The end of the Revolutionary War left American soldiers stuck with worthless money and the fledgling American government stuck with no treaty with the Native American tribes that fought on the side of the British.

This postwar chaos led to the creation of the Donation and Depreciation Lands that covered much of Western Pennsylvania including what would one day be Butler County. The lands have been credited with both helping and hampering the settlement of Butler County and indirectly sent one Founding Father to debtor’s prison.

The Revolutionary War, according to the National Park Service, fractured the years of peace between the Six Nations (Oneida, Tuscarora, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca.)

In very broad terms, the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the colonists in the conflict while the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca allied with the British. However, large numbers of Native Americans, such as many of the Onondaga, attempted to remain neutral with varying degrees of success.

Although the 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the war between the United States and Great Britain, the Americans had no peace treaty with the Six Nations.

Representatives of the Six Nations and the fledgling American government American government met at Fort Stanwix, at what is now Rome, N.Y., to draw up a peace treaty in 1784.

After the peace treaty was signed, representatives from Pennsylvania negotiated a land sale with the Six Nations, the Purchase of 1784, which pushed Pennsylvania to its present north and west borders and restricted Six Nations territory to within the boundaries of the State of New York. According to the park service, before the time of the sale, the Pennsylvania land was used for the Six Nations mainly for hunting. The area was mostly uninhabited except for a small village north of present-day Ambridge.

According to the Park Service, the Purchase of 1784 tract was located west of the Allegheny River and north of the Ohio River and was bordered on the north by an imaginary line stretching east/west from the mouth of the Mahoning Creek to the Western border of Pennsylvania.

The history, “Butler” by Stephen Pozar and Jean Purvis published in 1980, noted Pennsylvania lawmakers had long-held plans for using this land to get the Commonwealth out of a financial bind.

“Meanwhile the Pennsylvania State Legislature in characteristic fashion moved to dispose of land that was not yet theirs,” noted the “Butler” authors. “It was not until the second treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1785 that the area was formally conveyed to the state of Pennsylvania, but in 1783, the legislature moved for its disposal in order to redeem the ‘depreciated’ certificates issued to Revolutionary War soldiers.”

During the war, soldiers in the Continental Army were paid by Congress with paper money known as Continental Currency. At first the currency was backed by gold but as the war continued more and more paper money was printed with no gold to back it. By the end of the war, the currency was virtually worthless.

Instead, the soldiers that Pennsylvania owed money were issued depreciation certificates that could be used to buy land in the newly acquired territory.

In addition, the state also had promised land to soldiers from the state who took part in the fight against the British.

According to the Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Volume III published 1894, in 1780, the Commonwealth Legislature provided that Pennsylvania officers and privates who served in the federal army during the Revolutionary War would be given land according to their rank. The land would be surveyed and distributed through a lottery system after the war

According to the original documents at the Pennsylvania Bureau of Land Records, the donation program was designed to induce men to stay in service during the war. Each soldier was to receive a bounty, or donation, of land consisting of 200, 250, 400 or 500 acres depending on the veteran’s rank. For example, generals were entitled to 500 acres while privates were to receive 200 acres.

The purchased Six Nations land was subdivided into two sections: the Donation Lands comprising 550,000 acres and the Depreciation Lands totaling 720,000 acres.

According to the Archives, “Soldiers and officers who served in the Pennsylvania Line (that is troops from the Commonwealth) during the Revolutionary War received pay in depreciated currency. Unable to pay these veterans in full value scrip, Pennsylvania offered them certificates that could be applied to the purchase of land.”

War veterans who received “depreciation certificates” could exchange them for acreage in what became known as the Depreciation Lands.

According to the “History of Butler and Butler County, Pa.” published in 1909, the Depreciation Lands covered most of Butler County.

Surveyors began carving the Depreciation Lands up into lots.

The Elder district named after it surveyor ran four miles west of the county’s eastern boundary and included eastern sections of Buffalo, Winfield and Donegal townships.

Next to the west, surveyor James Cunningham’s district (District 4) was approximately 10 miles wide and consisted of 150,000 acres in Butler County. It contained parts of Oakland, Donegal, Clearfield, Winfield and Buffalo townships and all of Summit, Jefferson and Clinton townships.

Farther west, the Jones district contained all of Connoquenessing, Forward and Adams townships and parts of Franklin Township.

The Nicholson and Alexander districts divided Cranberry, Jackson, Lancaster and Muddy Creek townships.

Those issued depreciation certificates had two years after peace was declared to claim their lands. If the soldier issued the certificate had died, his survivors or heirs had a year to make a claim for land.

According to the Bureau, the Donation Lands were immediately north of the so-called Depreciation Lands and west of the Allegheny River. It included parts of the future counties of Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Mercer and Venango, as well as north and northeast Butler County. The northern boundary between the Depreciation and Donation Lands passed from east to west almost centrally through the future Butler County and was about four miles north of the future county seat of Butler.

The Donation Lands were divided into 10 surveying districts with 2,570 lots totaling over 550,000 acres. Lots were distributed by a lottery system. After enough lots were surveyed and numbered, the lot numbers were placed in one of four lottery wheels depending on the lot’s acreage. Lots numbers were drawn and assigned to a veteran.

Part of the Butler County lands were deemed unfit for cultivation and struck from the lottery. They were later sold by general warrant under the Law of 1792. The Archives noted that while these lands may have been considered poor for farming they proved their value as some of the most oil-rich land in the country.

However, despite the intentions of the state legislature, not all of the Depreciation Lands went to deserving veterans. Many veterans sold their depreciation certificates to land speculators, and some of the land surveyors themselves used their insider information to acquire choice parcels for themselves.

According to “20th Century History and Butler County, Pa. and Representative Citizens” edited by James McKee and published in 1909, much controversy arose between the actual settlers and the land speculators, or “jobbers,” and “the population and improvement of the country were much retarded by the uncertainty of the ownership of the soil.”

Litigation concerning title was more common within the limits of this immense purchase than elsewhere in Butler County.

For example, Robert Morris, the Revolutionary patriot and Washington’s Superintendent of Finance prior to his presidency, became a large owner of Butler County lands, some 70,000 to 90,000 acres, including the site of what would become Butler, by holding a large amount of depreciation certificates he bought. Morris was supposedly influenced by James Cunningham, one of the surveyors of the Depreciated Lands and afterward Morris’ agent.

Morris’ land speculation in Butler County and elsewhere later led to his bankruptcy and imprisonment in debtor’s prison between 1796 and 1802.

Morris’ land in Butler County was sold in a Philadelphia sheriff’s sale. Much of it was purchased by Stephen Lowrey of Maryland and other speculators.

Many of these tracts that Lowrey and his associates, derisively called “jobbers,” purchased in Butler County, the History said, were occupied by settlers, who had made improvements to the acreage but who held no titles to the land.

Many of these settlers were summarily evicted from their homes, and others were compelled to make terms with the speculators for their continued occupancy. As a rule, the land jobbers were backed by the law.

According to the History, the feeling against the “jobbers” ran very high, and “considering the character of the frontiersmen with whom they had to deal, it is surprising that war did not result from the controversy other than that which was carried on in the courts. As it was, much ill feeling was engendered, and on one occasion at least bloodshed ensued.”

According to the History, that bloodshed occurred in October 1815 on the Duffy farm just west of Butler.

A man named Abraham Maxwell had cleared land on the site of the farm and built a log cabin. He later rented the farm to Samuel Robb.

Lowrey was in Butler and had engaged a sheriff and a posse to travel with him to the farm to evict Robb from the property. The posse was followed by a large number of fellow farmers who supported Maxwell.

When the groups arrived at the farm, the renter Robb refused to leave. The History records Lowrey and Maxwell were standing by a fence discussing the matter when a shot rang out, hitting Maxwell.

The wounded man was carried into Robb’s cabin and the mood turned ugly. Lowrey and the sheriff’s men retreated back to Butler. Maxwell eventually recovered from his wound. The identity of the shooter was never determined. Speculation had it that a supporter of Maxwell had been aiming for Lowrey and hit Maxwell by mistake.

The History noted land ownership disputes between settlers and land speculators filled Butler County courts for more than 20 years.