Page:History of the newspapers of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.djvu/127

CHAPTER YI. BEAVER FALLS PAPERS. The lands on which this little city is located, were patented by General Daniel Broadhead in 1779. He succeeded General Lachlan Mcintosh in command of the western department, with headquarters at Fort Pitt. March 17, 1793, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed a law opening up the lands for settlement lying north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny rivers. General Broadhead had two tracts of 400 acres each, embracing the "black walnut bottoms," on which the first town was laid out. In August 1801, General Broadhead sold his laud to David Hoopes of Chester, Pa., for the use of Hoopes, Townsend & Co. In 1803 these gentlemen erected a building in Sharon, now the northern part of Bridge- water, the second house from Brady's run on the bank of the Beaver river, for the use of Isaac Wilson for merchandising. It was called the "Old Red Front" and is yet standing, remodeled and made more modem. Near this old building, on the flat between the Beaver river and Brady's rim, in 1806, Aaron Burr's managers and workmen built a flotilla of boats as a part of his expedition down the Ohio. All the material was furnished through the Old Eed Front, and the men were