“To extend Mason and Dixon’s line due west five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of said state, be the western boundary of said state forever.”
This agreement was ratified and confirmed by the legislature of Virginia, June 23, 1780, and by that of Pennsylvania, September 23, 1780.
In 1782 commissioners appointed by the two states ran the lines, but these were only temporary. In 1783, David Rittenhouse, John Lukens, John Ewing, and Captain Hutchins, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison, Andrew Ellicott, Robert Andrews, and T. Page, on the part of Virginia, again ran the lines, and set up stone pillars at regular intervals.
This work was accomplished in 1784, and ended further dispute in the matter.
Two Brothers of Doan Family of Outlaw
Sons Hanged September 24, 1788
During the Revolutionary War a number of young men either to escape from serving in army or paying fines, or for the reason that they may have sympathized with the element which opposed the independence of the young colonies, and did not choose to enlist openly with the enemy, found a more profitable employment in secret acts of treachery and piracy among their neighbors.
For that service they were amply compensated by the British, especially during their occupancy of Philadelphia and New York City.
There were not a few such outlaws, and they did not reside in any one quarter of the State, but the most notorious of them all were several brothers by the name of Doan.