Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Warrantee Connected Draft

Treaty of Fort Stanwix area in Armstrong County, Pa.

Herbert Wm Eckman

9034 State Hwy 127

West Unity, Oh. 43570

e-mail: <hwm.eckman@verizon.net>

2008

The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was signed at Fort Stanwix near Rome, N.Y., on November 5, 1768. Sir William Johnson, his Majesty's Supt. for Indian Affairs in the Northern District, hosted the event. An agreement was reached with the Indians of the Six Nations, and their "nephews", the Delawares and the Shawnees, on a boundry line between the Indians and the Middle Colonies. Within this boundry a purchase was made by the Proprietors of the Province of Pa. This purchase by the Penns was called at the time "The New Purchase".

The New Purchase was a large swath of land that ran from the northeast corner of the colony to the southeast corner. In present Armstrong county the northern boundry of the New Purchase, called "The Purchase Line" ran on a course North 80° West from Cherry Tree on the present eastern Indiana County Line westward to Kittanning entering Armstrong County near Sagamore. From Kittanning the boundry went down the Allegheny River to the Kiskiminetas River, then up the Kiskiminetas River to the present southeast corner of the present county. In 1769 the New Purchase area in present Armstrong County was assigned to Cumberland County, then to Bedford County when it was formed in 1771, and then to Westmoreland County when it was formed in 1773. Warrants for land in the present Armstrong County area can be found in one of those three counties depending on the warrant date. Warrants after 1805 will be found in Armstrong County which was formed 1800.

The Feb. 3, 1769 advertisement for the opening of the Land Office in Philadelphia stated that applications would be received on April 3, 1769 for lands within the New Purchase area with the terms being a maximum acreage of three hundred acres at the rate of 5 Pounds sterling per 100 acres, surveys to be made and returned within six months, the whole purchase money to be paid in one payment, and the patent taken out within twelve months from date of application with interest and quit rent from six months after application date.

Officer's and Gentlemen's Applications were accepted before the general opening of the New Purchase area on April 3, 1769. Application #GT 14 & 15 by John Montgomery & Alexander Stuart on 9 Feb 1769 is one of these applicatiuons. See Survey C162-70 in Parks Twp.

The Land office was open accepting applications from 4-3-1769 until Sept. 5, 1769. The applications on slips of paper were numbered, placed in a box, then drawn by a lottery every day or every other day from April 3 thru Sept. 5, 1769. The first 2802 applications of the total of 3853 were dated April 3, 1769. Of these, only about 40 were located in the present Armstrong county area of the New Purchase. After Sept. 5, 1769 persons desiring to purchase land within the New Purchase area could do so by filing an application with the proprietorship of the Penns and paying the purchase price in full at the time of the application. A warrant to survey was then issued. After the return of the survey a Patent to the land would be issued upon approval of the survey and full purchase price paid.

There are about 450 parcels of warranted land in the Armstrong County area. The Deputy Surveyor in the Armstrong County area appointed by the Penn proprietorship was Joshua Elder who surveyed about 155 parcels from 1769 to the beginning of the Revolution in 1776. During the war years from 1776-1783 no tracts were surveyed. The Divesting Law of 1779 passed by the new Pa. General Assembly, transferred all ungranted land owned by the Penns to the new Commonwealth of Pa. legislature. Under the new Commonwealth of Pa., Joshua Elder, from 1783 until he retired about 1795 surveyed an additional 150 tracts . The remaining tracts were surveyed from about 1795 on into the early 1800's by subsequent Deputy Surveyors, James Ross, George Ross, Jr., Thomas and James Barr, J.E. Meredith, Robert Richards, John Henderson, Ennian Williams, and finally in the later 1800's the Armstrong County Surveyor, Alexander Gordon.

Two spreadsheets for each township are included. The first, called the Warrantee index, has columns listing warrantees, survey number, survey date, acres surveyed, warrant date, patentee, patent date, tract name, and the last column which is the Armstrong County Tax Map number that can be used to locate the tract on the applicable township map. Treaty of 1768 map shows latitude and Longitude values for the center of each tax map number to facilitate GPS users. The second group of spreadsheets, arranged by township, is an index to the patentees and lists "seated" persons (possibly renters that actually occupied the property) on the various parcels.

The actual surveys were used to show the boundries of each parcel. This accounts for some of the overlapping of certain parcels. The intention is to name the warrantee and his approximate location. These maps are not precise drawings. This is a genealogical project and all information is for genealogical purposes only.

Herbert Eckman

09034 State Hwy 127

West Unity, Ohio 43570

Ph: 419-636-2251