The Surveyor and the Silversmith: Land Speculation on the Frontier of Western Pennsylvania - 9798986099507

Neither the Leni Lenape nor the Iroquois called the

land their own; for thousands of years, it had been

inhabited by a mysterious people for whom they

had no name. And, yet, white men like Daniel Leet,

William Crawford and George Washington surveyed

dense forests with measuring chains, tomahawks

at the ready, to claim hundreds of thousands of acres

simply because they could, because it was all God's

bounty, because, like silver or gold, it would provide

wealth far greater than any civilization had known

before. It was an ideal few would realize. But then,

one day, two families laid roots in the wilds of

western Pennsylvania...