Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

From this point they extended the line 230 miles, eighteen chains, and twenty-one links, or 244 miles, thirty-eight chains, and thirty-six links, from the Delaware River. This was done during 1766 and 1767.

The Indians could not understand the object of an exploring expedition that spent every clear night gazing at the stars through big guns, and they soon stopped their progress. The Penns used their influence with the Indians and the work proceeded.

The western extremity of Maryland was reached and passed, and the astronomers were encamped on the banks of the Monongahela, when the Indians again interposed. Their attitude was so threatening that many of the servants and workmen of the expedition deserted. But the great delight and satisfaction of running an astronomical line through primeval forests raised Mason and Dixon above all fears, and they pressed on to the Warrior Branch of the great Catawba Indian trail.

This was on the borders of a stream called Dunkard Creek, about the middle point on the southern boundary line of the present Green County. Here the Indians took such a menacing stand that Mason and Dixon were obliged to return, and their Dunkard Creek trail, or Warrior trail, remained the terminus of their line for many years.

This Mason and Dixon’s line was a great achievement in that day, and a new thing in science. These two modest but skillful men had made themselves immortal. Their line was not marked by river, creek or even mountain range, it was an imaginary one. At every fifth mile a stone was set up marked on the northern side with the arms of the Penns and on the southern side with the arms of Baltimore, each intermediate mile was marked with stones having P. on the one side and M. on the opposite side.

This line, fixed after nearly a hundred years of conflict, is more unalterable than if nature had originally made it. It became the boundary line between the great sides of the slavery question, and divided the armies of the North and South in the great Civil War.

The interference of the Indians having arrested further work, Messrs. Mason and Dixon returned to Philadelphia, where they reported to the commissioner, and on December 26, 1767, received an honorable discharge.

There were many minor disturbances occasioned by this line, and the actions of the rough border population were slow to become satisfied. A surveyor’s transit or astronomy was not enough to determine the limits of their civil pride. These people had grown accustomed to the temporary lines which had been run about 1740, which was about one-quarter of a mile above the true one, and they became as much excited over that narrow strip as they had been when they hoped to penetrate miles into Pennsylvania.

The government of Pennsylvania determined to acquire its rightful jurisdiction and in 1774, a proclamation was issued, which has generally been considered the final act in the boundary controversy.

The residue of the southern boundary, a little less than twenty-two miles, was run in 1782 by Robert Andrews, Andrew Ellicott, John Ewing, David Rittenhouse, and John Hutchins, and completed and permanently marked in 1784.