Coraopolis is known for its riverfront location, quaint business district and affordable housing. What isn’t widely known about the borough is its early history when it played a role in United States westward expansion.
During the mid-1700s, a large portion of the land that is currently Coraopolis was known as Oughsargoh. This land was claimed by the Virginia colony, as was a majority of western Pennsylvania, and was in the Township of Moon and the County of Westmoreland.
Members of the Delaware or Lenape Native American tribe primarily used the land for hunting and as a means of traversing to and from their encampments in Sweet Water, which they called “Sewickley.” Current day western Pennsylvania was the frontier; the furthest reaches of the American colonies had not yet reached the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
During the late 1750s, times were changing quickly as 10 miles east up the mighty Ohio River, the British and the French — two of the world’s greatest powers — were battling for control over what is today the City of Pittsburgh. Their interest was primarily in the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, which today is Point State Park. This was the French and Indian War era, when the French and Indians squared off against the British and American colonists over a very strategic piece of land.
Whoever controlled the confluence would control the ability to move westward across what is today the United States and the perceived riches that would be garnered. The French made the first incursion into western Pennsylvania, which did not sit well with the Virginia colony, which sent a group of men — led by a young George Washington — to request that they leave the vicinity in 1753.
During this excursion, Washington made note of the confluence as an excellent location for a fort. In 1754, the British agreed with Washington and sent a contingent of soldiers, mostly Virginians, to construct a temporary fort until a permanent fort could be built.
The French, who had not left the area, sent 500 troops to the confluence after hearing of the construction of the temporary Fort Prince George. Undermanned, the colonists surrendered the fort and returned home, while the French continued construction and renamed it Fort Duquesne.
The British, having lost their “Gateway to the West,” were determined to regain the site and made two attempts to accomplish the task. The first attempt in 1755 was unsuccessful, highlighted by the famous Battle of Braddock. In 1758, Washington, then a colonel, and British Gen. John Forbes of the Virginia colony, led a contingent of 5,000 men toward the confluence. The French, low on supplies and unable to request reinforcements, abandoned Fort Duquesne and burned it to the ground.
The British immediately began construction of another temporary fort at the confluence, which would be called Fort Mercer, and left 200 hundred men, mostly Virginians, to perform the work. In 1759, construction of Fort Pitt began, one of the largest and most fortified forts in North America. The British and the colonies were determined to hold their “Gateway to the West.”
With Fort Pitt in place for westward expansion, it was the Virginia colonists and soldiers who were the first to venture into the frontier. After all, the immediate portion of the frontier beyond Fort Pitt belonged to the colony of Virginia. Though histories of this period are vague and sometimes incomplete, it is said that one of the first Virginians to move westward was Robert Vance. Vance is said to have been born in Virginia in 1736 and would have been in his early twenties during the period.
It is not documented whether Vance officially participated in the French and Indian War, but lore from many years past did imply that he was a participant in some manner. Per the Library of Virginia, only a few scattered and incomplete records exist of French and Indian War service of soldiers who participated.
Louise Woodbridge Dippold, of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, states in a 1911 article that Vance was a member of the Virginia Regiment under Washington’s command in 1755, during the first attempts to reclaim the confluence in Pittsburgh. Dippold also states that Vance returned in 1758 as part of the Virginia Regiment when Forbes and Washington were able to gain control of the vital location. Information from the Library of Virginia also shows that Vance was awarded a bounty of Virginia land for his service during the colonial wars, which could also have been for the brief conflict during the period known as Lord Dunmore’s War, which took place along the Ohio River and Vance is said to have participated in.
The bounty lands were also awarded to individuals who took part in the militia in defense of the frontier, which was primarily what Vance was accomplishing. These events would certainly meet the timeline of having brought Vance to the area, but there is little documentation of Vance’s participation in the French and Indian War, other than the article from the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.
In the book “Old and New Westmoreland,” Vance is said to have been in what is now western Pennsylvania prior to 1759, which correlates to the French and Indian War timeline. The earliest mention of Vance on the land called Oughsargoh was the year 1759, per Dippold in her 1911 article – “Old Fort Vance.”
Considering that the French and Indian War was ongoing at the time and that it did not officially end until 1763, it was certainly bold of Vance to move westward at the time, but his fears may have been quelled by being in the vicinity of the nearby juggernaut of Fort Pitt, whose blockhouse still stands in Point State Park today.
Additional sources state that Vance was on the land in the late 1750s. In a deposition made to Judge May, a justice of the peace for Allegheny County, Vance stated on Dec. 6, 1807, that he “hath for the past fifty years been well acquainted with the tract of land” and that he had officially lived upon it for 32 years. Thus, Vance clearly states that he was on the land as early as 1757 and built a homestead on the property around 1775. This deposition also brings into question claims that Vance’s birthdate was 1746 and not 1736. If he had been born in 1746 and the deposition places him in the Coraopolis area in 1757, he would have been a child of around eleven years old on the frontier, which is not likely.
It was not unusual for the Virginians to move westward, as stated in the book, “The Life and Time of the Reverend Joseph Smith,” many Virginians squatted (occupying land they did not own) along the Ohio River from as early as 1760 through the year 1780. In addition, in 1756, and again in 1758, the governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania had called for the construction of a chain of small forts in the western frontier.
Vance may have been aware of these proclamations and ventured westward to find a location to construct such a structure when he came upon the 335-acre Oughsargoh location. Here it is believed that he ringed trees in the vicinity in what is known as a Tomahawk Claim. Vance later is said to have obtained the land in 1769 from the owner, Henry Montour.
Near the river In what is today the borough of Coraopolis, Vance is said to have constructed a block house, which was a fortified structure made of logs and stones with openings for gunfire for the protection of settlers willing to venture west. He may have received assistance from other settlers or even Virginia soldiers in the construction, but there is no recordation of that occurring.
The blockhouse was later surrounded by a stockade in the mid-1770s and was known as Fort Vance or Vance’s Fort. It must be noted that this was a “settlers fort” and not one manned by official military personnel. The fort was more than likely manned by Robert Vance and other local settlers.
There is no specific date as to when the blockhouse was constructed, but an incident regarding one of the families attempting a westward settlement during the period does provide an approximate date. Per the book, “History of Allegheny County,” members of the Meek family were obliged to leave Moon Township due to Native American incursions in their vicinity and were forced to flee further south to Fort Redstone.
The book states that there was proof that “Vance was then in the township. His blockhouse may have been standing at the time, and (Fort) Redstone offered greater security.”
Fort Redstone was built in 1754, destroyed by the French in 1759 and rebuilt as Fort Burd in the same year. By the year 1763, Fort Burd had been abandoned. Per this occurrence, the blockhouse of Fort Vance could possibly have been built between 1759 and 1763. In addition, a piece from the Bristol Public Library’s “Ancestor’s Section, states that “Vance built a fort on the site of Coraopolis shortly after the fall of Fort Duquesne,” which would also meet the same timeline.
The existence of Fort Vance was a beacon to those wishing to explore the vast wilderness that existed beyond the confluence, and Vance performed his duty of ensuring that they had refuge on their trek. Though skirmishes with Native Americans were known to have occurred, no known military encounters were ever recorded at the fort. A book titled “The French and Indian War in Pennsylvania” states that “In conclusion on the subject of traditional private forts, they are the least well documented and understood of French and Indian War-associated sites.”
In 1777, Fort Vance was mentioned during the American Revolution by Gen. Hand, commander of Fort Pitt, who stated a small guard of nine men (Pennsylvania militia) were manning the stockade at Montour Bottoms. Other information states there were as many as 16 on guard during the same era. Montour Bottoms was a name often used in the Fort Vance area in reference to the previous owner of the land, Henry Montour. The fort was also known to have been used as a base for the Washington County militia during the Native American uprising of 1782.
With the presence of Fort Pitt and the settlers fort, known as Fort Vance, settlers slowly moved west and built homes in the vicinity of the latter. As stated by Edward B. Maurey in the book “Where the West Began,” a small village or hamlet was established, thus creating the first settlement west of Pittsburgh. During the 1760s to mid-1770s, the frontier village of Corsica, as it was known, became the first community in the westward movement of what is today the United States.
As time progressed, the name changed to Middletown in the early 1800s, and the post office address was listed as Vance Fort in 1861. In 1886, the name was officially changed to Coraopolis. Both previous names, Middletown and Coraopolis, have significance in proclaiming the community as the first official westward settlement post the French and Indian War. The name Middletown signifies that the community was situated between the only two known settlements during and post the French and Indian War, which were Pittsburgh to the east and Logstown, an Indian village down the Ohio River in what is today Beaver County.
The name Coraopolis is Greek (Koreopolis) in origin and translates to “Maiden City.” The definition of the word maiden is first or earliest and ‘Opolis’ translates to city, thuscreating the name as first or earliest city.Thus, it can be said that Coraopolis’ place in history is that it is the location of where the west began.
In 1776, per the University of Pittsburgh Digital Library’s section “The Continental Army about Fort Pitt,” Vance’s military career was fortified by his participation in the Revolutionary War, where he was commissioned as a lieutenant, and then captain, in the Virginia Regiment. Some sources placed him in Valley Forge and Yorktown during the war.
Upon his return to the Fort Vance area, he rejoined his wife Jean, whom he had married in 1775. Robert and Jean Vance were said to have had nine children. Vance helped construct one of the first churches on the frontier, now known as the Montours Presbyterian Church in Oakdale.
Captain Robert Vance passed away in 1818 at the age of 82 and was, and is still, buried in the churchyard. The fort itself became part of a farm, operated by Vance’s daughter, Jane, and her husband, James McCabe. The McCabe family held the property until the farm was sold for residential building lots in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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