The Myth of the 1740 Settlers
The image below is of a log and stone house in Cumberland Valley Township which is claimed to have been built in the year 1740. The house was not found by Colonel George Washington and his troops when they cut the first road through the valley between Fort Cumberland and Fort Bedford in 1758.
George Washington, who was an inveterate chronicler of his experiences, made no mention of this house standing along the west slope of Evitts Mountain, nor of any road passing by the house.
There is a story promulgated by the Executive Director of the Bedford County Historical Society about eighteen families who settled in the Cumberland Valley between Cumberland and Bedford during the year 1740. The story is a myth based on the mis-interpretation of two letters.
Harry Bush, of Chaneysville, wrote an essay and submitted it to the Bedford County Historical Society. Titled Ragged Mountain ~ Early Settlers Disagree on Place Names, the essay's primary subject involved determining the location of Ragged Mountain. In the course of his study, Mr. Bush transcribed two letters: one from George Woods, a surveyor and resident of Bedford County, to James Tilghman, the Secretary of the Land Office and one from Joseph Tomlinson, a resident of Cumberland, Maryland, apparently to Woods.
The essay, and indeed the subject itself, was not remarkable; but what was unique was the interpretation of those letters by the Executive Director of the Bedford County Historical Society. The letters were somehow interpreted to be saying that a settlement had been made in the Cumberland Valley as early as the 1740s.
Following are the pertinent portions of Mr. Bush's essay (in italics) with my own notations and comments within brackets [].
Geo. Wood also a surveyor, whose name was mentioned by John Lukens, the surveyor General, was brought into the dispute and he wrote the following letter on June 3, 1769, summing up his views of the issue. His letter was addressed to James Tilghman, Secretary of the Land Office:
"I hope you will excuse my freedom in writing to you. I make bold on this occasion being convinced you are a Gentleman that would not take pleasure to hear any man's character aspersed wrongfully wherein you could justify it. I understand the Governor and the other Gentlemen of the Honorable Board of Property have a bad opinion of me all on account of declaring my sentiments on a land trial between Capt. Bosset and Mr. Charles Cox."
"I here inclose you different depositions not as intending any evidence for or against Bosset but in order to show you the Declaration I made in that matter honest and ground on my own knowledge and the information of others of the hills and country."
"Old McCarty [possibly Adam McCarthy / McCortney] has lived in Cumberland valley [Bedford County] and Fort Cumberland [Maryland] these fourteen years [since 1755] who says he was a pilot in laying out colonel Dagworthy's road [from Cumberland, Maryland to Hagerstown, Maryland, basically following the path of Route 40 today]. It was from him I took the names of the mountains. I also inquired of the general part of his neighbors which all agreed with his description. I though[t] I could not be better informed than by those who lived about the Hills.”
"I must beg leave to inform you that Capt. Bosset's warrants were neither first nor last laid to advantage. In the first survey, they were executed on ground that no other person would take, that between Dagworthy's road and the providence [provincial] line. There is at least 1,500 acres of good land cut off by Maryland that them warrants located towards the heads of Evitts Creek was all inhabited and defended so that any of the ground which was good, they could not get without trouble and the conductors of the surveys thought proper to survey a large quantity of barrens to fill up the warrants."
"That Capt. Bosset's warrants bounding between Dagworthy's Road [from Cumberland, Maryland to Hagerstown, Maryland], Ragged Mountain [then in question, now acknowledged to lie to the east of Evitts Mountain] and the heads of Evitts Creek [in the northernmost part of Cumberland Valley Township], in which the boundaries the following person have plantations surveyed and returned: Thomas Coalter, John Cessna, Samuel Finley, Samuel Ferry, Daniel Dunca, Charles Cessna, James Culbertson, Thomas Jones, Evan and Jonathan Cessna, Barbard [Barnard] Dougherty, James Livingston, John Slater, Adam McCarthy, Thomas Davis, Edward Woods, Lemmel Barrett and Edward Anderson." [No dates are given for when these individuals settled there. Woods does not state that they were all there prior to McCarty ~ prior to 1755 ~, nor does he state when they were there prior to the date of the letter ~ prior to 1769. In any case, absolutely no mention of the 1740s is made in regard to these eighteen settlers.]
"These places and more than I have named are all between the Ragged Mountain, Dagworthy's road and the heads of Evitts Creek and I always thought it was not possible that any person would take out warrants for any land within paid boundaries only for this (S_c) tracts above mentioned as at the time there warrants were taken out, there were but two people settled I believe on the above plantations and I do believe Capt. Bosset's warrants [1763] I suppose are prior to any in that part of the country."
George Woods also forwarded to Tilghman, a letter written by Joseph Tomlinson, who in 1769, resided near Cumberland, Maryland. Tomlonson's letter with the spelling which appears in the original on file in the Land Office follows:
"I recev'd yours of ye 8 instant which surprises me to think you [George Woods] should be at a loss to know ye names of ye mountains you are so convesant amongst. I think it is morr than 30 years [since 1739] since I left Wilmonton [Wilmington, Delaware] and have lived ever since between Auteeatom [Antietam, Maryland] and Chouichego [probably Conococheague, Maryland, north of Antietam; in Washington County]. till ye year 60 [between 1739 and 1760] there come to this place [Cumberland, Maryland]…"
Joseph Tomlinson's letter continued with a list of the mountains with which he was familiar. He did not mention any other settlers.
Mr. Bush followed Joseph Tomlinson's letter with the statement: "Thus according to Tomlinsons, who by his own word had lived in the area for thirty years before 1769, Ragged Mountain was east of Evitt's Creek and Martin's Cove was east of Ragged Mountain." Mr. Bush made the error, which was not picked up by the historians who advocate for a 1740s settlement, in saying that Tomlinson "by his own word" lived in the area (presumably Cumberland Valley in Bedford County), for thirty years. But Joseph Tomlinson did not say that he had lived in Cumberland Valley, Bedford County since 1740. He said that he left Wilmington thirty years earlier and had lived between Antietam and Conococheague, in Maryland for twenty-one years. Then in 1760, only nine years earlier, he came to the Cumberland Valley region.
The Eighteen Supposed Land Owners In Cumberland Valley Township In The 1740s
Edward Anderson
Filed an application for 200 acres on 02 May 1767, but no warrant, survey or patent
Lemuel Barrett
No application, warrant, survey or patent
Charles Cessna
No application, but warrant for 300 acres on Evitts Creek & survey (with Thomas Jones), patent to Henry Williams
Evan Cessna
No application, warrant, survey or patent
John Cessna
Filed an application for 150 acres on 01 August 1766, warrant & survey (with William Campbell), patent to John Wallace
Jonathan Cessna
No application, warrant, survey or patent
Thomas Coalter
No application, warrant, survey or patent
James Culbertson
Filed an application for 200 acres on 30 August 1768, but no warrant, survey or patent
Thomas Davis
Filed an application for 50 acres on 22 January 1767, but no warrant, survey or patent
Barnard Dougherty
No application, but warrant for 300 acres 17 miles south of Bedford, survey returned, and Patent to John Elder
Daniel Duncan
Filed an application for 100 acres on 02 August 1766, but no warrant, survey or patent
Samuel Ferry
No application, warrant, survey or patent
Samuel Finley
No application, but warrant for 150 acres in Friends Cove, survey returned, and patent for 322 acres on 23 Sept 1766 to self
Thomas Jones
No application, but warrant for 300 acres on Evitts Creek & survey (with Charles Cessna), patent to Henry Williams
James Livingston
No application, but warrant for 300 acres at Buffalo Gap, no survey or patent
Adam McCarthy
No application, warrant, survey or patent
John Slater
No application, warrant, survey or patent
Edward Woods
No application, warrant, survey or patent
As can be seen from the above, only Samuel Finley followed through with all of the steps to legally own the land (i.e. by obtaining the Application, Warrant, Survey and the Patent), but even so, it was for land in Friends Cove, not in Cumberland Valley.
It is possible that the eighteen individuals had indeed settled in Cumberland Valley, but there is absolutely no 'proof' that any one of them would have been there in the 1740s ~ or even the 1750s. Nor is the 'fact' that George Woods included their names in a letter 'proof' that they all moved into the region at the same time.
It should be noted that the name of Joseph Tomlinson, the writer of the second letter, was not included in the list of 'early residents' in Cumberland Valley because he was noted by George Woods as a resident 'near Cumberland.'
It would appear that the Executive Director and other historians who have come to believe that eighteen individuals resided in Cumberland County since the 1740s have simply mixed the thirty years that Mr. Tomlinson claimed to have passed between his leaving Wilmington (1739) and the date of the letter (1769) with the arrival of any or all of the settlers in the Cumberland Valley. They appear to have missed the point that in the letter sent by George Woods to James Tilghman the only date and/or length of time provided was the fourteen years that 'Old McCarty' (probably Adam McCarthy) was claimed to have resided ‘in Cumberland Valley and Fort Cumberland.’ The earliest date estimated for McCarthy’s residence (1769, the date of the letter, minus 14 years) would be 1755. And what is also missed is that Woods did not say that 'Old McCarty' lived in Cumberland Valley that entire time. He noted that he lived in two places: Cumberland Valley 'and Fort Cumberland.' McCarthy might have resided closer to Fort Cumberland from 1755 until 1768, moving northward only one year before Woods wrote his letter. Adam McCarthy did not file for a warrant, survey or patent, so the date on which he arrived in Cumberland Valley is in no way proven by Woods' letter.
Another of the men who gave a deposition regarding the mountains along the south border of Pennsylvania was Evan Shelby, noted for having commanded one of the scouting parties for the Forbes Campaign. Mr. Shelby's statement sworn before Cumberland County Justice of the Peace, James Maxwell noted that he resided in Maryland. He stated that "he has been acquainted in that part of the country for near this thirty years and that he never heard any body call them mountains by any other name…" Notice that in his statement, Evan Shelby did not state that he resided in the Cumberland Valley of Bedford County for thirty years. He simply noted that he was acquainted with this part of the country. Nor did he state that his acquaintance of this part of the country began exactly thirty years prior. He stated "for near this thirty years". 'Near this thirty years' sounds more like an estimate than an exact period of time. It should also be noted that in his deposition, Mr. Shelby did not name anyone who resided in the Cumberland Valley since the 1740s.
The claim has also been made that prior to the establishment of the Mason / Dixon Line, many early settlers believed that they were homesteading in the Colony of Maryland, but later were found to be in Pennsylvania. The Maryland land patents for the individuals identified as residing in Cumberland Valley as early as 1740 was checked. None of the eighteen supposed settlers had acquired any land through the Maryland land patent system either.
I must also note that my inclusion of this has not been intended as an insult to any historian who believes that the Cumberland Valley region was settled as early as the 1740s by eighteen individuals. Rather, its inclusion is intended simply as a caution that historians should not jump to conclusions without taking a forensic look at the evidence.
Conclusion
Remember how this article was begun ~ with the comment that: "There is a story promulgated by the Executive Director of the Bedford County Historical Society about eighteen families who settled in the Cumberland Valley between Cumberland and Bedford during the year 1740."? Well the fact of the matter, revealed by the Executive Director, herself, to a long-time member and volunteer of the Bedford County Historical Society, was that it was the Bedford County Historical Society at her direction who was instrumental in having the placard noting the date '1740' placed on the log and stone structure. Therefore the date on the house means absolutely nothing for actually dating the structure. It's a shame that the Bedford County Historical Society feels it has to make up history, when there is splendid history here already.
