Treaty of Fort Stanwix

Warrantee
Connected Draft

Treaty of Fort
Stanwix area in Armstrong County, Pa.

by

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. 

Copyright
applied for 6-25-08

Herbert
Eckman

09034
State Hwy 127

West
Unity, Ohio 43570

Ph:
419-636-2251