JUDGE ALEXANDER ADDISON
ALEXANDER ADDISON
Admitted 1787. Died, 1807
President Judge Fifth District, 1791-1803
Judge Alexander Addison was a man of foresight and his suggestion that land around the springs should be reserved for the use of the town was accepted by the State. It is to this man that the Borough of Beaver owes thanks for its first supply of water that lasted from 1802 to 1886.
Washington Pa. 3d February 1796
Sir: -
At the last court in Allegheny County General Wilkins had received
no instructions for procuring the attendance of the Indians as
witnesses in the case of the attack on the Indians on the Allegheny
river.
I think it proper to mention to you, that at least one man has
built a house with a view to settle on some of the unsold part
of the reserve tract at the mouth of the Beaver creek, and that
several others expect to do so next spring. If this measure takes
place it will probably occasion disturbance and dispute, the settlers
without right will claim a preference to those who respecting
the law, stand back till they can have an opportunity of settling
lawfully. The sales will be injured, for some will be backward
to purchase a disputed possession. I submit to you the consideration
of the probable consequences and the remedy, whether it will be
best to proceed immediately to a sale of the residue of the lots
and tracts, or whether some notification ought to be given against
such settlements, and suits instituted against those who will
not go off. I would also mention, that I am informed that havoc
is making of the timber and trees of the unsold part, and much
greater is to be feared. Whether it will be thought proper to
advert to this you will also consider. If the sale of the residue
should be determined on, it ought to be attended to, that a certain
spring, at some distance from the town is (excepting the rivers
which are an hundred feet below the level of the town, with a
very steep bank) the only resource for water - a sufficient quantity
of ground ought to be reserved round it and between it and the
town, for conducting it into the town. There is also a stone quarry
near it which ought not to be suffered to become private property.
Both these ought to be vested in trustees for the use of the town.
The most proper trustees would be an incorporation to be made
of the town, to take place as soon as a sufficient number of inhabitants
should be in it. Many will settle there next summer. Before a
sale the future seat of justice ought to be established there-the
county to take place as soon as a certain number, say 300 or 500
families live on the N.W. side of the Ohio, within 15 or 20 miles
of the town.
This being certified to you on certain proof made, the lines of
the county on both sides of the Ohio to be ascertained by Commissioners,
and declared by proclamation; but no court to be held there until
the County Commissioners have built a sufficient Court house and
jail, which they should be enabled to do without limitation of
price. These sales ought to be on the grounds, I mean at the town
itself. Arid profits ought to be applied to an academy.
Indeed I should think that in all the unsettled parts, boundaries
of counties and cities of the county towns ought to be ascertained
before-hand and purchases made of 600 or 1000 acres to be laid
out in lots and outlots, and the profits applied to academies.
The county to be declared by proclamation entitled to a separate
representation as soon as the ratio of one member shall be complete,
and to a separate judicature as soon as a Court house and jail
proper for the purpose shall be finished. This plan would prevent
much intrigue and partiality, and would throw the profits into
a better channel than they are now in. At present county towns
are only means of gain without merit to the owners of the land,
who may impose what terms they please on the purchasers.
You will forgive me for troubling you with these hasty hints, and deal with them as you please.
I am, with great respect, Sir,
Your most obed't serv't.
Alex Addison
P.S. - As no lot has been reserved proper for a grave yard, which ought to be back from the town of Beaver-whether to provide for that and for conducting the spring and proper road from the stone quarry, a sufficient quantity of ground back of the town, ought not to be reserved from the sale?
To Thomas Mifflin,
Governor of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The next letter is from Judge Addison to Secretary Dallas
Washington, 2d March, 1796
Dear Sir:
I formerly wrote to the Governor respecting
the sale of the residue of the lots of the town at the mouth of
Beaver and the residue of the reserved tract there. I do think
that there is a necessity for the sale as early as possible in
the spring, and that as good price will be given then as ought
to be expected, or will probably be got at any future period within
the compass of a proper prosecution of the plan. I think the lots
will now sell high. I think the sale ought to be on the ground;
those who intend to be settlers will go there; those who intend
to speculate may go or send there. I am confident that this also
will be found true and proper.
I do not know whether the land will be all surveyed, and I believe
not; it ought to be laid out in small lots near the town and in
larger back from it to the extent of the reservation. If a clause
of settlement be annexed there ought to be a special method pointed
out to ascertain the forfeiture and conclude the purchaser.
The last sale was in this town that was not altogether right,
as the land is not in this county. Yet reasons, perhaps true,
and if true, sufficient, were given for not selling at Pittsburgh.
The people of Pittsburgh, it was said disliked the establishment,
and would have thwarted the progress of the sale and settlement
of the town. They had engrossed almost all the lots in the reserved
tract opposite to Pittsburgh and made use of that as an argument
to remove the seat of justice from that place into Pittsburgh,
and so prevented any town there. They might have been disposed
to do the same thing at McIntosh.
The Commissioners for laying out the town and lots, laid out at
McIntosh, that is at the mouth of Beaver, were scattered, one
in Pittsburgh, one in Westmoreland, and one in Fayette, and the
surveyor was in Washington. The consequence was they never met,
and the surveyor after attending on several appointments, was
obliged to lay out the lots alone. The blame of this was laid
on the Pittsburgh Commissioner. I would recommend Matthew Ritchie,
David Redick and Daniel Leet, the two first of this town and the
last near it, as Commissioners to lay out and sell the lots, and
if the law for Greene County does not alter the day of next June
courts, would suggest the last Monday of May as the time of sale
on the reserved tract itself, & to continue from day to day.
You wanted a lot at the last sale. If you should want one now,
write to me, point out the lot and the highest price. I wish you
would send me a plan of the town and out lots and reserved tract.
It would do for the Commissioners. I wish you would accompany
it with a list of the purchasers & the number purchased &
the prices, that will also do for the Commissioners. But send
me by post as soon as possible a list of such purchasers as have
not taken out patents for their lots (if there be any such) with
the number & prices. Purchases would be made of them perhaps.
Yours sincerely,
Alex'r Addison.
Pittsburgh, 11 th. March 1796
Sir: - At the court this week an application
was again made for the discharge of the person taken for killing
the Indian boy, on the Allegheny river. But on a statement of
the circumstances rendering it impossible to proceed with the
prosecution, it was not pressed. It will be impossible, with any
decency, that this motion should be restrained or resisted any
longer, and I hope measures will be taken to have the Indians
here by the next court to prove the death.
Let me again suggest to you the necessity of as early as a sale
as possible of the residue of the lots and reserved tract at the
mouth of Beaver creek. In my opinion the sale ought to be in the
end of May next. If not sold soon the lots and land will be occupied
by persons without title. The sale ought to be on the ground itself.
The idea of a new county ought to be fixed and prosecuted as soon
as possible, I dread the consequences of the flood of mad people
who have gone over the Allegheny and Ohio to make settlements;
their number is inconceivable and they will, perhaps, be dangerous,
unless law can be brought in among them. The establishment of
a new county and seat of justice there, with the additional number
of officers that would be occasioned by that, would awaken and
keep up a sense of submission, and have a good influence on characters
and tempers, which otherwise may give rise to some apprehensions.
I am, Sir, with much respect,
your most obed't Serv,
Alex Addison
Thomas Mifflin
Governor of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Dr. Bausman commented as follows concerning
Judge Alexander Addison:
"While these letters may, perhaps, indicate that Judge Addison
was looking out for good things for himself and his friends in
the way of land values, they reveal still more, as did every word
he ever penned, a spirit of high civic patriotism united to clear
sighted wisdom and knowledge of men and law."
"When we consider the conditions existing when this town
of Beaver was laid out, we must admire the farsightedness and
sure and steady purpose of the men who were the legislators of
that time."
That area of land was finally designated as "Water Lots."
One is located across from Bouquet Park at the intersection of
Wayne and Fifth Streets and extends upward to Westview Drive.
The other was located in a straight horizontal line from Westview
and cuts across what is now Dutch Ridge Road. That section of
land was known variously as Wolf Land or Wolf Lane. Today it is
known as Galey Boulevard. Both lots comprised an area of fifteen
acres.
The second lot was sold to John Galey by the Borough in 1903 after
a special Act of the State Legislature. Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker
did not veto the Act but left it unsigned and in this manner it
automatically became a law. Why that lot was sold to private interests
is still a mystery. Galey was a powerful figure on the local scene
and influential in the State Capital. It seems possible that the
Borough Council was browbeaten into giving its consent. Why the
Legislature consented even to consider such an Act added to the
mystery. The fact that Governor Pennypacker, who did not approve
of the scheme, failed to veto the Act reveals the uncivic mentality
that had developed one hundred years after the incorporation of
Beaver as a Borough. It was a sad day in the history of the town.
There were numerous springs in both of those "Lots" and Dr. Joseph H.Bausman in his "History of Beaver County" (page 624 Vol. 11) states that those springs were "granted to the inhabitants of said Borough forever." Judge Alexander Addison in his foregoing letters notes the existence of a "Stone Quarry" as early as 1796. That leads one to conclude that the springs provided plenty of water for the soldiers of Fort McIntosh and the few dozen settlers that came here immediately after the abandonment of the Fort in 1785-1787. It is therefore surprising to read in General Brodhead's letter to General George Washington June 5, 1789, that "there is neither meadow, garden, pasture nor spring water convenient to that Post" meaning the Fort.