This was sent to me by another member of the Crooks family and is Col. thomas Crooks who formed and lead the first American Ranger Regiment during the French & Indian wars. He was awarded land under a Virginia Certificate issued by the Royal Governor of Virginia, this land was name Crookston Plantation was was actually in todays Franklin County. I am not sure if Col. Crooks ever lived on it or not as it was sold to someone else. I am not directly related to Col. Crooks, however one opf mine did serve in his regiment. Gordon Crooks. The following is from the HIstory of Washington County: West Brownsville Borough (pp. 635) History of Washington County, Pennsylvania * On the left bank of the Monongahela River, sixty-three miles above the city of Pittsburgh, and fifty-four miles by the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad (or, as now known, the Monongahela Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad),1 is situated the rather unpretentious borough of West Brownsville, the present terminus of the railroad mentioned. It contains the large and well-known boat- yard of Axton & Pringle, the extensive planing-mills of Thomas Aubrey & Sons, a handsome public school building, an Episcopal Church edifice, two hotels, several mercantile houses, about six hundred inhabitants, and is connected with the ancient town of Brownsville, Fayette Co., Pa., by a substantial covered bridge, six hundred and thirty feet in length, which, commenced in 1832, was completed in 1833, after an expenditure of about fifty thousand dollars. [1Trains first began making regular trips between West Brownsville and Pittsburgh May 15, 1881.] Although West Brownsville is but a modest, unassuming little borough, and occupies, comparatively speaking, but an insignificant portion of the surface of Washington County, its history is not uninteresting. It seems that during the middle of the last century, and prior to the year 1769, a friendly Indian named William Peters, yet more generally known as "Indian Peter," lived on lands in the Youghiogheny Valley, adjoining a German named Philip Shute,1 with whom he could not agree. Thereupon Indian Peter wrote the proprietaries' agent, saying that he could not "get along with the d—d Dutchman," and wished to give up his land for another tract. His request was promptly complied with it appears, for on the 5th day of April, 1769, but two days after the land-office (for the sale of land in this newly-purchased territory) was opened, warrant No. 2844 was granted him for a tract containing three hundred and thirty-nine acres situated on the west side of the Monongahela River. This land was surveyed Oct. 7, 1769, by James Hendricks, deputy surveyor-general, who gave it the name of "Indian Hill." [1Shute was a member of the Gist settlement, and was there when Capt. John Steele was at Redstone in 1768.] It is very probable that Indian Peter took up his abode on Indian Hill soon after obtaining a title to the tract, for we find that on the 22nd day of February, 1775, the Virginia court, then in session at Fort Dunmore, licensed Michael Cresap "to keep a ferry over the Monongahela from his house at Redstone Old Fort to the land of Indian Peter." The latter died probably before the organization of this county, as the records show that the first civil suit entered in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas was brought on the 17th day of September, 1781, and that the defendant was a widow woman of the name of Mary Peters. This woman, doubtless, was the widow of Indian Peter. Meanwhile, much travel centered at the Redstone Ferry. Here many emigrants to the Western and Southwestern regions, after long and wearied journeys over mountain roads and trails, could embark in Kentucky or Orleans boats and float to their destinations, while others who did not propose going so far crossed to the left bank of the river, and with wagons wended their way to points in the territory now known as Washington and Greene Counties and West Virginia. The needs of a passable road, therefore, from the ferry to the county-seat were urgent, and on the 1st day of January, 1782, viewers were appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions to lay out a road from Bassett Town (now Washington) to Redstone Ferry. While these improvements were being made or contemplated, the county of Washington was rapidly filling up with an energetic people, and Redstone Old Fort, or Brownsville, becoming an active business centre, it was not possible for the beautiful tract in the possession of Indian Peter's widow to long remain unimproved, a bar to the progressive spirit prevailing. Hence, during the spring of 1784, Neal Gillespie (a native of Ireland, and great-grandfather of Hon. James G. Blaine) purchased the Indian Hill property, as the following curious instrument (recorded in Book B, vol. i. p. 406, county recorder's office) indicates: "March ye 3, 1784. "Memorandum of a Bargain mead Between Marey Petters and William oldest son and Neal Gillespey, the agrement is thos, that we the above do bargain and seal to send Neal Geallespie the Tract of land which we now poses and all the tenements and boundries of said Land at forty five Shillings pr. Acker the tearm of Peaments the 15th of next October fower hundred Pounds to be Paid in money or moneys worth for this Peament two ton of Iron at teen pence Pr pound and one Negro at Preasment of two men, one hundred pound more to be pead at the same time of this Preasment or Else to Draw In trust for one Year, the Remainder of the Purches money to be Pead in two Peaments—First in the [year] 1786, the Next the year 1788, Each of these Peaments to be mead in October 15th the above Bound marey Petters and william Petters asserts to meak the said Neal Gillespee a proper Right for said land for which he have seat our hands and Seals. (Signed) her "JOHN MA CORTNEY. "MAREY XII PETTERS. mark." "JOHN NIXON. his "WILLIAM XIX PETTERS. mark. "Acknowledged before THOMAS CROOKS Feb. 25, 1786." Continue to browse for more info on Thomas Reference point of story below Col. Thomas Crooks came into the Territory of West Bethlehem Township, and on a Virginia certificate took up a tract of land on Pigeon Creek, which was called "Richard's Valley." This property was surveyed to Mr. Crooks Feb. 25, 1785. Col. Crooks was a man prominent in all local and public affairs, and held many offices of importance and trust. He died Feb. 25, 1815, aged eighty years, and his widow, Mrs. Judith Parr Crooks, died April 30, 1823, at the age of eighty- three years. The homestead upon which they lived and died is now owned by Jacob Swagler. At the death of Col. Crooks the Reporter, of Washington, published the following: "Richard's Valley, Feb. 25, 1815. "Died. -- This morning, at his place, in his old mansion, at half-past five o'clock, that worthy old patriot, Thomas Crooks, of West Bethlehem township, where he was among the first emigrants in the western country, and was early on the stages of public business. In the militia he was an officer of high rank at the beginning of the Revolution, was alert in routing the savages to the westward, was a zealous patriot throughout the Revolutionary war, and presided many years as a justice of the peace. He was a very warm friend and an implacable enemy. He bore a severe and lingering illness with resigned patience." > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.69/2508 - Release Date: 11/17/09 07:40:00 Don Harper -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. 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