Note 220 — MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF DAVID RITTENHOUSE; CONTINUED, FROM THE TIME OF HIS SETTLEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA.
Reading edition
The following report of the progress of their work was made by the commissioners, to the government of Pennsylvania, between three and four weeks before Mr. Rittenhouse set out on his return to Philadelphia: it is entered on the journal of the general assembly of that state, under the date of Nov. 2, 1785.
“We the subscribers, commissioners, appointed by the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to ascertain the boundary between the said states, do certify, that we have carried on a meridian line from the south-west corner of Pennsylvania, northward, to the river Ohio; and marked it, by cutting a wide vista over all the principal hills intersected by the said line, and by falling or deadening a line of trees, generally, through all the lower grounds. And we have likewise placed stones, marked on the east side, P. and on the west side, V. on most of the principal hills, and where the line strikes the Ohio; which stones are accurately placed in the true meridian, bounding the states as aforesaid.”
“Witness our hands and seals, this 23d day of August, 1785. (Signed,) David Rittenhouse, Andrew Porter, Pennsylvania; Andrew Ellicott, Joseph Nevill; Virginia.”