[Cox, Isaac]:

[VIRGINIAN LAND DEED]

      Virginia. 1778.. One folded sheet. Approximately 550 words. Tanned at folds. Some ink burn through page. An embossment on one side reads, "Washington County." A small closed tear affects approximately six characters. A manuscript land deed written by Isaac Cox for the sale of land to John Decker. In the deed, Cox refers to "Yohogania County", a Virginia county created in 1776. The county included much of south-western Pennsylvania and overlapped with Pennsylvania's own western claims. The land in question is "on the river Ohio and bounded on the East by lands of Thomas Pollack and on the North by lands of William McMahan, said land goes by the name of the Mingo Bottom containing four hundred acres...." Mingo was a term for the Native Americans, mostly Iroquois, who had been displaced and settled in the northern Ohio river basin. Modern-day Mingo Junction lies in the far rnorthern pan-handle of West Virginia, north of Steubenville, Ohio, and would have had close associations with Washington County, Pennsylvania than Virginia. This association would explain why in 1806 a Washington County clerk approved the deed.