CHAPTER SIX

Unfortunately, only one biographical study of any Fair Play leader has ever been attempted, that of Henry Antes.[1] As a result, the patterns of leadership must be gleaned from court records, tax lists, lists of public officials, and petitions from the settlers of this frontier. Consequently, what follows gives us some general understanding of the nature of leadership but offers little in the way of insight into the personalities of the leaders.

Using the Curti study as an example, certain objective criteria have been set up in analyzing leadership in the West Branch Valley.[2] Obviously, some leaders were more important than others. Their influence extended beyond the limits of the Fair Play territory. These leaders, provided that they stood out in respect to at least three of the four criteria established, have been categorized as regional leaders. These four criteria have been used in this study to determine regional leadership: (1) the holding of political office, (2) the ownership of better-than-average property holdings, (3) the operation of frontier forts, and (4) the holding of military rank of some significance.[3]

Of these criteria, office holding appears to be the most important. Thus, regional leaders were generally re-elected to public office, or held more than one such office. Furthermore, it will be noted that these offices tended to be with the established governments of the State and county. Since some leaders never held any political office, another classification seemed necessary. Consequently, the role of local leadership was also classified.

The influence of some men seems to have been strictly confined to the Fair Play territory, either by virtue of their election to some local office or by their prominence in some other phase of community life. As a result, local leaders have been considered as (1) those who held at least two local offices, or (2) those who exercised identifiable community leadership in a non-political context.

After an extensive examination of the lists of public officials for Northumberland County, the tax lists for the same period, the records of the Fair Play men and the Committee of Safety, the accounts of the frontier forts in the region, and the military records of these settlers, it becomes evident that only three men can be considered as regional leaders and not more than seven or eight as local leaders.[4] Henry Antes, Robert Fleming, and Frederick Antes are the regional leaders; and Alexander Hamilton, John Fleming, James Crawford, John Walker, Thomas Hughes, Cookson Long, William Reed, and Samuel Horn are the local leaders. Obviously, the listings are too limited to offer any valid quantitative analysis.

Henry Antes is undoubtedly the single most outstanding leader in the entire Fair Play country. Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions, sheriff, justice of the peace, Fair Play spokesman, captain (later colonel) of Associators and commander of Fort Antes, miller and property owner, personal friend of John Dickinson and other Provincial leaders, Henry Antes was the top figure in civic, economic, military, and social affairs along the West Branch. Influential within and without the Fair Play territory, Henry Antes was truly the major leader in the valley.

The Antes family had long played a significant role in the history of the Province of Pennsylvania. As MacMinn relates, Henry's father, Henry, Sr., had been "associated with the most prominent men of his time in movements for the public good."[5] A Moravian, the elder Antes had assisted Count Zinzendorf in his missionary efforts, aided Whitefield in his philanthropic endeavors, worked with Henry Muhlenberg in educating the German town community, and served with a marked impartiality as a justice of the peace.[6] From such stock came the necessary leadership for the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch frontier.

Born near Pottstown in Montgomery County in 1736, young Henry may have learned of frontier opportunity from visitors to his father's inn, such as Zinzendorf and Spangenburg, who had traveled along the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Consequently, joined by his brother William, he signed an article of agreement on September 29, 1773, for the purchase of land in the West Branch Valley.[7] When another brother, Frederick, obtained property in the area later in that same decade, the Antes brothers, particularly Henry and Frederick, became the dominant political, economic, and social influence in the territory. Frederick, however, was more of an absentee leader since he never actually resided in the Fair Play territory.

Although the combined holdings of the Antes brothers constituted only a little less than 700 acres, their gristmill, the first in the region, became the meeting place for the area settlers, providing a forum for the usual discussions of politics and prices.[8] From Lycoming Creek on the east to Pine Creek and the Great Island on the west, the frontier farmers brought their grain to the Antes mill, on the south side of the Susquehanna River opposite present Jersey Shore. While the milling went on, the men analyzed their common problems and debated the future of this pioneer land. If there was a center for the dissemination of news in the West Branch Valley, it was the Antes mill and fort, which was soon constructed on the property. Located in almost the center of the Fair Play territory (although actually across the river from it), where men met of necessity, and having had a father who had exerted influence and exercised leadership in Philadelphia County, the Antes brothers were well prepared to lead the West Branch pioneers.

With their gristmill giving Henry and Frederick a decided economic edge, they soon became involved in the politics of the Fair Play territory, Northumberland County, and the Province of Pennsylvania. Henry became primarily a local and county leader, while his brother concentrated on county and Provincial and, later, State affairs. Both served as county judges—Henry, appointed in 1775, and Frederick, elected in 1784—which suggests judicial responsibility as the key to assuming major leadership, since Robert Fleming took Frederick's judicial post when he resigned to take a seat in the General Assembly.[9]

By the summer of 1775, when Philip Vickers Fithian first included the West Branch in his itinerary—the valley by then supported some 100 families—Henry Antes had already distinguished himself as a public servant. He, along with five others, had been commissioned by the county court to lay out a road from Fort Augusta to the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek;[10] he had served as a spokesman for the Fair Play men in a land title dispute;[11] he had been made a justice of the peace;[12] and he had been appointed as a judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions.[13] This was to be only the beginning, for in 1775, when the Associators were organized, Henry Antes was made captain of company eight, embodying the Nippenose and Pine Creek settlers.[14] But even this is not the complete picture, for when the settlers returned to the region in the eighties, following the Great Runaway of 1778, Antes became sheriff, the chief law enforcement officer of Northumberland County.[15] The popular miller had become the popular leader, a popularity enhanced by his interpretation of the sheriff's role, an interpretation which occasionally brought him into conflict with the State's leaders.[16]

The leadership of the Antes brothers is further accentuated by the activities of Frederick Antes. Between 1776 and 1784 he was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, justice of the peace, president judge of the county courts, county treasurer, commissioner of purchase for Northumberland County, a representative in the General Assembly, and a colonel of militia.[17] With Henry on the West Branch and Frederick frequently in Philadelphia, the Antes family had a constant finger on the pulse of Pennsylvania politics. Official duties, plus the strategic location of the Antes fort and mill, made Frederick and Henry Antes the most influential persons in the West Branch Valley during the operation of the Fair Play system. Eminently qualified by numerous public responsibilities, the Antes brothers were major leaders of the Fair Play settlers.

Robert Fleming, the third regional leader in the territory, also served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county, although that service began in March, 1785, after the Fair Play territory was acquired by the State of Pennsylvania in the second Stanwix Treaty of 1784.[18] He became a justice of the peace at the same time.[19] Prior to his judicial obligations, Fleming had been a member of the county Committee of Safety, a township overseer, a representative in the General Assembly, a second lieutenant of Associators, and possibly a Fair Play man.[20] During the Revolution, he was primarily concerned with the area around the Great Island, serving at Reed's Fort (present Lock Haven) and on the Fleming estate, which some referred to as Fort Fleming. Robert had a brother, John, with whom Fithian stayed during his brief sojourn in the territory. Their combined holdings, the largest in the vicinity, ran to almost 3,000 acres, of which 1,250 acres were Robert's.[21]

Certain conclusions can be drawn from these data regarding the regional leaders of the Fair Play territory. Better than average property holdings, extensive in the case of Robert Fleming; judicial responsibility, which was true of all three men; primary authority in frontier forts (the Antes brothers owned and commanded Antes Fort, and the Flemings operated their own stockade and commanded Fort Reed); and military rank ranging from lieutenant of Associators to colonel of militia: these characteristics signified major leadership in the West Branch Valley among the Fair Play settlers. Coincidentally, it can be noted that two of the three regional leaders, having served in the State legislature, had influence which reached to the State House in Philadelphia. Obviously, these men were known outside of the limited environs of the Fair Play territory. In fact, both Henry and Frederick Antes enjoyed a more than passing acquaintance with Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson, two of the giants of this period of Pennsylvania's history.[22]

A further observation which can be made concerning leadership relates to the question of national origin. Although the Fair Play territory has often been referred to as "Scotch-Irish country," the German Antes brothers performed the outstanding leadership roles on this frontier. Also, the specific geographic location of our regional leaders provides a final note of interest. All three of them, Henry and Frederick Antes, and Robert Fleming, actually resided outside the limits of the Fair Play territory. They were on the geographic fringe but at the leadership core. Their close proximity to the Fair Play territory, separated from it only by the Susquehanna River, in addition to their contacts with and positions in established government, gave these men an obvious political eminence. The forts located in both places and the Anteses' gristmill gave both the Flemings and the Anteses opportunity for leadership.

Local leaders generally lived within the Fair Play territory, had average property holdings, and served on either the Fair Play tribunal or the township Committee of Safety. There are, of course, exceptions to each of these generalizations. The fort operators, Samuel Horn, William Reed, and John Fleming, resided on the Provincial or State side of the Susquehanna River. Furthermore, John Fleming was the largest property owner in the area with some 1,640 acres.[23] And one man, James Crawford, held the highly respected county office of sheriff.[24]

Three of the local leaders, John Fleming, Alexander Hamilton, and James Crawford, stand out from the rest, although for different reasons. John Fleming undoubtedly would have become a major leader had he lived longer—he died in 1777. His extensive property made his home the usual stop for itinerant pastors and other travelers in the valley, as Fithian's Journal attests.[25] It also made him a figure of central significance in economic affairs. Alexander Hamilton was probably "the" local leader. A member of the Committee of Safety and presumably a Fair Play man, he was also the captain of Horn's Fort.[26] He is also the reputed author of the Pine Creek declaration. James Crawford was more noted for military exploits than for civic duties. Prior to his military service, Crawford had represented Northumberland County in the Constitutional Convention of 1776, which framed the State constitution and, later, commissioned him as a major in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Regiment.[27] Deprived of his commission after the Germantown campaign, Major Crawford returned home and was elected county sheriff, an office which he held until succeeded by Henry Antes.[28]

Of the other local leaders, Horn and Reed held only lesser township offices, overseer and supervisor, respectively, in addition to operating frontier forts.[29] Cookson Long, mentioned as a Fair Play man in 1775 in Eleanor Coldren's deposition, later commanded Fort Reed, for a time, as a captain of Associators.[30] The final two local leaders, John Walker and Thomas Hughes, both took turns as Fair Play men and as members of the local Committee of Safety.[31]

In analyzing the local leadership roles which these various settlers filled, additional and pertinent conclusions become apparent. In the first place, the Fair Play men were obviously not the top leaders of the community. Henry Antes may have served as their spokesman in 1775, and it is quite possible that Robert Fleming was a member of the tribunal, but both were more important as county leaders. Secondly, Fair Play men were members of the Committee of Safety, a fact which suggests that their efforts may have been coordinated. Finally, returning to the question of national origin, six of these eight local leaders were either Scots, Scotch-Irish, or Irish. The other two were Germans. No Englishman was a leader, either regional or local, in the Fair Play territory between 1769 and 1784. Perhaps, as Carl Becker suggests, this was due to the fact that neither the German nor the Scotch-Irish immigrant held in his breast any sentiment of loyalty to King George, or much sympathy with the traditions or the leaders of English society.[32]

What were the particular problems of this frontier and how effective were these leaders in meeting them? The question of defense, including the daily task of survival in the wilderness, the right of pre-emption, and the efforts to obtain frontier representation in the assembly: these were the main problems in this pioneer land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna. All were not solved during the period under analysis, but the attempts to solve these and other problems afford us the opportunity to evaluate the leadership in the Fair Play territory.

Doubtless, the most pressing public need on this frontier was protection from the marauding Indians who plagued these pioneers throughout the fifteen years encompassed by this study. Aroused by the British during the Revolution, the Indians of the Six Nations descended from New York into the West Branch Valley to harass and, finally, to drive the Fair Play settlers from their homes. Driven from their homes, the frontiersmen of the West Branch first gathered in the hastily-constructed and poorly-manned forts conveniently scattered along the Susquehanna from Jersey Shore to Lock Haven, but, ultimately, these too had to be evacuated in the Great Runaway in 1778.

The severity of these attacks is evident from this petition from the settlers gathered at Fort Horn, above present McElhattan, pleading for military support in their perilous position: