Judge Alexander Addison was a man of foresight and his suggestion that land around the springs should be reserved for the use of the town was accepted by the State. It is to this man that the Borough of Beaver owes thanks for its first supply of water that lasted from 1802 to 1886.
Washington Pa. 3d February 1796
Sir: -
At the last court in Allegheny County General Wilkins had received
no instructions for procuring the attendance of the Indians as
witnesses in the case of the attack on the Indians on the Allegheny
river.
I think it proper to mention to you, that
at least one man has built a house with a view to settle on some
of the unsold part of the reserve tract at the mouth of the Beaver
creek, and that several others expect to do so next spring. If
this measure takes place it will probably occasion disturbance
and dispute, the settlers without right will claim a preference
to those who respecting the law, stand back till they can have
an opportunity of settling lawfully. The sales will be injured,
for some will be backward to purchase a disputed possession. I
submit to you the consideration of the probable consequences and
the remedy, whether it will be best to proceed immediately to
a sale of the residue of the lots and tracts, or whether some
notification ought to be given against such settlements, and suits
instituted against those who will not go off. I would also mention,
that I am informed that havoc is making of the timber and trees
of the unsold part, and much greater is to be feared. Whether
it will be thought proper to advert to this you will also consider.
If the sale of the residue should be determined on, it ought to
be attended to, that a certain spring, at some distance from the
town is (excepting the rivers which are an hundred feet below
the level of the town, with a very steep bank) the only resource
for water - a sufficient quantity of ground ought to be reserved
round it and between it and the town, for conducting it into the
town. There is also a stone quarry near it which ought not to
be suffered to become private property. Both these ought to be
vested in trustees for the use of the town. The most proper trustees
would be an incorporation to be made of the town, to take place
as soon as a sufficient number of inhabitants should be in it.
Many will settle there next summer. Before a sale the future seat
of justice ought to be established there-the county to take place
as soon as a certain number, say 300 or 500 families live on the
N.W. side of the Ohio, within 15 or 20 miles of the town.
This being certified to you on certain proof
made, the lines of the county on both sides of the Ohio to be
ascertained by Commissioners, and declared by proclamation; but
no court to be held there until the County Commissioners have
built a sufficient Court house and jail, which they should be
enabled to do without limitation of price. These sales ought to
be on the grounds, I mean at the town itself. Arid profits ought
to be applied to an academy.
Indeed I should think that in all the unsettled parts, boundaries of counties and cities of the county towns ought to be ascertained before-hand and purchases made of 600 or 1000 acres to be laid out in lots and outlots, and the profits applied to academies. The county to be declared by proclamation entitled to a separate representation as soon as the ratio of one member shall be complete, and to a separate judicature as soon as a Court house and jail proper for the purpose shall be finished. This plan would prevent much intrigue and partiality, and would throw the profits into a better channel than they are now in. At present county towns are only means of gain without merit to the owners of the land, who may impose what terms they please on the purchasers.
You will forgive me for troubling you with these hasty hints, and deal with them as you please.
I am, with great respect, Sir,
Your most obed't serv't.
Alex Addison
P.S. - As no lot has been reserved proper for a grave yard, which ought to be back from the town of Beaver-whether to provide for that and for conducting the spring and proper road from the stone quarry, a sufficient quantity of ground back of the town, ought not to be reserved from the sale?
To Thomas Mifflin,
Governor of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
The next letter is from Judge Addison to Secretary Dallas
Washington, 2d March, 1796
Dear Sir:
I formerly wrote to the Governor respecting
the sale of the residue of the lots of the town at the mouth of
Beaver and the residue of the reserved tract there. I do think
that there is a necessity for the sale as early as possible in
the spring, and that as good price will be given then as ought
to be expected, or will probably be got at any future period within
the compass of a proper prosecution of the plan. I think the lots
will now sell high. I think the sale ought to be on the ground;
those who intend to be settlers will go there; those who intend
to speculate may go or send there. I am confident that this also
will be found true and proper.
I do not know whether the land will be all
surveyed, and I believe not; it ought to be laid out in small
lots near the town and in larger back from it to the extent of
the reservation. If a clause of settlement be annexed there ought
to be a special method pointed out to ascertain the forfeiture
and conclude the purchaser.
The last sale was in this town that was
not altogether right, as the land is not in this county. Yet reasons,
perhaps true, and if true, sufficient, were given for not selling
at Pittsburgh. The people of Pittsburgh, it was said disliked
the establishment, and would have thwarted the progress of the
sale and settlement of the town. They had engrossed almost all
the lots in the reserved tract opposite to Pittsburgh and made
use of that as an argument to remove the seat of justice from
that place into Pittsburgh, and so prevented any town there. They
might have been disposed to do the same thing at McIntosh.
The Commissioners for laying out the town
and lots, laid out at McIntosh, that is at the mouth of Beaver,
were scattered, one in Pittsburgh, one in Westmoreland, and one
in Fayette, and the surveyor was in Washington. The consequence
was they never met, and the surveyor after attending on several
appointments, was obliged to lay out the lots alone. The blame
of this was laid on the Pittsburgh Commissioner. I would recommend
Matthew Ritchie, David Redick and Daniel Leet, the two first of
this town and the last near it, as Commissioners to lay out and
sell the lots, and if the law for Greene County does not alter
the day of next June courts, would suggest the last Monday of
May as the time of sale on the reserved tract itself, & to
continue from day to day.
You wanted a lot at the last sale. If you should want one now, write to me, point out the lot and the highest price. I wish you would send me a plan of the town and out lots and reserved tract. It would do for the Commissioners. I wish you would accompany it with a list of the purchasers & the number purchased & the prices, that will also do for the Commissioners. But send me by post as soon as possible a list of such purchasers as have not taken out patents for their lots (if there be any such) with the number & prices. Purchases would be made of them perhaps.
Yours sincerely,
Alex'r Addison.
Pittsburgh, 11 th. March 1796
Sir: - At the court this week an application
was again made for the discharge of the person taken for killing
the Indian boy, on the Allegheny river. But on a statement of
the circumstances rendering it impossible to proceed with the
prosecution, it was not pressed. It will be impossible, with any
decency, that this motion should be restrained or resisted any
longer, and I hope measures will be taken to have the Indians
here by the next court to prove the death.
Let me again suggest to you the necessity
of as early as a sale as possible of the residue of the lots and
reserved tract at the mouth of Beaver creek. In my opinion the
sale ought to be in the end of May next. If not sold soon the
lots and land will be occupied by persons without title. The sale
ought to be on the ground itself.
The idea of a new county ought to be fixed and prosecuted as soon as possible, I dread the consequences of the flood of mad people who have gone over the Allegheny and Ohio to make settlements; their number is inconceivable and they will, perhaps, be dangerous, unless law can be brought in among them. The establishment of a new county and seat of justice there, with the additional number of officers that would be occasioned by that, would awaken and keep up a sense of submission, and have a good influence on characters and tempers, which otherwise may give rise to some apprehensions.
I am, Sir, with much respect,
your most obed't Serv,
Alex Addison
Thomas Mifflin
Governor of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
Dr. Bausman commented as follows concerning
Judge Alexander Addison:
"While these letters may, perhaps, indicate that Judge Addison
was looking out for good things for himself and his friends in
the way of land values, they reveal still more, as did every word
he ever penned, a spirit of high civic patriotism united to clear
sighted wisdom and knowledge of men and law."
"When we consider the conditions existing
when this town of Beaver was laid out, we must admire the farsightedness
and sure and steady purpose of the men who were the legislators
of that time."
That area of land was finally designated
as "Water Lots." One is located across from Bouquet
Park at the intersection of Wayne and Fifth Streets and extends
upward to Westview Drive. The other was located in a straight
horizontal line from Westview and cuts across what is now Dutch
Ridge Road. That section of land was known variously as Wolf Land
or Wolf Lane. Today it is known as Galey Boulevard. Both lots
comprised an area of fifteen acres.
The second lot was sold to John Galey by the Borough in 1903 after a special Act of the State Legislature. Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker did not veto the Act but left it unsigned and in this manner it automatically became a law. Why that lot was sold to private interests is still a mystery. Galey was a powerful figure on the local scene and influential in the State Capital. It seems possible that the Borough Council was browbeaten into giving its consent. Why the Legislature consented even to consider such an Act added to the mystery. The fact that Governor Pennypacker, who did not approve of the scheme, failed to veto the Act reveals the uncivic mentality that had developed one hundred years after the incorporation of Beaver as a Borough. It was a sad day in the history of the town.
There were numerous springs in both of those "Lots" and Dr. Joseph H.Bausman in his "History of Beaver County" (page 624 Vol. 11) states that those springs were "granted to the inhabitants of said Borough forever." Judge Alexander Addison in his foregoing letters notes the existence of a "Stone Quarry" as early as 1796. That leads one to conclude that the springs provided plenty of water for the soldiers of Fort McIntosh and the few dozen settlers that came here immediately after the abandonment of the Fort in 1785-1787. It is therefore surprising to read in General Brodhead's letter to General George Washington June 5, 1789, that "there is neither meadow, garden, pasture nor spring water convenient to that Post" meaning the Fort.