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From: <>
Subject: [RHEA-L] Petition to Continental Congress for a new state- Westsylvania
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 23:26:38 EDT

I have received permission to submit this info to our list. It is very
interesting, and although I have not seen the name Rhea listed, you will
recognize many other names, that were related to the Rhea families This will
be sent in several messages, as it is lengthy. Pat H.
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From: Tenmile Country and its Pioneer Families by Howard Leckey p 141

Waychoff speaks of a petition to the Continental Congress for a new State
to be known as "Westsylvania." He says that "between the years 1770 and
1780 great feeling existed between Virginia and Pennsylvania as to whom
was rightful owner of land between the Laurel Hills and to the west as
far as the Ohio. Open hostilities and bloodshed were narrowly
averted....."
In the fall of 1945 we learned of an original petition in existence
in the Library of Congress and through the help of friends in Washington
DC discovered that the list of names was those of pioneer settlers of
what is now Fayette, Washington and Greene Counties and perhaps Ohio and
Monongalia Counties of West Virginia....... The names in this petition,
which is not dated, seem at times to be taken from the militia roles, and
if circulated after 1780 contains names of persons deceased or moved from
the district, as witness the names of Simon Rinehart, killed by the
Indians in 1780-81, and Jacob Vanmeter who left for Kentucky in 1780. It
is also apparent that some of the names are of boys, as in the case of
Henry Swan, born in 1774.....The grouping of the names suggests that
those in charge of getting signers, went from one neighborhood to
another, getting permission to enter the names of those living in the
vicinity..

This Petition is take from the Papers of the Continental Congress No 48
and is Folios 251-6, pages 89-96.

Next message will contain the names.

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