VII. MINUTE BOOK OF VIRGINIA COURT HELD 

 FOR VOHOGANIA COUNTY, FIRST AT AUGUSTA 

 TOWN (NOW WASHINGTON, PA.), AND AFTER- 

 WARDS ON THE ANDREW HEATH FARM 

 NEAR WEST ELIZABETH; 1776-1780.' 



Edited dy Boyd Cru.mrine, of Washington, Pa. 



Introductory. 



It \vill have been observed that the organization of the Virginia 

 court at Fort Dunmore (now Pittsburgh) for the District of West 

 Augusta, was on February 21, 1775 : Vol. I., p. 525, of these Anna /s ; 

 that the last sessions of that court were held at Augusta Town (or Cat- 

 fish Camp, now Washington), on November 20, 1776 : Lion, p. 568 ; 

 that in the meantime the Monongahela Declaration of Independence 

 had been promulgated at two points in the Monongahela Valley, on 

 the same day, to wit. May 16, 1775, more than one year antedating 

 the Declaration of Independence read to the assembled people from 

 the southern front of the State House at Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776 : 

 Idfin, p. 519 ; and that in October, 1776, the legislature of Virginia, 

 now a sovereign state of the new American confederation, divided the 

 District of West Augusta into three new counties, Ohio, Yohogania 

 and Monongalia, all shown, with reasonable accuracy, as it is be- 

 lieved, on the map in Vol. I. of these Annals, facing p. 518. 



The sessions of the court for Yohogania County were held first at 

 Augusta Town (Catfish Camp, now Washington) from December 23, 

 1776, until August 25, 1777: these Annals, Vol. II., p. 91: and 

 from the latter date until the Virginia jurisdiction was wholly ousted, 

 on the farm of Andrew Heath (then in old Washington County), \\'est 

 of the Monongahela River, and near the present dividing line be- 

 tween Washington and Allegheny counties. A portion of the Order 

 Book (usually called the Minute Book in our courts) of the Yohogania 



' Continued from pp. 71-140, this volume. 



205 



