George Washington
Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Near here at the David Reed home, Washington met Sept. 20, 1784, with 13 Covenanter squatters on his tract of 2613 acres. Failure to fix terms of purchase forced him to bring suit at Washington to eject the illegal tenants.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Fresh from winning independence, George Washington rode west in 1784 to inspect and secure his sizable landholdings, including a 2,613-acre tract in Washington County. Near this spot, at David Reed's home, he met on September 20 with thirteen Covenanter squatters living on that land. When the two sides could not agree on terms of purchase, Washington took the settlers to court in Washington to eject them—and eventually prevailed.
Why it matters
The episode reveals Washington not as a distant icon but as a hands-on frontier landholder, and shows how even the young nation's greatest figure had to turn to courts to enforce property rights on the contested western frontier.
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Related people
- · George Washington
- · David Reed
Related events
- · Washington's 1784 western land dispute
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
David Reed
Mount Pleasant Township, PA · est. 1950
In the 1780s the rolling country of Washington County was disputed ground, and David Reed led a band of Covenanter squatters who had settled on land the tract belonged to none other than George Washington. On September 20, 1784, thirteen of these Scotch-Irish pioneers gathered at Reed's log home to face Washington himself and refuse his demand that they leave. Their defiance captures the raw friction between eastern land titles and the settlers who had already cleared and worked the ground.
Col. George Morgan
North Strabane Township, PA · est. 1947
George Morgan was one of the most experienced Indian traders and agents on the early American frontier, and from 1796 to 1810 he made his home on this ground. It was here that Aaron Burr, the former vice president, came calling with a scheme to raise a private venture in the West. Morgan grew alarmed at what he heard and became one of the first to warn President Thomas Jefferson of Burr's designs.
Reverend John McMillan - PLAQUE
North Strabane Township, PA · est. 1931
The Reverend John McMillan carried Presbyterian faith and formal schooling into the rugged country of western Pennsylvania in the years after the Revolution. Over six decades of ministry he helped plant churches at Chartiers, Pigeon Creek, and beyond, and lent his energy to founding institutions that became Jefferson College and Western Theological Seminary. He and his wife endured the hardships of frontier life to build lasting religious and educational roots in the region.
Cross Creek Church
Cross Creek Township, PA · est. 1950
On the eve of the Revolution, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians pushing into western Pennsylvania first gathered for worship in 1775 at the shelter of Vance's Fort, a mile north. By 1779 they had raised their own church nearby and called their first pastor, planting a durable religious community on a still-contested frontier; the stone building standing today was erected in 1864. It is a portrait of how faith and settlement advanced together across the Alleghenies.