USA > West Virginia > History of West Virginia > Part 13
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The four States laying claim to the region northwest of the Ohio, acted upon the recommendation of the General Government, and hastened to relinquish their
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titles for the common good. New York was first, surrendering hers in 1781. The next was Virginia. The following is the Deed of Cession by which the State forever relinquished jurisdiction in the territory beyond the Ohio :-
DEED OF CESSION.
(Seal of the U. S.)
TO ALL TO WHOM these presents shall come ;
KNOW YE, that among the archives of the United States in Congress assembled, is lodged a deed or instrument in the words following :-
TO ALL WHO SHALL SEE THESE PRESENTS.
We, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, the underwritten delegates for the commonwealth of Virginia, in the Congress of the United States of America, send greeting :-
WHEREAS, The General Assembly of the Common- wealth of Virginia, at their session begun on the twentieth day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, passed an act, entitled " An act to authorize the delegates of this State in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the rights of this Commonwealth to the territory northwestward of the river Ohio," in these words fol- lowing, to wit :-
WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States did, by their act of the 6th day of September, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty, recommend to the
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several States in the Union, having claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the western country, a liberal cession to the United States, of a portion of their respective claims, for the common benefit of the Union ; and whereas this Commonwealth did, on the 2d day.of January, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-one, yield to the Congress of the United States, for the benefit of the said States, all right, title and claim, which the said commonwealth had to the territory north- west of the river Ohio, subject to the conditions. annexed to the said act of cession: AND WHEREAS, the United States in Congress assembled have, by their act of the 13th of September last, stipulated the terms on which they agree to accept the cession of this State should the Legislature approve thereof, which terms, although they do not come fully up to the propositions of this Com- monwealth, are conceived, on the whole, to approach so nearly to them, as to induce this State to accept thereof, in full confidence that Congress will, in justice to this State, for the liberal cession she hath made, earnestly press upon the other States claiming large tracts of uncultivated territory, the propriety of making cessions equally liberal, for the common benefit and support of the Union: Therefore, Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall and may be lawful for the delegates of this State to the Congress of the United States, or such of them as shall be assembled in Con- gress, and the said delegates, or such of them, so assem- bled, are hereby fully authorized and empowered, for and on behalf of this State, by proper deeds or instru- ments in writing, under their hands and seals, to convey, transfer, assign, and make over, unto the United States in Congress assembled, for the benefit of the said States,
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all right, title and claim, as well of soil as jurisdiction, which this Commonwealth hath to the territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying and being, to the northwest of the river Ohio, subject to the terms and conditions contained in the before recited act of Congress of the thirteenth day of September last ; that is to say, upon condition that the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square or as near thereto as circumstances will admit: and that the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and admitted members of the Federal Union ; having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence, as the other States. That the neces- sary and reasonable expenses incurred by this State, in subduing any British posts, or in maintaining forts or garrisons within, and for the defence, or in acquiring any part of, the territory so ceded or relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United States : and that one commissioner shall be appointed 'by Congress, one by this Commonwealth, and another by these two commis- sioners, who, or a majority of them, shall be authorized and empowered to adjust and liquidate the account of the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by this State, which they shall judge to be comprised within the . intent and meaning of the act of Congress, of the tenth of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty, respecting such expenses. That the French and Cana- dian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them, and be
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protected in the enjoyments of their rights and liberties. That a quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by this State, shall be allowed and granted to the then Colonel, now General George Rogers Clarke, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with him when the post of Kaskaskies and St. Vincents were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorpo- rated into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth, in such place, on the northwest side of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers shall choose, and to be afterward divided among the said officers and soldiers in due pro- portion, according to the laws of Virginia. That in case the quantity of good land on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon 'the waters of Cumberland river and between the Green river and Tennessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops, upon continental establishment, should, from the North Caro- lina line bearing in further on the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency should be made up to the said troops, in good lands, to be laid off between the rivers Sciota and Little Miami, and to the northwest side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia. That all the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States, and not reserved for nor appropriated to any of the before mentioned purposes, or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the confederation or federal
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alliance of the said States, Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose and for no other use or purpose whatsoever. Provided, that the trust hereby reposed in the delegates of this State, shall not be executed unless three of them at least are present in Congress.
AND WHEREAS, the said General Assembly, by their resolution of June sixth, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, had constituted and appointed us, the said Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, delegates to represent the said Com- monwealth in Congress for one year, from the first Monday in November the next following, which reso- lution remains in full force : Now, THEREFORE, KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, by virtue of the power and authority committed to us by the act of the said General Assembly of Virginia, before recited, and in the name, and for and on behalf, of the said Common- wealth, do, by these presents, convey, transfer, assign, and make over, unto the United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of the said States, Virginia inclusive, all rights, title and claim, as well of soil as of jurisdiction, which the said Commonwealth hath to the territory or tract of country within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying and being, to the north- west of the river Ohio, to and for the uses and pur- poses and on the conditions of the said recited act. In testimony whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names and affixed our seals, in Congress, the first day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand
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seven hundred and eighty-four, and of the independ- ence of the United States the eighth.
TH. JEFFERSON, [L. S.]
S. HARDY, [L. S.]
ARTHUR LEE, [L. s.] JAMES MONROE, [L. S.]
Signed and sealed and delivered in the presence of
CHAS. THOMPSON, HENRY REMSEN, Junr., BEN. BANKSON, Junr.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, the United States have caused their Great Seal to be affixed to this exemplifi- cation. WITNESS, Charles Thompson, esquire, their secretary and keeper of their Great Seal.
CHAS. THOMPSON. 1
In May, 1785, Congress passed an act defining the mode of surveying the public lands. Previous to that date, surveys were determined from arbitrary lines, such as water courses, mountain ranges and coast lines without reference to parallels or meridians. Under that act, the plan adopted was that submitted by Thomas Hutchins, of New Jersey, an officer in the Continental army. In 1778, Congress created the office of "Geographer of the United States," and Hutchins was appointed to fill it. He served in this capacity until the close of the war, winning distinction as a military engineer. In 1785, he received instruc- tions to proceed to the north bank of the Ohio, at a point due north from the terminus of Mason and Dix- on's line, and, after ascertaining the true meridian and parallel, to establish a "Geographer's Line," running
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directly west through the territory. Hutchins, with several assistants, reached Pittsburg in the spring of 1786, and having previously assisted in determining the western Pennsylvania line, easily located the point at which he was to begin. Thence with compass and chain, he extended the Geographer's Line to the west forty- two miles, over the hills and across the valleys of what is now Columbiana and Carroll counties, Ohio, and ter- minated the same on the highlands near the southeast- ern corner of Starke county. Such was the first survey made within the limits of the Northwest Territory. Hutchins continued the work until April, 1789, when he died at Pittsburg, and with his death the office of Geographer of the United States ceased to exist.
As has been seen, Virginia, by her deed of cession, retained the lands lying between the Sciota and Little Miami rivers. This territory was later known as the Virginia Military District, and contained an area of six thousand five hundred and seventy square miles, or four million two hundred and four thousand eight hun- dred acres,-equal to one-sixth of the entire area of the present State of Ohio. In August, 1787, an office for the survey and location of these lands was estab- lished at Louisville, Kentucky, and the Virginia soldiers holding State land warrants, were allowed the quantity of land designated in the warrants, with permission to locate it in any part of the District not previously pat- ented. This, as throughout the whole of what is now West Virginia, gave rise to almost endless litigation, for each one was permitted to select his own land and to locate the same by any natural boundary, however irregular it might be. As a consequence, great irregu- larities in township and county boundaries followed,
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they being based on those of the patents. The surveys were so inaccurately made, that in order to locate the Little Miami river on official maps, it became necessary to run an east and west line through the District, near the parallel of Chillicothe, thus connecting the United States surveys east of the Sciota with those west of the Miami. Beyond this, nothing has ever been done to correct the irregular surveys, and it is not now probable that they will ever be changed. These titles have been the cause of more litigation than have all others in the entire State of Ohio.
The most important act of the last Continental Con- gress was the establishment of a settled government for the Northwest Territory. It was one of the most important laws ever enacted by the representatives of the American people. That vast domain had been conceded to the General Government by New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia, and the next notable event was to be the founding of a new State within its limits. This was done by the Ohio Company of Associates, formed in 1786, and composed chiefly of officers and soldiers of the Revolution, whose homes were principally in New England. Its purchase-the terms of which were completed October 17th, 1787- embraced a tract of land containing about one and a half million acres. This was the second survey made within the present limits of Ohio, and was situated principally within the present boundaries of Washing- ton, Athens, Meigs and Galia counties, in that State.
At a meeting of the directors of the Company, held November 23d, 1787, General Rufus Putnam was chosen superintendent. Early in December six boat builders and a number of other mechanics were sent
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forward to Simrall's Ferry-now West Newton-on the Youghiogheny, under the command of Major Hat- field White. The party reached its destination in January, and at once proceeded to build a boat for the use of the Company. -
Early in winter the pioneers left their New England homes and began the journey to other ones to be found in the Western wilderness. They passed over the Alleghenies and reached the Youghiogheny about the middle of February. The "Mayflower "-as the boat was called which was to transport the settlers to their destination-was forty-five feet long, twelve feet wide and of fifty tons burthen. All things were in readiness. The voyagers embarked at Simrall's Ferry, and passed down the Youghiogheny into the Monon- gahela, thence into the Ohio, and thence down that river to the mouth of the Muskingum, where they arrived April 7th, 1788, and there made the first perma- nent settlement of civilized men within the present limits of Ohio.
Their settlement was established upon a point of land between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, just opposite and across the latter from Fort Harmar, built in 1786, and at the time of the coming of the colonists, garri- soned by a small military force under the command of Major Doughty. At a meeting held beneath the spreading boughs of the trees on the bank of the Mus- kingum, July 2d, 1788, it was voted that Marietta should be the name of the town, it being so called in honor of Maria Antoinette, Queen of France.
The territory now embraced within the limits of the State of Kentucky was long under the jurisdiction of Virginia. The origin of the word Kentucky, notwith-
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standing it is said to signify "The Dark and Bloody Ground," appears to be involved in obscurity. Mann Butler, in his "History of Kentucky," p. 132, says that after inquiry among those familiar with the Indian · languages, he is unable to learn its true meaning. The Kentucky river is called Cuttawa by Lewis Evans, on his map of the Middle Colonies, published at Phila- delphia in 1755. In the articles of the Treaty of Green- ville, in 1795, it is referred to as the " Kentucke."
The region now embraced within the State was organized as a county under the name of Kentucky, by an act of the Virginia Assembly in 1776, and such it continued until 1782, when by an act of the same body it was divided, and Jefferson, Fayette, and Lin- coln-the parent counties of Kentucky-were formed from it. The former embraced that part of the old county which lay south of the Kentucky river, north of Green river, and west of Big Benson and Ham- mond's creeks; the second beginning at the mouth of the Kentucky river, extended up its middle fork to the source, and embraced the northern and eastern portion of the present State on that side of the Kentucky. The residue of the primitive county was called Lin- coln. In 1783, an improvement of the Judiciary in this distant section of the State was directed by the General Assembly of Virginia, uniting the three counties into a Judicial District to be known as the "District of Kentucky." The first court for the same was organ- ized at Harrodsburg on the 3d of March in the above- named year, with John Floyd and Samuel McDowell as Judges. John May was the first clerk, and Walker Daniel the first District Attorney.
But now the people began to dream of an inde-
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pendent commonwealth, and soon action began to be taken to secure the desired result. On the 27th day of December, 1784, citizens from all the settled parts of the District met in convention at Danville, the temporary capital, and after having elected Samuel * McDowell President and Thomas Todd Secretary, they resolved "in favor of applying for an act to render Kentucky independent of Virginia." In 1785, Nelson county was formed from that part of Jefferson lying south of Salt river. In 1786, Bourbon county was formed from Fayette and Mercer, and Madison from Lincoln, thus increasing the number in the Dis- trict to seven.
Another convention met at Danville on the 8th of August, 1786, and resolved unanimously "that it is the indispensable duty of the convention to make applica- tion to the General Assembly at the ensuing session for an act to separate this District from the Govern- ment forever, on terms honorable to both and injurious to neither." Virginia heard the petition with favor, and the Assembly enacted that the people of Kentucky should frame for themselves a constitution, and that the authority of Virginia should cease so soon as Con- gress should admit the new State to the Federal Union. Kentucky at once elected John Brown a member of Congress. He was the only one that ever sat for Kentucky in that body under the old Articles of Con- federation. He presented the petition of the people of the proposed State, but no action was taken until after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, when in 1792 Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the fifteenth State.
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The boundary line soon after agreed upon is the
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same as that now separating Kentucky and West Virginia. Friday, December 25th, 1795, the Virginia Assembly, by joint resolution, authorized the Governor to appoint commissioners to ascertain the said bound- ary, and requested the Governor of Kentucky to appoint similar ones to cooperate with them. On the part of Virginia, Governor Brooke appointed Archi- bald Stuart, General Joseph Martin, and Creed Taylor; $ while the Governor of Kentucky named John Coburn, Robert Johnson, and Buckner Thurston on behalf of that State. These commissioners in the autumn of 1799, met at Cumberland Gap, now on the northern boundary of Tennessee, and began their work. In their report they declared the following to be the boundary between the two States: "To begin at the point where the Carolina, now Tennessee, line crosses the top of the Cumberland mountains, near the Cum- berland Gap; thence northeastwardly along the top or highest part of the said Cumberland mountains, keeping between the head-waters of the Cumberland and Kentucky rivers, on the west side thereof, and the head-waters of Powell's and Guest's rivers and the pound fork of Sandy, on the east side thereof, con- tinuing along the top or highest part of said mountain, crossing the road leading over the same at the Little Point Gap, where by some it is called the Hollow mountain, to where it terminates at the west fork of Sandy, commonly called Russell's fork; thence with a line to be run north fifty-five degrees east, till it inter- sects the other great principal branch (Tugg Fork) of Sandy ; thence down the same to its junction with the west branch, and thence down main Sandy to its con- fluence with the Ohio." That part of the line between
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the forks of the Sandy was to be determined by sur- veyors, and the commissioners selected Brice Martin and Hugh Fulton to do the work. They began at "a red oak, white oak, and two pines," marked "V. K." __ Virginia and Kentucky-on each, standing on a high cliff, where Russell's fork of Sandy runs through the Cumberland mountains ; thence with the said course to the said other fork (Tugg) of Sandy, eight thousand six hundred and forty poles to a poplar, black gum, and two spruce pines, each marked with the letters "V. K," trees along the said line having been marked with four chops in the form of a diamond. Both States accepted the boundary so determined, that formed by the Big Sandy being that which now sepa- rates West Virginia from Kentucky.
CHAPTER XIV.
WEST VIRGINIANS IN THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1788, WHICH RATIFIED THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.
Meeting of the Convention-Counties then existing within the present Limits of West Virginia-Delegates from the Same-General William Darke-General Adam Steven-Colonel John Stuart-Captain George Clendenin, the Founder of Charleston-Ebenezer Zane, the Founder of Wheeling.
SOON after the close of the Revolution it was seen that while the articles of confederation had bound the country together in time of war, they were not adapted to the new order of things; and for the purpose of forming "a more perfect union" the Federal Con- stitution was framed. Its firmest supporters were the men who had led the armies of the Republic, and achieved its independence.
The convention which assembled in Richmond in June, 1788, to ratify that instrument was composed of some of the most eminent men of Virginia. The names of Marshall, Madison, Monroe, Mason, Nicholas, Henry, Randolph, Pendleton, Lee, Washington, Wythe, Harrison, Bland, Grayson and others, shed a lustre on the deliberations of that august body which has never been surpassed in the annals of the old dominion.
Seven counties were then checkered on the map of that part of Virginia's western domain now included within the limits of West Virginia, and each had two representatives in that convention. These counties with their representatives were as follows :
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Berkeley .- William Darke and Adam Steven. Greenbrier .- George Clendenin, John Stuart. Hampshire .- Andrew Woodrow, Ralph Humphreys. Harrison .- George Jackson, John Prunty. Hardy .- Isaac Van Matre, Abel Seymour. Monongalia .- John Evans, William McClerry. Ohio .- Archibald Woods, Ebenezer Zane.
Of these representatives nearly all were distin- guished pioneers, statesmen and soldiers. They be- longed to a class of men of whom it was said: "They are farmers to-day, statesmen to-morrow, and soldiers always."
WILLIAM DARKE, one of the delegates from Berkeley county, was born near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1736, and at the age of five years accompanied his parents south of the Potomac, where they reared their cabin home within four miles of the present site of Shepherdstown, now in Jefferson county. Here they were on the outermost bound of civilization, all to the west of them being an unbroken wilderness. Their nearest neighbor appears to have been Thomas Shep- herd, the founder of Shepherdstown, and Robert Harper, whose name is preserved in that of Harper's Ferry. Here amid these solitudes young Darke grew to manhood. Nature made him a noble man ; he was endowed with an herculean frame; his manners were rough ; his mind strong but uncultivated, and his dis- position frank and fearless. From infancy he was acquainted with " war's dread alarm," for, throughout his youthful years, he had listened to the recital of the bloody drama then being enacted on the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers. His familiarity with the story of savage warfare aroused in him a spirit of adventure
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and daring, and he longed to engage in " struggle fierce and wild." The opportunity soon came. In the spring of 1755, General Braddock arrived at Alexandria, Vir- ginia, with two thousand British regulars, and at once proceeded to Fort Cumberland, where he was joined by a regiment of Virginia Provincials, principally Valley men, one of whom was William Darke, then but nine- teen years of age. Though in the thickest of the fight he escaped death at Braddock's defeat, and returned home, where for fifteen years he was engaged in de- fending the Virginia frontier from the incursions of the savages, in which he was associated with George Washington, George Rogers Clark, William Clark, Andrew Lewis and others whose names are prominent in frontier annals. When the Revolution came, Cap- tain Darke hastened to join the patriot army, in which, because of meritorious service, he was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He, together with the greater part of his regiment, was taken prisoner at Germantown and detained on board of a prison-ship until November Ist, 17So, when he was exchanged and returned to his post in the army. During the following spring he recruited what was known as the "Hampshire and Berkeley Regiment," at the head of which he marched to Tidewater, Virginia, where he was actively engaged during the siege of Yorktown, at which place, October 19th, 1781, he witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis's army to the combined forces of America and France. Returning to his farm in Berkeley county, he continued his agricultural pursuits until elected to the Convention of 1788. He was an ardent Federalist and in that body voted for the ratification of the Constitution, de- spite the opposition, at the head of which was Patrick
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