Many of the earliest settlers of Georgetown came from Maryland via Washington, PA, formerly called Catfishtown, an early Indian encampment of the Delaware chief named Catfish. The principal route taken by those migrating from Washington County PA to the western frontier was the Indian trail known as the Catfish Camp Trail which passed through Georgetown. [1] At that time the trail was only wide enough to accommodate single file passage. Georgetown would become the northern terminus of the Washington Post Road leading to Washington, PA.[2]
Although the area was well known as early as June 1739[3], the first people settled on the land reached the village which would become Georgetown in about 1772. From Georgetown, river crossings into the Northwest Territory were made by Dawson’s Ferry.
Consider this date with the founding of Marietta, OH on 7 Apr 1788 at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers. Marietta was the first sanctioned settlement in the state of Ohio which was the first state derived from the Northwest Territory. By year’s end 1788, Marietta had a population of 137. [4] From Georgetown years earlier, Ohio homesteaders had crossed the Ohio River and followed trails up the Little Beaver Creek into the Northwest Territory.
References.
[1] Denver and Eugenia Walton and Bob Bauder, Rivers of Destiny, Beaver county Historical and Landmarks Foundation, 1999, pg 99.
[2] Thomas J Malone, John Bever, Pioneer Surveyor, East Liverpool Historical Society, 1975, p 13.
[3] Thomas J Malone, John Bever, Pioneer Surveyor, East Liverpool Historical Society, 1975, p 4.
[4] Wikipedia Article, Marietta, Ohio, 13 Oct 2010.Many of the earliest settlers of.
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