On 29 March 1799, Joseph Meason was very sick aboard a Kentucky boat on the Monongahela River, about a mile above Pittsburgh. Mary Hartle later testified that he appeared to be in his right mind. About an hour before he died, Joseph asked for a deed drawn to convey land to Joseph Worthington. The document could not be reached among the packed belongings aboard the boat.
Asked whether he could state his wishes before witnesses, Joseph did. Hartle and two other witnesses later gave depositions, and a Kentucky court ordered their accounts recorded. The entry preserves his wishes for his estate and, specifically, a thousand acres on Highland Creek.
The record gives no cause of illness. It does not tell us where Joseph boarded, where the boat came from, where it was headed, or whether it was moving. “Kentucky boat” was a name for an inland flatboat; it does not establish Joseph’s itinerary.
Time checkpoints
Move through the documented moments. Each checkpoint separates what the record states from what the evidence can reasonably suggest.
29 March 1799
Monongahela River · near Pittsburgh
Route stage
1 of 3
The record states
Three later witness depositions describe Joseph Meason’s final declaration aboard a Kentucky boat. Mary Hartle said a deed drawn for Joseph Worthington could not be reached among the packed belongings. John Carnahan and Rachel Thompson also described Joseph’s stated wish for Worthington to have his 1,000-acre Highland Creek tract.[80][82]
The evidence suggests
The court entry is a clerk’s copy of depositions proving an oral will, not Joseph’s handwritten will. The deed’s signing, delivery, recovery, and legal effect remain unknown.
The scene on the boat feels like the moment a family history changed. The records support a narrower conclusion: Joseph asked for a document that was out of reach, witnesses preserved his spoken wishes, and later relatives conveyed claimed interests in the land. What became of the deed, and why the later title took the course it did, remain questions.
This is where my search meets the wider Meason family. Highland Creek binds Benjamin to Joseph’s inheritance story without giving me the parent-child link I am looking for. The deeds name branches worth following, while Benjamin’s parents remain unknown.
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What this record can tell us
A reviewed summary and interpretation, not a full transcription.
What the record says
Three witness depositions describe Joseph’s final declaration aboard a Kentucky boat near Pittsburgh. The court ordered the depositions recorded on 6 August 1799. Hartle said Joseph asked for a deed to Worthington that could not be reached.[80][81][82][67][68]
What I infer
The 1813 Highland Creek deeds place Benjamin within Joseph’s inheritance network. The requested deed could matter to the land’s legal history, but its status is unknown.
What remains unknown
Joseph’s illness, the boat’s origin and destination, the deed’s execution and fate, the full title history, and Benjamin’s exact branch.