Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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Spectator not only because of the Mason-Dixon line, but because the Ten Mile Creek was im- passable, and did not come anywhere near the Little Kanawha At his tract of land near what is now Perryopolis, he arranged for a public sale of his lands in that vicinity. Here, too, he visited the mill which bears his name. This mill, erected for his agent, Gilbert Simpson, in 1774-75, by men obliged to live in block-houses as a protection against Indians, was one of the first mills west of the Alleghenies. While he was at Simpson’s, some squatters came to see him about buying the land upon which they had settled. They would not agree to his terms, so he took the case to law. In 1786. the Supreme Court at Washington, Penn- sylvania. returned a verdict in favor of Washington, who ejected the squatters. When Washington reached Beasontown, now Uniontown, Captain Benjamin Harding gave him a hopeful account of the passageway from the West Fork of the Monongahela to the Little Kanawha, assured him that the Cheat was navigable as far as Dunkard’s Bottom, and that a road led from that point across the mountains to the Potomac. Upon hearing this, Washington and his party visited the juncture of the Cheat and Monongahela Rivers, and from there followed the ridge between the rivers to the home of John Pierpont. near what is now Morgantown. Here he met General Zackwell Morgan, who told him of three roads from that point to the Potomac. From all the information which Washington had gained, he realized that the head- waters of the Potomac and the Ohio would have to be connected by road In order to explore one of these roads, he and his party returned to Mount Vernon by what was known as the New Road, leading past Fort Pendleton. This road Washington considered probably the best route for connecting the headwaters of the two rivers. When Washington was again settled in Mount Vernon, he wrote a summary of his explorations and drew up plans for a commercial union between the F.ast and the West. These he sent to Governor Harrison of Virginia. Harrison placed the plans before the Virginia Assembly, which passed a bill authorizing the forming of the Potomac Company by Virginia and Maryland. This was the first interstate cor- poration of the United States. The object of this company was to improve the Potomac, and to build a road from it to the nearest Western river. Washington was made president of the company, and prominent men of Virginia were the direc- tors. Subscriptions were begun in February of 1785, and four hundred and three shares totaling $200,000, were subscribed. In the interest of western expansion, Washington also wrote to Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress, urging governmental exploration of the West, and the building of a military road, with forts and soldiers, to protect the settlers and travel- ers from Indians. For nearly four years Washington devoted time, energy, and money to the development of this project; and as head of this great undertaking, he planned the work, and conducted much of the business. The activity of the Potomac Company gave impetus to internal improvements in other states. In 1792, Pennsylvania appropriated $100,000 for the improvement [14]

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Ill 'PEC1AI0 II. Washington and Western Expansion Kenneth Klenk WASHINGTON in War has always been better known than Washington in Peace; although H. B. Adams says of him—“It would seem as though all lines of our public policy lead back to Washington as all roads lead to Rome.” After the Revolutionary War, no one knew better than he the lamentable condition of the country. His remedy for this condition was expansion, and his plans for expansion were for the sake of his country, and not for his own gain. In peace times he was not the distinguished gentleman taking life easy at Mount Vernon, as supposed, but an explorer and a pioneer. Washington said that a nation to live must grow, and he looked to the land west of the Alleghenies for hope and light. When men argued that thirteen weak states could not hope to hold the west, when England and France had failed, Wash- ington replied that the bond would be a commercial bond, one stronger than any military rule a country could devise. As early as 1763, he made attempts to develop the West. In that year, he was active in forming the Mississippi Company. This company was broken up when the King of England refused it a tract of land because of a proclamation prohibiting western settlements. This failure did not discourage Washington; he knew that the West would soon be luring more and more settlers. So strong was his faith in its development that he had William Crawford select good tracts of land for him near what is now Pittsburgh. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Washington resigned his command and returned to Mount Vernon where he was much needed. During the war his estates had suffered from want of a guiding hand; squatters were settling on his western lands, while thieving land agents were boldly selling them abroad. In the autumn of 1784, Washington visited these western lands partly to protect his own interests, but more particularly to study the western waterways; for he realized the importance of waterways in the opening and developing of the country. His main object in the study of waterways was to find an all-Virginia water route to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. On September 1, 1784, he and his party started up the Potomac from Mount Vernon, and a few days later came to the home of a Mr. Stroud, where they stayed while Washington studied the rivers in the vicinity. While he was at Stroud’s, he found that the Mason-Dixon, line separated Virginia from the headwaters of the Cheat and Youghiogheny Rivers, thus making an all-Virginia water route to the west impossible. Several days later he came to the old Gist homestead, near what is now Great Meadows, the scene of his first military campaign into Pennsylvania. On his way to Gist’s he had talked with many traders about the western waterways. From these traders, too, he had learned that an all-Virginia water route was impossible, [13]

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of the Conemaugh, Allegheny, and Susquehanna Rivers; and in March of the same year. New York passed an act for the establishment of canals in the state. While Washington’s dream of waterways connecting the East and the West was never realized, his influence in the development of the West was far-reaching; for “He stood for a new system, a possession of the West that meant blessing to the possessor and to the possessed by commercial union. It was a pioneer idea, but in- stinct with genius, and Washington’s advocacy of it marked a new epoch in American history, and marked him as the first commercial American, the first man typical of the America to be.” WASHINGTON'S MILL On Washington Run, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, built 1774-75 IFrom Washington and the West by Archer B. Hulbcrt, used by permission of the Century Company] [15]