Early Times in Union Township
For many years what is now Union Township and Union City were an endless expanse of virgin forest, a part of the forest that stretched from Lake Erie to the Ohio River and the Allegheny Mountains. The trees in the forest grew closely together, and here and there clearings sat like pocket handkerchiefs. Meadow grass covered the clearings and small, sparkling creeks ran through them. The trees in the virgin forest were red, white, black and yellow oaks, pines and hemlocks, red and white beeches, black walnut, and hickory and chestnut trees. There were sassafras, gumwoods, cedars, basswoods, poplars, ash and maples. Along the edges of the forest grape vines grew and climbed. In the day time the tapping of woodpeckers, cawing of crows, the gobbling of turkeys and the chattering of squirrels helped break the silence of the great forest. At night frogs croaked, wolves howled, panthers screeched and owls hooted. Night and day the forest teemed with deer, bear, rabbits, fox, raccoons, opossum, mink and martin. This was the wilderness that David Watts and William Miles faced in 1785 and after them the other settlers in what was to be Union Township.
In 1785 the Pennsylvania Legislature sent out surveyors into the wilds of the northwestern part of the state to survey districts into tracts of land which would be given to soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War. David Watts, a young lawyer from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was given one of these surveying commissions. Taking his brother-in-law, William Miles, with him as his assistant, he set out in the spring of 1785 to survey the Tenth Donation District, so named because it had been given to the soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War. Part of Waterford, nearly all of Amity and half of Wayne Townships made up the Tenth Donation District.
Watts and Miles completed the surveying and returned to their homes beyond the mountains in the fall of the same year. Ten years passed before any other white men came into the Tenth Donation District. Again, the Pennsylvania Legislature made this possible by passing an act in 1795 which gave settlers 400 acres of land and six per cent allowance to settle the land. The only string attached was that they had to pay seven pounds and ten shillings to the state treasury for every ten acres of land. When they had done this they and their heirs would have a clear title to the land forever.
Again, David Watts and William Miles came into this area since they knew the land south of the Tenth Donation District, which included Union, Concord, and half of Wayne Townships. They decided to survey the land and bring in settlers, paying the required amount into the treasury and dividing the land with the settlers, each taking half. Miles and Watts entered into partnership with a man named Scott, and adopted the firm name of Scott, Watts, and Miles. Scott, who was supposedly rich, was to furnish the money for the enterprise. Watts, the lawyer, would give legal advice and Miles, the surveyor, would do the actual ground work. They would share profits according to the services rendered.
Three years after the state legislature passed the act of 1795, William Miles, William Cook, his brother-in-law, and their families came to Union Township. They built houses and surveyed the land and in 1799, settlers began to arrive. By 1800, Miles had a family on every 400 acre tract in the entire district. But soon, Miles ran into serious trouble for the new settlers and himself. In 1796, the powerful Holland Land Company, composed of rich men living in Holland, purchased large tracts of land in western New York and Pennsylvania. They bought the land from Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution. The Holland Land Company laid claim to the entire Tenth Donation District, basing its claim on the contract with Morris on which they had lent money to the United States to finance the Revolution. The Holland Land Company filed suit to eject Scott, Watts, and Miles from its lands. To make matters even worse, Scott went bankrupt and Watts couldn't find any evidence that would enable his company to win a suit against the Holland Land Company.
Just in time, Miles came up with a solution. He compromised with the Holland Land Company by giving up all of the claims of Scott, Watts, and Miles to the land on one condition. The condition was that each settler was to have clear title to 200 acres of land whenever his settlement was completed. The compromise benefitted Miles too, for the Holland Land Company was so impressed with his diplomacy in dealing with the sticky situation that it hired him as its land agent to replace Major Alden, the first agent of the Company. Miles held this position until 1805, when Harm Jan Huidekoper, an original member of the Holland Land Company, assumed control over all the Company's lands in Erie, Crawford, Warren, and Venango Counties.
Going into the wilderness of the Tenth Donation District took courage and resourcefulness. First, there was the problem of transportation, which was solved by either going on horseback or floating down the rivers and creeks on rafts or small boats. This was the best way to travel, because Erie County was a vast stretch of virgin forest with scarcely any paths through it except Indian trails. After they had obtained their land, laid claim to it, and built their cabins, the settlers had to buy all of their provisions until they could raise them.
Clearing land usually took about a year and a half. All provisions had to be brought from Pittsburgh in boats and pushed up the Allegheny River and then up French Creek. The cost of transportation was so high that many settlers found themselves deeply in debt. Most were of modest means and had to depend on whatever they could grow to live.
These pioneers didn't have much of a supermarket selection of food. For the lack of a mill the corn they grew had to be pounded in a mortar and the women had to separate the coarse from the fine corn by using a sieve made of dried deer skin punched full of small holes and stretched over a hoop. The finely ground corn they used to bake into bread on a board in front of the fire. The coarser corn they used to make into samp, which was a corn mush or soup. People ate mostly mush, corn bread, potatoes, and game, which often had to be eaten without salt. Pork, flour, sugar, and other groceries sold at very high prices and were considered luxuries. In 1796‑1797 wheat sold at $2.50 a bushel, and flour at $18 a barrel. Wheat sold at $2.50 a bushel, oats at $1.50 a bushel and potatoes at $1.50 a bushel.
Every man hunted deer, bear, wolves, rabbits, fox, raccoon, squirrel and opossum. Deer were abundant and bear were also numerous and often did serious mischief to cornfields. Wolves were plentiful and packs of them often surrounded cabins and kept settlers awake with their howling.Soon a bounty of from $10 to $12 per head was paid for their scalps. Occasionally a panther or wildcat terrified whole neighborhoods with their screaming.
The settlers in Union Township built cabins of unhewn logs laid on top of each other with the cracks between them filled with mud. Later they were made of hewn timber with mortar substituted for mud. Hardly any of them were plastered and many did not have window glass. Instead, a piece of oiled cloth was put up in place of glass. Cooking was done almost entirely over immense open fireplaces. There were no matches, and if a fire went out, a person had to walk to the nearest neighbor to borrow a brand. Usually only one room in the house, the one with the fire in it, was warm. The rest of the rooms were cold, with the temperature often dropping to zero and below on cold winter nights. Beds were without springs and made up by spreading coarse blankets or boxes on rude frames.
All clothing was home made and every house had a spinning wheel and many had looms. Pine knots or tallow candles were used for light. In the place of carpets or rugs, the pioneers had floors covered with sand. Water for household use was drawn from deep wells by a creaking bucket, and no form of pump was known until years later. Life was not easy for early Union Township settlers like Hugh Wilson, Matthew Gray, and Andrew and Abel Thompson, but they persevered and carved a community out of a virgin wilderness.
In 1785 the Pennsylvania Legislature sent out surveyors into the wilds of the northwestern part of the state to survey districts into tracts of land which would be given to soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War. David Watts, a young lawyer from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was given one of these surveying commissions. Taking his brother-in-law, William Miles, with him as his assistant, he set out in the spring of 1785 to survey the Tenth Donation District, so named because it had been given to the soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War. Part of Waterford, nearly all of Amity and half of Wayne Townships made up the Tenth Donation District.
Watts and Miles completed the surveying and returned to their homes beyond the mountains in the fall of the same year. Ten years passed before any other white men came into the Tenth Donation District. Again, the Pennsylvania Legislature made this possible by passing an act in 1795 which gave settlers 400 acres of land and six per cent allowance to settle the land. The only string attached was that they had to pay seven pounds and ten shillings to the state treasury for every ten acres of land. When they had done this they and their heirs would have a clear title to the land forever.
Again, David Watts and William Miles came into this area since they knew the land south of the Tenth Donation District, which included Union, Concord, and half of Wayne Townships. They decided to survey the land and bring in settlers, paying the required amount into the treasury and dividing the land with the settlers, each taking half. Miles and Watts entered into partnership with a man named Scott, and adopted the firm name of Scott, Watts, and Miles. Scott, who was supposedly rich, was to furnish the money for the enterprise. Watts, the lawyer, would give legal advice and Miles, the surveyor, would do the actual ground work. They would share profits according to the services rendered.
Three years after the state legislature passed the act of 1795, William Miles, William Cook, his brother-in-law, and their families came to Union Township. They built houses and surveyed the land and in 1799, settlers began to arrive. By 1800, Miles had a family on every 400 acre tract in the entire district. But soon, Miles ran into serious trouble for the new settlers and himself. In 1796, the powerful Holland Land Company, composed of rich men living in Holland, purchased large tracts of land in western New York and Pennsylvania. They bought the land from Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution. The Holland Land Company laid claim to the entire Tenth Donation District, basing its claim on the contract with Morris on which they had lent money to the United States to finance the Revolution. The Holland Land Company filed suit to eject Scott, Watts, and Miles from its lands. To make matters even worse, Scott went bankrupt and Watts couldn't find any evidence that would enable his company to win a suit against the Holland Land Company.
Just in time, Miles came up with a solution. He compromised with the Holland Land Company by giving up all of the claims of Scott, Watts, and Miles to the land on one condition. The condition was that each settler was to have clear title to 200 acres of land whenever his settlement was completed. The compromise benefitted Miles too, for the Holland Land Company was so impressed with his diplomacy in dealing with the sticky situation that it hired him as its land agent to replace Major Alden, the first agent of the Company. Miles held this position until 1805, when Harm Jan Huidekoper, an original member of the Holland Land Company, assumed control over all the Company's lands in Erie, Crawford, Warren, and Venango Counties.
Going into the wilderness of the Tenth Donation District took courage and resourcefulness. First, there was the problem of transportation, which was solved by either going on horseback or floating down the rivers and creeks on rafts or small boats. This was the best way to travel, because Erie County was a vast stretch of virgin forest with scarcely any paths through it except Indian trails. After they had obtained their land, laid claim to it, and built their cabins, the settlers had to buy all of their provisions until they could raise them.
Clearing land usually took about a year and a half. All provisions had to be brought from Pittsburgh in boats and pushed up the Allegheny River and then up French Creek. The cost of transportation was so high that many settlers found themselves deeply in debt. Most were of modest means and had to depend on whatever they could grow to live.
These pioneers didn't have much of a supermarket selection of food. For the lack of a mill the corn they grew had to be pounded in a mortar and the women had to separate the coarse from the fine corn by using a sieve made of dried deer skin punched full of small holes and stretched over a hoop. The finely ground corn they used to bake into bread on a board in front of the fire. The coarser corn they used to make into samp, which was a corn mush or soup. People ate mostly mush, corn bread, potatoes, and game, which often had to be eaten without salt. Pork, flour, sugar, and other groceries sold at very high prices and were considered luxuries. In 1796‑1797 wheat sold at $2.50 a bushel, and flour at $18 a barrel. Wheat sold at $2.50 a bushel, oats at $1.50 a bushel and potatoes at $1.50 a bushel.
Every man hunted deer, bear, wolves, rabbits, fox, raccoon, squirrel and opossum. Deer were abundant and bear were also numerous and often did serious mischief to cornfields. Wolves were plentiful and packs of them often surrounded cabins and kept settlers awake with their howling.Soon a bounty of from $10 to $12 per head was paid for their scalps. Occasionally a panther or wildcat terrified whole neighborhoods with their screaming.
The settlers in Union Township built cabins of unhewn logs laid on top of each other with the cracks between them filled with mud. Later they were made of hewn timber with mortar substituted for mud. Hardly any of them were plastered and many did not have window glass. Instead, a piece of oiled cloth was put up in place of glass. Cooking was done almost entirely over immense open fireplaces. There were no matches, and if a fire went out, a person had to walk to the nearest neighbor to borrow a brand. Usually only one room in the house, the one with the fire in it, was warm. The rest of the rooms were cold, with the temperature often dropping to zero and below on cold winter nights. Beds were without springs and made up by spreading coarse blankets or boxes on rude frames.
All clothing was home made and every house had a spinning wheel and many had looms. Pine knots or tallow candles were used for light. In the place of carpets or rugs, the pioneers had floors covered with sand. Water for household use was drawn from deep wells by a creaking bucket, and no form of pump was known until years later. Life was not easy for early Union Township settlers like Hugh Wilson, Matthew Gray, and Andrew and Abel Thompson, but they persevered and carved a community out of a virgin wilderness.