The History of the Creation of the Borough of Verona, Pennsylvania
The history of Verona is prefaced by a discussion of the Allegheny River Valley, since its location on the river was largely responsible for the town’s early development.
In that part of geological time which is recorded history, there was no Allegheny River as such. Instead, a glorified French Creek rose north of Clarion, continued northward to Franklin, and then up modern French Creek and emptied into Lake Erie. Before the Ice Age, two good sized rivers converged at Salamanca, New York; one from Warren (flowing north up the present Allegheny Valley), and the other being the present headwaters of the Allegheny River. Both rivers emptied into Lake Erie near Dunkirk.
The coming of the great glacier changed the entire face of the land, and left on its retreat, the beautiful Allegheny River. The well-polished, rounded stones of the river bed are evidence of the glacier’s touch.
This was the land of “La Belle Riviere”, the beautiful river. Unspoiled forest-clad hills rose above the river; their silent majesty disturbed only by deer and buffalo trials, and an occasional Indian village.
Several nations of Indians have occupied the Allegheny Valley, the oldest known being the Allegwi. The name Allegheny comes from the corruption of the Indian term, “Allegwi-hanna”, which means stream of the Allegwi. The Delaware Indians followed the Allegewi, and lived in the valley when the first white men came. Many well-constructed burial and ceremonial mounds have been found in the Allegheny Valley. These ancient mounds are credited neither to the Delaware nor the Allegwi, but to an even earlier Indian civilization.
In 1669 when Rene Robert Cavalier d la Salle became the first white man to explore the Allegheny, he found its valley dotted with Indian villages whose inhabitants planted corn and hunted to keep alive.
For more than half a century following the passage of La Salle, “La Belle Riviere”, the Allegheny and Ohio River system, remained in the hands of the Shawanese Indians.
James Le Tort was one of the first French traders to learn the Indian language and bargain for fur pelts and land. It was this tough breed of men, these Indian traders, who opened up the territory for other white settlers. These men lived dangerously, aged rapidly and died young and violently. One of the first English agents sent by Pennsylvania to deal with the Indians was George Croghan, and it is with him that our Verona history essentially begins.
George Croghan was an Indian trader, agent, and land speculator who migrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1741. He established trading posts throughout the upper Ohio country, travelling by horseback and boat. As a captain in charge of friendly Indian scouts, he assisted Washington and Braddock in the attempts to stop the French onslaught. He assisted General Forbes in capturing Fort Duquesne in 1758, and Colonel Bouquet in occupying Detroit in 1760, and also played a prominent role in the important treaty of Fort Stanwix.
He purchased 200,000 acres of land near Pittsburgh from the Indians, but failed to perfect his title. The outbreak of the Revolution wrecked all of Croghan’s extensive land operations and his last years were spent in poverty. He died near Philadelphia in 1782.
Part of George Croghans’s original patent in 1769 included 300 acres in the Borough of Verona. In 1776, he transferred this land to Thomas Girty, another land speculator and soldier from Pittsburgh and Kittanning.
Girty conveyed the land in 1800 to Colonel Pressly Neville, famous aide-de-camp of Lafayette and close friend of George Washington. Neville is described as a “well-bred gentlemen of ample fortune”.
In 1813, Neville transferred the land to Robert Elliott, another Indian agent and friend of Simon Girty, who in turn, conveyed it to Michael Bright, in 1816.
When Bright bought this 300 acre tract of land twelve miles up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh it was unimproved with the exception of one small log house. Mr. Bright built a new and comfortable log house at one, and later a small brick residence in which he lived with his wife, Barbara Winters, until his death in March 1847. They raised fifteen children.
It is interesting to note that land speculators were numerous, many of them being Indian traders of soldiers. Very few actually lived on or even visited their land holdings. Tomahawk grants were legal and many pioneers and adventurers marked off their land claims by notching the trees that formed the boundary with a tomahawk. Much trading and land swapping occurred, since land holdings represented a kind of security exchange market.
Michael Bright, during his lifetime, divided and subdivided his land. One of the earliest settlers is only known as a man named Brady. Also, very early, a Mr. Shaw built a house in the borough and planted the first orchard.
In that part of geological time which is recorded history, there was no Allegheny River as such. Instead, a glorified French Creek rose north of Clarion, continued northward to Franklin, and then up modern French Creek and emptied into Lake Erie. Before the Ice Age, two good sized rivers converged at Salamanca, New York; one from Warren (flowing north up the present Allegheny Valley), and the other being the present headwaters of the Allegheny River. Both rivers emptied into Lake Erie near Dunkirk.
The coming of the great glacier changed the entire face of the land, and left on its retreat, the beautiful Allegheny River. The well-polished, rounded stones of the river bed are evidence of the glacier’s touch.
This was the land of “La Belle Riviere”, the beautiful river. Unspoiled forest-clad hills rose above the river; their silent majesty disturbed only by deer and buffalo trials, and an occasional Indian village.
Several nations of Indians have occupied the Allegheny Valley, the oldest known being the Allegwi. The name Allegheny comes from the corruption of the Indian term, “Allegwi-hanna”, which means stream of the Allegwi. The Delaware Indians followed the Allegewi, and lived in the valley when the first white men came. Many well-constructed burial and ceremonial mounds have been found in the Allegheny Valley. These ancient mounds are credited neither to the Delaware nor the Allegwi, but to an even earlier Indian civilization.
In 1669 when Rene Robert Cavalier d la Salle became the first white man to explore the Allegheny, he found its valley dotted with Indian villages whose inhabitants planted corn and hunted to keep alive.
For more than half a century following the passage of La Salle, “La Belle Riviere”, the Allegheny and Ohio River system, remained in the hands of the Shawanese Indians.
James Le Tort was one of the first French traders to learn the Indian language and bargain for fur pelts and land. It was this tough breed of men, these Indian traders, who opened up the territory for other white settlers. These men lived dangerously, aged rapidly and died young and violently. One of the first English agents sent by Pennsylvania to deal with the Indians was George Croghan, and it is with him that our Verona history essentially begins.
George Croghan was an Indian trader, agent, and land speculator who migrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1741. He established trading posts throughout the upper Ohio country, travelling by horseback and boat. As a captain in charge of friendly Indian scouts, he assisted Washington and Braddock in the attempts to stop the French onslaught. He assisted General Forbes in capturing Fort Duquesne in 1758, and Colonel Bouquet in occupying Detroit in 1760, and also played a prominent role in the important treaty of Fort Stanwix.
He purchased 200,000 acres of land near Pittsburgh from the Indians, but failed to perfect his title. The outbreak of the Revolution wrecked all of Croghan’s extensive land operations and his last years were spent in poverty. He died near Philadelphia in 1782.
Part of George Croghans’s original patent in 1769 included 300 acres in the Borough of Verona. In 1776, he transferred this land to Thomas Girty, another land speculator and soldier from Pittsburgh and Kittanning.
Girty conveyed the land in 1800 to Colonel Pressly Neville, famous aide-de-camp of Lafayette and close friend of George Washington. Neville is described as a “well-bred gentlemen of ample fortune”.
In 1813, Neville transferred the land to Robert Elliott, another Indian agent and friend of Simon Girty, who in turn, conveyed it to Michael Bright, in 1816.
When Bright bought this 300 acre tract of land twelve miles up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh it was unimproved with the exception of one small log house. Mr. Bright built a new and comfortable log house at one, and later a small brick residence in which he lived with his wife, Barbara Winters, until his death in March 1847. They raised fifteen children.
It is interesting to note that land speculators were numerous, many of them being Indian traders of soldiers. Very few actually lived on or even visited their land holdings. Tomahawk grants were legal and many pioneers and adventurers marked off their land claims by notching the trees that formed the boundary with a tomahawk. Much trading and land swapping occurred, since land holdings represented a kind of security exchange market.
Michael Bright, during his lifetime, divided and subdivided his land. One of the earliest settlers is only known as a man named Brady. Also, very early, a Mr. Shaw built a house in the borough and planted the first orchard.