[NO. XXXII.]

GREENE COUNTY.

GREENE COUNTY was organized February 9, 1796. It was formed from Washington county, within the limits defined by the act: " Beginning at the mouth of Ten-mile Creek, on the Monongahela river; thence up Ten-mile Creek to the junction of the north and south forks of said creek; thence up said north fork to Col. William Wallace's mills; thence up a south-westerly direction to the nearest part of the dividing ridge between the north and south forks of Ten-mile Creek; thence along the top of the said ridge to the ridge which divides the waters of Ten-mile and Wheeling creeks; thence a straight line to the head of Enlow's branch of the Wheeling; thence down said branch to the western boundary line of the State; thence east along said line to the River Monongahela; and thence down to the place of beginning."

David Grey, Stephen Gapin, Isaac Jenkinson, William Meetkirk and James Seals, were appointed commissioners to procure, by grant, bargain or otherwise, any quantity of land not exceeding five hundred acres, within five miles of the centre of the county, and survey and lay out the same into town lots; and on due notice given sell lots at public auction, so many lots as to raise a fund sufficient, with certain county taxes, to pay for the purchase of the land, and the erection of a Court House and prison. Till a court house was erected, the courts were directed to be held at the house of Jacob Kline, on Muddy creek.

The original boundaries of the county were altered, and part of it reannexed to Washington, in 1802.

Greene county, the extreme southwestern county of Pennsylvania, is bounded on the north by Washington; on the east by Fayette; on the south and west by the State of Virginia. It has in length, east and west, 32 miles; and in breadth, north and south, 19 miles; area 597 square miles, and contains 384,080 acres of land. Population in 1800, 8,605; in 1810, 12,544; in 1820, 15,554; in 1830, 18,028; in 1840, 19,147.

The surface of the country is greatly diversified by hills and valleys, though no where mountainous; and the soil, though rocky, rough and broken in some places, is generally productive: Along some of the streams are delightful vallies,--fertile river bottoms,-yielding luxuriant crops when well cultivated. Some portions of the county are better adapted to grazing than raising grain. Many of the cattle raised in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, are grazed here before driving to the eastern markets. Much attention is paid to feeding stock.

Bituminous coal abounds in this county; some beds are six feet thick, yielding a boundless and inexhaustible supply of that valuable material.

The following exhibits the products, &c., of the county: Bituminous coal raised 185,342 bushels, capital $4,401. Horses and mules 7,733; neat cattle 19,388; sheep 37,085; swine 36,199.

Value

of poulry of all kinds, $31,311. Wheat 251,823 bushels; oats 348,709; rye 33,901; buckwheat 31,366; corn 436,607. Wool 69,511 pounds; hops 897; wax 833; potatoes 60,883 bushels; hay 10,798 tons; pounds of sugar made 111,107; value of the products of the dairy $82,180; of the orchard $12, 100; of home-made goods $43,689; stores of all kinds 50, capital $140,885; skins and furs, value produced, $2,004; fulling mills 9; woollen manufactories 4, value of manufactured goods, $11,850; value of hats and caps manufactured, $3,650. Tanneries 15, tanned 2,250 sides of sole and 3,422 upper leather, capital $13,950.Distilleries 34, produced 36,415 gallons. One glass house, value of manufactures $12,000. Value of manufactured carriages, $2,000.Flouring mills 4, grist mills 207, saw mills 670, oil mills 5. Houses built: brick 94, wooden 251. Total capital invested in manufactures, $290,782.

The aggregate amount of property taxable in 1840, was $2,191,592, whereof $2,010,950 was real estate.

15,554 18,028 19,147

Jefferson,

Franklin,

Total,

The Monongahela river, whose sources rise in the western spurs of the Appalachian mountains, and receives many small streams before it reaches Pennsylvania, flows along the eastern side of the county, seperating it from Fayette. The other principal streams are Dunkard's, Whitely, Ten-mile creek, &c.

Dunkard's creek is a considerable stream, and flows along the south boundary of the State,-sometimes deviating into Virginia,-the whole length of the county, to the Monongahela, or its eastern boundary.— Whitely creek has a course of about fifteen miles-flows eastward into the Monongahela. Ten-mile creek rises in Rich Hill township-flows east through the whole county, by Clarksville, and several miles beyond it-empties into the Monongahela river. The other creeks are Muddy, Wheeling, Fish, Cheat, Ruff's, Bate's, Brown's, and Bush Fork, Gray's Fork, &c.

The adult, male population was variously employed. In mining 6; agriculture 3,812; commerce 64; manufactures and trades 815; navi gation of rivers 8; learned professions 46.

Timber is so abundant here as to be of little value. Much of this county is still uncleared: where the axe has not yet done its work, the land is covered with every variety of timber indigenous to the west, of the largest growth. Oak, poplar, walnut, hickory, ash, locust and sugar maple, extend over a considerable portion of the county. More than 111,000 pounds of sugar are annually manufactured in this county, from the sap of the Acer saccharinum, or sugar maple.

Public, improvements, in the usual acceptation of the term, there are none in this county. Neither railroads, turnpikes or canals; however, several State roads have been constructed, leading in different directions from the county seat. The common roads are generally kept in a good condition, and bridges are built over the principal streams, where the main roads cross.

Education does not receive that attention the subject deserves. Hitherto it has been much neglected. There is an Academy of advanced standing at Waynesburg, and one at Carmichaelstown. There are 17 school districts in this county, and only six made reports to the superintendent of schools in 1845. These reported 56 schools, in which 1,059 males, and 977 females were taught six months. A school tax of $1,764 58 was assessed. State appropriation amounted to $935 52. The religious denominations are Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians; but Catholics are most numerous.

WAYNESBURG, the county seat, was laid out when the county was erected in 1796. The land was purchased, in conformity with the act of February 9th, 1796, from Thomas Slater, laid out into lots and sold, The town was incorporated January 29th, 1816. It is situated nearly in the centre of the county, in a fertile valley on the bank of Ten mile creek, 11 miles from the Monongahela river. The public buildings consist of a neat Court House and county offices built of brick, a stone prison, an academy and four houses of public worship-two belonging to the Methodists, one Presbyterian, and one Catholic.

Greensburg, on the Monongahela, 20 miles southeast from Waynes. burg, was once a place of considerable trade-a depot for produce sent down the river in arks and steamboats; larger places on the Ohio and National road, have diverted the trade from this point. Opposite this place is New Geneva, noticed in Fayette county.

Carmichaelstown, or New Lisbon, is a village of some importance, in a rich and beautiful valley on Muddy creek, 12 miles eastward from Waynesburg. Here is the county academy, which has sustained a fair reputation. The academy, called "Green Academy," was incorporated March 20, 1810, $2,000 were given to it on condition that a number of poor children not exceeding six, should be taught annually therein.

Newtown is on Whiteley creek, in the southern part of the county. Mount Morris is on Dunkard's creek, near the Virginia line. Besides these there are several smaller villages, Mapletown, Clarksville, Jefferson, Morrisville, Clinton.

"That extensive district now composing Greene, Washington and

Fayette counties, and a part of Somerset, was originally supposed to be included within the boundaries of Virginia, and was first settled, or rather first visited, by adventurers from that State and Maryland. As early as 1754, David Tygart had settled in the valley which still bears his name in North-western Virginia. Several other families and individuals came into the region in the course of five or six years afterwards. These early adventurers were men of iron nerves and stout hearts-a compound of the hunter, the warrior, and the husbandman; they came prepared to endure all the hardships of life in the wilderness; to encounter its risks, and defend their precarious homes against the wily natives of the forest. For some 10 or 15 years the possession of the country was hotly contested, and alternately held and abandoned by the English on the one hand, and the French and Indians on the other. Families were frequently murdered, cabins burnt, and the settlement thus for a time broken up. Stockade forts were resorted to by the inhabitants for the protection of their families in time of invasion. One of these, called Jarret's fort, was situated on Whitley creek, about seven miles west of Greensburg. Settlements were made at a very early date by the Rev. John Corbly and his family, and others, on Muddy creek. The following narrative was given by him in a letter to Rev. Wm. Rogers of Philadelphia, in the year 1785:

On the second Sabbath in May, in the year 1782, being my appointment at one of my meeting-houses, about a mile from my dwellinghouse, I set out with my dear wife and five children for public worship. Not suspecting any danger, I walked behind 200 yards, with my Bible in my hand, meditating; as I was thus employed, all on a sudden, I was greatly alarmed with the frightful shrieks of my dear family before me. I immediately ran, with all the speed I could, vainly hunting a club as I ran, till I got within forty yards of them; my poor wife seeing me, cried to me to make my escape; an Indian ran up to shoot me; I then fled, and by so doing outran him. My wife had a sucking child in her arms; this little infant they killed and scalped. They then struck my wife several times, but not getting her down, the Indian who aimed to shoot me, ran to her, shot her through the body and scalped her; my little boy, an only son, about six years old, they sunk the hatchet into his brain, and thus dispatched him. A daughter, besides the infant, they also killed and scalped. My eldest daughter, who is yet alive, was hid in a tree, about 20 yards from the place where the rest were killed, and saw the whole proceedings. She, seeing the Indians all go off, as she thought, got up, and deliberately crept out from the hollow trunk; but one of them espying her, ran hastily up, and scalped her; also her only surviving sister, one on whose head they did not leave more than an inch round, either of flesh or skin, besides taking a piece of her skull. She, and the before-mentioned one, are still miraculously preserved, though, as you may think, I have had, and still have, a great deal of trouble and expense with them, besides anxiety about them, insomuch that I am, as to worldly circumstances, almost ruined. I am yet in hopes of seeing them cured; they still, blessed be God, retain their senses, notwithstanding the painful operations they have already, and must yet pass through. MUDDY CREEK, Washington co., July 8 1785.

In several interesting numbers published in the National Intelligencer two or three years since, under the signature of "A Traveller," is the following paragraph relating to Greene county:

"The warrior, with his gun, hatchet, and knife, prepared alike to slay the deer and bear for food, and also to defend himself against and destroy his savage enemy, was not the only kind of man who sought these wilds. A very interesting and tragic instance was given of the contrary by the three brothers Eckarlins. These men, Dunkard's by profession, left the eastern and cultivated parts of Pennsylvania, and plunged into the depths of the western wilderness. Their first permanent camp was on a creek flowing into the Monongahela river, in the south-western part of Pennsylvania, to which stream they gave the name of Dunkard's creek, which it still bears. These men of peace employed themselves in exploring the country in every direction, in which one vast, silent, and uncultivated waste spread around them. From Dunkard's creek these men removed to Dunkard's bottom, or Cheat river, which they made their permanent residence, and, with a savage war raging at no considerable distance, they spent some years unmolested; indeed, it is probable, unseen.

"In order to obtain some supplies of salt, ammunition, and clothing, Dr. Thomas Eckarlin recrossed the mountains with some peltry. On his return from Winchester to rejoin his brothers, he stopped on the south branch of the Potomac, at Fort Pleasant, and roused the curiosity of the inhabitants by relating his adventures, removals, and present residence. His avowed pacific principles, as pacific religious principles have everywhere else done, exposed him to suspicion, and he was detained as a confederate of the Indians, and as a spy come to examine the frontier and its defences. In vain did Dr. Eckarlin assert his innocence of any connection with the Indians, and that, on the contrary, neither he nor his brothers had even seen an Indian since their residence west of the mountains. He could not obtain his liberty until, by his own suggestion, he was escorted by a guard of armed men, who were to reconduet him a prisoner to Fort Pleasant, in case of any confirmation of the charges against him.

"These arbitrary proceedings, though in themselves very unjust, it is probable, saved the life of Dr. Eckarlin, and his innocence was made manifest in a most shocking manner. Approaching the cabin where he had left and anxiously hoped to find his brothers, himself and his guard were presented with a heap of ashes. In the yard lay the mangled and putrid remains of the two brothers, and, as if to add to the horrors of the scene, beside the corpses lay the hoops, on which their scalps had been dried. Dr. Eckarlin and the now sympathizing men buried the remains, and not a prisoner, but a forlorn and desolate man, he returned to the South Branch. This was amongst the opening scenes of that lengthened tragedy which was acted through upwards of thirty years."

The following occurred within or near Greene county, then Westmoreland:

"MADAM:-I have written to Mr.

of your city, an account of I am now about to

an affair between a white man and two Indians.