Virginia and Donna, This is one of those tidbits of history that fascinate me, so I did a little poking around. Here's what I found. When Augusta Co., VA was created from Orange Co., VA in 1745, it was one of those frontier counties that went west 'forever' and north 'forever,' if you know what I mean. In other words, there was no defined western or northern boundary. Most, perhaps all, of the original colonies had those kind of counties. At that time, 1745, the southwestern part of PA was not part of any PA county boundary. Basically, it was Indian Country. In 1750, PA created Cumberland County out of part of Lancaster County and the southwestern Indian Country. But, the extreme western part of the southern boundary was apparently left up in the air. When the Mason-Dixon line was surveryed between 1763 and 1767, it settled the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which it was supposed to do. But, even though the surveyors extended the line westward, it really didn't do much to settle the matter of the land in southwestern PA (and it wasn't supposed to - the surveyors just took it upon themselves to extend the line. The Crown was just interested in settling the PA-MD boundary dispute.). In 1773, Virginia actually created a "Western Augusta District," part of which was in southwestern PA. Then, in 1776, VA created three counties in that area. About the same time, PA created a county out there overlaying the VA counties. (Do you see a dispute brewing here?) I guess someone talked some sense into them because in 1786, VA formally terminated county jurisdiction in southwestern PA, the state boundary was accepted along the Mason-Dixon Line, and everybody went home happy (well, except for the Indians). However, I don't think any of this has much to do with Donna's question about Samuel Beaty. It looks to me like someone patented the land in Augusta Co., VA in 1759 and then sold it to Samuel Beaty of York Co., PA in 1771. York Co., PA was far enough east so it wasn't involved in the area dispute described above. So, that's the story as I understand it. Les Beaty, L-20