Act for Purchase of Erie Triangle Passed

April 3, 1792

For many years after William Penn received the charter for Pennsylvania he was engaged in controversies over the boundary line of his Province, and long after his death the several proprietaries were concerned with the question. It was not until 1774 that the controversy with Maryland was concluded, and it was after the Revolution that the armed conflict with Connecticut was finally determined by Congress, and the imminent conflict with Virginia over the territory west of the Alleghenies was satisfactorily settled.

It was not until 1786, after many difficulties between the States of Pennsylvania and Virginia, that the western boundary of our State was surveyed by extending the Mason and Dixon line to the end of the five degrees west from the Delaware River and a meridian drawn from the western extremity to the northern limit.

In 1785 commissioners were appointed on the part of Pennsylvania and New York to ascertain the northern boundary of the former from the Delaware River westward to the northwest corner. The commissioners were David Rittenhouse on the part of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Holland on the part of New York. They proceeded to act in pursuance of that appointment, and in December, 1786, ascertained and fixed the beginning of the forty-third degree of north latitude, erected suitable monuments there and near the Delaware River, but were prevented by inclement weather from proceeding further in the survey.

The next year Andrew Ellicott was appointed a commissioner, on the part of Pennsylvania, and James Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on the part of New York. In 1787 they completed the running and marking of this northern boundary 259 miles and 88 perches from its commencement at the Delaware River, to its termination in Lake Erie, five or six miles east of the Ohio State line and marked the whole distance throughout by milestones, each one indicating the distance from the Delaware River. In 1789 an act of Assembly confirmed the acts of the commissioners.

The Indians being recognized as owners of the soil, the whole was purchased from them by different treaties. One at Fort Stanwix extinguished their title to the lands of Western Pennsylvania and New York, excepting the Triangle or Presqu’ Isle lands, which were accidentally left out of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia and were supposed at different times to belong to each.

General William Irvine discovered while surveying the Donation Lands that Pennsylvania had but a few miles of lake coast and not any 241harbor, and in consequence of his representations the State of Pennsylvania made propositions for its purchase from Philips and Gorham, the reputed owners, in the year 1788. Surveyor General Andrew Ellicott surveyed and established lines at the request of the Federal Government, but Frederic Saxton accompanied him on behalf of the owners.

It was finally determined by comparison with the charters of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut just what was the western limit of New York. This was found to be twenty miles east of Presqu’ Isle.

On June 6, 1788, the Board of Treasury was induced to make a contract for the sale of this tract described as bounded “on the east by New York, on the south by Pennsylvania and on the north and west by Lake Erie.”

On September 4 it was resolved by Congress “that the United States do relinquish and transfer to Pennsylvania all their right, title and claim to the Government and jurisdiction of the said land forever, and it is declared and made known that the laws and public acts of Pennsylvania shall extend over every part of said tract as if the said tract had originally been within the charter bounds of the State.”

By an act of October 2, 1788, the sum of £1200 was appropriated to purchase the Indian title to the tract, in fulfillment of the contract to sell it to Pennsylvania.

At the treaty of Fort McIntosh, January 9, 1789, Chief Cornplanter and other chiefs of the Six Nations signed a deed in consideration of the sum of £1200, ceding the Presqu’ Isle lands to the United States. It was then, by a deed dated March 3, 1792, ceded by the United States to Pennsylvania. This deed is signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.

In 1790 Surveyor-General Andrew Ellicott made a survey of the triangle and found it to contain 202,287 acres. The purchase-money paid to the United States, at seventy-five cents an acre, was $151,640.25.

This purchase having been completed before the passage of the act of April 3, 1792, the lands within it except the reservations were sold under the provisions of this act. The first settlements in Erie County were made under the provisions of that law, and many instances of personal violence occurred between the contending claimants. The squatters would league together to prevent the legal claimants from depriving them of their improvements.

The settlement of the lands northwest of the Allegheny River, and especially the Presqu’ Isle lands, was never cordially acquiesced in by the Six Nations, and Cornplanter became very unpopular among his own people. It was charged upon him that he and Little Billy had received the purchase price both at Fort McIntosh and Philadelphia. Cornplanter himself protested to the United States at Buffalo Creek in June, 1794, against the garrison established by General Anthony Wayne at Presqu’ Isle, when he went out against the Miami Indians.

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