Daily stories of Pennsylvania

Erected February 26, 1773

The county of Westmoreland was erected by the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania by an act of February 26, 1773. It was the eleventh county in Pennsylvania and the last erected under the Proprietary Government. Like all the other counties, except Philadelphia, it received its name from a county in England.

In 1771 this wide region was included in the county of Bedford, but settlements grew so rapidly west of the mountains during the year 1772 that a new frontier county was demanded. The evacuation of Fort Pitt by the British troops in the fall of 1772 also led the frontiersmen to demand a stronger civil government.

When Westmoreland was erected it included all the Province west of Laurel Hill, being what is broadly known as Southwestern Pennsylvania and included what is now Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, Greene, and the parts of Allegheny and Beaver Counties south of the Ohio River and about two-thirds of Indiana and one-third of Armstrong County, a total area of 4,700 square miles.

While this was the area of Westmoreland County in the intent of the Provincial Government, it was restricted in fact by Virginia’s seizure and government of a large portion of the territory.

A general settlement of the country west of the Allegheny Mountains did not begin until after the land office was opened in April, 1769.

The settlers flocked into this new region from two directions. The Scots from the Cumberland Valley and other settled posts of the Province made their way westward along the Forbes military road and planted their cabins along its course. These men were loyal Pennsylvanians, and they held their lands under the Provincial Government. Other Scots came from the South, principally from the Old Dominion; they crossed the mountains by the Braddock road and occupied the fertile lands along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and Chartiers Creek. These men were Virginians and believed their settlements were still within that territory.

A lively contest was carried on between Pennsylvania and Virginia for control of this region, and the organization of Westmoreland County had signal influence in strengthening the Pennsylvania authority, especially when sixteen magistrates were commissioned to administer justice within its boundaries.

The county seat was established at Robert Hanna’s little settlement on Forbes Road, about thirty-five miles east of Fort Pitt, and here at Hannastown, the first Pennsylvania court, west of the mountains, was held April 13, 1773. It was a Court of Quarter Sessions and William Crawford presided. These proceedings stirred up the Virginia authorities.

The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, took forcible possession of the disputed territory. He appointed John Connolly, of Pittsburgh, “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”

Connolly mustered the militia under the Virginia law, seized and garrisoned Fort Pitt, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison, and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio. Pennsylvania had no militia law at that time and was powerless to resist the usurpation.

By this action upon the part of Virginia the territory of Westmoreland County, during the period of the Revolution, was limited to about half its actual area. It was not until the summer of 1780 that Virginia finally agreed to accept the results of a joint survey which would extend the southern boundary line of Pennsylvania to a distance of 5 degrees of longitude west of the Delaware River.

Ligonier Valley, which extends along the eastern border of the county, was well settled by 1775, the largest settlement being Ligonier, where the British had built a fort in 1758. The principal citizen here was Captain, afterwards General Arthur St. Clair, a Scotchman who served under Wolfe at Quebec and afterwards became the agent of the Penn family in Western Pennsylvania.

Settlements also became numerous west of Chestnut Ridge, along the Loyalhanna and its tributaries, as far as Hannastown on the Forbes Road. Derry settlement was to the north of the road, between the Loyalhanna and the Conemaugh. Nearly all the settlers were Scots from Ulster, or their immediate descendants, with a sprinkling of Irish of Presbyterian faith. There was another Ulster settlement at the Braddock road crossing of Big Sewickley Creek, while lower down that stream were cabins and blockhouses of German emigrants from the Rhine Palatinate.

The Virginia settlers along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny were a generation or more removed from the old country, but were nearly all of Scotch stock. The richest of these brought their slaves with them from Virginia, who were held in bondage long after the Revolution.

The traders and principal citizens in the vicinity of Fort Pitt were members of the Church of England; it was from among these that the Tory sentiment developed during the Revolution. Old Westmoreland was, however, decidedly a Scotch and CalvinisticCalvinistic settlement.

The Scotch pioneers were bold, stout and industrious men, sharp at bargains, fond of religious and political controversy and not strongly attached to government either of the royal or the proprietary brand. In nearly every cabin could be found three principal articles, the Bible, a rifle and a whiskey jug. Their hatred of the treacherous Indian was a strong characteristic.

In 1775 the most prominent representatives of the Pennsylvania interests, in addition to General Arthur St. Clair, were Colonel John Proctor and Colonel Archibald Lochry, who lived near the Forbes Road, west of Chestnut Ridge; Robert Hanna and Michael Huffnagle, of Hannastown; James Cavet and Christopher Hays, of Sewickley; John Ormsby, Devereux Smith and Aeneas Mackay, traders and storekeepers at Pittsburgh; Edward Cook, near Redstone, and George Wilson, whose plantation was in the very heart of the Virginia sympathizers, on the Monongahela at the mouth of George’s Creek.

The most conspicuous of the early provincial tribunals and by far the best known to the present-day reader was the Provincial Council. Its duties were at once executive, legislative and judicial.

The judicial functions discharged by the members of the Council were both interesting and important, and the volume of such business was very great. Its members were regarded by all classes as the supreme judges of the land.

The trial of Margaret Mattson, which took place on February 27, 1683, before William Penn himself, is of great interest, both on account of the peculiarity of the accusation and the notoriety it has acquired as illustrating the temper of our ancestors.

The records of the early Provincial Council contain this item:

“1683, 7th, 12th mo., Margaret Mattson and Yethro Hendrickson were examined and about to be proved witches; whereupon this board ordered that Neels Mattson should enter into a recognizance of fifty pounds for his wife’s appearance before this board on the 27th instant. Hendrick Jacobson doth the same for his wife.”

“27th of the 12th mo. Margaret Mattson’s indictment was read, and she pleads not guilty, and will be tryed by ye country.”

It is a matter of historical interest that the Council was then composed of William Penn, Proprietor and Governor, and James Harrison, William Biles, Lasse Cock, William Haigue, Chris Taylor, William Clayton and Thomas Holmes.

The Grand Jury was as follows: Robert Euer, foreman; Samuel Carpenter, Andrew Griscom, Benjamin Whiteman, John Barnes, Samuel Allen, John Parsons, Richard Orne, John Day, John Fisher, John Barnes, Gunner Rambo, Enoch Flower, Henry Drystreet, Thomas Mosse, Thomas Duckett, Dennis Lince, Thomas Phillips, Thomas Millard, John Yattman and Harnaby Wilcox.

The petit jury was composed of John Hastings, foreman; Robert Wade, William Hewes, John Gibbons, Albortus Hendrickson, Nathaniel Evans, Jeremiah Collett, Walter Martin, Robert Piles, Edward Carter, John Kinsman and Edward Bezac.

The evidence adduced against the prisoner was of the most trifling character, and such as now would be scouted from the witness-box of a court of justice.

“Henry Drystreet, one of the Grand Jurors attested, saith he was tould 20 years agoe that the prisoner at the Barr was a witch and that severall cows were bewitcht by her, also that James Sunderling’s mother tould that she bewitcht her cow but afterwards said it was a mistake and that her cow should doe well againe for it was not her cow but another persons that should dye.

“Charles Ashcom attested, saith, that Anthony’s wife being asked why she sould her cattle was because his mother had bewitcht them having taken the witchcraft off of Hendricks cattle and put on their oxen, she might keep but noe other cattle; and also that one night the Daughter of the Prisoner called him up hastily and when he came she sayd there was a great Light but just before and an old woman with a knife in her hand at the Bedd’s feet and therefore shee cryed out and desired Jno. Symcock to take away his calves or else she would send them to Hell.

“Annakey Coolin attested, saith, her husband tooke the heart of a calfe that dyed as they thought by witchcraft and Boyled it whereupon the Prisoner at the Barr came in and asked them what they were doing, they said boyling of flesh, she said they had better they had boyled the bones with severall other unseemly Expressions.

“Margaret Mattson saith that she values not Drystreets Evidence but if Sunderlin’s mother had come she would have answered her also denyeth Charles Ashcoms attestation at her soul and saith where is my daughter lett her come and say so.

“Annakey Coolin’sCoolin’s attestation concerning the Gees she denyeth, saying she was never out of her conoo, and also that she never said any such things concerning the calves heart.

“The Prisoner denyeth all things and saith that ye witnesses speake only by hear say.

“After which the Govr. gave the jury their charge concerning ye Prisoner at ye Barr.

“The jury went forth and upon their Returne brought her in Guilty of having the common fame of a witch but not Guilty in the manner and forme as she stands indicted.

“Neels Mattson and Anthon. Neelson Enters into Recognizance of fifty pounds apiece for the good behavior of Margaret Mattson for six months.”

In 1695 Robert Roman, presented by the grand inquest of Chester County for practicing geomancy according to Hidon, and divining by a stick. He submitted himself to the bench and was fined £5, and his books, Hidon’s Temple of Wisdom, Scott’s Discovery of Witchcraft, and Cornelius Agrippa’s Geomancy, were ordered to be taken from him and brought into Court.

In 1701 a petition of Robert Guard and his wife was read before Council, setting forth “That a certain strange woman lately arrived in this town, being seized with a very sudden illness after she had been in their company on the 17th instant, and several pins being taken out of her breasts, one John Richards Butler and his wife Ann charged the petitioners with witchcraft and as being the authors of the said mischief.” A summons was issued accordingly, but the matter, being judged trifling, was dismissed.

Even as late as 1719, the Commissions to the justices of Chester County empowered them to inquire of all “witchcrafts, enchantments, sorceries and magic arts.”

George Shrunk, of Germantown, known as “Old Shrunk,” was a great conjuror and many persons from Philadelphia and elsewhere went to him to learn where stolen goods were secreted and to have him tell their fortunes. They believed he could make any thieves stand still, while they desired to run away. They believed he could tell them where to dig for money and hidden treasures, and this brought “Old Shrunk” much business, for the idea was very prevalent that the pirates of Blackbeard’s day had deposited treasures along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

The frontiers of Pennsylvania had not been seriously harassed by the Indians since the close of the Revolution, but late in 1793 they again became restive and early in the following year so many depredations had been committed along the western frontier of the State that the Assembly on February 28, 1794, passed an act for enlisting soldiers for the defense of the Delaware River and the western frontiers. At the same time efforts were made toward the laying out of a town at Presqu’ Isle, “in order to facilitate and promote the progress of settlement within the Commonwealth and to afford additional security to the frontiers thereof.”

Governor Mifflin transmitted to the President of the United States a copy of this act, apprehending the difficulties which soon manifested themselves. Prior to this he had sent to Captain Ebenezer Denny a commission, giving him command of the Allegheny Company, which was ordered to protect William Irvine, Andrew Elliott and Albert Gallatin, who had been appointed Commissioners to lay out the town. For the same object a post had been established at Le Boeuf, two miles below the old French fort of the same name.

The three Commissioners were instructed to lay out 1,600 acres for town lots and thirty-four acres for out-lots at Erie, the town lots to contain about one-third of an acre and the out-lots to contain five acres. In addition, sixty acres were reserved for the use of the United States near the entrance of the harbor for forts, etc. Upon completion of the surveys the Governor was authorized to offer at auction one-third of all the lots, conditioned upon the building upon the lots within two years of a house with a stone or brick chimney.

The troops were busily employed to protect the surveyors from the incursions of the Indians. Miss Sanford in her History of Erie County says:

“Thomas Rees, Esq., for more than half a century a citizen of Erie County, made a deposition in 1806 as follows: ‘Thomas Rees of Harbor Creek Township, in Erie County, farmer, being sworn according to law, etc. I was appointed deputy surveyor of District No. 1 north and west of the rivers Ohio, Allegheny and Connewango Creek, now Erie County, in May, 1792, and opened an office in Northumberland County, which was the adjoining. The reason of this was, all the accounts of the country north and west of the rivers, Ohio, Allegheny, and the Connewango Creek, represented it as dangerous to go into the country. In the latter part of said year I received three hundred and ninety warrants, the property of the Penn Population company for land situated in the Triangle and entered the same year in my book of entries. In 1793 I made an attempt to go; went to the mouth of Buffalo Creek to inquire of the Indians there whether they would permit me to go into my district to make surveys. They refused and added that if I went into the country I would be killed. At the same time I received information from different quarters which prevented me from going that year.

“‘In 1794 I went into District No. 1, now Erie County, and made surveys on the three hundred and ninety warrants, mentioned above in the Triangle, except one or two for which no lands could be found. Among the surveys made on the warrants above mentioned, was that on the warrant in the name of John McCullough.

“‘Before I had completed I was frequently alarmed by hearing of Indians killing persons on the Allegheny River, in consequence of which, as soon as the surveys were completed, I moved from the country and went to Franklin, where I was informed that there were a number of Indians belonging to the Six Nations going to Le Boeuf to order the troops off that ground. I immediately returned to Le Boeuf. The Indians had left the place one day before I arrived there. I was told by Major Denny, then commanding at that place, that the Indians had brought General Chapin, the Indian agent, with them to Le Boeuf; that they were very much displeased, and told him not to build a garrison at Presqu’ Isle.

“‘There were no improvements made, nor any person living on any tract of land within my district during the year 1794.

“‘In 1795 I went into the country and took a number of men with me. We kept in a body, as there appeared to be great danger, and continued so for that season. There was no work done of any consequence, nor was any person, to my knowledge, residing on any tract within my district. In the course of the summer the Commissioners came on to lay out the town of Erie, with a company of men to guard them.

“There were two persons killed within one mile of Presqu’ Isle, and others in different parts of the country. Such were the fears that though some did occasionally venture out to view the lands, many would not. We all laid under the protection of the troops. I sold, as agent of the Penn Population Company, during that season, 79,700 acres of land, of which 7,150 acres were a gratuity. The above quantity of land was applied for and sold to 200 persons. That fall we left the country,’”

Captain Martin Strong, of Waterford, who had arrived at Presqu’ Isle the last of July, 1795, said:

“A few days previous to this a company of United States troops had commenced felling the timber on Garrison hill, headed by General Elliott, escorted by a company of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Captain John Grubb, to lay out the town of Erie. We were in some degree under martial law, the two Rutledges having been shot a few days before (July 26 or 27) by the Indians near the present site of the present railway depot.

“In 1795 there were but four families residing in what is now Erie County. These were the names of Reed, Talmadge, Miles and Baird. The first mill built in the Triangle was at the mouth of Walnut Creek; there were two others built about the same time in what is now Erie County; one by William Miles, on the north branch of French Creek, now Union; the other by William Culbertson, at the inlet of Conneautte Lake, near Edinboro.”

In spite of all these preparations, the Legislature suspended the laying out of a town at Presqu’ Isle, and it was not until April 18, 1795, the difficulties were removed and the Assembly authorized the laying out of the towns at Le Boeuf, at the mouth of Conewango Creek, at the mouth of French Creek and at Presqu’ Isle.

July 25, 1796, the Harrisburg and Presqu’ Isle Company was formed “for the settling, improving and populating the country near and adjoining to Lake Erie.”

Erie County was erected March 12, 1800, and Erie named as the place for holding courts of justice, but it was not organized judicially until April, 1803, when Judge Jesse Moore held the first court near French and Third Streets.

William Maclay, Samuel John Atlee and Francis Johnson were appointed February 29, 1784, by the Supreme Executive Council to be Commissioners to treat with the Indians claiming the unpurchased territory within the acknowledged limits of the State.

At the close of the Revolution, in 1783, the ownership of a large area of the territory within the charter boundaries of Pennsylvania was still claimed by the Indians of the several tribes that were commonly known as the Six Nations.

The last purchase of lands from these Indians by the Proprietaries was made at Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768. The Indian claim, therefore, embraced all that part of the State lying to the northwest of the purchase lines of 1768.

As early as March 12, 1783, the General Assembly had passed an act setting apart certain lands lying north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek to be sold for the purpose of redeeming the depreciation certificates given to the officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line, and for the purpose of making donations of land to the same officers and soldiers in compliance with a resolution adopted in 1780.

At the time this resolution was adopted the Indian claim of title to these lands was still in force, but the authorities were fully alive to the necessity of securing the right to all the lands within the State—about five-sixteenths of its area—that remained unpurchased after the treaty of 1768.

September 25, 1783, the General Assembly placed itself on record in the form of a resolution which recommended the appointment of a committee to devise ways and means for this acquisition.

The three persons named as commissioners acknowledged their appointment to the trust May 17, and recommended that Samuel Weiser, a son of Colonel Conrad Weiser, a proper person to notify the Indians of the desire to treat with them, as he was familiar with their language and customs and could also act as interpreter.

The Continental Congress had likewise appointed Commissioners to meet the Six Nations for the purpose of purchasing lands beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, and these arranged for the meeting at Fort Stanwix. The Commissioners of Pennsylvania reached Fort Stanwix early in the month of October, where they found some of the tribes already assembled, and with them the Commissioners of the Continental Congress.

The negotiations continued until the twenty-third of the month, and on that day ended in an agreement by which the Indian title to all the lands within the boundaries of the State that remained after the title of 1768 was extinguishedextinguished. The consideration agreed upon for this surrender of their rights was $5,000.

This deed, dated October 23, 1784, is signed by all the chiefs of the Six Nations and by the Continental Commissioners as witnesses.

The territory thus acquired included a part of the present Bradford, Tioga, Clinton, Center, Clearfield, Indiana, Armstrong, Allegheny and Beaver Counties, and all of the land within Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, Venango, Clarion, Forest, Jefferson, Elk, Warren, McKean, Potter and Cameron Counties and all of Erie County, excepting the small portion of the Erie triangle which did not become a part of Erie County until 1792.

After the Commissioners had accomplished in so satisfactory a manner the object for which they journeyed to Fort Stanwix, it became necessary to appease the Western Indians, the Wyandot and the Delaware, who also claimed rights to the same lands.

The same Commissioners were therefore sent to Fort Mcintosh, on the Ohio River, at the site of the present town of Beaver, where in January, 1785, they were successful in reaching an agreement with those Indians for the same lands. This deed, signed by the chiefs of both tribes, is dated January 21, 1785, and is in the same words (except as to the consideration money, which is $2,000) and recites the same boundaries as the deed signed at Fort Stanwix.

The Indian claim of right to the soil of Pennsylvania, within its charter limits, had thus, in a period of a little more than one hundred years ceased to exist.

This large and important division of our great Commonwealth, now teeming with population and wealth, thriving villages, busy towns and great cities, was, in 1784, largely an uninhabited and untraversed wilderness.

After the purchase of 1768 a disagreement arose between the Proprietary Government and the Indians as to whether the creek flowing into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and called in the deed “Tyadaghton” was intended for Lycoming Creek or Pine Creek. The Indians said it was the former, the proprietaries claimed the latter stream to be the extent of the purchase, but in order to avoid any trouble that might arise from the dispute, it was wisely determined that no rights should be granted for lands west of Lycoming Creek.

This determination, however, did not deter or prevent adventurous pioneers from making settlements within the disputed territory.

These settlers, being classed as outlaws, were compelled to enter into an agreement for their government and protection. This resulted in an organization known as Fair Play Men.

It is handed down as a tradition that they met when and where the exigencies arose, and on short notice, tried the case at hand.

It is related that when a squatter refused to abide by the decision of the court, he was immediately placed in a canoe, in which was a small quantity of food, then rowed to the mouth of Lycoming Creek, the boundary line of civilization, and there sent adrift down the river.

These Fair Play courts were composed of three commissioners as they were termed, and after hearing a case and making a decision, there was no appeal.

After the purchase of 1784 it was discovered that the trouble was likely to arise with the original squatters and the Legislature passed an act entitling those who had made actual settlement prior to 1780, the benefit of pre-emption to their respective possessions.

March 1, 1802

The same earnest solicitude for public education which made itself manifest in the settlement of the New England Colonies in an unusual degree does not run through the early history of Pennsylvania, yet, outside of the Puritan settlements, there was no other colony which paid so much attention as Pennsylvania to the mental training of youth.

During the seventeenth century the general character of the province, as regards the intelligence of its people, stood deservedly high. The school-house, with its inevitable concomitant, the printing-press, never at any time ceased to exert its wholesome influence in training up a population which as regards sobriety, thrift, and all the substantial qualities that flow from instructions, has never been surpassed by any other great community.

William Penn, who was one of the most accomplished scholars of his time, never wearied in pointing out to the colony the advantages of public education. The Constitution which he proposed for the infant Commonwealth contains the direction that virtue and wisdom must be propagated by educating the youth, and that after ages would have the benefit of the care and prudence of the founders in this respect.

It was one of the provisions of the great law of April 25, 1683, that “schools should be established for the education of the young” and those in authority did not long delay in carrying it into practical effect.

On December 26, 1683, the subject of education was brought up in the Provincial Council, when it was agreed that there existed a great necessity for a schoolmaster. Accordingly an agreement was entered into with Enoch Flower, who promised that in conducting such an establishment as was needed he would charge only four shillings for teaching English each quarter, six shillings for reading, writing and costing accounts. A scholar who boarded with him would receive his tuition as well as his lodging, meals and washing for £10 a year.

This was the first regular English school in Pennsylvania. There had been schools during the ascendancy of the Swedes and the Dutch. The former are known to have maintained schools at Chester and Tinicum as early as 1642, and the Dutch records show that in 1657 Evert Pieterson came over from Holland, and in the capacity of “schoolmaster, comforter of the sick and setter of Psalms,” sought twenty-five pupils.

In 1689 George Keith was engaged at a salary of £50 a year, the use of a house, and the profits of the school for one year, to open a grammar school in Philadelphia. This institution was a flourishing one for many years. Here the children of the poor were instructed free of charge, the schoolhouse being located on Fourth Street, below Chestnut, and conducted under a charter which had been procured by Edward Shippen, David Lloyd, John Jones, Samuel Carpenter, Anthony Morris, James Fox, William Southby and others.

Darby became the seat of a school in 1692. One was established in Germantown in 1701, with the learned Pastorius at its head.

No church or sect was more active in education than the Moravians, and schools were established at Germantown, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Lititz. Christopher Dock, “the pious schoolmaster of the Skippack,” taught a Moravian school in Germantown, and is the author of the first book on school teaching published in America.

During the sixty years following the establishment of Keith’s school there was no attempt made to start schools that would be free to all and not marked by the distinction between the rich and poor children. This democratic principle was not clearly formulated and advanced until it was taken up by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, when he distributed gratis a pamphlet which soon became productive of important results in the establishment of the future University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that time most of the schools in the province were conducted either under strictly private auspices or under the patronage of religious denominations.

March 1, 1802, Governor Thomas McKean signed the first law for the education of the children of the poor gratis, although both the Constitution of 1776 and that of 1790 provided for the establishment of “a school or schools in every county.” Owing to the lameness of this law, it remained a dead statute so far as some of the counties of the State were concerned.

The City and County of Philadelphia had been erected into “the first school district of Pennsylvania” in 1818, and in 1822 the City and County of Lancaster were erected into “the second school district.” These, termed the Lancasterian methods, were the beginnings of that glorious system of free education which has been a blessing to our great Commonwealth.

Up to 1830, the great free-school system, as we now have it, was still in embryo. The people began to awaken; public meetings were held all over the State, resolutions were adopted, comparisons with other States were made. The result was that on March 15, 1834, “An Act to Establish a General System of Education by Common Schools” was passed. Only a single member of the House and three Senators voted nay.

Late in 1834 the enemies of free schools attacked the measure all over the State, and the Senate voted to repeal the act of 1834, but Thaddeus Stevens saved the measure in the House. By 1848 this school law had grown much in favor, but it was not until 1874 that the last district in the State accepted the law. State Superintendent Wickersham then said in his annual report: “For the first time in our history the door of a public school house stands open to receive every child of proper age within the limits of the State.”

The progress of education after 1850 was very rapid. The crowning acts to make elementary education universal were the free textbook law of 1893 and the compulsory attendance law of 1895.

The first bills of credit, or paper-money, issued in the English American colonies were put forth by Massachusetts, in 1690, to pay the troops who went on an expedition against Quebec, under Sir William Phipps.

It was Governor Sir William Keith who first introduced the people of Pennsylvania to the pleasures and benefits of an irredeemable paper currency.

There had been great and long-standing complaint about the deficiency of a circulating medium, for the use of wampum had ceased, and foreign coin had never become plenty. The course of exchange ran heavily against the Province, and those who possessed money made enormous profits by the purchase and sale of bills.

The merchants of England did not ship bank-notes or coin to the Provinces. They paid for the produce which they purchased here with English goods, and settled the balances by shipments of sugar, rum, etc., from Barbadoes and other places in the West Indies, and by Negroes and indentured servants.

There seems to have been more hard money in Philadelphia than in New England, for Franklin, a paper-money man, notes in his autobiography how his fellow-workmen in Boston were surprised when he returned to his brother’s place in 1724 from Philadelphia. Franklin displayed a handful of silver, which was a rare sight, for they only had paper-money in Boston.

When Franklin first visited Philadelphia, in 1723, he noticed with surprise the free circulation of metallic money among the people of Pennsylvania. The whole of his own money then consisted of a Dutch dollar and a shilling’s worth of coppers.

But this condition soon changed for James Logan, in writing to the Proprietaries late in 1724, says, “No gold or silver passes amongst us.”

The Proprietary demanded sterling money in payment of quit-rents, no matter what the depreciation of the provincial currency. This was their right since they had nothing to do either with the emission of the currency or its depreciation.

As early as 1729 Logan wrote, “I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrenzy will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of this paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dares appear to stem the fury of popular rage.” Logan at that early date thought the king should arrest the delusion by proclamation.

The peltries, grain, flour, ships, cooper-stuff, and lumber of Philadelphia were always good for hard money with a good mercantile system. But the people were not satisfied.

It is quite likely that wages and small debts were paid almost entirely in the way of barter instead of money, and this, by the losses it occasioned produced discontent. The capitalists opposed a change in the currency, the farmers, laborers, and small trades people favored it.

In the language of petitions sent to the Assembly at this time, the friends of paper money contended that they were sensibly “aggrieved in their estates and dealings, to the great loss and growing ruin of themselves, and the evident decay of the province in general, for want of a medium to buy and sell with,” and they therefore prayed a paper currency.

The people of Chester County, on the other hand, asked to have the value of the current money of the Province raised, the exportation of money prohibited, and produce made a legal tender, so as to obviate the necessity for paper money. They did not want a regular State issue, but nevertheless, like men of more modern greenback times, they wanted an inconvertible paper money, a non-exportable currency, as if that were a blessing.

On March 2, 1722–23 an act was passed to issue £15,000. Governor Keith, in consenting to and promoting this experimental load, had been encouraged by the popularity of a similar measure matured by Governor Burnett of New Jersey.

Pennsylvania was the very last of the middle colonies to embark in the paper money manufacture; but once embarked, she plunged in rapidly and deeply.

This first small loan of £15,000 was to be redeemed within eight years. In 1723 £30,000 was issued; in 1740 the issue reached a total of £80,000.

Benjamin Franklin, who had urged and used his personal influence for this currency became alarmed and wrote, “I now think there are limits beyond which the quantity may be hurtful.” He was right.

In 1755 Pennsylvania had £160,000 currency out; and in 1783 the State’s irredeemable currency had been increased by various issues until it reached $4,325,000, a sum simply ruinous to all values.

The general plan of these loans was good. No bills were loaned but on good security. The friends of the system were many.

Paper money was also issued at times by individuals. In May, 1746, Joseph Gray gave notice that Franklin had printed for him £27,100 in notes of hand of 2 d., 3 d., and 6 d., “out of sheer necessity for want of pence for running change. Whoever takes them shall have them exchanged on demand with the best money I have.”

In 1749 the scarcity of small change was so great that the inhabitants petitioned for relief, and a committee of the Assembly was appointed to bring in a bill for the issue of £20,000, mostly in small bills.

An association was formed for issuing paper money to relieve the pressure for change. Eight reputable merchants issued five-pound notes to the amount of £20,000, payable at nine months with five per cent interest. It was soon evident that anyone might do the same thing, and the community be flooded with valueless currency. It was also at the same time a new way of borrowing capital. A petition signed by two hundred tradesmen was presented to the Assembly, which forbade it.

In 1763 the whole paper-money system of the colonies, including that of Pennsylvania, was outlawed by act of Parliament, when Franklin wrote a pamphlet, protesting against the act.

This outlawing of colonial money had much to do with prejudicing the people of the colonies against the rule of Parliament.

Drive Against Detroit, March 3, 1781

The Western frontiers of Pennsylvania were sorely distressed during the spring and summer of 1781 by the efforts of General George Rogers Clark, an officer of the Dominion of Virginia, to raise troops for an expedition in the interest of Virginia against the British post at Detroit.

Clark received a commission as brigadier general and was given ample funds with which to purchase provisions in the country west of the Allegheny Mountains. Also a small force of 140 Virginia regulars was placed at his service and he was empowered to equip additional volunteers in the border counties.

Agents were sent in advance of General Clark into the country between the Laurel Hill range and the Ohio River, who began to buy flour and live cattle. This caused much uneasiness among the Pennsylvania militiamen stationed in that country, and Colonel Daniel Brodhead made complaint to the State Government.

Colonel Brodhead received a letter from General Washington directing him to give aid to General Clark’s undertaking and to detach from his own force the field artillery under command of Captain Isaac Craig, and at least a captain’s command of infantry, to assist the Virginia expedition.

General Clark arrived on the Pennsylvania frontier March 3 and established his headquarters at the house of Colonel William Crawford, on the Youghiogheny, spending part of his time with Colonel Dorsey Pentecost on Chartiers Creek.

It was generally known by this time that all of Virginia county of Yohogania and much of the counties of Monongahela and Ohio, claimed as part of Virginia, really belonged to Pennsylvania, but the actual boundary line had not been surveyed west of the Monongahela River.

Among the settlers there were many factions, some who would only obey the laws of Pennsylvania, and who declared that Clark was a Virginia officer and had no business in Pennsylvania; others adhered to Virginia authority until the line should be permanently settled. A few took advantage of the situation and refused to obey either government saying they did not know which had authority over them, and they had enough to do to plant and keep their rifles in readiness for the savages.

Clark intended to raise a force of 2,000 men. When he arrived at Colonel Crawford’s he learned that the frontiers were being raided by bands of Shawnee from the Scioto, Delaware from the Muskingum and Wyandot from the Sandusky.

An expedition against those tribes would be more popular among the Western Pennsylvanians than a campaign against distant Detroit, and Clark very adroitly made an ostensible change in his plans. He gave it out that he was going against the Ohio savages, for the immediate benefit of the Westmoreland frontier, but his real design to conquer Detroit was not altered.

Colonel Brodhead was not for one moment deceived by General Clark, but many Pennsylvania officials were. On March 23 Clark wrote to President Reed, of Pennsylvania, asking his indorsement of the enterprise, for the effect it might have on the frontiersmen who called themselves Pennsylvanians.

Colonel Christopher Hays, the Westmoreland County member of the Supreme Executive Council, was directed to aid Clark’s expedition, but he was at heart opposed to it.

Colonel Hays called a meeting of all the commissioned officers of the Westmoreland militia to arrange a plan for the frontier defense. The officers met June 18, at the home of Captain John McClelland, on Big Sewickley Creek, and, much to the chagrin of Colonel Hays, decided by a majority vote to give aid to General Clark. It was resolved to furnish 300 men out of the county militia to join Clark’s army and Colonel Lochry was directed to see that this quota was raised by “volunteer or draft.”

This was the initial effort on the Pennsylvania frontier to raise soldiers by draft and it caused an outcry.

Such prominent citizens as Colonel Pentecost, John Canon, Gabriel Cox and Daniel Leet worked zealously to recruit men for General Clark, while county lieutenant Marshel and his adherents were just as active to defeat the Virginian project. This rivalry, which grew exceedingly bitter, was fatal to Clark’s enterprise.

Few assembled at the general rendezvous, and Clark began to draft men for his army. This afforded the rougher element among the Virginians an opportunity to exploit their hatred toward Pennsylvanians. The draft proceeded amid pillage, cruelty and personal violence. Virginian raiding parties scoured the country, seizing and beating men, frightening and abusing women, breaking into houses and barns and causing a general reign of terror.

Captain John Hardin was most vigorous in denouncing the Virginia proceedings and advising against the draft. He owned a grist mill near Redstone. His eldest son, John, was a lieutenant in the Eighth Pennsylvania, afterward famous as General John Hardin, of Kentucky.

At the head of forty horsemen General Clark visited Hardin’s settlement and announced his purpose of hanging the stubborn old pioneer. Hardin could not be found, but one of his sons was caught and kept bound for several days. They broke open the mill, fed the grain to their horses, occupied his dwelling, killed his sheep and hogs for food and feasted there several days.

General Clark declared Hardin’s estate forfeited for treason. The general threatened to hang those opposed to the draft, but none were hanged.

On August 8, Clark began the descent of the Ohio with a force of 400, but with his spirit broken. The evening of the day he left Colonel Archibald Lochry arrived with 100 volunteers from Westmoreland County. These expert riflemen could have been used to advantage by Clark and at the same time they would have avoided the disaster which befell Lochry during his effort to join Clark.

Most of Clark’s force deserted him before he reached Louisville, so that he could not venture upon his march into the enemy’s country. He soon returned with small detachments, who dispersed to their homes in Virginia and Pennsylvania.