Analysis:William and James Huston of Catfish Camp

A James and William Huston settled on the upper reaches of Catfish Creek in Washington County, PA, securing land patents about 1786. Their property originally bordered on each other's as shown by the survy record for William's "Huston's Pleasure".

William is known to have been in the area as early as 1774. According to Source:Crumrine, et al, 1882, William gave an affadavit in 1798 releated to the Masscre of Chief Logan's family on Yellow Creek in April of 1774.

I, William Huston, of Washington County, in the State of Pennsylvania, do hereby certify to whom it may concern: That in the year 1774 I resided at Catfish's Camp, on the main path from Wheeling to Redstone; that Michael Cresap, who resided on or near the Potomac River, on his way up from the river Ohio, at the head of a party of armed men, lay some time at my cabin...

The full text of the affadavit is given at Document:Statement by William Huston concerning Yellow Creek Massacre. This clearly places William on Catfish Creek by 1774. How much earlier he had been there is not certain, but a number of surveys were carried out nearby as early as 1769.

When James arrived in the area is not known. His Revolutionary pension application gives his DOB as 1760 in Cumberland County, based on what he remembered seeing in his fathers bible.

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