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It was 222 years ago that the pioneer family of George Baker established a homestead in what would eventually be called Center Township.
To the Bakers, the idea of a Center Township or a Beaver County was inconceivable. George Baker might have been vaguely aware that he had made his home in Pitt Township, Westmoreland County, but he didn't have much time to think about it. He was too busy trying to keep his family alive in a terrifying wilderness, full of vengeful savages and totally lacking in comforts and conveniences.
If Mr. Baker had any legal problems, he probably learned that the Pennsylvania influence did not extend this far west, and that the Virginia claim to all of the land south of the Ohio was recognized and enforced at Pittsburgh. The city which grew up around Fort Pitt was the seat of local government for Yohogania County, a part of Virginia's District of West Augusta.
The Bakers had no Welcome Wagon to greet them when they arrived in Beaver Valley. In fact, their only neighbors in the future Beaver County were the Dungans, who had settled some miles to the southwest (in present-day Hanover Township) several years earlier. In the next few years, other families filtered in from the east and settled in the hills south of the big curve in the Ohio River.
While Boston and Philadelphia were dumping tea and making noises about taxation and liberty, Virginia was concluding a war against the Indians in the west. This action, an attempt to push the frontier a little further into the wilderness, only resulted in making the native Indians even more determined to punish and discourage the homesteaders who were invading their domain.
When the Revolution broke out in the east, the British at Detroit encouraged their Indian allies to harass the colonial settlers, even to the extent of offering bounty payments for white scalps. The Baker family became the innocent victims of this policy, although they fared better than many others. Captured by Indians and held captive at Detroit, they were released after the war. When they finally made their way back to their homesite in the wilderness, some eleven years had passed.
The Ohio frontier was still not safe, for an Indian murder occurred as late as 1790 in Beaver County-to-be. But the close of the Revolutionary War marked the beginning of a great wave of settlers moving into Southwestern Pennsylvania. The north side of the Ohio remained unsettled until General Anthony Wayne and his Legion of the United States dispersed the last organized Indian resistance at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (Maumee Valley, Ohio). After this event, in 1794, the north side of Beaver County-to-be began to develop as rapidly as the south.
The end of the war brought other changes. The Virginia boundary dispute, which the colonies couldn't settle, was quickly resolved by the new states. A dividing line was drawn through the Ohio country, leaving both the Baker and Dungan homesites to the east, in Pennsylvania. West of the line was Virginia (until 1863, when West Virginia was born).
To solidify control over the rowdy frontier dwellers, Pennsylvania placed the land south of the Ohio into a new county in 1781, and named it for a military leader who had recently distinguished himself (Washington). Seven years later, another new county was formed with Pittsburgh as its seat of government. A petition by local residents resulted in a wide strip of land along the Ohio being transferred from Washington County into the new county of Allegheny.
In the meantime, vast numbers of settlers were moving into the new lands opened up between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Much of this land was granted to veterans of the Revolutionary Army. Many of these sold their rights to the land to speculators and developers in the east, who resold the land to other settlers.
The stage was now set: in 1800, Allegheny County was divided into 7 smaller counties. One of these, which included a small portion of Washington County, had six townships when it was created. Three of these were on the south side, and they were named Hanover, First Moon and Second Moon. Hanover was the wedge in the southwest corner inherited from Washington County, while the balance of the south side was divided into the remaining two townships by Raccoon Creek.
These three odd-shaped townships proved impractical, so they were reorganized into four in 1814. At this time, Moon Township was formed. Over the years, the boundaries of Moon Township were changed to permit the formation of new communities; Raccoon, Phillipsburg and Potter. And then, exactly one hundred years from the date it was created, Moon went through its most drastic change. The township was split for the last time. The smaller, heavily populated suburban section (now Monaca Heights and Colona Heights) retained the name of Moon Township, while the much larger but sparsely populated rural section became Center Township.
The small remainder of Moon Township was annexed by Monaca (formerly Phillipsburg) in 1932, leaving the map of southside Beaver County much as it is today.
The Baker homestead was located near the recent K-Mart in Center Township, while the Dungan farm in Hanover is now the Ponderosa golf course.