the justices of the courts of Bedford county, which had been organized early in 1771 ; and was the great-grand-
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father of Hon. W. G. Hawkins, now one of the judges of the Orphans' Court of Allegheny county. That letter is a " quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." The writer, stating that he had just re- turned home from court, relates that he found a paper being circulated among his neighbors pledging the subscribers to oppose "Every of Pen's Laws, as they called them, except felonious actions, at ye risk of Life & under ye penalty of fiftey pounds, to be Received or Lev- eyed By themselves off ye Estates of ye failure. The first of them I found hardy anuff to offer it in publick, I emediately ordered into Custody, on which a large number Ware assembled as Was supposed to Resque the Prisonar. When their Forman saw that the Arms of his Contrie, that as he said He had thrown Himself into, would not Resque him By force, hee catched up his Rifle, Which Was Well loaded, jumped out of Dors & swore if any man Cam nigh him he would put what Was in his throo them. The Person that Had him in Custody Called for assistance in ye King's name, and in particular Commanded myself. I told him I was a Subject, & was not fit to Command if not willing to obey ; on which I watched his eye until I saw a chance, Sprang in on him & Seized the Rifle by ye Muzzle, and held him So as he Could not Shoot me, until more help Gott in to my assistance, on which I Disarmed him & Broke his Rifle to peses. I Res'd a Sore Bruse on one of my arms By a punch of ye Gun in ye struggle ; Then put him under a Strong Guard, Told them the laws of their Contrie was stronger than the Hardest Ruffin among them. I found it necessary on their Complyance & altering their Resolves, and his promising to Give himself no more trouble in the affair, as hee found that the people Ware not as hardy as hee Expected them to be, to Relece him on his promise of Good Be-haviour."
Correspondence between the Governor of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia occurring immediately after the arrest of Connolly and the Penn- sylvania Justices, resulted in a meeting of Commissioners at William- burg, Va., on May 19, 1774, to endeavor to establish the boundary line. This meeting was fruitless; but it is interesting to note that the Pennsylvania commissioners proposed as our western boundary a line to be drawn from the western end of Mason and Dixon's line, to be extended its proper distance of five degrees of longitude, thence northward but parallel at all points with the meanderings of the Dela- ware River. This line would have left almost all of the present county
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of Washington, and corresponding portions of the counties north and south of it, in the " Pan-Handle " of Virginia. The proposition was rejected on the part of Virginia, her commissioners contending that under a proper construction of Penn's charter, the boundary line should run east of Pittsburgh.
Soon thereafter, in July, 1774, occurred what is called Dunmore's war, at the close of which Logan, the celebrated Indian Chief, made his supposed speech referring to the killing of his dusky family at the mouth of Yellow Creek below the present Steubenville : " Who is there to mourn for Logan ? " Although this war was not of great mag- nitude, and was confined to what is now the state of Ohio, yet its ap- proach so frightened the settlers of the Ohio and Monongahela valleys that it is said in a letter written by Valentine Crawford to Col. Geo. Washington, " There were more than one thousand people crossed the Monongahela in one day at three ferries that are not one mile apart.
Dunmore himself was with the white forces, chiefly adherents of the Virginia jurisdiction ; and it is clear, as before intimated, that in the adjustment of the terms of peace, Dunmore, foreseeing the approach- ing revolution from the mother country, arranged such terms with the Indians as subsequently made them, or aided to make them, the allies of the British armies against our American patriots.
On his way down the river to the scene of the conflict, Lord Dun- more stopped at Fort Dunmore, as the fort at Pittsburgh had been baptized by Dr. Connolly, whence he issued his proclamation, this time personally and publicly asserting the claim of Virginia to all the territory west of the Laurel Hill mountains, and alleging instructions he had lately received from the English government to take it under his immediate control. A counter proclamation by Governor Penn followed on October 12, 1774, instructing the Pennsylvania magis- trates to maintain the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, nothwithstanding Dunmore's fulminations. Dunmore, on his return after the treaty of peace, which was made in the same month of October, stopped again at Pittsburgh, or at Fort Dunmore, as he called the place, when he was once more brought into personal contact with his adherents. He thence proceeded to Redstone, now Brownsville, where he had Thomas Scott arrested and brought before him for the offence of exercising the functions of a Pennsylvania magistrate. Thomas Scott was a distin- guished man of that day and afterward. He became the first pro- thonotary of Washington county when organized, held many other 34
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important public positions, and was a member of the first Congress of the United States under the Constitution of 1787. On the hearing before Lord Dunmore, he was bound over to appear for trial at a court for Augusta county, Va., to be held at Fort Dunmore on December 20, 1774.
DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA.
The Augusta county court was not opened, however, on December 20, 1774, but on December 12th. A writ had been issued by Dun- more, in the name of his British Majesty, adjourning the county court of Augusta county from Staunton, Va., to Fort Dunmore, accompanied with a new commission of the peace, embracing with the old justices of the parent county the names of such of the adherents in the Mo- nongahela valley as were regarded as proper persons for Virginia magistrates.
The District was called the District of West Augusta, and in its ter- ritory now in Pennsylvania it was bounded on the east by the Laurel Hill mountains and extended along the east side of the Allegheny River some distance beyond the Kiskeminitas, embracing all of West- moreland, Allegheny, Beaver, Washington, Greene, and Fayette counties.
The first term of this Virginia court was held at Fort Dunmore on February 21, 1775, when George Croghan, John Campbell, John {Connolly, Thomas Smallman, Dorsey Pentecost, John Gibson, George Vallandigham and William Goe appeared, took the qualifying oaths, and occupied their seats as justices. George Croghan, settled about where Lawrenceville now is, at first a Virginia adherent, had become quite a Pennsylvanian during Dunmore's war, but he was now made the presiding justice of Dunmore's court, and this brought him back once more among the Virginia partisans. From this date there were not only two different sets of magistrates, with their subordinate offi- cers, assessors, and commissioners, over the same people in the Monongahela valley, but within a few miles of each other there were established two different courts, one at Pittsburgh, the other at Hanna's Town, regularly or irregularly administering justice under the laws of two different governments.
On the next day after the first sitting of the court, to wit, on Feb- ruary 22, 1775, Robert Hanna and James Caveat, two of the West- moreland county justices, were arrested for the performance of their duties as Pennsylvania magistrates, and confined at Pittsburgh for
ANN
Plate XXVII.
ANNALS OF CARNEGIE MUSEUM, Vol. 1.
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about three months, vainly endeavoring to obtain a release. The Governor and Council of Pennsylvania were probably engaged in the consideration of affairs of a most auspicious nature ; but, in the latter part of June, 1775, the sheriff of Westmoreland county, aided by a posse of effective strength, proceeded to Pittsburgh and set the two justices at large, taking Dr. John Connolly with him to Hanna's town ; and on the records of the Westmoreland county court, July Term, 1775, there is found an action of Capias in Case, indicating an arrest for damages, brought by " Robert Hanna, Esq. v. John Connolly."
THE REVOLUTION.
This case, however, was never brought to trial ; for public affairs had taken on a new aspect. Our settlers for a time ceased to fight each other, but stood together expectant looking for a contest with the trained forces of the mother country. On April 19, 1775, Lexington and Concord became noted names of history. The astounding news from those villages had scarcely reached the Monongahela valley, when public meetings were held on the same day, to wit, May 16, 1775, both at Hanna's Town and Pittsburgh. At Hanna's Town the Pennsylvania adherents assembled ; at Pittsburgh, the Virginia partisans. Each meeting passed a set of resolutions with equally forcible approval of the armed resistance to the invasion of Ameri- can rights by the English government, and equally urging united action by force of arms successfully to sustain that resistance. We may call these sets of resolutions, adopted on the same day by the separate adherents of two colonial jurisdictions, the Monongahela Declaration of Independence. They antedate more than a year the Declaration of Independence adopted and read to the people at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and they antedate the celebrated Mecklenburg Reso- lutions of North Carolina by four days. All honor to the Mononga- hela valley !
A portion of the resolutions of the Westmoreland county meeting is worthy of being copied :
"Resolved, unanimously, That there is no reason to doubt but the same system of tyranny and oppression [referring to the oppressive measures of the British government] will (should it meet with success in Massachusetts Bay) be extended to other parts of America; it is therefore the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who has any public virtue or love for his country, or any bowells for pos-
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terity, by every means which God has put in his power, to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes."
.The spirit of the Revolution being abroad, the Monongahela and Ohio are soon rid of both John Connolly and his illustrious chief, Lord Dunmore. Dunmore became alarmed for his own safety and re- moved his family aboard the "Fowey," a British man-of-war in the Chesapeake. Connolly, soon after his release by the Westmoreland authorities was sent to General Gage commanding the British forces at Boston. General Gage returned him to Lord Dunmore, who granted him a commission as lieutenant-colonel of a regiment to be raised in the " back parts " and Canada, which meant, to be composed of Indians. While on his way to Detroit with his commission and in- structions, he was captured by the American forces at Hagerstown, Md., when he was turned over to Congress and held a prisoner until 1780-81, and was then exchanged. After the Revolution he seems to have settled in Canada ; subsequently he published in London his " Narrative" of his life and public acts, a copy of which was pur- chased of late years for a large sum of money and is now in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. It has been
reprinted in the pages of the Pennsylvania Magasine of History. But the Virginians and Pennsylvanians on the Monongahela and Ohio fought side by side under the Stars and Stripes ; for it will not do to suppose that only the people of the east fought with the British lion. At least two full Pennsylvania regiments were raised west of the moun- tains and served in the battles of the east, a fact to be remembered by the local historian.
DIVISION OF WEST AUGUSTA.
The Revolution after July 4, 1776, was a fact accomplished, though its success was still in the dark future. Pennsylvania from a prov- ince, and Virginia from a crown colony, had both become inde- pendent states in the new American confederacy. And in October, 1776, the District of West Augusta, by an enactment of the General Assembly of Virginia, was divided into three new counties, Ohio, Yohogania, and Monongalia. For a short while before this division, the courts of West Augusta were transferred to Augusta Town, a mile west of Washington, Pa. At that place the courts were held Sep- tember 17, 18, and November 19, 20, 1776. The new division then took effect. All three of the new counties came together at Catfish
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Camp, now Washington. The courts of Ohio county were held at Black's Cabin, on Short Creek, now West Liberty, West Virginia ; those for Monongalia county on the farm of Theophilus Phillips about two miles above New Geneva, in what is now Fayette county ; while the courts of Yohogania were held on the farm of Andrew Heath, a mile or so above West Elizabeth in what is now Allegheny county. The courts of this county continued to be held regularly for the dis- patch of business, civil and criminal and there was much of it, until August 28, 1780, when it was " Ordered that Court adjourn till Court in course." There was no court in course, for an agreement had been entered into for the running of the boundary between the two states on a line that would blot out Yohogania county forever.
ADJUSTMENT OF THE BOUNDARY LINE.
As has been stated, during the War of the Revolution the Pennsyl- vania and Virginia adherents on the Monongahela and Ohio ceased to fight each other, and not only sent more than two regiments of yeo- menry to join with the continentals in the battles in the east, but they were obliged at the same time to provide for the protection of their families from the hostile incursions of the savage allies of the British in the west. Yet the boundary controversy was not yet determined.
On December 18, 1776, both houses of the General Assembly of Vir- ginia passed a resolution that it was expedient and wise to remove as much as possible all causes of future controversy ; and "to quiet the minds of the people that may be affected thereby, and to take from our common enemies an opportunity of fomenting mutual distrust and jealousy, the commonwealth ought to offer such reasonable terms of accommodation, (even if the loss of some territory is incurred thereby ), as may be cordially accepted by our sister State, and an end put to all future dispute by a firm and permanent agreement and settlement." The resolutions then proceeded to authorize the Virginia delegates in Congress to propose to Pennsylvania that a line be drawn from the Maryland corner on Mason and Dixon's line due north to parallel of latitude 40°, and thence the southern boundary of Pennsylvania was to be run full five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware River, and from the end of that line the western boundary should be run corre- sponding with the meanderings of the Delaware River on the eastern boundary. This line would have given to Virginia a large part of what is now Fayette county, all of Greene county, and quite a portion
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of Washington and of other counties to the north of it. Of course Pennsylvania could not accept this offer, though during 1777 and 1778 negotiations were made through the Virginia delegates; with such little interest, however, that the papers became lost.
It appears that early in 1779, just when is not now known, both States appointed commissioners to deal with the subject, and these commissioners - George Bryan, John Ewing and David Rittenhouse on the part of Pennsylvania, and Rev. James Madison, Rev. Robert · Andrews and Thomas Lewis on the part of Virginia - met at Balti- more on August 27, 1779. The proceedings at this meeting were in writing, were reported to the Assemblies of the respective States, and may be found in Henning's Statutes of Virginia, Vol. X., p. 119. A final agreement was reached and put in writing on August 31, 1779. It was very simple in its terms, for a matter so long contested and of such magnitude. It was as follows :
" To extend Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longi- tude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boun- dary of Pennsylvania ; and that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern line of said State be the western line of said State forever."
This Baltimore agreement was ratified and finally confirmed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on November 19, 1779. Virginia, however, held back, and whether from a dissatisfaction with the boun- dary as recommended by the commissioners or with an intention of benefiting her whilom adherents in the Monongahela valley, her Assembly had no action on the subject until the following summer. And what occurred in the meantime ?
The General Assembly of Virginia, in May, 1779, passed an act " for the adjusting and settling titles of claimants to unpatented lands" upon the western waters, creating districts, with four commis- sioners to each, to hear proofs of settlement rights and grant certificates to claimants. The commissioners for Ohio, Monongalia and Yohoga- nia counties were Francis Peyton, Philip Pendleton, Joseph Holmes and George Merriweather. All this before the Baltimore conference. But after the Baltimore agreement, and before its ratification by the Gen- eral Assembly of Virginia, these commissioners met at Cox's Fort, in Washington county, near the Monongahela River, above Elizabeth, and at other points, and granted hundreds of certificates to claimants under Virginia settlement rights. These " Virginia Certificates," so-called,
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afterwards formed the basis of a very large portion of the land titles of Washington county. Gen. Washington's title to over a thousand · acres in Mount Pleasant township, Washington county, was based upon Virginia certificates. This act of sovereignty, before Virginia's ratifi- cation of the Baltimore agreement, raised a storm of indignation among the Pennsylvania adherents, and again some forcible but polite cor- respondence and negotiations resulted. The two States seemed about to resort to arms again to bring about an adjustment. The end of the contest, however, approached gradually, and on July 1, 1780, the Senate of Virginia passed an act of the Lower House which confirmed the Baltimore agreement " on condition that the private property and rights of all persons acquired under, founded on, or recognized by the laws of either country previous to the date hereof, be saved and con- firmed to them," etc .; and Pennsylvania was then prepared, for the sake of an end to the controversy, to yield even to the humiliating conditions proposed, and on September 23, 1780, her General Assem- bly, protesting against the conditions, accepted and fully ratified " the said recited conditions, and the Boundary Line formed thereupon."
RUNNING OF THE BOUNDARY LINE.
It only remained to run and mark the line on the ground. Wash- ington county was erected by an act of assembly passed on March 28, 1781, embracing all the land lying south of the Monongahela, to the southern boundary. But on June 3, 1781, only a temporary line was run. Troubles had ensued resulting in " Obstructions " producing " Anarchy and Confusion." Such terms as "Villanous Banditti" were of frequent use on either side, and letters in the State Archives are full of them. There was still much anxiety for the final establish- ment of the two boundaries.
In the spring of 1782 occurred the Indian raids into Washington county, followed by the slaughter of the peaceful Moravian Indians in the Ohio towns by Col. David Williamson's command, and the Craw- ford expedition against the Sandusky Indians, resulting in the burning of Col. Wm. Crawford at the stake. The times were almost as cloudy as ever. But in 1783, the authorities of each state appointed four commissioners to run and mark the permanent boundary. Rev. John Ewing, David Rittenhouse, John Lukens and Thomas Hutchins were appointed by Pennsylvania. By Virginia, Rev. James Madison, Rev. Robert Andrews. John Page and Thomas Lewis were appointed. June 1, 1784, was the time set for beginning the work. An interest-
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ing report of the running of Mason and Dixon's line to the western extremity thereof, dated December 23, 1784, will be found in the Penn- sylvania Archives, Vol. X., p. 375. The meridian line itself from the southwest corner of the state, was finally run and marked, by David Rittenhouse and Andrew Porter, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Ellicott and Joseph Neville on the part of Virginia, on August 23, 1785.9 For the Pennsylvania commissioners and their assistants, in order to insure the prompt and effective performance of their work, there was made the liberal provision of sixty gallons of spirits, twenty gallons brandy, and forty gallons of Madeira wine. And thus was the matter ended.
The original record or minute book of the old Virginia court, held for the District of West Augusta, first at Fort Dunmore, at Pittsburgh, afterwards on the late Gabby farm about a mile southwest of what is now the Borough of Washington, will now be presented, to be followed in a subsequent issue by the records of the court for Yohogania county (after the division of the District of West Augusta into the three new Virginia counties), held on the farm then owned by Andrew Heath near what is now West Elizabeth, in Allegheny county.
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