George Washington to Michael Cresap, 26 September 1773
To Michael Cresap
Mount Vernon Septemr 26th 1773
Sir,
In my Passage down the ohio in the Fall of the year 1770 I made choice of a piece of Land, being the first bottom on the So. East side the river above Capteening, as also a little above a place where the effects of a hurricane appear among the Trees, & opposite to a Creek on the other side near the upper end of the bottom, call’d Pipe Creek. The next Spring, when Capt: Crawford went down the Ohio to survey, I desired him to run out this Land for me, which he accordingly did, & returned me the Plat of it, as you may see by the inclosed copy, intending as soon as a Patent could be obtained, to apply for one.1 The Summer following, hearing that Doctor Brisco had taken possession of this bottom, (altho’ inform’d of my claim to it) I wrote him a letter, of which the inclos’d is a copy.2 And within these few days I have heared (the truth of which I know not) that you, upon the Doctors quitting of it, have also taken possession of it. If this Information be true, I own I can conceive no reason why you, or any other person should attempt to disturb me in my claim to this Land, as I have not, to my knowledge, injur’d, or attempted to injure, any other Man in his pretensions to Land in that Country, it is a little hard therefore upon me, that I cannot be allowed to hold this bottom (which is but a small one) in peace & quietness, ’till a legal right can be obtained, which I always have been, & still am ready to pay for, as soon as I know to what office to apply. I would feign hope that my information respecting your taking possession of this Land, is without foundation; as I should be sorry to enter into a litigation of this matter with you, or any other Gentleman; but as I conceiv’d that I had as good a right to make choice of this bottom, as any other person had; as I am sure that I am the first that did so, & have had it survey’d so as to ascertain the bounds, upwards of two years ago, I am resolved not to relinquish my claim to it.3 But if you have made any Improvements thereon, not knowing of my claim, I will very readily pay you the full value thereof, being Sir Your Most humble Servant
Go: Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
1. GW went up to Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River with Dr. James Craik and others in October 1770, and on 24 Oct. he inspected a tract of bottomland on the river opposite Pipe Creek about seven miles above Captina Creek (, 2:298). The next year on 2 Aug., William Crawford wrote GW that he had surveyed the Round Bottom tract. He subsequently gave GW a plat of it, which GW endorsed: “Plat of the Land above Capteening opposite Pipe Ck” (DLC:GW). Crawford resurveyed the tract twice in 1774 (see Crawford to GW, 8 May, 8 June, 20 Sept., 14 Nov. 1774).
2. GW’s letter to Dr. John Briscoe warning him off the Round Bottom tract is dated 3 Dec. 1772.
3. GW finally secured from Gov. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia in 1784 a patent for the 587—acre Round Bottom tract, but Cresap’s heirs continued to challenge GW’s right to the land on into the nineteenth century. See William Crawford to GW, 2 Aug. 1771, n.6, and , 88–99.