The need for an adequate water supply was
perpetually a problem of primary importance and urgency for the
aforementioned civilizations. It was the same for the European
settlers when they first came to the shores of this country and
eventually found their way to Western Pennsylvania. It is also
with us today!
Indeed, our entire country with only some
minor exceptions is endowed with rich water resources and vegetation.
It is one of the most valuable of all our national resources.
Our forefathers built their small towns and big cities on locations
where water was abundant.
It was not enough to choose the location for the new town. Consideration
had to be given also to the supply of water. The terrain did not
really matter much. It could be hilly or level ground so long
as that precious thing-water existed nearby. Beaver was not an
exception.
It is interesting to study the Acts of the
Assembly of Pennsylvania and the correspondence that was exchanged
before and after the Acts were passed relating to Beaver. The
State reserved "three thousand acres on the Ohio river on
both sides of the mouth of Beaver Creek including Fort McIntosh"
March 12, 1783. A second Act in 1791 appointed three Commissioners
to survey this land. Daniel Leet did the surveying in November
1791 in the absence of the other two members who were unable to
be present. But the Legislature failed to recognize Leet's work
as official because it was one man's job. Nevertheless, the same
Assembly by an Act of March 6, 1793 confirmed and approved Leet's
labors. This being accomplished, Governor Thomas Mifflin directed
the Surveyor-General on March 11, 1793 to be guided by the Act
of 1791 and to proceed to pinpoint the eight squares provided
in the "Beaver Plan" for the use of the State. That
plan was the same one that guided Daniel Leet in his work. The
reader must remember that the entire land encompassed in the above
plan was still the property of the State until the incorporation
of the Borough of Beaver on March 29, 1802. The State put this
land up for sale as far back as 1794, first in Philadelphia, then
in Pittsburgh and at the Court House in Washington County before
the sale was transferred to Beaver on the spot where the land
was located. The State reserved unto itself only the eight parks
indicated on the original layout of the town.
Alexander Addison, President-Judge of Washington County Court, was given jurisdiction over the newly-created territory that became Beaver County in 1800. He was assigned the task of the sale of the land and reporting to the Governor all problems pertaining to Beaver Territory. As early as February 3, 1796, four years before the erection of the County and six years before the incorporation of the Borough of Beaver, Judge Addison wrote to Governor Thomas Mifflin and State Secretary Dallas calling their attention to the need for reserving certain tracts of land where springs were located for the intended inhabitants of the future town of Beaver, instead of letting them fall into private hands. We print those letters in their entirety. They reveal the general conditions existing in the area at that time but at this point we are interested primarily in those sections that are relevant to the water springs. Judge Alexander Addison was in charge of the overall sales of the in-lots and out-lots of the Beaver Plan. That plan extended to include Bridgewater and the greater part of present-day Rochester.