Greathouse of Bedford County, PA

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1772, Fall - Tax Assessment List, Brothers Valley Township

First Assessment List.- This assessment list was taken for Brothersvalley Township of Bedford County (this township included all of what is now Somerset County lying west of the Allegheny Mountain), created in the fall of 1772 for Year 1773 taxes.

Henry Abrahams; acres 100; imp. [improved] 12; horses 2; cows 3.
Andrew Friend; acres 50; imp. 10; horses 3; cows 2.
John Fry; acres 100; imp. 1; cows 1.
William Greathouse; acres 200; imp. 10; horses 2; cows 3.
Thomas Green; acres 100; imp. 6; horses 2; cows 8.
Walter Hite; acres 200; imp. 8; horse 2; cows 2.
Richard Hoagland; acres 350; imp. 71; horses 2; cows 3.
Benjamin Jennings; acres 200; imp. 36; horses 4; cows 6.
John Markley; acres 200; imp. 10; horses 4; cows 5.
Benjamin Pursley; acres 100; imp. 12; horse 3; cows 2.
James Spencer; acres 240; imp. 21; horses 2; cows 6.

Then followed the names of those whom we presume were single men, viz.:

Frederick Aker [named as inmate or married renter heading a household on 1773 taxes owed list].
Nicholas Friend [named as inmate on 1773 taxes owed list].

Footnotes:

1) The first tax assessment list for Brother's Valley, Bedford County was preserved in the History of Beford, Somerset and Fulton Counties as "Brother's Valley Taxables, 1772" on page 69. While the tax assessment list was titled "Brother's Valley Taxables, 1772, the authors appear to have concluded that this tax assessment list was made in 1771 for year 1772 taxes. However comparing this tax assessment list with the 1773 tax list, which relates the amounts owed by persons named, reveals that the first tax assessment of Bedford County was made in 1772 for year 1773 taxes.

2) Among the early land owners named were Henry Abraham, Thomas Green, William Greathouse and others. Henry Abraham built a cabin on the point of land between the Youghiogheny [pronounced yock-a-gay’-nee, aka Yough or Yuck] and the Casselman Rivers, known as present-day Confluence, PA, in 1765. James Spencer lived on the point of land between the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek opposite Henry Abraham at about the same time. Richard Hoagland owned a large tract of land lying east of the Youghiogheny River on both sides of the Braddock Road. Benjamin Jennings' land was located between present-day Confluence and Ursina which is located on land that was settled by Benjamin Pursley in 1772.

Excerpt from History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania:

Again it is claimed that among the men who settled near Turkey-Foot more than two hundred years ago, were "Henry Abrahams, one named Green, and another named Greathouse." Capt. Steel mentions Abrahams in his report (see preceding pages in this chapter), but apparently had not heard of either Green or Greathouse. However, upon the first assessment rolls of Bedford county, made in 1771 [1772], for the year 1772 [1773], we find the names of Henry Abrahams and several others mentioned by Steel three years earlier, as well as those of William Greathouse and Thomas Green. These rolls likewise inform the reader that at the time of which we write -- 1771 -- Abrahams had twelve acres of land improved, owned two horses and three cows; Greathouse had ten acres of improved land, two horses and three cows; while Green owned six acres of improved land, two horses and eight head of cattle.

We close this article by propounding a few queries. If these men were more than centenarians, if they had been here in occupation of the land for the great period intervening between 1650 and 1771, what had they been doing that in the last-mentioned year each respectively could boast of but twelve, ten and six acres of improved land? How had they drifted so readily from an asserted degree of savageness into the ways of civilization? Where had they been during the terrible French and Indian war -- 1754-63 -- a period during which (many able writers have asserted) not a single English white settler existed west of the Allegheny mountains, and but very few to the westward of the Susquehanna river, and lastly, if there is any foundation whatever for the believers of the "tradition" to stand upon, why cannot a line of descent be shown from the men of Williams' colony down to those who claim to be their descendants? In a word, we concede that there was an opportunity for the establishment at Turkey-Foot as early as 1763-4, but not prior to that time.

Excerpt from History of Bedford and Somerset Counties:

Other very early settlers in the Turkeyfoot region, as we glean from the earliest assessment lists made after Bedford county was first formed, were William Greathouse, George Drake, Nicholas Friend, Thomas Green, John Friggs, Richard Hoagland, John Pursley, Danes Pursley, James Pursley, Robert Plunket, Martin Keever, Michael Keever, John Reed, Thomas Stanton, Jacob Ropel (or Rupel), Henry Brown, John Mitchell, Andrew Friend, Augustine Friend, Charles Friend, Henry Smith. Some of these names are found on the first assessment, that made in the fall of 1771.

3) William Greathouse was named as a resident of Brother's Valley and Turkeyfoot in land and tax records between 1772 and 1786, when he moved his family to Quiet Dell, Harrison County, WV.

4) Frederick Aker was named among those the authors interpreted to be single men. However, a comparison of this tax assessment list with the 1773 taxes owed list, reveals that Frederick Aker, Nicholas Friend and others were named among the inmates or married renters heading households. Frederick Aker, as an inmate or married renter in 1772, was probably married to Mary Greathouse, daughter of William & Barbara Shutz Greathouse, by the fall of 1772. If Mary Greathouse was age between age 18 and 21 when married about 1772, then she would have been born between 1751 and 1754. Frederick and Mary Greathouse Aker were both named as heirs, with Mary Greathouse Aker also named as a daughter, in the will of William Greathouse Sr. which was probated in Harrison County, VA, in 1792.

Article: 1792 - Will: William Greathouse Sr., Harrison County, WV

Sources:

History of Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men.. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1884. Page 70, 73-74; 1772, Fall - Tax Assessment List, Brothers Valley Township: William Greathouse, resident freeholder; Frederick Aker, inmate. View @ Google Books

Carolyn C. Holland, Carolyn's Compositions, Youghiogheny River AKAs, Youghiogheny [pronounced yock-a-gay’-nee, aka Yough or Yuck]. View Online

Blackburn and Welfley, The History of Bedford and Somerset Counties by , published in 1906. Transcribed and donated by Batha Karr. William Greathouse was early settler of Turkeyfoot region. "First Assessment List" for Bedford County, PA was created in fall 1772 for Year 1773 taxes.

Greathouse Point, Greathouse Archives, USA, West Virginia, Harrison County, 1792 - Will: William Greathouse Sr.