Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/162

 county, "in which it is pretended that the country about Pittsburg is included," was constantly surrounded by an armed body of about one hundred and eighty militia, and obstructed every process emanating from the court.

Connoly reoccupied Fort Pitt, changing the name to Fort Dunmore.

The following order appears among the proceedings of the County Court of Augusta, under date of January 19, 1775; "His majesty's writ of adjournment being produced and read, it is ordered that this court be adjourned to the first Tuesday in next month, and then to be held at Fort Dunmore, in this county, agreeable to the said writ of adjournment."

The court was held at Fort Dunmore, under Captain Connoly's auspices, and several persons were arraigned before it for obstructing the authority of Virginia, as we learn from a Pennsylvania historian.—[Creigh' s History of Washington County, Pennsylvania.] The record of proceedings is not on file at Staunton. The court could not sit in Staunton at the usual time in March, being on an excursion to Pennsylvania; but we next find on the order book the following: "His majesty's writ of adjournment from Fort Dunmore to the courthouse in the town of Staunton, being read, the court was accordingly held the 25th day of March, 1775."

A deed from six Indian chiefs, representatives of the united tribes of Mohawks, Oneidas, etc., to George Croghan, for two hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio river, executed November 4, 1768, was proved before the court of Augusta county at Pittsburg, September 25, 1775—the land lying in the county It was further proved before the court at Staunton, August 19, 1777, and ordered to be recorded.—[See Deed Book No. 22, page i.j The consideration for which the Indians sold these lands embraced blankets, stockings, calico, vermillion, ribbons, knives, gunpowder, lead, gun-flints, needles, and jews-harps. The deed was also recorded in Philadelphia.

At length the Pennsylvanians kidnapped Captain Connoly and took him to Philadelphia, and thereupon the Virginians seized three of the rival justices and sent them to Wheeling as hostages.

By this time the war of the Revolution was approaching. The people of the disputed territory were alike patriotic, but