By Robert A. Jockers D.D.S. erhaps the most significant factor in the settlement of identify the original settlers, where they came from, and Western Pennsylvania was an intangible energy known as specifically when and where they settled. In doing so it was the "Westward Movement.' The intertwined desires for necessary to detail the complexity of the settlement process, as well economic, political, and religious freedoms created a powerful as the political, economic, and social environment that existed sociological force that stimulated the formation of new and ever- during that time frame. changing frontiers. Despite the dynamics of this force, the In spite of the fact that Moon Township was not incorporated settlement of "Old Moon Township" - for this article meaning as a governmental entity within Allegheny County, Pa., until 1788, contemporary Moon Township and Coraopolis Borough - was numerous events of historical significance occurred during the neither an orderly nor a continuous process. Due in part to the initial settlement period and in the years prior to its incorporation. area's remote location on the English frontier, settlement was "Old Moon Township" included the settlement of the 66 original delayed. Political and legal controversy clouded the ownership of land grants that comprise today's Moon Township and the four its land. Transient squatters and land speculators impeded its that make up Coraopolis. This is a specific case study but is also a growth, and hostile Indian incursions during the American primer on the research of regional settlement patterns. Revolution brought about its demise. Of course, these lands were being contested in the 1770s. Both Pennsylvania and Virginia claimed the area, which was also falling As English settlement of the Atlantic coast expanded, Native under ever-changing county jurisdictions. It is the purpose of Americans were forced to abandon their lands and move west. this study to document the settlement of "Old Moon Township," English traders followed, arriving in the Ohio Valley sometime which began in the spring of 1773 and remained viable through between 1735 and 1740. A little more than a decade later, the the winter of 1781. It is the first comprehensive attempt to vanguard of a squatter movement began to appear. The first SPECULATORSAND SQUATTERS:THE FRONTIERBEGINNINGS OF MOONTOWNSHIP 19 .............. ......................... __ English-speaking settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains their consent. This deliberate oversight angered the Delaware and was established in the Monongahela Valley in 1751.1 Nominal Shawnee; renegade bands began to attack nearby settlements, ownership of southwestern Pennsylvania at that time belonged to rendering the south shore of the upper Ohio extremely dangerous. the Iroquois Confederacy as recognized by the Treaty of Easton As a result, pioneer settlers were reluctant to seat themselves so (1758), the Royal Proclamation (1763), and the Treaty of Fort close to the Indian frontier. Stanwix (1768). Settlers moving into the Monongahela country Second, the settlement process in southwestern Pennsylvania were therefore seated without legal sanction and thus were was adversely affected by a political dispute between the colonies. squatting. In the ensuing years, the squatter migration continued The conflict had arisen many years before over the ambiguous despite having to temporarily abandon their frontier holdings language in each charter describing their common boundary. In during the French and Indian War (1754-1758) and the Pontiac 1769, Pennsylvania claimed jurisdiction of the Ohio Valley as part Uprising (1763-1764). By 1765, the squatter movement had of Cumberland County with its seat of justice at Carlisle. Virginia established a number of small frontier settlements and was well claimed jurisdiction of the same area as a part of Augusta County ensconced in the Monongahela Valley. with its seat at Staunton. This ongoing dispute caused many In Monongahela of Old, James Veech states, "The documentary settlers, for whom the ownership of land was the primary history of 1765, '66, '67 ...speaks of no other settlements in objective, concern that title to the lands they had cleared and western Pennsylvania ...than those within or immediately settled might never be perfected. bordering upon the Monongahela, upon Cheat, upon the Yough, Lastly, the settlement process had been further complicated by the Turkeyfoot, and Redstone." 2 the land policy of each colony. Pennsylvania's land policy evolved Realizing the hopelessness of securing the evacuation of these from the 1730s "Law of Improvement" and the 1750s "Pre- various settlements, the Pennsylvania commissioners and the Emptive Law." The land was divided into three classes: Proprietary Iroquois chiefs finally agreed that land secession by the Indians was (reserved for the Penn family), Estate (reserved for the English the only logical alternative. On November 5, 1768, the Treaty of nobility), and Common. Obtaining Pennsylvania title to common Fort Stanwix transferred a large area called the "New Purchase" lands, which were sold in 100- to 400-acre tracts, was a long from the Iroquois Confederacy to the Proprietary government and cumbersome process. The settler was first required to apply of Pennsylvania. to the local land office in writing. That application was then When the Pennsylvania land office opened on April 3, 1769, it forwarded to the surveyor-general's office, which then sent a was inundated with applications for warrants of survey within the warrantof survey to the local deputy surveyor. After the survey was "New Purchase." Despite all the applications filed, only three were completed, it was returned and placed on record in the surveyor- located in "Old Moon Township.' The paucity of applications there general's office. Following the applicant's payment of the required was affected by a number of extenuating circumstances. purchase price for the land, a patent was issued and title First, "Old Moon Township" was still a nondescript, was perfected. uninhabited wilderness on the south shore of the Ohio River. The In contrast, Virginia's land policy was not as restrictive. Upon Treaty of Fort Stanwix had established the Ohio as a segment of the application, the "Headright System" allowed a settler 400 acres of dividing line between the "New Purchase" on the south or English unoccupied land free if he were to build a cabin or raise a crop of side and the Indian frontier on the north. The Iroquois grain, however small. After the survey was completed, the Virginia Confederacy - as nominal owners of southwestern Pennsylvania land commissioners merely issued a Virginia Certificate which through previous conquests - had invited the Delaware and awaited caveat in the land office for a period of six months. If none Shawnee tribes to live there. During the Fort Stanwix conference, was offered, a patent was issued and title was perfected. however, neither tribe was invited to attend in spite of the fact that A thorough examination of the earliest land records - their villages and hunting grounds were being given away without specifically the applications, warrants, surveys, and patents relating 20 WESTERNPENNSYLVANIA HISTORY I SUMMER2004 Warrentee map of three land grants. Page 19: A surviving log home in Moon Township. Photoby the atho., to the 70 original land grants which comprised "Old Moon The second grant, titled "Corsica;' was a 335-acre tract Township" - revealed that in the spring of 1769, only three warranted by Thomas McKee, and the third grant, "Britania" also applications had been filed. These tracts were parcels of 335 acres, was warranted by Thomas Madsen. Both of these men bottomland located between steep hills along the south shore of were land speculators. the Ohio River in what is today the borough of Coraopolis. The earliest land records therefore established initial evidence The earliest of the grants, a 335-acre tract, was a gift from the that subsequent to the completion of these surveys there had been Proprietary government to Henry (Andrew) Montour for his no prior improvement or settlement in Moon Township. services rendered as an Indian interpreter: The following year, 1770, George Washington undertook Pennsylvania New Purchase Application # 145 a journey of land exploration down the Ohio River. His "Henry Montour applies to the office for 300 acres of land journal states: upon the south side of the Ohio including his improvement October 20th; from Fort Pitt we sent our horses and boys & opposite to the Long Island about nine miles below Fort back to Captain Crawford's, with orders to meet us there 3 Pitt.", again on the 14th day of November. Colonel Croghan, Lt. Hamilton, and Mr. Magee set out with us. At two we dined According to English law, each parcel of land required a title, at Mr. Magee's and encamped ten miles below, and four and so at the time of granting, Montour named his tract above Logstown. We passed several large islands, which "Oughsaragoh." On April 3, 1769, a warrant, "an order to survey appeared to be very good, as the bottoms also did on each 4 and a permit to claim a tract of vacant land, was issued for side of the river alternately; hills on one side being the "Oughsaragoh" tract. Deputy surveyor James Hendricks made opposite to the bottoms on the other, which seem the survey and returned it to the surveyor-general's office. generally to be about three or four hundred yards wide, 6 A survey was a delineation of a tract of land and "was not to and so vice versa. encroach upon any area under settlement, improvement, or prior survey unless it was for the benefit of those already residing on the Despite his discerning examination of the lands bordering the ' 5 tract." Any improvements made on the tract were noted by Ohio River, Washington made no reference as to any improvement the surveyor and became an integral part of the final survey.