Commissioners Appointed to Purchase Last Indian Lands, February 29, 1784

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.

156The 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.

157It 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.

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