Washington's Land Speculations

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“Washington's Land Speculations” from Maryland's Influence in Founding a National Commonwealth by Herbert Baxter Adams.

Perkins, in his Annals of the West, says that Washington was one of the foremost speculators in Western Lands after the close of the French and Indian War. The Washington-Crawford Letters, recently edited in a most thorough and painstaking manner by C. W. Butterfield, throw a strong light upon the enterprising nature of that man who was, assuredly, " first in peace " and who, even if the Revolution had not broken out, would have become the most active and representative spirit in American affairs.

Washington's schemes for the colonization of his western lands by importing Germans from the Palatinate, are but an index of the direction his business pursuits might have taken, had not duty called him to command the Army and afterwards to head the State. But the influence of some of these early schemes may be traced in Washington's later measures of public policy and in his plans for the internal improvement of his country. Reserving, however, for another topic Washington's pioneer-efforts for opening up communication with the West, let us examine a few portions of the documentary evidence relating to his early land speculations. There is nothing to Washington's discredit in any of the Washington-Crawford Letters, but the following extracts may afford an interesting revelation of the worldly wisdom of the Father of his Country.

In Washington's letter to his friend Crawford, dated September 21, 1767, the whole scheme of taking up the bounty lands is broached:

"I offered in my last to join you in attempting to secure some of the most valuable lands in the King's part, which I think may be accomplished after awhile, notwithstanding the proclamation that restrains it at present, and prohibits the settling of them at all; for I can never look upon that proclamation in any other light (but this I say between ourselves) than as a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians.

It must fall, of course, in a few years, especially when those Indians consent to our occupying the lands. Any person, therefore, who neglects the present opportunity of hunting out good lands, and in some measure marking and distinguishing them for his own, in order to keep others from settling them, will never regain it If you will be at the trouble of seeking out the lands, I will take upon me the part of securing them, as soon as there is a possibility of doing it, and will, moreover, be at all the cost and charges of surveying and patenting the same. You shall then have such a reasonable proportion of the whole as we may fix upon at our first meeting; as I shall find it necessary, for the better furthering of the design, to let some of my friends be concerned in the scheme, who must also partake of the advantages.

By this time it may be easy for you to discover that my plan is to secure a good deal of land. You will consequently come in for a very handsome quantity; and as you will obtain it without any costs or expenses, I hope you will be encouraged to begin the search in time. I would choose, if it were practicable, to get large tracts together; and it might be desirable to have them as near your settlement or Fort Pitt as they can be obtained of good quality, but not to neglect others at a greater distance, if fine bodies of it lie in one place. It may be worthy of your inquiry to find out how the Maryland back line will run, and what is said about laying off Neale's grant. I will inquire particularly concerning the Ohio Company, that we may know what to apprehend from them. For my own part, I should have no objection to a grant of land upon the Ohio, a good way below Pittsburgh, but would first willingly secure some valuable tracts nearer at hand.

I recommend, that you keep this whole matter a secret, or trust it only to those in whom you can confide, and who can assist you in bringing it to bear by their discoveries of land. This advice proceeds from several very good reasons, and, in the first place, because I might be censured for the opinion I have given in respect to the King's proclamation, and then, if the scheme I am now proposing to you were known, it might give the alarm to others, and, by putting them upon a plan of the same nature, before we could lay a proper foundation for success ourselves, set the different interests clashing, and, probably, in the end, overturn the whole. All this may be avoided by a silent management, and the operation carried on by you under the guise of hunting game, which you may, I presume, effectually do, at the same time you are in pursuit of land. When this is fully discovered, advise me of it, and if there appears but a possibility of succeeding at any time hence, I will have the lands immediately surveyed, to keep others off, and leave the rest to time and my own assiduity.

If this letter should reach your hands before you set out, I should be glad to have your thoughts fully expressed on the plan here proposed, or as soon afterwards as convenient ; for I am desirous of knowing in due time how you approve of the scheme. I am, etc."

The following extract from Crawford's answer to the above letter shows that the project suited him:

"With regard to looking out land in the King's part, I shall heartily embrace your offer upon the terms you proposed; and as soon as I get out and have my affairs settled in regard to the first matters proposed, I shall set out in search of the latter. This may be done under a hunting scheme (which I intended before you wrote to me), and I had the same scheme in my head, but was at a loss how to accomplish it. I wanted a person in whom I could confide one whose interest could answer my ends and his own. I have had several offers, but have not agreed to any; nor will I with any but yourself or whom you think proper."

In 1770, Washington crossed the Alleghanies and visited his friend Crawford, to see how the latter had succeeded in spying out the land. Washington's Journal of his tour to the Ohio is very interesting and contains the most minute details as to his impressions concerning the western country. Washington left his home at Mount Vernon on the fifth of October and arrived at Crawford's on the morning of the thirteenth. The following selections from his Journal will suffice to illustrate its tenor:

13th.—Set out about sunrise; breakfasted at the Great Meadows thirteen miles and reached Captain Crawford's about five o'clock. The land from Gist's to Crawford's is very broken, though not mountainous; in spots exceedingly rich, and, in general, free from stones. Crawford's is very fine land; lying on the Youghiogheny, at a place commonly called Stewart's Crossing.

14th.—At Captain Crawford's all day. Went to see a coal mine, not far from his house, on the banks of the river. The coal seemed to be of the very best kind, burning freely, and abundance of it.

15th.—Went to view some land, which Captain Crawford had taken up for me near the Youghiogheny, distant about twelve miles. This tract, which contains about one thousand six hundred acres, includes some as fine land as ever I saw, and a great deal of rich meadow. It is well watered, and has a valuable mill-seat, except that the stream is rather too slight, and, it is said, not constant more than seven or eight months in the year; but, on account of the fall, and other conveniences, no place can exceed it. In going to this land, I passed through two other tracts, which Captain Crawford had taken up for my brothers, Samuel and John. I intended to have visited the land, which Crawford had procured for Lund Washington, this day also, but, time falling short, I was obliged to postpone it. Night came on before I got back to Crawford's The lands, which I passed over to-day, were generally hilly, and the growth chiefly white oak, but very good notwithstanding; and, what is extraordinary, and contrary to the property of all other lands I ever saw before, the hills are the richest land; the soil upon the sides and summits of them being as black as a coal, and the growth walnut and cherry. The flats are not so rich, and a good deal more mixed with stone.

[The lands above described were not taken up as bounty-lands, but under patents issued by the land-office of Pennsylvania. On the twentieth of October, Washington and Crawford, with a small party of while men and Indians, started on a trip down the Ohio, to view the lands on that river and on the Great Kanawha, which Washington intended to secure for himself and his friends, under the proclamation of 1763, which authorized the granting of two hundred thousand acres of bounty-land to officers and soldiers who had served in the French and Indian War. The party reached the confluence of the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers in twelve days from Pittsburgh.]

November 1st.—Before eight o'clock we set off with our canoe up the river, to discover what kind of lands lay upon the Kanawha. The land on both sides this river, just at the mouth, is very fine; but, on the east side, when you get towards the hills which I judge to be about six or seven hundred yards from the river, it appears to be wet, and better adapted for meadow than tillage. .... We judged we went up the Kanawha about ten miles to-day

2nd.—We proceeded up the river, with the canoe, about four miles farther, and then encamped, and went a hunting; killed five buffaloes, and wounded some others, three deer, &c. This country abounds in buffaloes and wild game of all kinds; and also in all kinds of wild fowl, there being in the bottoms a great many small, grassy ponds, or lakes, which are full of swans, geese, and ducks of different kinds

3d.—We set off down the river, on our return homeward, and encamped at the mouth. At the beginning of the bottom above the junction of the rivers, and at the mouth of the branch on the east side, I marked two maples, an elm, and hoop-wood tree, as a corner of the soldiers' land (if we can get it), intending to take all the bottom from hence to the rapids in the Great Bend into one survey. I also marked at the mouth of another run, lower down on the west side, at the lower end of the long bottom, an ash and hoop wood for the beginning of another of the soldiers' surveys, to extend up so as to include all the bottom in a body on the west side. In coming from our last encampment up the Kanawha, I endeavored to take the courses and distances of the river by a pocket compass, and by guessing.

December 1st.—Reached home, having been absent nine weeks and one day.

The practical results of the above expedition appear in the following advertisement in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser of August 20, 1773:

Mount Vernon in Virginia, July 15, 1773.

The subscriber having obtained patents for upwards of twenty thousand acres of land on the Ohio and Great Kanawha (ten thousand of which are situated on the banks of the first-mentioned river, between the mouths of the two Kanawhas, and the remainder on the Great Kanawha, or New River, from the mouth, or near it, upwards, in one continued survey) proposes to divide the same into any sized tenements that may be desired, and lease them upon moderate terms, allowing a reasonable number of years rent free, provided, within the space of two years from next October, three acres for every fifty contained in each lot, and proportionably for a lesser quantity, shall be cleared, fenced, and tilled; and that, by or before the time limited for the commencement of the first rent, five acres for every hundred, and proportionably, as above, shall be enclosed and laid down in good grass for meadow; and moreover, that at least fifty fruit trees for every like quantity of land shall be planted on the Premises. Any persons inclinable to settle on these lands may be more fully informed of the terms by applying to the subscriber, near Alexandria, or in his absence to Mr. Lund Washington; and would do well in communicating their intentions before the 1st of October next, in order that a sufficient number of lots may be laid off to answer the demand.

As these lands are among the first which have been surveyed in the part of the country they lie in, it is almost needless to premise that none can exceed them in luxuriance of soil, or convenience of situation, all of them lying upon the banks either of the Ohio and Kanawha, and abounding with fine fish and wild fowl of various kinds, as also in most excellent meadows, many of which (by the bountiful hand of nature) are, in their present state, almost fit for the scythe. From every part of these and a water carriage is now had to Fort Pitt, by an easy communication; and from Fort Pitt, up the Monongahela, to Redstone, vessels of convenient burthen, may and do pass continually; from whence by means of Cheat River, and other navigable branches of the Monongahela, it is thought the portage to Potowmack may, and will, be reduced within the compass of a few miles, to the great ease and convenience of the settlers in transporting the produce of their lands to market. To which may be added, that as patents have now actually passed the seals for the several tracts here offered to be leased, settlers on them may cultivate and enjoy the lands in peace and safety, notwithstanding the unsettled counsels respecting a new colony on the Ohio; and as no right money is to be paid for these lands, and quitrent of two shillings sterling a hundred, demandable some years hence only, it is highly presumable that they will always be held upon a more desirable footing than where both these are laid on with a very heavy hand. And it may not be amiss further to observe, that if the scheme for establishing a new government on the Ohio, in the manner talked of, should ever be effected, these must be among the most valuable lands in it, not only on account of the goodness of soil, and the other advantages above enumerated, but from their contiguity to the seat of government, which more than probable will be fixed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha.

George Washington.

Adams, Herbert Baxter. Maryland's Influence in Founding a National Commonwealth, or, The History of the Accession of Public Lands by the Old Confederation: A Paper Read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 9, 1877. Maryland Historical Society, 1877.

Herbert Baxter Adams

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