History of Butler County Pennsylvania, 1895

Transcribed by: Dolores Carlson. For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.

Surnames in this chapter are:

AGNEW, ALEXANDER, ANDERSON, ARMSTRONG, AYRES, BAKER, BRATTON, BREDIN, BUTLER, CARROTHERS, CHAMPLIN, CORRIGAN, CUNNINGHAM, DOUGLAS, DOUGLASS, DUFFY, ELDER, FARRELL, FINDLEY, FITZGIBBONS, FOSTER, GIRTY, HICKS, HIGGINS, HOGG, HOOD, IRVINE, JONES, KELLY, KILPATRICK, LEASON, LEE, LOWREY, MAGINNIS, MARSHALL, MAXWELL, McCARTNEY, McCORD, McCORMICK, McKEE, McNAIR, MILLER, MORRIS, MULLEN, NICHOLSON, O'BRIEN, O'NIEL, PARCHMENT, PENN, POTTER, POWER, PURVIANCE, RED JACKET, ROBB, ROBINSON, SMITH, STAKE, STRICKLAND, STRINGER, THOMPSON, THORN, VARNUM, WALSH, WAYNE, WILLARD, WOLCOTT

The grant of Pennsylvania to William PENN, made March 4, 1681, by Charles II., King of England, was a new way of paying old debts. It appears that in 1674 PENN became trustee of the western half of New Jersey. During his incumbency of that office he filed a claim against the King for 16,000 pounds due to the estate of his father, Admiral PENN, and received, in lieu of sterling money, the territory now forming Pennsylvania. While receiving this grant from Charles II., PENN felt that the donor and the grantee were acting unjustly, and, particularly, that Charles had no more right to make such a present to the son of his creditor than would the Indians had they sailed across the ocean, occupied England, driven her inhabitants into the sea, and made a partition of the lands of Great Britain. The commercial conscience, however, swallowed remorse, and the founder of this great commonwealth bought from the aborigines in 1686 a tract of their most valued hunting grounds for a trifle.

RED JACKET, in his speech at Masonic Hall, Philadelphia, in 1829, outlined very clearly the manner in which the lands were taken possession of by the Caucasian.

Brothers, said he, as soon as the war with Great Britain was over, the United States began to part the Indians' land among themselves. Pennsylvania took a good slice, and so with the rest. I acknowledge that Pennsylvania acted more fair toward us than any of the other States. .  .  . Brethren, permit me to kneel down and beseech you [p. 37] to let us remain on our own land,--have a little patience--the Great Spirit is removing us out of your way very fast; wait yet a little while and we shall all be dead! Then you can get the Indians' land for nothing,--nobody will be here to dispute it with you.

As years grew apace the Indians realized the plans of the invaders and determined to hold in check the advances of the white race. They expressed themselves plainly, but the aggressive people of trade and commerce disregarded the warning, and, in pushing forward their commercial civilization, brought the Indians to bay.

The first organized attack made by the English-speaking colonists on the Indians, in the vicinity of Butler county, was that on Kittanning in September, 1756, by 307 soldiers, under Lieutenant-Colonel ARMSTRONG. The Indian town was burned and with it many Indian women and children. The Colonists lost seventeen killed, thirteen wounded and nineteen missing. The list of killed embraces the following names: John McCORMICK, John LEASON, James POWER, John KELLY, Patrick MULLEN, Carny MAGINNIS, John McCARTNEY, Denis KILPATRICK, Brian CORRIGAN, Theo. THOMPSON, John BAKER, James HIGGINS, Edward O'BRIEN, James ANDERSON, Holdcraft STRINGER, James HOGG and William WALSH. The wounded were James CARROTHERS, James STRICKLAND, Thomas FOSTER, Richard FITZGIBBONS, W. FINDLEY, Robert ROBINSON, John FARRELL, Thomas CHAMPLIN, Charles O'NIEL, Ephraim BRATTON, James POTTER and Andrew DOUGLAS. Among the white captives at Kittanning were Ann McCORD, Martha THORN, Barbara HICKS, Catherine SMITH, Margaret HOOD, Thomas GIRTY and Sarah KELLY, together with a woman and three children.

This tragedy is recorded not only to bring the scene of action closer to this county, but also, to point out that the persona dramatis had changed wonderfully in less than three-quarters of a century. The new-comers from the counties of Northern Ireland, had no thought for the original occupiers, and, as proved by their determined opposition to PENN's surveyors and rent collectors in the Gettysburg country, did not respect the claims of the PENNs, where such claims interfered with their own interests. Strong and warlike and without mercy in war, they marched forward to occupy the land and began the commencement of the end at the neighboring town of Kittanning. Then followed treaties, which were broken by the whites whenever it was to their interest to do so, while the Indians were held to a strict compliance with them.

The Fort Stanwix treaty of 1768 was such an affair. The colony or proprietary then got a show of title eastward to the Allegheny, south of Kittanning. In 1778 the title became vested in the State of Pennsylvania, and from that period to 1794, the war was between her citizens and the Indians. The second treaty of Fort Stanwix, made in 1784, embraced the lands now included in Butler, Venango, Armstrong (in part), Clarion, Allegheny (in part), Forest, Jefferson, Elk, Cameron, McKean, Potter, Lawrence, Mercer, Jefferson, Warren, Crawford and parts of Tioga, Indiana, Clearfield, Clinton, Lycoming and Bradford counties.

The Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Tuscaroras, and the Cornplanter band of Senecas, through the chiefs of the Six Nations, were induced to sign the treaty by Oliver WOLCOTT, Arthur LEE and Richard BUTLER, the commissioners sent to effect the deal. RED JACKET opposed the treaty in a stirring [p. 38] speech, but Cornplanter espoused the cause of the commissioners, because the power of the Six Nations was not equal to that of the Young Republic, which had just sheathed the sword after winning independence from the mother country.

Prior to that year, however, the State had set its eye on the lands, and actually issued bills of credit, secured by these lands, to bankers and soldiers for moneys advanced by the first, and for moneys earned on the battle-field by the second. The bills dwindled in value, creating loss and annoyance, until April, 1781, when the legislature fixed a scale of depreciation, ranging from one and one-half to seventy-five per centum, for each month from 1777 to the date of the act. Certificates were issued according to the new scale, which were negotiable in the land offices of the Commonwealth or transferable, but in all cases the face value was payable in land. The legal title of such evidences of indebtedness was "Depreciation Certificates."

The Act of March 12, 1783, authorized the location and survey of a large tract of land for which holders were at liberty to offer these warrants in payment. That act is substantially as follows:

That for the more speedy and effectual complying with the intention of the law aforesaid, there be and hereby is, located and laid off, a certain tract of land as follows: Beginning where the western boundary of the State crosses the Ohio river; thence up the said river to Fort Pitt; thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Mogulbughtiton creek; thence by a west line to the western boundary of the State; thence south by said boundary to the place of beginning, reserving to the use of the State 3,000 acres in an oblong of not less than one mile in depth from the Allegheny and Ohio rivers and extending up and down the said rivers from opposite Fort Pitt as far as may be necessary to include the same, and the further quantity of 3,000 acres, on the Ohio, on both sides of Beaver creek, including Fort McIntosh, all which remaining tract of land is hereby appropriated as a further fund for the purpose of redeeming the certificates aforesaid.

The Donation Lands, surveyed under the Act of March 12, 1783, embraced the territory within the following described boundaries: From the mouth of the Mahoning creek up the Allegheny to the mouth of Conewango creek; up that creek to the New York State line; thence west to the northwest corner of Pennsylvania; thence south along the western line of this State to the place due west of the point of beginning, and thence east along the northern line of the Depreciation Lands to the mouth of Mahoning creek.

This Act of March, 1783, was passed to fulfill the pledges contained in the Act of March 7, 1780, providing lands for officers and men of the Continental Line, [p. 39] regularly mustered in and out of the Army of the Revolution. On March 24, 1785, surveyors were authorized to lay this large tract out in lots of 500, 300, 250, and 200 acres. Officers ranking from captain to major-general and two-thirds of the number of lieutenant-colonels were to receive the 500 acre lots; while the 300 acre lots were intended for surgeons, surgeon's mates, chaplains, majors, ensigns and one-third of the lieutenant-colonels; the 250 acre lots for non-commissioned officers from the rank of quarter-master sergeant to that of sergeant-major, and the 200 acre lots for lieutenants, corporals, drummers, musicians and private soldiers.

A system of drawing lots was introduced, in which a major-general could draw four tickets, a brigadier three, and a colonel two for the largest lots. A lieutenant-colonel could draw one ticket for 500 acres, and one for 250 acres; a surgeon, a chaplain or a major, two 300 acre lots; a captain, one 500 acre lot; a lieutenant, two 200 acre lots; an ensign or surgeon's mate, one 300 acre lot; a sergeant-major, sergeant or quarter-master sergeant, one 250 acre lot, and a musician, corporal or private, one 200 acre lot. Each class of lots was placed in a wheel, on the system of the modern Louisiana Lottery, and the holders of certificates or warrants could participate in the drawing. A later act provided for the exploration of the two classes of lands. Gen. William IRVINE was appointed inspector, and, on his report, the bad lands in the Second Donation District, were withdrawn from the several wheels and the land covered by such numbers became known as the "Struck District." The Donation Lands embraced all that section of the county north of the Depreciation Lands, in Franklin, Muddy Creek, Brady, Clay, and Worth townships, which formed the First Donation District, and in Clay, Washington, Cherry, Slippery Rock and Brady townships, which formed the Second Donation District.

The "Struck Lands" may be said to comprise all that part of the county not included in the two principal classes--since discovered to be a great oil and gas field--all of which were sold under the law of 1792, together with the "triangle" in Erie county, acquired in 1792, and the unassigned lands in the Depreciation and Donation districts. The price of such lands was placed at seven pounds and ten shillings for every hundred acres, subject to a six per cent allowance for roads to be surveyed, but no tract was to exceed 400 acres. The whole plan was based on the idea of actual settlement and improvement, such as is now enforced in homesteading United States lands.

To the Indians all this appeared unjust. They saw one white man trying to rob his neighbor, the speculator trying to defraud the State, and themselves beaten in this commercial jugglery. Goaded on by the English to vengeance, and by their own ideas of right and justice, the Indians took up arms against their persecutors and border warfare resulted. Military expeditions, battles and numerous skirmishes between the soldiery, the settlers and Indians followed, until August, 1795, when Gen. Anthony WAYNE reduced the remnant of the western tribes to submission and made a path for the whites to every acre of land in the wilderness.

It was impossible for the pioneers who located warrants here under the old acts or bought lands under the Act of 1792, to effect a settlement in this county prior [p. 40] to the proclamation of WAYNE's treaty, and the homestead or improvement secions of that act were nullified by the circumstances of the case; so that it was not difficult for the speculator to step in and nullify the law, even as effectually as the Indians did prior to August, 1795, and keep on in this course until 1805, when the United States court, through Chief Justice MARSHALL, gave judgment on the main question, and special acts of the legislature settled the many little points in controversy growing out of the varied interpretations of the act of 1792.

Robert MORRIS, who was a most active spirit in Revolutionary days, purchased 311 warrants, or orders for surveys, in CUNNINGHAM's district, issued to men who served in the Pennsylvania Line of the Continental Army. The area, covered by such warrants embraced almost 90,000 acres, including the site of the present borough of Butler. In other counties this wholesale system of land purchase was carried on, until loaded down with real estate the patriot lost all, and from 1796 to 1802 was in a debtor's prison. He died on May 8, 1806.

At sheriff's sale in Philadelphia, in 1807, Stephen LOWREY, of Maryland, purchased 107 warrants, which covered many tracts on which the pioneers had made permanent improvements, and the real troubles between the contending speculators and the occupiers began, to continue unabated until the oppressed settlers determined to take justice into their own hands.

In 1815 the DUFFY farm, adjoining the borough of Butler on the west, was the scene of a little drama which had no small influence in settling the agrarian question. The land was part of the MORRIS tract, he leasing his title on the purchase of a warrant credited to Christian STAKE. In the sale of the MORRIS estate, Stephen LOWREY became the owner of the tract, and claimed it in 1815. Prior to that year, however, Abraham MAXWELL located upon it, erected his cabin and cleared some land. All this was done on the advice of the pioneer lawyer, General William AYRES. Early in 1814 Samuel ROBB rented the farm from MAXWELL, and was in possession when a suit in ejectment against both was entered by LOWREY in the United States court. Judgment for the plaintiff followed, and Deputy-Marshal PARCHMENT was dispatched to obtain possession of the property. ROBB assured him that he would not surrender his leasehold easily, and the news of the trouble spread throughout the settlement.

The officer did not then attempt to use violence, but later, in October, 1815, he organized a posse to aid him in carrying the law into execution. This posse assembled at the old tavern, now the site of the WILLARD Hotel, with Stephen LOWREY in their midst. There also were the sturdy farmers gathered. Both parties were well armed. The officers and the law they represented were not popular, the claims of LOWREY were discountenanced and the settlers were determined not to pay a second time for their homes. The marshal's party left, taking the creek road to the ROBB cabin,--the farmers adopted another route, and the scene was transferred from the old tavern to the historic cabin on the MAXWELL improvement. PARCHMENT was met at the door by ROBB, who refused him admission. Then the contestants entered into a logical explanation of their views, LOWREY and MAXWELL being the principal speakers. They conversed apart from the crowd, near the rail fence, which ran from the cabin to the road, with MAXWELL's back to the fence.

[p. 41] While thus engaged the report of a rifle rang out on the sharp morning air, and instantly MAXWELL fell backwards, crying out "I'm shot, I'm shot." Stephen LOWREY was accused of being the instigator of this crime, and the wrath of the farmers was fanned to the point of desperation. MAXWELL was carried by his friends into the cabin, and messengers hurried to the village for Doctor MILLER. Threats were launched against the landlord and his party, which his protestations of innocence of the crime and his sincere expressions of sorrow, could not quell. The marshal and posse retreated guardedly and disappeared. Doctor AGNEW, of Pittsburg, arrived that evening to attend to the wounded man, and, at the end of two months, MAXWELL was removed from the scene of the first agrarian drama in Butler county to his own cabin.

From October, 1815, to July, 1818, the speculators resorted to compromise and arbitration rather than to law. On July 9, 1818, Dunning McNAIR, of Glade Mills, then called Woodville, gave notice, through The Butler Palladium and Republican Star, that as Col. Stephen LOWREY made sales and received money for lands in CUNNINGHAM's district, which were the property of Robert MORRIS and said McNAIR, now the latter gives advice to buyers to deal directly with him, as he cannot conceive by what authority Mr. LOWREY had power to interfere. This notice was continued unanswered until March 17, 1819, when Stephen LOWREY published "A friendly and salutary caution" in the same paper. He invited all persons interested to call upon him in the town of Butler, when he would show them in whom the title to the lands was really vested.

Under the Acts of 1792, 1795 and 1799, the lands reverted to the State, and the time for applying for Donation lands was extended to 1810. Meantime the members of the board of property, misconstruing an Act of April, 1802, placed tickets for the bad-lands in the wheel from which the soldiers drew. Under the act of reversion, Andrew McKEE bought 200 acres in the Second Donation District, for which a patent was issued February 8, 1804. Enoch VARNUM claimed the greater part of the tract, as a settler and improver of 1797, and the State Supreme court decided in his favor some time prior to 1823. The legislature accepted the law; but, in justice to McKEE, who held a patent from the State, an indemnity was granted. Thus the claim of the actual settler was recognized and the error of the board of property corrected.

For almost sixty years this question of squatter sovereignty slept, until the oil fields were opened, when it was revived in several localities, the case growing out of the ownership of the PURVIANCE lands at Renfrew, being one of the most stirring agrarian cases since 1815, when the scene on the present Charles DUFFY farm was enacted.

[End of Chapter 3 - Public Lands and Surveys: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]

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28 Dec 1999, 09:29