|
|
|
|
Allegheny County
Pennsylvania
Genealogy Trails
A part of the
Genealogy Trails History
Group |
|
Allegheny County
History
|
So long as Pittsburgh remained on the
very edge of the frontier, and the lands west of the Allegheny
and north of the Ohio still belonged to the Indians, there was
little chance to locate a seat of justice there. Even in the
Virginia days the West Augusta court was first moved over to
Catfish Town, at present Washington, and it was soon divided
into the three new jurisdictions of Monongalia, Yohogania and
Ohio counties. Pittsburgh first went to court at Hannastown,
but the most of its legal business was transacted at
Heathtown, on the Monongahela, above West Elizabeth, until the
boundary line was settled. After the erection of Washington
County in 1781, with its jurisdiction up to the line of the
Monongahela and the Ohio, the growing town of Pittsburgh was
in Pitt Township, which extended easterly as far as Bushy Run
from the Forks of the Ohio.
By the treaty of October 23, 1784, at
Fort Stanwix, New York, between Samuel John Atler, William
Maclay and Francis Johnston, commissioners on the part of
Pennsylvania, and the Six Nations, to wit, the Mohawks,
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscaroras, that
great area, with the exception of the small tract at Erie,
extending from the western State line, along the forty-second
degree of latitude, to the north branch of the
Susquehanna, and thence along the old purchase line of
November 5, 1768, to Kittanning and down the rivers to the
State line, was sold to Pennsylvania, with the exception that
the Indians should have the liberty of hunting thereon. By the
Act of April 8, 1785, Section 18, it was provided "That all
the land within the late purchase from the Indians, not
heretofore assigned to any particular county, shall be taken
and deemed, and they are hereby declared, to be within the
limits of the counties of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and
that from the Kittanning up the Allegheny to the Conewango
Creek, and from thence up said creek to the northern line of
the state, shall be the line between Northumberland and
Westmoreland in the aforesaid purchase."
A new township was not created in Westmoreland
County to embrace these new lands as one of its political
subdivisions, but the Pennsylvania authorities proceeded to
divide the portion west of the Allegheny and the Conewango
into two sections by a line running due west from the mouth of
Mahoning Creek. The land north of this line was described as
"Donation Lands," given to Revolutionary soldiers of the
Pennsylvania Line for services rendered during the war. The
land on the south of that line was designated "Depreciation
Lands," appropriated to the redemption of depreciation
certificates given out for pay for military services. These
were divided into tracts ranging from two hundred to three
hundred fifty acres. Three thousand acres, however, were
reserved to the State opposite Pittsburgh, extending not less
than a mile in depth, up and down the river opposite Fort
Pitt.
For the almost seven years after the erection of
Washington County, Pittsburgh and Pitt Township sent its
constables out to Hannastown regularly to report to court, and
the citizens south of the Ohio went over to the new
county seat at Washington with their legal business. The
Westmoreland County court had erected a new township of
Wharton west of the Monongahela, but Washington County
disregarded it, and divided it into Peters, Cecil, Robinson
and Dickinson. These subdivisions were disregarded by the new
Allegheny County court when it decreed its subdivisions in
1788. Robinson Township, in present Washington County, is the
only
one that retains its historic name. Meantime the town
of Hannastown was burned on July 13, 1782, and the failure of
Justice Robert Hanna to recoup its losses, spelled doom to the
future development of the county seat. Court was
held in the log courthouse at Hannastown, and Robert Hanna and
Charles Foreman and a few others entertained the travelers
along the Great Road to Pittsburgh for five years after the
burning. After the acquisition of the Indian purchase of 1784,
two great influences worked to undermine Hannastown; an
ambitious group to the south, and the urge to make Pittsburgh
a business and legal center. But it took almost four years to
work out the new jurisdictional picture.
Colonel Benjamin Davis can be well designated as
the real estate operator who induced Colonel Christopher
Truby, Ludwick Otterman and others to lay out Newtown, three
miles to the southward from Hannastown, that the new county
seat might be established there. They first sought the aid of
the Pennsylvania Legislature, which passed the Act of
September 13, 1785, giving this authority:
"That it shall be lawful for Benjamin Davis,
Michael Rough (Rugh), John Shields, John Pomroy, and Hugh
Martin, of the county of Westmoreland, or any three of them,
to purchase and take assurance, in the name of the
Commonwealth, of a piece of land, in trust for the use of the
inhabitants of Westmoreland County; provided that said piece
of land be not situate further east than Nine Mile Run, nor
further west than Bushy Run, further north than the
Loyalhanna, nor further south than five miles south of the old
Pennsylvania Road leading to Pittsburgh; on which piece of
ground said commissioners shall erect a court-house and
prison, sufficient to accommodate the public service of the
county.
The commissioners were also given the right, under
this Act, to assess and levy a sum not exceeding one thousand
pounds.
The folks at Pittsburgh were at work on the
Legislature all the while, too, and there were ambitious plans
for the development of an enlarged area at the Forks of the
Ohio. Due to the carelessness of surveyors in laying out the
Donation Lands and the Depreciation Lands, a great lot of law
suits resulted, when the great influx of settlers arrived to
take them up. The Indians asserted their rights to hunting
also, and showed their resentment towards the settlers down to
the time of General Anthony Wayne's victory over them on the
Maumee River at Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.
As the agitation for the new seat of justice at
Pittsburgh increased the Supreme Executive Council wanted to
establish the courthouse across the river from Fort Pitt.
David Reddick, a Pittsburgher, wrote
President Benjamin Franklin, of the Supreme Executive Council,
on February 19, 1788: "On Tuesday last I went with several
other gentlemen to fix on a spot for laying out the town
opposite Pittsburgh, and at the same time took a general view
of the tract, and find it far inferior to expectations,
although I thought I had been no stranger to it. There is some
pretty low ground on the Rivers Ohio and Alleghenia, but there
is but a small portion of it dry land which appears anyway
valuable, either for timber or soil; it abounds with high
hills, deep holes, almost inaccessible to a surveyor. I am of
the opinion that if the inhabitants of the moon are capable of
the same advantage from the earth which we do from this world,
I say, if it be so, this same far famed tract of land would
afford then a variety of beautiful lunar spots, not unworthy
the eye of a philosopher. I cannot think that ten acre lots on
such pits and hills will profitably meet with purchasers,
unless, like a pig in a poke, it be kept from view."
The Supreme Executive Council made this reservation
with reference to these new lands across the Allegheny River:
"The president or vice-president in council shall reserve out
of the lots of the said town for the use of the state, so much
of said land as thev shall deem necessary for a court house,
jail and market house, for places of public worship and
burying the dead; and without the said town for a common
pasture; and the streets, lanes and alleys of the said town
shall be common highways forever." This showed a clear
intention on the part of the council to place the seat of
justice for the new county of Allegheny across from Fort Pitt,
whenever it was erected.
When the donation lands to the northward were laid
out in tracts ranging from 500 acres down to 200 acres, and
plotted according to the rank of the allottees, from
major-generals down to privates, the carelessness of surveyors
engendered a great lot of law suits in the succeeding years,
as the great influx of settlers came in.
The real agitation for a new county culminated in
the action of the Pennsylvania Legislature when it passed the
Act of September 24, 1788, some of its provisions being:
"Whereas, the inhabitants of those parts of the
counties of Westmoreland and Washington, which lie most
convenient to the Town of Pittsburgh, have by petition set
forth, that they have been long subject to many
inconveniences, from their being situate at so great a
distance from the seat of justice in their respective
counties, and that they conceive their happiness would be
greatly promoted by being erected into a separate county
comprehending the Town of Pittsburgh;
"That all those parts of Westmoreland and
Washington Counties lying within the limits and bounds
hereinafter described, shall be and hereby are, erected into a
separate county: that is to say, beginning at the mouth of
Flaherty's Run, on the South side of the Ohio River, from
thence by a straight line to the plantation on which Joseph
Scott, Esquire, now lives, on Montour's Run, to include the
same, from whence by a straight line to the mouth of Miller's
Run, on Chartiers Creek, thence by a straight line to the
mouth of Perry's Mill Run, on thee ast side of the Monongahela
River, thence up the said river to the mouth of Becket's Run,
thence by a straight line to the mouth of Sewickley Creek on
the Youghiogheny River, thence down said river to the mouth of
Crawford's Run, thence by a straight line to the mouth of
Brush Creek, on Turtle Creek, thence up Turtle Creek to the
main fork thereof, thence by a northerly line until it strikes
Puckety's Creek, thence down the said creek to the Allegheny
River, thence up the Allegheny River to the northern boundary
of the state, thence along the same to the western line of the
state, thence along the same to the River Ohio, and thence up
the same to the place of beginning:
. . . to be henceforth
known and called by the name of Allegheny County."
Later the triangular piece of territory at present
Erie was added by the purchase from the United States of
America on March 2, 1792, for the consideration of
$151,640.25, and having an area of 202,187 acres. By the Act
of September 17, 1789, a further strip was taken from
Washington County and added to Allegheny
County within the
following boundaries: "Beginning at the River Ohio, where the
boundary line of the state crosses the said river, from thence
in a straight line to White's Mill, on Raccoon Creek, from
thence a straight line to Armstrong's mill, on Miller's run,
and from thence a straight line to the Monongahela river
opposite the mouth of Perry's run."
The following pioneer justices were appointed,
beginning with October 9, 1788. to pass upon the legal affairs
of the new county:
George Wallace, John Metzgar, Michael Hillman,
Robert Richie, John Johnston, Abraham Kirkpatrick, Richard
Butler, William Tilton, Joseph Scott, John Williams, Samuel
Jones and James Brison. In his duties as assistant to the
prothonotaries and clerks of Westmoreland County at
Hannastown, James Brison's abilities and knowledge of the
application of the law brought to him an appointment as the
first prothonotary of the new county of Allegheny. Samuel
Jones was appointed the first register of wills and recorder
of deeds. General Richard Butler was appointed county
lieutenant.
When the court held its initial session on December
16, 1788, one of its first duties was to divide the new county
into seven townships. The sessions were held in a building at
the corner of Second and Market streets. The following lines
were established :
Moon—Beginning at the mouth of Flaherty's Run,
thence up the Ohio River to the mouth of Chartiers Creek,
thence up the said creek to the mouth of Miller's Run, thence
by the line of the county to the place of beginning.
St. Clair—Beginning at the mouth of Chartiers
Creek, thence up the Ohio River to the mouth of the
Monongahela, and up said river to the mouth of Street's Run,
thence up the said run to the head thereof; thence by a
straight line to the line of the county, thence bv the said
line to the mouth of Miller's Run on Chartiers Creek, and down
said creek to the place of beginning.
Mifflin—Beginning at the mouth of Street's Run,
thence up the Monongahela River to the line of the county, and
by the said line to the line of St. Clair Township.
Versailles—Beginning at the mouth of the
Youghiogheny River, thence up the said river to the mouth of
Crawford's Run, thence by the line of the county to the mouth
of Brush Creek, thence down Turtle Creek to the mouth thereof,
thence up the Monongahela River to the place of beginning.
Plum—Beginning at the mouth of Brush Creek, thence
by a straight line to the mouth of Plum Creek on the Allegheny
River, thence up said river to the county line, thence by the
said line to the place of beginning.
Elizabeth—To contain all that part of the Forks
between the Monongahela and Youghioghcny rivers, which lies
within the county of Allegheny.
Pitt—Beginning at the mouth of Puckcty's Run,
thence up the Allegheny River and by the line of the county to
Flaherty's Run, thence up the Ohio River to the mouth of the
Monongahela River, thence up said river to the mouth of Turtle
Creek, thence up TurtleCreek to the mouth of Brush Creek,
thence by the line of Plumb Township to the place of
beginning.
The immense area included in the new Pitt Township
north of the Ohio River was due to its not being settled to
any extent as yet. The more populous part of the township was
between the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers, and even
that was soon to be subdivided. Pittsburgh was not
incorporated as a municipality until April 22, 1794, and from
1792 until that time it was a part of Pittsburgh Township. The
court decreed this more restricted area, cut out of
Pitt township, at its session of June, 1792 (Minute Book
I, p.185), and thus described it: "Beginning at a point or
confluence of the Rivers Monongahela and Allegheny and running
up the margin of Monongahela to Two Mile Run, thence up said
run to the head thereof, thence by a due north course to
strike the Two Mile Run that empties into the Allegheny River,
thence down the River Allegheny to the place of beginning, be
and the same is erected into a new Township called Pittsburgh
Township."
At this first session of the court in 1788, the
first group of attorneys were admitted to practice before the
court: Hugh Henry Brackenridge, John Woods, James Ross, George
Thompson, Alexander Addison, Daniel Bradford,
James Carson, David (Daniel) St. Clair, Michael Hufmagle. By
far the most prominent in his juridical career was Hugh Henry
Brackenridge. He was born in Scotland in 1748, and died at
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1816, where his remains are
interred. After his graduation from Princeton in 1772, he was
head of an academy in Maryland, which gave him opportunity to
write many patriotic articles during the Revolutionary War
period. He was educated for the ministry as well, and his most
prominent writings were "The Battle of Bunker Hill," "The
Death of General Montgomery," and a book of six political
sermons in 1784.
Mr. Brackenridge's practice of the law began
practically at Hannastown. where he was admitted at the
session held on the second Tuesday of April,
1781, and whence he came to court from his home in Pittsburgh
during the next seven years. When Washington County was
erected in 1781 he was admitted as one of the first attorneys
there, also, and thus "rode the circuit" to represent clients
on both sides of the river at Pittsburgh. His
most noted case was that of his defense of the Indian
Mamachtaga, who was tried at Hannastown, and later hanged,
with a white man, on the hill above the courthouse. A white
man, John Smith, was killed by the Indian on Killbuck Island
below Pittsburgh on May 11, 1785. Justices
McKean and Bryan, of the Supreme Court, were assigned to hear
the case, and appeared in their judicial red robes. As a
Delaware Indian, the defendant had unquestionably come
under the teachings of the Moravian missionaries on the
Tuscarawas, and when someone asked if he knew who the
red-robed justices were, he designated one of them as God and
the other as Christ. Mr. Brackenridge interposed the defense
of drunkenness, but the Indian was convicted. Just before his
execution, the Hannastown sheriff paroled him into the woods
to secure some herbs for a sick daughter. On the day of
execution he was again permitted to go into the woods to
secure his "death paint" for adornment, and returned with his
face painted a bright red. The gallows was a rude affair, and
the victim was taken up a ladder from which to swing his body.
The rope broke the first time, but after being repaired, a
second attempt was successful in extending to him the extreme
penalty of the law.
The year 1786 is outstanding in the history of the
Pittsburgh area by reason of the establishing of the first
mail route from the east through the new town of Greensburg,
and publication of the first newspaper, the Pittsburgh
"Gazette." James Brison, the efficient court clerk at
Hannastown, who later became a justice and the first
prothonotary of Allegheny County two years later, was awarded
the first contract for carrying the mails from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh in 1786. The post office at Greensburg was
established August 25, 1791, and we can well assume that the
Pittsburgh office was established about the same time, or
perhaps a little earlier, after the adoption of the
Constitution and its ratification on June 22, 1788, and the
establishing of the new post office department
under it after Washington's inauguration in 1789. Two
ambitious young men, John Scull and Joseph Hall, issued the
first number of the Pittsburgh "Gazette" on July 29, 1786, and
Mr. Brackenridge contributed the leading and most informing
article in the issue, which was highly descriptive of the
Pittsburgh of that day. Parts of it are quite appropriate for
quotation in this narrative.
"It was in the spring of the year 1781, that,
leaving the city of Philadelphia, I crossed the Allegheny
Mountain, and took my residence in the Town of Pittsburgh,
'If town it may be called, that town was
none.
Distinguishable by house or street—'.
But in fact a few old buildings, under the walls of
a garrison which stood at the junction of the two rivers.
Nevertheless, it appeared to me as what would one day be a
town of note, and in the meantime might be pushed forward by
the usual means that raise such places. Two or three years had
elapsed, and some progress has been made in improvement, when
a Gazette was established at this place for the western
country, and one of my earliest contributions was the
following, intended to give some reputation to the town, with
a view to induce emigration to this particular spot. Whether
it contributed in any degree to this object, I do not know,
nor is it material at the early period, and the state of
society at that time, July 26, 1786.
"The Ohio, at the distance of about one mile from
its source, winds round the lower end of the island and
disappears. I call the confluence of the Allegheny and the
Monongahela the source of the Ohio. It is pleasant to observe
the conflict of these two waters where they meet; when of an
equal height, the contest is equal, and a small rippling
appears from the point of land at their junction to the
distance of about five hundred yards. When the Allegheny is
master, as the term is, the current keeps its course a great
way into the Monongahela before it is overcome, and falls into
the bed of the Ohio. The Monongahela in like manner having the
mastery, bears away the Allegheny, and with its muddy waters
discolors the crystal current of that river. This happens
frequently, inasmuch as these two rivers, coming from different climates of the country, are seldom swollen
at the same time. The flood of the Allegheny rises perhaps the
highest. I have observed it to have been at least 30 feet
above the level, by the impression of the ice on the branches
of trees which overhang the river, and had been cut at the
breaking up of the winter, when the snow and frost melting
towards the northeast, throw themselves down with amazing
rapidity and violence in a mighty deluge. The current of the
Allegheny is in general more rapid than that of the
Monongahela, and though not broader or of greater depth, yet,
from this circumstance, throws forward a greater quantity of
water in the same space of time. In this river, at the
distance of about one mile above the town of Pittsburg, is a
beautiful little island which, if there are river gods and
nymphs, they may be supposed to haunt. At the upper end of the
island, and towards the western shores, is a small ripple, as
it is called, where the water, bubbling as if it sprung from
the pebbles of a fountain, gives
vivacity and an air of
cheerfulness to the scene.
"The fish of the Allegheny are harder and firmer
than those of the Monongahela or Ohio; owing, as it is
supposed, to the greater coldness and purity of the water. The
fish in general of those rivers are good. They arc the pike,
weighing frequently fifteen or twenty pounds; the perch, much
larger than any I have seen in the Bay of Chesapeake, which is
the only tide from whence I have ever seen perch; there is
also the sturgeon, and many more kinds of fish.
"It may be said by some who will read this
description which I have given, or may be about to give, that
it is minute and useless, inasmuch as they are observations of
things well known. But let it be considered that it is not
intended for the people of this country, but for those at a
distance, who may not yet be acquainted with the natural
situation of the Town of Pittsburg, or having heard of it, may
wish to be more particularly informed. Who knows what families
of fortune it may induce to emigrate to this place?
"There is a rock known by the name of McKee's rock,
at a distance of about three miles below the head of the Ohio.
It is an end of a promontory, where the river bends to the
northwest, and where, by the rushing of the floods, the earth
has been cut away during the several ages: so that now, the
huge, overhanging rocks appear hollowed beneath, so as to form
a dome of majesty and grandeur, near one hundred feet in
height. Here are the names of French and British officers
engraved, who in the former times, in parties of pleasure, had
visited this place. The town of Pittsburg, at the head of the
Ohio, is scarcely visible from hence, by means of an
intervening island, the lower end of which is nearly opposite
the rocks. Just below them, at the bending of the river, is a
deep eddy of water, which has been sounded by a line of thirty fathoms, and no bottom found. Above
them, is a beautiful extent of bottom, containing five or six
hundred acres, and the ground rising to the inland country
with an easy ascent, so as to form an extensive landscape. As
you ascend the river from those rocks, to the town of
Pittsburg, you pass by on your right hand, the mouth of a
brook known by the name of Saw-mill Run. This empties itself
about half a mile below the town, and is overlooked by a
building on its banks, in the point of a hill which fronts
east, and is first struck by the beam of the rising sun. A
short distance from its mouth is a saw-mill, about twenty
perches below the situation of an old mill built by the
British, the remains of some parts of which are still
seen.
"At the head of the Ohio stands the town of
Pittsburg, on an angular piece of ground, the two rivers
forming the two sides of the angle. Just at the point, stood,
when I first came to this country, a tree, leaning against
which I have often overlooked the wave, or, committing my
garments to its shade, have bathed in the transparent tide.
Howhave I regretted its undeserved fate, when the early
winter's flood tore it from the roots and left the bank
bare?
"On this point stood the old French Fort, known by
the name of Fort Duquesne, which was evacuated and blown up by
the French, in the campaign of the British under Gen. Forbes.
The appearance of the ditch and mound, with the salient angles
and bastions, still remains so as to prevent that perfect
level of the ground, which otherwise would exist. It has been
long overgrown with the finest verdure, and pastured on by
cattle; but since the town has been laid out, it has been
enclosed, and buildings arc erected."
Mr. Brackenridge took a decided stand as the
Whiskey Insurrection came on, which caused some to consider
him as disloyal to the government. He later wrote a very
comprehensive treatise about this short but effective
struggle. On December 17, 1799, Governor Thomas McKean
appointed him a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
in which he served with distinction. He lived at Carlisle from
1807 until his death in 1816. He was a writer of much
patriotic propaganda, and a satirist of the new democracy that
was in the making.
Pittsburgh was quite devoid ot a religious
organization from its earliest days until about 1787, when the
Presbyterians began to establish their work there. Seven or
eight miles to the eastward was the Beulah
Presbyterian Church, just outside present Wilkinsburg on the
State Road. It first went by the name of the Church at the
Bullock Pens, after the Forbes army supply point. Its earliest
sessional records are dated September 24, 1787: Pitts
Township, with Rev. Samuel Barr presiding. There is a further
record of its being incorporated as of September 29, 1787,
when the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh begins its
history as a part of Beulah's work.
The Pittsburgh "Gazette" of March to, 1787, gives
an idea of the ambitious program before the community, by the
following item:
"A meeting of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh had
been held on the 1st instant, and Messrs. Hugh Ross, Stephen
Bayard and Rev. Samuel Barr, were appointed a
committee to report a plan for building a market house and
establishing market days. The citizens were invited to meet in
the public square on Monday, the 12th, to hear their report."
This market house was later established
at the corner of Second and Market streets.
Pittsburgh could not get started on its extensive
real estate expansion because of the manor of Pittsburgh,
established by the Penns prior to the Revolution. Because of
their allegiance to the British government, all of their
property, except these manors, was confiscated with the close
of the Revolution. Through their agent, Tench Francis, the
Penns sent out George Woods and Thomas Vickroy, competent
surveyors, to survey the manor of Pittsburgh in 1784 and to
lay it out in lots. They performed their work promptly, and
from that time the town began to grow. It remained still a
"rollicking, frontier town," as one has termed it, for quite a
few years. Arthur Lee, an Indian Commissioner, passing through
Pittsburgh in 1784, thus pictures it:
"Pittsburgh is inhabited almost entirely by Scots
and Irish, who live in paltry log houses, and are as dirty as
in the north of Ireland, or even Scotland. There is a great
deal of small trade carried on; the goods being brought at the
vast expense of forty-five shillings per cwt. from
Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take in the shops money,
wheat, flour and skins. There are in town four attornies, two
doctors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor
chapel. The rivers encroach fast on the town; and to such a
degree, that, as a gentleman told me, the Allegheny had,
within thirty years of his memory, carried away one hundred
yards. The place, I believe, will never be very
considerable."
In the summer of 1790, another traveler, John Pope,
gives his impressions of the coming Pittsburgh. "I viewed the
fort and neighboring eminences of Pittsburgh, which will one
day or other employ the historic pen, as being replete with
strange and melancholy events. The town at present is
inhabited, with only some few exceptions, by mortals who act
as if they were possessed of a charter of exclusive privilege
to filch from, annoy, and harass their fellow creatures,
particularly the incautious and necessitous; many who have
emigrated from various parts to Kentucky can
verify this charge. Goods of every description are dearer in
Pittsburgh than in Kentucky, which I attribute to the
combination of pensioned scoundrels who infest the place."
The new Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790, changed
the type of appointments to the bench in Pennsylvania, which
had been in vogue since Colonial days. It provided for the
appointment of a presiding judge learned in the law, and two
associate judges, unlearned, from among the laity. The
president judge would ride the circuit through a fixed
district, and in each of the counties the two associate judges
would join with him in the court sessions, and pass upon the
local legal contentions. Allegheny County was placed in the
Fifth Judicial District, and it still retains that numerical
designation as a county. Judge Alexander Addison was the first
president judge appointed under the new constitution, and
began his service on August 22, 1791. The fifth district was
first composed of the counties of Allegheny, Fayette,
Washington and Westmoreland. As the new counties of Greene,
Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer and Venango
were carved out of the four original counties up until 1803,
he presided there also, as their early records show.
Judge Addison was born in Morayshire, Scotland, in
1758, and after graduation at the University of Aberdeen
in 1777, entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1781. He came to
America in 1785, and applied to the Redstone Presbytery for
standing as a minister, but was refused. He preached for a
time at the Presbyterian Church in Washington, Pennsylvania,
and after his refusal of membership in the Presbytery, took up
the study of law with David Reddick, Esq., and was admitted to
the Washington County bar in 1787. When the Whiskey Insurrection came on three years after his
appointment, he stood for law and order, as advanced by the
government, and thus incurred the enmity of many of his
fellow-citizens. Hugh H. Brackenridge was quite hostile to
him. Judge Addison got into difficulty with an associate
judge, named John B. Lucas, because of his refusal to permit
Judge Lucas to charge a jury, which was clearly the duty of
the president judge. Judge Lucas brought impeachment
proceedings in the Legislature, and Judge Addison was tried by
an anti-Federalist body and impeached. The case was heard at
Lancaster, which was then the capital of the State, and the
proceedings are reported in Fourth Dallas, page 225, of the
Pennsylvania
Reports.
|
Transcribed by C. Anthony from Annals of
southwestern Pennsylvania, by Lewis Clark Walkinshaw ... Vol.
2.
Author: Walkinshaw, Lewis
Clark.
This Webpage has been created
exclusively for the Genealogy Trails History Project ©2009
Submitters retain all copyrights |
|
Visit Our Pennsylvania
Site
 |
Visit Our National
Site
|
Back to Allegheny
County
| |