Depreciation Lands

History of Butler County-1883, Waterman, Watkins, & Co., Chicago, 1883
Chapter 3.
Pages 24-25
THE DEPRECIATION LANDS
Even before the title to the region northwest of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek had been secured, preliminary steps were taken by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for disposing of these lands.

During the later years of the Revolution, the value of the bills of credit issued by Pennsylvania, as well as those issued by the Continental Congress, continued gradually to depreciate until they fell to a mere nominal value. Great losses were consequently experienced by the holders of the State certificates. The officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania line, the State troops especially suffered, as they received them in payment for their services. Disputes constantly arose in relation to the deductions to be made from the face of the bills. On the 3d of April, 1781, the State Legislature, to remedy this inconvenience fixed a scale of depreciation varying from 1 1/2 to 75 per cent for each month between the years 1777 and 1781, according to which the accounts of the army could be settled. Unable otherwise to pay its troops, the State gave the officers and soldiers certificates in conformity with the prescribed scale, which were made receivable in payment for lands sold by the State. They were called depreciation certificates.

In order to provide for the redemption of these depreciation certificates, it was enacted by law, March 12, 1783, "That for the more speedy and effectual complying with the intention of the law aforesaid, there be, and hereby is, located and laid off a certain tract of land, as follows: Beginning where the western boundary of the State crosses the Ohio River; thence up the said river to Fort Pitt: thence up the Allegheny River to the mouth of Mogulbughtiton (Mahoning) Creek; thence by a west line to the western boundary of this State; thence south by the said boundary to the place of beginning, reserving to the use of the State 3,000 acres in an oblong of not less than one mile in depth from the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers and extending up and down the said rivers, from opposite Fort Pitt as far as may be necessary to include the same; and the further quantity of 3,000 acres on the Ohio and on both sides of Beaver Creek, including Fort McIntosh, all which remaining tract of land, as aforesaid, is hereby appropriated as a further fund for the purpose of redeeming the certificates aforesaid; that is to say, the Surveyor General of this State shall, according to such directions as may be given him by the Supreme Executive Council, cause the aforesaid tract of land to be laid out in lots of not less than 200, and not more than 350, acres each, numbering the same lots numerically on the draught or plat of the country aforesaid, and shall as soon as the same or 100 lots thereof are surveyed, together with the Secretary of the Land Office and the Receiver General, proceed to sell the same lots in numerical order at such times and places, and under such regulations, as shall be appointed by the Supreme Executive Council; the full consideration bid at such sales shall be paid into the Receiver General's office, either in gold or silver or in the certificates aforesaid, upon full payment of which consideration and the expense of surveying, together with all fees of the different offices, patents shall be issued in the usual form to the several buyers or venders, and the differ- [pg. 25] ent sums in specie that may be paid into the Receiver General's office, shall be by him paid over to the treasury of this State for the purpose of redeeming such certificates as may remain unsatisfied at the end of such sales."

The northern boundary line of the Depreciation Lands passed east and west almost centrally through Butler County, and is about four miles north of Butler Borough. Parts of the townships of Muddy Creek, Franklin, Center, Oakland and Donegal, and the whole of Lancaster, Connoquenessing. Butler, Summit, Clearfield, Jackson, Forward, Penn, Jefferson, Winfield, Cranberry, Adams, Middlesex, Clinton and Buffalo are therefore in the Depreciation Lands.

The Depreciation Lands were divided into districts, which were each assigned to a Deputy Surveyor. The dividing lines ran southward from the northern boundary to the Allegheny or the Ohio Rivers, as the case might be, and were parallel. The first district west of the Allegheny extended about four miles west of the eastern boundary of Butler County, and was known as ELDER's. CUNNINGHAM's (James) district was the next. Its width was about ten miles, and its western boundary about half a mile east of the western boundaries of Centre, Butler, Penn and Middlesex Townships. Its area within the present limits of Butler County was approximately one hundred and fifty thousand acres, and within the present limits of Allegheny County nearly as much more. Several surveyors were doubtless employed by CUNNINGHAM in the work of locating warrants in this large tract of territory. West of the CUNNINGHAM district came JONES', NICHOLSON's and ALEXANDER's districts, in the order named, and others extending to the westen [sic] boundary of the State. They were as a rule much smaller than the one we have described.* The survey was begun in 1785 or 1786.

• The discoveries of the Depreciation Lands and also of the Donation Lands are indicated by heavy lines upon the county map drawn expressly for this work by Mr. F. M. GILBERT.