Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/415

No. 36] not to suffer this scheme to have effect, at least, until your Lordp shall have, from the most substantial and clear proofs, be [en] made thoroughly sensible of its utility.



HE Settlements on this side of the mountains commenced along the Monongahela, and between that river and the Laurel Ridge, in the year 1772. In the succeeding year they reached the Ohio river. The greater number of the first settlers came from the upper parts of the then colonies of Maryland, and Virginia. Braddock's trail, as it was called, was the rout by which the greater number of them crossed the mountains. A less number of them came by the way of Bedford and Fort Ligonier, the military road from Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh. They effected their removals on horses furnished with pack-saddles. This was the more easily done, as but few of these early adventurers into the wilderness were encumbered with much baggage.

Land was the object which invited the greater number of these people to cross the mountain, for as the saying then was, "It was to be had here for taking up ;" that is, building a cabin and raising a crop of grain, however small, of any kind, entitled the occupant to four hundred acres of land, and a preemption right to one thousand acres more ad joining, to be secured by a land office warrant. This right was to take effect if there happened to be so much vacant land or any part thereof, adjoining the tract secured by the settlement right.

At an early period, the government of Virginia appointed three commissioners to give certificates of settlement rights. These certificates together with the surveyor's plat were sent to the land office of the state, where they laid six months, to await any caveat which might be offered. If none was offered the patent then issued.