U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: History and Progress of the County of Marion, West Virginia by George A. Dunnington, Publisher 1880 CHAPTER III, About The Land Titles Held By The Settlers Of course, the main object of the early settlers in coming into this region was to procure for themselves and families homes, for land could be secured upon easy terms. Building a cabin and raising a crop of grain entitled the occupant to four hundred acres of land and a pre-emption right to one thousand or more adjoining, to be secured by a land office warrant. At first there was a kind of land title, denominated the "tomahawk right." This was made by deadening a few trees upon the premises, and marking the bark of one of them with the initials of the person making the improvement. A narration of the circumstances under which these land titles were held by the settlers, is here in order. In the year 1754 Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, Issued a proclamation by authority of his council, authorizing a fort to be built at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers (Fort Duquesne,) to oppose the encroachments of the French and their Indian allies, and for the protection of his majesty's Subjects in his colony--providing for sufficient military force to protect the same. In order to encourage volunteers to enter the military service, he set apart 200,00 acres of land above their pay--100,000 acres contiguous to the fort, and the other 100,000 acres on or near the Ohio river--to be laid off and granted to such persons "who by their voluntary engagements and good behavior in service shall deserve the same." The said lands were to be free of quit rents for the term of fifteen years. After the conclusion of the French and Indian war, in 1763, Dr. Franklin, with a number of associates petitioned the king of England for a grant of that territory lying west of the water sheds of the Allegheny mountains and south of the Ohio river, extending southwest along the Ohio to the mouth of the Big Sandy, and up the same to the water sheds of the Alleghenies. George the Third refused the petition on the grounds of having retained that territory for hunting grounds for the friendly Indians, in consideration of their valuable services, and issued his proclamation granting the erection of the governments of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Granada. The colony of Quebec lay northeast of New York and New England; East Florida constituted what is now the eastern part of the State of Florida; West Florida extended from the Apalachacola river, along the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Lake Pontchartrain, and thence northward to Lake Mauripas and the Mississippi river to 31° north latitude: thence due east on the line of this latitude to the Apalachacola river. It will be seen that none of these grants include any territory west of the Mississippi river, nor west of the Allegheny mountains, except that region east of the Mississippi and below the thirty-first degree of north latitude, which comprises small portions of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. In this proclamation George the Third forbids any of the new colonies from granting any warrants of surveys or patents for any lands beyond the boundaries of their respective governments as described. Also, no governor or commander-in-chief of any of our other colonies or plantations in America do presume for the present, and until our further pleasure he known, to grant warrants of surveys, or pass patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west, northwest, or upon any lands whatever, which not having been ceded to or purchased by us as aforesaid, are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them. It will be seen that there is a conflict between the proclamation of Governor Dinwiddie and that of the King. The Governor promises 200,000 acres adjacent to Pittsburgh. These lands, with a large amount of others, were settled in West Virginia immediately thereafter. The Revolutionary war came on soon afterwards. The lands of the settlers were held under different rights, and the Legislature of Virginia, in order to settle all these titles, and to secure the settlers, passed the act of 1779, in which they recognized both proclamations, and gave no validity to that of the King. By this act of the Virginia Legislature, the previously uncertain titles of the lands settled here were made good, and the titles of many of the estates in Marion and adjoining counties are held under this law.