One important feature of the last treaty made with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, October, 1784, was the settlement of the difficulties which had existed for sixteen years among the white settlers over the disputed boundary line embraced by Tiadaghton.

It was contended by some that Lycoming Creek was this line, and by others that it was Pine Creek. The territory between these streams is that which lies between the present City of Williamsport and Jersey Shore, and includes nearly half of the present Lycoming County and all of Tioga.

Previous to the purchase of November 5, 1768, this part of the West Branch Valley was occupied by tribes of Shawnee and Munsee, and the way for its settlement by whites was not opened until the “New Purchase” was made at Fort Stanwix.

On June 9, 1769, a serious difference arose between the Provincial Government and the settlers whether the stream called Tiadaghton, mentioned in the treaty was Lycoming or Pine Creek when translated into English. This question remained in dispute until the last treaty, October, 1784.

This early settlement is made clear by the reference to Smith’s Laws, where is the following:

“There existed a great number of locations on the 3d of April, 1769, for the choicest lands on the West Branch of Susquehanna, between the mouths of Lycoming and Pine Creeks; but the Proprietaries from extreme caution, the result of that experience which had also produced the very penal laws of 1768 and 1769, and the proclamation already stated, had prohibited any surveys being made beyond the Lycoming. In the meantime, in violation of all laws, a set of hardy adventurers had from time to time seated themselves on this doubtful territory. They made improvements, and formed a very considerable population.

“It is true, so far as regarded the rights to real property, they were not under the protection of the laws of the country, and were we to adopt the visionary theories of some philosophers, who have drawn their arguments from a supposed state of nature, we might be led to believe that the state of these people would have been a state of continual warfare; and that in contests for property the weakest must give way to the strongest.

“To prevent the consequences, real or supposed, of this state of things, they formed a mutual compact among themselves. They annually elected a tribunal, in rotation, of three of their settlers, whom they called fair-play men, who were to decide all controversies, and settle disputed boundaries. From their decision there was no appeal. There could be no resistance. The decree was enforced by the whole body, who started up in mass, at the mandate of the court, and execution and eviction were as sudden and irresistible as the judgment. Every new comer was obliged to apply to this powerful tribunal, and upon his solemn engagement to submit in all respects to the law of the land he was permitted to take possession of some vacant spot. Their decrees were, however, just; and when their settlements were recognized by law, and fair play had ceased, their decisions were received in evidence, and confirmed by judgment of courts.”

In those early days, as later, the white man was pushing the Indian back, in spite of the proclamation of Governor Penn, which warned all persons not to settle on lands not purchased of the Indians and unsurveyed, and advised those that had settled to make haste and leave. But they did not vacate, and in the enforcement of their “fair-play” code, it became necessary to adopt rigid measures. Any person resisting the decrees was placed in a canoe, rowed to the mouth of Lycoming Creek, and there sent adrift. Subsequently a law was passed, allowing the settlers from Lycoming and Pine Creeks a preemption right to not over three hundred acres of land each, upon satisfactory proof being presented that they were actual settlers previous to 1780.

For seven years after the purchase of 1768, the pioneers swung the axe, felled the giant trees, builded their cabins, and tilled their fields unmolested; but just when they began to enjoy the comforts of their cabin homes, and reap the rewards of their industry, the cry of the Revolution was heard, and the hardy backwoodsmen trained to the vicissitudes of war during the frontier campaigns of 1755 to 1763, with true patriotism, seized their rifles and went forth to battle for liberty, leaving their families scantily provided for and exposed to the raids of the Indians.

All along the West Branch, wherever there was a white settlement, stockade forts were built, garrisoned by settlers or Provincial troops.

At the treaty of October 23, 1784, the Pennsylvania Commissioners were specially instructed to inquire of the Indians which stream was really Tiadaghton, and, also the Indian name of Burnetts’ Hills, left blank in deed of 1768. The Indians informed them Tiadaghton was what the whites call Pine Creek, being the largest stream flowing into the Otzinachson, or West Branch. They did not know the name of the hills. The authorities apprehended difficulty in settling disputes among the actual settlers.

The Commissioners at this treaty secured title from the Indians for the residue of the lands within the limits of Pennsylvania. This purchase was confirmed by the Wyandotte and Delaware nations at Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785.

Thus in a period of 102 years was the whole right of the Indians to the soil of Pennsylvania extinguished.

The land office was opened for the new purchase in 1785 and settlers rapidly flocked to the West Branch Valley.

As early as 1773 settlers had made improvements at the mouth of Lycoming Creek, where the city of Williamsport now stands. For the next three or four years there was no protection for settlers between there and Antes Fort, about thirteen miles west.

Some brave spirits, among whom were William King, Robert Covenhoven, and James Armstrong, built a stockade inclosure at the mouth of the Lycoming. This was located near what is now Fourth and Cemetery Streets, Williamsport.

The rumors of a descent by the Tories and Indians on the North Branch had reached the settlement at Northumberland, where William King, wife and two daughters lived. They thought the new stockade on the Lycoming would be safe and a hurried trip was made up the West Branch.

The driver of the team remarked, as they approached Loyalsock Creek: “Here is the last stream we will cross before reaching the fort, and we will stop for water.” The horses had no sooner halted than rifles cracked and the utmost confusion at once ensued.

A description of the terrible massacre that followed is given in a long letter by Colonel Hosterman to Colonel Winter from Fort Muncy, under date June 10, 1778.

Colonel Hosterman began his letter with the statement that nothing material had happened since he was stationed at Fort Muncy until that day. He was in command of a party, consisting of Captain Reynolds and thirteen men which set out for Antes Fort, carrying a supply of ammunition for the garrisons stationed there and at the Big Island.

The same day, remarks the Colonel, Peter Smith and his wife and six children; William King’s wife and two daughters, Ruth and Sarah; Michael Smith, Michael Campbell and David Chambers, the latter a member of Captain Reynolds’ company, and two men named Snodgrass and Hammond, a total of six men, two women and eight children, were going in wagons to Lycoming. When they arrived at Loyalsock Creek, John Harris (son of Samuel Harris) met them and told them that he had heard firing up the creek and advised that they return to Fort Muncy, that to advance farther was dangerous.

Peter Smith said that firing would not stop him. Harris proceeded to Fort Muncy, and the other party continued up the river. Soon as Harris reached the fort and told his story, a detail of fifteen soldiers started from the fort in the direction of where the firing had been heard.

When Smith and his party arrived within a half mile of Lycoming Creek, the Indians, lying in ambush, fired upon them, and at the first fire Snodgrass fell dead with a bullet through his forehead. The Indians gave a halloo and rushed toward the wagon. The men hurried toward trees and with these as a shelter returned the fire. A small lad and a girl escaped into the woods.

The Indians closed in on the party in an endeavor to surround them. This movement was discovered by the men, who fled as rapidly as possible, leaving only Campbell, who was fighting at too close quarters to join his companions in their flight. He was killed and scalped on the spot.

Before the men were out of sight of the wagon they saw the Indians attacking the women and children with their tomahawks. Chambers stated that he believed there were about twenty Indians in the party.

This bloody affair occurred just before sundown. The lad who escaped pushed on to the stockade on Lycoming Creek and informed the men there what had happened. They started immediately, but mistaking the intelligence the boy gave, hastened to the river to the place where they lived, thinking it was the canoe that was attacked instead of a wagon.

In the meantime Captain William Hepburn, with the detail which started from Fort Muncy, arrived at the scene of the massacre, and found the bodies of Snodgrass and Campbell. It was too dark to pursue the savages, but they pressed on toward Lycoming and met the party going out from there. They waited until the next day.

On the morning of June 11 they returned to the scene and found the bodies of Peter Smith’s wife shot through, stabbed, scalped and a knife by her side.

A little girl and a boy were killed and scalped. Snodgrass was found shot through the head and scalped, and a knife left sticking in his body. The rifles had been taken by the Indians, but nothing of value was removed from the wagon.

The lad who made his escape insisted that Mrs. King must be somewhere in the thicket, as he heard her scream and say she would not go along with the Indians when they were dragging her away. They made another search and found her near the stream where she had dragged herself and rested with her hand under her bleeding head. She had been tomahawked and scalped, but not dead. She was sitting up and greeted her husband when he approached her, but she expired almost instantly. She did not live long enough to speak of the affair.

William King was the picture of despair. He soon returned to Northumberland, and later moved up to Vincents Island. Many years later he learned that his daughter was still alive, and he started on foot with knapsack on his back, accompanied by an old Indian, for Niagara. He soon found Sarah, but had to travel far and suffered severe hardships before he succeeded in finding Ruth.

They reached their home on the island at Milton. They afterward lived at Jaysburg, the present Williamsport. Descendants of the sturdy people are now residents of that city.

Among those taken captive were Peter Wyckoff and son, Cornelius; Thomas Covenhoven and a Negro. The latter was burned in the presence of the other prisoners. Peter Wyckoff was fifty-four years old, and lived with the Indians two years before he and his son were given their freedom.

This affair occurred in the present city of Williamsport, where West Fourth Street crosses the stream which flows down Cemetery Street. There is a boulder erected near the spot which bears a bronze tablet telling of the event.

At the time this was a natural thicket of wild plum trees, which yielded fruit of remarkable size and flavor for nearly a century after the massacre. The road leading to this spot was the old Indian trail and formed a safe place for the concealment of lurking savages.

During the spring of 1782 the Indians, who had removed the seat of their depredations and war to the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, and Eastern Ohio, assembled in large numbers at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, which they used as place of general rendezvous and from which they went out to the places they decided in council should be attacked and destroyed.

The principal places to which they made incursions were along the Ohio River, especially in Western Pennsylvania. So serious was the situation along the frontier, and so bold had the savages become that Congress directed a regiment of volunteers to be raised to subdue them.

General Washington commissioned Colonel William Crawford, of Westmoreland County, Pa., to command the regiment and David Williamson, Lieutenant Colonel. These men were seasoned soldiers and unusually well qualified to lead troops against the Indians.

In May, 1782, the command marched from Fort Pitt, well armed and provided with sufficient quantity of provisions. The command consisted of 462 officers and men. Each volunteer furnished his own horse, gun and a month’s provision. They were to be exempt from two tours of military duty, and in the event they captured any Indian towns, such plunder as fell into their hands should be returned to its former owner, if he could identify and prove his property, and all horses lost during the expedition by unavoidable accident were to be replaced by horses taken from the Indians.

After a fatiguing march of eleven days through the wilderness the command reached the site of Sandusky, but the inhabitants had moved eighteen miles farther down the stream. The officers decided there were no Indian towns nearer than forty miles, and while refreshing their horses the scouts advanced to search for Indian settlements. They had not gone far when the savages were discovered in great numbers and advancing toward them.

Colonel Crawford and his brave band advanced to meet the attack June 11, 1782, and when they had reached a point only a short distance from the town they were met by a white man bearing a flag of truce from the Indians, who proposed to Colonel Crawford that if he would surrender himself and his men to the Indians, who were of overwhelming force, their lives would be spared, but if they persisted further in their expedition and attacked the town they should all be massacred to the last man.

Crawford, while listening to the proposition, thought he recognized the bearer of it as one whose features were those of a former schoolmate and companion, one he knew by the name of Simon Girty, and with whom he had only recently served in the same regiment in the Continental Army.

Crawford sternly inquired of the traitor if his name was not Simon Girty. Answered in the affirmative, the colonel informed him that he despised the offer he had made; that he would not surrender his army unless he was compelled to do so by a superior force.

Girty returned and Colonel Crawford immediately commenced an engagement which lasted till darkness, without advantage to either side, when firing ceased. The troops encamped in the woods a half mile from the town. After refreshments they slept on their arms, so that they should not be caught unprepared in a surprise attack.

The sentinels reported during the night that they were surrounded by Indians upon every side, except a narrow space between them and the town. The officers consulted upon the best way of escape, for they realized to fight was useless and to surrender meant death.

Colonel Crawford proposed to retreat through the ranks of the enemy in an opposite direction from the town. Lieutenant Colonel Williamson thought the better plan would be to march directly through the town, where there appeared to be no Indians. It was no time for debate.

Colonel Crawford with sixty followers retreated on the route he had proposed by attempting to rush the enemy, but every man was killed or captured, the colonel and his surgeon, Dr. Knight, being among the prisoners. Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, with the remainder of the command and the wounded of the day’s battle, set out the same moment Colonel Crawford did, went through the town without losing a man, and by the aid of experienced guides arrived at their homes in safety.

The next day the Indians paraded their prisoners and disposed of all of them among the different tribes except Colonel Crawford and Surgeon Knight, who were reserved for a more cruel fate.

At the Indian council they were brought forward and seated in the center of the circle. The chiefs questioned Crawford on subjects relative to war. They inquired who conducted the operations of the American Army on the Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers the previous year; also who had led that army against them with so much skill and such uniform success.

Crawford very honestly and without suspecting any harm from his reply promptly stated that he was the man. Upon learning this, Chief Pipe, who had lost a son in battle where Colonel Crawford commanded, left his station in the council ring, stepped up to Crawford, blackened his face and at the same time told him he should be burned the next day.

The terrible disaster which occurred to the Pennsylvania militiamen under command of Colonel William Crawford, June 10, 1782, was one of the most unfortunate which is recorded in annals of border warfare.

The Indians under Captain Pipe and Chief Wyngenim, Delaware chieftains, and that white savage Simon Girty, the renegade, had surrounded the militiamen and captured or killed the entire command, except a small detachment under Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson, which made a miraculous escape through the Indian town during the progress of the battle.

The following day Colonel Crawford, his son, Captain John Crawford; son-in-law, Major Harrison; nephews, Major Rose and William Crawford, Dr. Knight and many other militiamen, who had been recruited in Westmoreland County, were being marched to the Indian towns, where they were tortured according to Indian savagery.

Dr. Knight was informed he would be sent to the Shawnee town, but he and the Colonel were to march to the place where the former was to be executed. During the march they saw five of their comrades in custody of the Indians. They were all required to sit down, when a number of squaws and boys tomahawked the five prisoners. An elderly soldier among the five, named John McKinley, from the Thirteenth Virginia, was killed, his head cut off and kicked about upon the ground. The scalps of the other four were slapped into the faces of Colonel Crawford and Surgeon Knight.

At this point Simon Girty came upon the scene in company with several Indians on horseback. Colonel Crawford engaged him in conversation and made every possible offer for relief from his perilous situation, offering Girty any price to deliver him from the savages and their torments. Girty heard his prayers with indifference.

Colonel Crawford was led to a post to which he was fastened. A pile of wood lay a few feet distant. The colonel was stripped naked and ordered to sit down on the fire which had been kindled, when the Indians began to beat him with sticks and their fists. They then bound the Colonel’s hands behind his back and fastened the rope with which he was tied to this ligature.

Girty stood and composedly looked on the preparations that were to be the death of one of his former playmates; a hero by whose side he had fought. Crawford again pleaded with Girty to save him, but he refused to procure him a moment’s respite or afford him the most trifling assistance. Crawford retorted that he would take it all patiently.

The rope was now pulled over the cross arm on the post so that the Colonel’s arms were extended above his head, with his feet just standing upon the ground. The wood was placed in a circle around him at a distance of a few feet, in order that his misery might be protracted and the fire then applied to the wood at several places in the circle.

As the flames rose and the scorching heat became unbearable he again prayed to Girty in all the anguish of his torment to rescue him from the fire, or shoot him dead. Girty, with a demoniac smile, calmly replied that he had no pity for his sufferings. Squaws took broad boards, heaped with burning embers and threw them on him, so that he had nothing but coals of fire to walk upon.

Dr. Knight who witnessed all of this horrible execution, related that Colonel Crawford at this stage of his sufferings, prayed to the Almighty to have mercy on his soul. He bore his torments with the most manly fortitude. He suffered these extremities of pain nearly two hours, when, exhausted, he fell over. They then scalped him and repeatedly slapped the bleeding scalp in the doctor’s face, remarking, “That was your great captain.” An old squaw laid a pile of coals upon his back and head where his scalp had been removed, the Colonel raised himself upon his feet and began to walk around the post, but he soon expired. His body was entirely consumed.

Colonel Crawford was about fifty years old, was a patriot and hero. He had been an intimate of General Washington and shared to an unusual degree the confidence of that great man and soldier.

Soon as brave Colonel Crawford had expired Girty went to Dr. Knight and bade him prepare for death. He told him he was to be burned in the Shawnee town. He was led away during that night.

The Indian who had Dr. Knight in custody rode on horseback and drove his captive before him. During the march the doctor pleaded ignorance of the fate which was to befall him and assumed a cheerful countenance and asked him if it was true they were to live together as brothers in one house. This pleased the Indian, who replied yes. They traveled about twenty-five miles that day.

At daybreak, June 12, the Indian untied Knight and began to make a fire. Knight took the heaviest dogwood stick he could find and in an unguarded moment struck the Indian a terrible blow on the head, which so stunned him that he fell forward into the fire. Knight seized his gun, blanket, powder horn, bullet bag and made off through the woods. He had a fatiguing tramp, many days without food or shelter. He reached the Ohio River, five miles below Fort McIntosh, twenty-one days after his escape, and at 7 o’clock in the morning of July 4, arrived safely at the fort.

He lived many years afterward and gave a thrilling narrative of the defeat and cruel death of Colonel Crawford and his own miraculous escape.

During the early days of the eighteenth century many Germans, or “Palatines” as they were called, came to America. Many of them settled near Albany, New York.

Among these Germans were John Conrad Weiser and his son Conrad, who arrived in New York June 13, 1710, and settled on Livingston Manor, in Columbia County, N. Y. Conrad was then a lad of fourteen, being born November 2, 1696, near Wurtemberg, Germany.

The company of which the Weisers were members did not prosper in their new home; many of them starved. So in 1714 the Weisers removed to Schoharie, in the Mohawk Valley.

The removal made matters worse. The family had almost nothing to eat. The friendly Mohawk chief, Quagnant, offered to take Conrad into his wigwam for the winter, and his father consented. The lad learned the Mohawk language, but often wished himself back in his own poor home. “I endured a great deal of cold,” he said, “but by spring my hunger much surpassed the cold.” Conrad did not then foresee how valuable his knowledge of Indian language and customs would become.

Conrad did not long remain at home after his return from the Mohawk camp, but acted as an interpreter between the Dutch traders and the Indians.

The son may have been headstrong and the sire harsh, at any rate the youth left home and built himself a cabin in the neighborhood, earned a good income by selling furs, and spent the greater part of the next fifteen years among the Indians. Evidently, however, he retained a respect for the teachings of his ancestors, for he says: “I married my Anna Eve, and was given in marriage by Rev. John L. Haeger, Reformed clergyman, on 22d of November (1720), in my father’s house at Schoharie.” Weiser, the elder, was at that time in Europe.

When Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, heard of the plight of the Germans at Schoharie, he invited them to come to his colony, and promised them good land. John Weiser, a leader of the colony, set out at the head of a company and cut a road through the woods to the Susquehanna. In rough boats they floated down stream to the mouth of Swatara Creek, which they followed up to the beautiful Lebanon Valley, where they settled along Tulpehocken Creek.

Conrad Weiser and his young wife followed the elder Weisers, and settled near Womelsdorf, where he continued to reside until a few years before his death, when he removed to Reading.

It is said of Weiser that while on a hunting trip he met the great Shikellamy, and that the vicegerent was well pleased with him, and particularly so when he learned that Weiser could speak Mohawk. They became great friends.

In 1732 by special request of certain deputies of the Six Nations, Weiser was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Patrick Gordon, of Pennsylvania, interpreter for the Iroquois Confederacy. His Indian name was “Tharachiawakon.” From this time until his death he was identified with the history of the Province in all its relations with the Indians. His popularity and influence never waned, for he was honest in all his dealings.

In 1734 he was appointed a justice of the peace by the Pennsylvania Government and in the old French War was commissioned colonel and appointed to the command of all the forces that were raised west of the Susquehanna.

When Shikellamy complained to the Governor of Pennsylvania that the trade in liquor was causing the ruin of the Delaware and Shawnee, the Governor asked him to come to Philadelphia to discuss the matter. Shikellamy took with him Weiser, as interpreter, who he called “an adopted son of the Mohawk nation.”

James Logan saw the value an honest man like Weiser could render the Province, and he was made an agent for Pennsylvania in dealing with the Six Nations. Weiser thus represented both the Indians and the whites. The Iroquois declared that “Conrad Weiser is a good, true man, who will speak our words and not his own.”

Weiser entered also into the Indian affairs of Virginia and Maryland, and prevented those colonies from becoming involved in an Indian war. This was done at a great Indian council at Lancaster, in 1744.

Weiser was able, through his Indian friends to be kept informed of the French movements in the Ohio Valley. He early realized the importance of the English country “at the forks of the Ohio.” He made a journey to the western tribes and concluded a most important treaty at Logstown in 1748.

Squatters encroached upon lands in the Juniata Valley, which incensed the Indians so much that Conrad Weiser was sent to order them off the Indian lands. He succeeded in moving them off and then burned their cabins.

Following Braddock’s defeat, Conrad Weiser led many delegations of Indians to Philadelphia, and they always were entertained at his home en route. This hospitality was misunderstood by his neighbors, but his well-known integrity saved him in the hour of his greatest peril.

When the Indians committed so many murders in Penns Valley, at Mahanoy Creek and elsewhere, Weiser warned his neighbors at Tulpehocken, and when they gathered at his house for defense Weiser was made their commander.

An ungrateful Pennsylvania Assembly failed to pay Weiser’s bills, and for three years his accounts were unsettled. He refused to do further service until his bills were paid, and as Weiser was in demand his expense accounts were satisfied.

At the great Indian treaties at Easton Weiser was a prominent personage, and the final peace was due principally to his influence.

Weiser was now past sixty years of age. His work was almost done. While visiting near Womelsdorf he died July 13, 1760.

When he died one of his associates remarked: “He has left no one to fill his place.” An Iroquois orator declared: “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness.”

If all white men had been as just and friendly to the Indians as was this Pennsylvania German, the history of our westward advance might have been spared some bloody chapters.

It is said that President Washington, standing at the grave of Weiser, in 1794, remarked that the services of the latter to the Government had been of great importance and had been rendered in a difficult period and posterity would not forget him.

On June 14, 1777, Continental Congress resolved “that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

The flag was a modification of the so-called “Great Union Flag,” used since January 2, 1776, when it was raised in the camp on Prospect Hill. Before that time different flags had been used under authority of the several provinces.

In autumn, 1775, Philadelphia floating batteries used a white flag, tree in the field, motto “An Appeal to Heaven.” The “Great Union” flag had the thirteen alternate stripes of red and white, with the union of the British Union Jack. The Philadelphia Light Horse, which escorted Washington on his way out of the city on the morning of June 21, 1775, to his command of the American forces at Cambridge, carried a flag of alternate stripes.

The popular idea was a flag of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, emblematic of the thirteen original colonies. The field of blue with the King’s colors acknowledged fealty to the King, but though the Americans were in arms against the mother country, they still hoped that the English Parliament would repeal the obnoxious laws and restore to the colonists those English rights that were theirs by inheritance and by royal colonial charters.

Up to January 1, 1776, the Americans had no red, white and blue flag. This popular design of a flag was called “Washington’s Grand Union” flag, and it was first unfurled by Washington over the camps at Cambridge, Mass., January 2, 1776, when it was saluted with thirteen guns and thirteen cheers.

When the committee appointed by Congress to prepare a design for a new flag, consisting of General George Washington, Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross, called upon Mrs. Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross, at her home, 239 Arch street, Philadelphia, there was not much change in the popular ensign, only the displacement of the British union by thirteen white stars.

As the act of Congress did not specify the number of points of the stars or their arrangement, Mrs. Ross suggested that a star of five points would be more distinct, pleasing and appropriate than the six-pointed star which the committee had designed. Folding a piece of paper, she cut, with a single clip of her scissors, a five-pointed star, and, placing it on a blue field, delighted the committee with her taste, ingenuity and judgment. The committee decided the thirteen stars should be arranged in a circle, typifying eternity.

Betsy Ross had been making colonial flags for the army and navy, and was skilled in needlework. The committee was well pleased with the flag which she made, and authorized her, in the name of Congress, to make United States flags. She continued in that occupation for many years.

The first display of the “Stars and Stripes” as the flag soon became known, was August 3, 1777, over Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y.

The first time the American flag was baptized in blood was at the Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, which was only eight days after it was officially adopted by Congress, September 3, 1777.

The first appearance on a foreign stronghold was at Nassau, Bahama Islands, January 22, 1778, when the Americans captured Fort Nassau from the British.

On April 24, 1778, John Paul Jones achieved the honor of being the first officer of the American navy to compel a British man-of-war to strike her colors to the new flag.

John Singleton Copley, the American-born artist, in London, claimed to be the first to display the Stars and Stripes in Great Britain. On the day when George III acknowledged the independence of the United States, December 5, 1782, he painted the flag of the United States in the background of a portrait which he was painting in his London studio.

January 13, 1794, the flag was changed by act of Congress owing to the new States of Vermont and Kentucky being admitted to the Union. The flag now had two stars and two stripes added to it. The act went into effect May 1, 1795. This was the “Star Spangled Banner,” and under this flag our country fought and won three wars to maintain her existence; the so-called naval war with France, in 1798; that with the Barbary States in 1801–05, and that with England in 1812–15.

On April 4, 1818, Congress by act, decreed a return to the original thirteen stripes, and a star for every State in the Union to be added to the flag on July 4, following a State’s admission to the Union. This is the present law.

The arrangement of the stars on the flag is regulated by law and executive order. An executive order, issued October 26, 1912, provided for forty-eight stars to be arranged in six horizontal rows of eight stars each.

Starting in the upper left hand corner and reading each row from left to right gives the stars of each State’s ratification of the Constitution and admission to the Union, as follows:

First row—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina.

Second row—New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee.

Third row—Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri.

Fourth row—Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota.

Fifth row—Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Sixth row—Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.

Today the flags float over nearly every school house in the land. The custom of having a flag displayed on all public buildings in the United States was inaugurated by President Benjamin Harrison.

June 14 is now generally observed as Flag Day wherever floats the Stars and Stripes.

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was concluded October 1, 1748, secured peace between Great Britain and France, and should have put an end to all hostile encounters between their representatives on the American continent.

This treaty was supposed to have settled all difficulties between the two courts, but the French were determined to occupy the whole territory drained by the Mississippi, which they claimed by priority of discovery by La Salle. The British complained to the French Government about encroachments being made by the French upon English soil in America.

The French deemed it necessary, in order to establish legal claim to the country which they believed to be theirs, to take formal possession of it. Accordingly, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, who was at that time Governor General of Canada, dispatched Captain Bienville de Celeron with a party of two hundred and fifteen French and fifty-five Indians to publicly proclaim possession and bury at prominent points plates of lead, bearing inscriptions declaring occupation in the name of the French King.

Celeron started on June 15, 1749, following the southern shore of Lakes Ontario and Erie, until he reached a point opposite Lake Chautauqua, when the boats were drawn up and carried over the dividing ridge, a distance of ten miles. They followed down the lake and the Conewago Creek, where they arrived at what is now Warren, near the confluence of the creek with the Allegheny River. Here the first plate was buried.

These plates were eleven inches long, seven and a half wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick. The inscription was in French, and in the following terms, as fairly translated into English:

“In the year, 1749, of the reign of LouisLouis XIV, King of France, We Celeron, commander of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis de la Galissoniere, Governor General of New France, to re-establish tranquillity in some Indian villages of these cantons, have buried this plate of lead at the confluence of the Ohio with the Chautauqua this 29th day of July, near the River Ohio, otherwise Belle Riviere, as a monument of the renewal of the possession we have taken of the said River Ohio, and of all those which empty into it, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said river, as enjoyed or ought to have been enjoyed by the King of France preceding, and as they have there maintained themselves by arms and by treaties, especially those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle.”

The burying of this plate was attended with much form and ceremony. All the men were drawn up in battle array, when the commander, Celeron, proclaimed in a loud voice, “Vive le Roi!” and declared that possession of the country was now taken in the name of the King. A plate on which was inscribed the arms of France was affixed to the nearest tree.

The same formality was observed in planting each of the other plates, the second at the rock known as “Indian God,” on which are ancient inscriptions, a few miles below the present Franklin; a third, at the mouth of the Wheeling Creek; a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum; the fifth and sixth, at the mouths of the Great Kanawha and the Great Miami.

At the last point, the party burned their canoes, and obtained ponies for the return trip to the portage, when they returned to Fort Frontenac, arriving on November 6.

The Indians through whose territory this expedition passed viewed this planting with great suspicion. By some means they got possession of one of the plates, generally supposed to have been planted at the very commencement of their journey near the mouth of the Chautauqua Creek. An account of this stolen plate, taken from the original manuscript journal of Celeron and the diary of Father Bonnecamps in Paris secured by Mr. O. H. Marshall, is interesting:

“The first of the leaden plates was brought to the attention of the public by Governor George Clinton to the Lords of Trade in London dated New York, December 19, 1750, in which he states that he would send to their Lordships in two or three weeks a plate of lead full of writing, which some of the upper nations of Indians stole from Jean Coeur, the French interpreter at Niagara, on his way to the Ohio River, which river, and all the lands thereabouts, the French claim, as will appear by said writing. He further states that the lead plates gave the Indians so much uneasiness that they immediately dispatched some of the Cayuga chiefs to him with it, saying that their only reliance was on him, and earnestly begged he would communicate the contents to them, which he had done, much to their satisfaction and the interests of the English. The Governor concludes by saying that ‘the contents of the plate may be of great importance in clearing up the encroachment which the French have made on the British Empire in America.’ The plate was delivered to Colonel, afterwards Sir William Johnson, on December 4, 1750, at his residence on the Mohawk, by a Cayuga sachem who accompanied it by the following speech:

“‘Brother Corlear and War-ragh-i-ya-ghey: I am sent here by the Five Nations with a piece of writing which the Seneca, our brethren, got by some artifice from Jean Coeur, earnestly beseeching you will let us know what it means and as we put all confidence in you, we hope you will explain it ingeniously to us.’

“Colonel Johnson replied to the sachem and through him to the Five Nations, returning a belt of wampum, and explaining the inscription on the plate. He told them that, ‘it was a matter of the greatest consequence, involving the possession of their lands and hunting grounds and that Jean Coeur and the French ought immediately to be expelled from the Ohio and Niagara.’ In reply, the sachem said that ‘he heard with great attention and surprise the substance of the devilish writing he had brought, and that Colonel Johnson’s remarks were fully approved.’ He promised that belts from each of the Five Nations should be sent from the Seneca’s castle to the Indians at the Ohio, to warn and strengthen them against the French encroachments in that direction.”

On January 29, 1751, Governor Clinton sent a copy of this inscription to Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania.

The French followed up this formal act of possession by laying out a line of military posts, on substantially the same line as that pursued by the Celeron expedition, but instead of crossing over to Lake Chautauqua, they kept on down to Presqu’ Isle, now Erie, where there was a good harbor, with a fort established, and then up to Le Boeuf, now Waterford, where another post was placed; thence down the Venango River, now called French Creek, to its mouth at Franklin, establishing Fort Venango there; thence by the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, where Fort Duquesne was seated, and so on down the Ohio.