Greathouse Coat of Arms
Greathouse Point Banner
Greathouse Tree
Origins Banner
Greathouse Point > Greathouse Archives > USA > PA > Bedford County

Greathouse of Bedford County, PA

Do you have any Greathouse kith and kin who resided in Bedford County, PA? If so, please join us in our efforts to better document the Greathouse kith and kin who lived in this county, by sending your additions and corrections to Greathouse Point.

Joel Rees of Springhill

1772, Oct 8 - Land Warrant: Joel Rees, Springhill, Bedford County, PA [ View @ PA State Archives ]

Warrant records follow:

Number of Warrant: 7;
Name of Warrantee: Rees, Joel;
Description of Warrant: Survey;
Quantity: 100 acres;
Warrant Location: N. S. [north side] of Cheat River, Fayette Co. [entered at time of survey in 1786];
Date of Warrant: 8 Octr. 1772;
Date of Return [of survey]: 17 July 1806;
Acres Returned: 101;
Name of Patentee: Michael Duffe;
Where Recorded: Vol. P, No. 59, Page 6;
Where Survey Is Copied: Book C185, Page 27.

Footnotes:

1) The first survey in the Ohio Valley by William Crawford was done in June 1771, called "Washington's Bottom", 2,314 acres located three miles down river from the Little Kanawha. Washington claimed the land under the terms of the Virginia Proclamation of 1754 granting land to veterans. The land was patented in Washington's name on November 6, 1772. Also in June 1771, William Crawford, assisted by John Custard, George Cox, William Jackson, Marcus Hardin and Joel Rees, surveyed 10,990 acres on the south shore of the Great Kanawha River two miles from the Ohio River.

Refuting Allan W. Eckert's, That Dark And Bloody River, 1995:

On page 14 of the stated source, in a summary of surveying parties on the Ohio River, Eckert reported, the Thomas Bullitt party briefly joined with other surveying parties they met, such as the "rough group of frontiersmen-cum-surveyors" led by Joel Rees and Jacob Greathouse, including the Mahon brothers, John and Rafe.

2) Marcus Hardin and Joel Rees were noted as two of James Neal's closest associates. In 1764, James Neal had married Hannah Hardin, becoming the brother-in-law of Marcus Hardin. James Neal and his brother George had settled with the Hardins in the area between where Georges Creek and the Cheat River empty into the Monongahela, in Springhill Township, Cumberland County, PA prior to the creation of Bedford in 1771. Here he claimed a tract of 332-1/4 acres, which he called “Rich Land Valley”, on November 24, 1769. View Sturm Dissertation: Neal/Hardin/Rees Kinship/Neighbor Group.

3) Joel Rees settled on land situated on the north side of Cheat River in Springhill Township, Bedford County at the time when his warrant was issued on 8 Oct 1772, but in Fayette County when his land was surveyed on 15 May 1786. Springhill Township was in Bedford County, PA from 1771 through 1773, then in Westmoreland County, PA through the creaton of Fayette County, PA in 1783. View Survey @ PA Archives.

4) Rees' land was adjoining a tract of Samuel Kincaid, whom was married to Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of George Wilson Esquire, whose plantation was located on the south side of the Cheat River, from Kincaid's and Rees' tracts. James Neal's "Rich Land Valley" lies to the northeast of the Rees tract. Also two tracts belonging to John and Catharina Stull Swearingen, whose daughter Drusilla married John Wilson, son of George Wilson, Esquire, on 25 Oct 1775, in Springhill, Westmoreland County, PA. Catharine Stull Swearingen was a daughter of John Stull "The Miller", Pioneer of Western Maryland and a sister of Mary Magdalena Stull, wife of Harmon Greathouse, whom settled on Harmon's Run, near Holiday's Cove in 1773. View Warrantee Township Map @ Footnote.

1806, Jul 17 - Survey Return: Joel Rees [ View @ PA State Archives ]

Survey records follow:

Fayette-
Joel Rees
101a & all
Retd Rec 17th July 1806
No 7 Bedford Co.
Accepted 11th July 1806

Situate on the North side of Cheat River in Springfield Township, Fayette County & surveyed 15th May 1786 in pursuance of a warrant dated 8th October 1772.

P Alexander M.Clean Deputy

To Samuel Cochran Esquire
Survey General

Footnotes:

1) Errata: Survey stated land was situated in Springfield Township. The land was actually located in Springhill Township on the north side of Cheat River, near its mouth, in the area of present-day, Point Marion, PA.

Sources:

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History, Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-17, Records of the Land Office, Warrant Registers, 1733-1957. [series #17.88], Bedford County Warrant Register Pages, Page 184, Warrant Register Entry: Joel Rees, 8 Oct 1772. View @ PA State Archives.

Walter Scott Dunn, Choosing sides on the frontier in the American Revolution. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 0275994295, 9780275994297. Page 13 - View @ Google Books.

Philip W. Sturm, Kinship Migration to Northwestern Virginia, 1785-1815: The Myth of the Southern Frontiersman, Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Department of History, Morgantown, West Virginia 2004. Joel Rees settled along the Cheat River near it's mouth, or Point Marion, Bedford County, PA from 1771 through 1773. View Sturm Dissertation: Neal/Hardin/Rees Kinship/Neighbor Group.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History, Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-17, Records of the Land Office, Copied Surveys, 1681-1912. {series #17.114}. Book C185, Page 27, View Survey & Reverse @ PA Archives.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History, Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-17, Records of the Land Office, Warrentee Township Maps, {series #17.522}. Springhill Township, Fayette County, PA. View Warrantee Township Map @ Footnote.

Chris H. Bailey, The Stulls of "Millsborough", A Genealogical History of John Stull "The Miller", Pioneer of Western Maryland, Vol. 1, Descendants of (Col.) John Stull of Hagerstown, Mary (Stull) Greathouse and Margaret (Stull) Greathouse, 2000. View @ BYU Library.

Disclaimer

All information submitted to this site remains to the extent the law allows, the property of the submitter who, by submitting it, agrees that it may be freely copied, but never sold or used in a commercial venture without the knowledge and permission of its rightful owner.

Greathouse Point and the keepers of this site, make no claim or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. As with all your genealogical research, please verify each piece of data to your own satisfaction to determine whether you believe it is correct.

 
Greathouse Point Banner Comments?? Questions?? Contact our Webmaster.
Copyright © 1998 - 2011, Greathouse Point. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Site Map