The Philadelphia Packet, July 15, 1779, contained this item:

“Yesterday died at his seat near this city, the Honorable George Ross, Judge of Admiralty of this State.” He was interred in the churchyard of Christ’s Church, Philadelphia, the day following his death. The Supreme Executive Council attended the obsequies in a body.

George Ross, the son of Reverend George Ross, minister of the Established Church, and Catherine Van Gezel Ross, was born in New Castle, Lower Counties, May 10, 1730. He was of excellent Scotch stock, his family traced their descent from the Earls of Ross.

George received an excellent education, with special instruction in the classics; studied law in Philadelphia, with his half brother, John, and was admitted to the bar at Lancaster in 1750. He rose rapidly in his profession, and was interested in the manufacture of iron, which he continued to the time of his death.

Soon after settling at Lancaster, in 1751, he married Miss Anne Lawlor.

He was made prosecutor for the Crown and took a deep interest in the welfare of the growing town of Lancaster, which was soon recognized by his neighbors and he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1768. From this time on his short life of forty-nine years was crowded with civic and patriotic duties; while the State and Federal Governments honored him with many positions of trust.

He immediately became a leader in the Assembly where he was a most pronounced Whig. By successive elections he was continued in that body until 1774, when he was a member of the Provincial Conference and then a member of the first Continental Congress.

George Ross was one of a committee to whom was referred the patriotic communication of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, recommending a Congress of the colonies for the purpose of resisting British arbitrary enactments, and in Congress he consistently furthered those measures which finally led to American Independence.

In 1775, Governor John Penn having written a message disapproving any protective measures on the part of the colonies, Mr. Ross drew up a strong and convincing reply.

He was a true friend of the Indians, and served as one of the Commissioners to Fort Pitt in 1776.

Mr. Ross was made a member of the Committee of Safety for Pennsylvania; vice president of the Constitutional Convention of 1776; colonel of the First Battalion of Associators for Lancaster County; and as a fitting climax, he signed the Declaration of Independence.

During his service as a member of the Continental Congress he was named on the committee with General George Washington and Robert Morris to prepare a design for a new flag. It was through his suggestion that the committee called on his niece, Betsy Ross, and with her help the beautiful flag of the United States was designed and adopted.

Ill health forced Colonel Ross to resign from Congress and on leaving office the citizens of Lancaster voted him a piece of silver to cost £150, which he declined to receive.

After varied and valuable labors in the service of the colonies and of Pennsylvania he was appointed a judge of the Court of Admiralty, as a minute of the Supreme Executive Council for March 1, 1779, records the following:

“Resolved, That the Honorable George Ross, Esquire, be commissioned Judge of the Admiralty of this State, under the Act of Assembly; that this Board highly approve the firmness and ability he has hitherto shown in the discharge of his said office.”

During his incumbency, which lasted but a brief period, he was regarded as learned and prompt, a happy combination.

Judge Ross probably knew the standing of every merchant in Philadelphia.

His house in Lancaster stood on the site of the present Court House, and his country home was a farm in what was then a suburb of Lancaster, now a part of the city, called in his honor, Rossmere.

He was interested in several iron furnaces, the most important of which was the Mary Ann furnace of York County. This was the first blast furnace west of the Susquehanna. His partners were George Stephenson, one of the first lawyers in York County, and William Thompson, the latter’s brother-in-law, later distinguished as a general in the Revolution. George Ross also owned Spring Forge III, also in York County, and he was a partner with George Taylor, of Easton, another signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a furnace in New Jersey called Bloomsbury Forge.

His half brother John Ross, was also much interested in the iron business, and seems to have been a rather picturesque character. He was an officer of the King, and Graydon says of him: “Mr. John Ross, who loved ease and Madeira much better than liberty and strife, declared for neutrality, saying, that let who would be king, he well knew that he would be a subject.”

His health seems to have been poor for some time before his death as a letter from Edward Burd to Jasper Yeates, July 16, 1779, says:

“Poor Mr. Ross is gone at last. I was one of his Carriers. He said he was going to a cooler climate, and behaved in the same cheerful way at his exit as he did all thro the different trying scenes of life.”

He was a Churchman by inheritance, and was vestryman and warden of St. James’ Church, Lancaster, contributing liberally to its varied interests. Genial, kind and considerate, his sense of humor evidently lightened the cares of his strenuous life.

A memorial pillar was erected in 1897, on the site of his house in Lancaster.

During the debate in the Continental Congress upon the Declaration of Independence, the old Provincial Government of Pennsylvania received such a mortal blow, that it soon expired without a sigh, ending forever the proprietary and royal authority in Pennsylvania.

In the meantime the Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia issued a circular to all the county committees calling for a conference in that city on June 18, 1776. This conference unanimously resolved “that the present Government of this Province is not competent to the exigencies of our affairs, and that it is necessary that a Provincial Convention be called by this Conference for the express purpose of forming a new Government in this Province on the authority of the people only.”

The delegates to this convention to frame a constitution for the proposed new Government consisted of the representative men of the Province. It is only natural that in time of excitement the men chosen for such important duty should be those most active in the military organizations, or local committeemen, men whose ability, patriotism and personal popularity was unquestioned. It was to be expected that the old statesmen would be crowded out unless they were leaders in the revolutionary movement.

As such they met in Philadelphia, July 15, each taking without hesitancy the prescribed test oath and then organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president; George Ross, of Lancaster, vice president, and John Morris and Jacob Garrigues, secretaries.

On July 18, Owen Biddle, Colonel John Bull, the Reverend William Vanhorn, John Jacobs, Colonel George Ross, Colonel James Smith, Jonathan Hoge, Colonel Jacob Morgan, Colonel Jacob Stroud, Colonel Thomas Smith and Robert Martin were appointed members of a committee to “make an essay for a declaration of rights for this State.”

On July 24 the same persons were directed to draw up an essay for a frame or system of Government, and John Lesher was appointed in place of Colonel Morgan, who was absent with leave.

The same day the convention established a Council of Safety to exercise authority of the Government until the new Constitution went into effect. At the head of the Council was Thomas Wharton, Jr.

During the convention the delegates not only discussed and perfected the measures for the adoption of a Constitution, but assumed the supreme authority of the State, and legislated upon matters foreign to the object for which it was convened. Not only did it form the Council of Safety, but it approved of the Declaration of Independence, recently adopted by the Continental Congress, and also it appointed justices of the peace, who were required, before assuming their functions, to each take an oath of renunciation from the authority of King George III, and one of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania.

July 25, Colonel Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Colonel James Potter, David Rittenhouse, Robert Whitehall and Colonel Bertram Galbraith were added to the Committee on the Frame of Government.

The convention completed its labors on September 28, by adopting the first State Constitution, which went into immediate effect, without a vote of the people.

The Constitution as finally adopted vested all legislative power in the General Assembly of the Representatives of the freemen to be composed for three years of six persons annually chosen from the City of Philadelphia and six from each county of the State including Philadelphia, outside the city, afterwards the representation to be apportioned every seven years to the number of taxable inhabitants.

Laws, except in sudden necessity, were not to be passed until the next session after proposal. The executive power was vested in a Supreme Executive Council of twelve elected members, one from the City of Philadelphia, and one from each of the counties, including Philadelphia, so chosen that one-third would retire each year and no member, after serving three years, should be eligible within four years.

A president and vice president were to be annually chosen from this body, by the joint ballot of the Councillors and Assemblymen. New counties were each to have a councillor. The president and the Council, five of whom constituted a quorum, were to appoint all Judges, the Attorney General, etc.

The right to vote was given to all freemen over twenty-one years of age who had resided within the State a year before the election and paid taxes, but the sons, twenty-one years old, of Freeholders were not required to pay taxes. The freemen and their sons should be trained and armed for defense of the State under regulations and with exceptions according to law, but with the right to choose their own colonels and officers under that rank.

A debtor, except for fraud, should not be kept in prison, after giving up his real and personal estate for the benefit of his creditors. A foreigner having taken the oath of allegiance could purchase and transfer real estate and after a year’s residence have all the rights of a natural-born subject, but be ineligible as a member of Assembly until after two years’ residence.

A Council of Censors of two members chosen from each city and county every seven years beginning with 1783 should inquire into the violation of the Constitution and whether the legislative and executive branches of the Government had exercised greater powers than they were entitled to, and could impeach or, by a two-thirds vote of those elected, call a convention to amend the Constitution.

Articles to be amended were to be published six months before election, in order that the people might have opportunity of instructing their delegates concerning them.

Powder has always been an essential product in every epoch of the stirring history of our country. The situation was always serious, but on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains there were many times when the settlers were in desperate situation on account of little or no powder.

In times of peace the powder used in these western counties was purchased with furs, and every farmer had a quantity in his home for both hunting and defense, but when the Revolution broke out the demand was greater than the supply, and the Indian hostilities stopped the fur trade.

Companies of rangers were organized and a patrol maintained along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, so that the Indian marauders could be detected and pursued. The work of the frontiersmen was of no use without gunpowder, and in their desperation these hardy pioneers planned an exploit to New Orleans, where they could purchase a quantity from the Spanish Government.

The band of volunteers was under the leadership of Captain George Gibson and Lieutenant William Linn. The former, the son of a Lancaster tavern keeper, was a trapper and had gone to Pittsburgh with his brother John, where they engaged in the fur trade. In his youth he had made several voyages at sea and nearly all his life had traveled through the Indian country. William Linn was from Maryland, a farmer and skilled hunter. He had fought under Braddock and had been used as a scout along the Monongahela River.

Captain Gibson selected fifteen of the hardiest and bravest of his command. These came to be known as Gibson’s Lambs, on account of their fearlessness. Flatboats were built in Pittsburgh and the expedition started from that place Tuesday, July 16, 1776. A trip down the Ohio was extremely dangerous, as all along the river and especially the lower part, the Indians kept a constant watch.

The “Lambs” left behind them every evidence that they were soldiers. They retained rifles, tomahawks and knives, but were clad in coarse clothes resembling boatmen or traders. So clever was their disguise that even when in Pittsburgh their errand remained a secret. The impression was that they were venturing on a trading trip. The expedition successfully passed the British posts at Natchez and reached New Orleans in safety after five weeks on the water.

Louisiana was then a Spanish province, under the governorship of Don Luis de Ungaza, to whom Captain Gibson bore letters of commendation and credit, as well as to Oliver Pollock and other American merchants, then resident in New Orleans. Pollock was a wealthy Philadelphian and exercised great influence with the Spanish authorities. He assisted in negotiating for the powder. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, but willing to give secret aid to the Americans.

The British agents in New Orleans soon learned of the arrival of the Gibson party and, sensing their mission, made complaint to the Spanish authorities that rebels against the British Government were in the city.

Captain Gibson was arrested and lodged in a Spanish prison, where he was treated with the greatest consideration. While he was confined, Oliver Pollock obtained the powder and secreted it in his warehouse. The purchase amounted to 12,000 pounds and cost $1800.

The powder was divided into two portions. Three thousand pounds of it was packed in boxes, falsely marked as merchandise of various kinds, and quietly conveyed to a sailing vessel bound for Philadelphia by way of the gulf and ocean.

There was a coincidence in the fact that on the very night the ship sailed Captain Gibson “escaped” from prison, got on board the vessel and accompanied the precious powder to its destination.

The balance of the powder was turned over to Lieutenant Linn, as this was to be used on the Western frontier. This was in half casks, each containing about sixty pounds. These were smuggled during the night to the barges which were tied up in a secluded place above the city.

Lieutenant Linn hired a score of extra boatmen, mostly Americans, and on September 22, 1776, the little flotilla made a fine getaway without discovery and began its long journey up the Mississippi. The work was hard and the trip took seven months.

At the falls of the Ohio it was necessary to unload the cargoes and carry the heavy casks to the head of the rapids, when the barges were dragged over the shallow stream and reladen. Several times the expedition was forced to tie up by ice and many hardships were experienced before the return of the spring weather.

May 2, 1777, the expedition reached the little settlement of Wheeling, where Fort Henry had been erected. There Lieutenant Linn turned over his precious cargo to David Shepherd, county lieutenant of the newly erected Ohio County, Virginia.

Linn’s responsibility ended at Wheeling. County Lieutenant Shepherd sent the powder to Fort Pitt, under heavy guard, where it was turned over to Colonel William Crawford and safely stored in the brick magazine of the fort. The safe arrival of this powder was the cause of great rejoicing and nothing was too good for Lieutenant Linn and the fearless “Lambs.”

Virginia paid for the powder, but it was turned over for “the use of the continent.” Portions were distributed to the frontier rangers and to the two regiments then being mustered in Southern Pennsylvania for continental service. It was from this powder that Colonel George Rogers Clark drew his supply, in the spring of 1778, for his famous and successful expedition to the Illinois country.

George Gibson was promoted to rank of lieutenant colonel in the Virginia service and Lieutenant Linn was made a captain and placed in command of the “Lambs.” To each of these officers the Virginia Legislature made a grant of money in addition to their regular pay.

Both these brave men performed other acts of heroism during the Revolution and both were killed by the Indians. Linn made a settlement ten miles from Louisville. While riding alone, March 5, 1781, on his way to attend court, he was surprised by a small party of Indians in the forest. Next morning his mutilated body was found, with his horse standing guard over it. Colonel Gibson was mortally wounded at St. Clair’s defeat in Northwestern Ohio, November 4, 1791.

By the original charter of Virginia the northern boundary of that colony was supposed to be at the end of the fortieth degree, which was as far north as Philadelphia. This charter was dissolved in 1624, and instead of narrowing the limits of Virginia it apparently increased them.

Virginia became a royal province without any definite boundaries, and she considered herself as a keeper or trustee for the King of England of all contiguous territory not lawfully granted to another colony.

The Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore was taken out of the domain of Virginia, and she acquiesced in it. But west of Maryland she insisted that her ownership extended for an indefinite distance northward and westward, and she had made it good by occupation as far north as Pittsburgh.

This was certainly a broad claim of title, and the only remnant of it now is that curious narrow strip of land, called the Pan-Handle, which extends northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio for some distance above the fortieth degree.

The Indian trade at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela had always been an object of Virginia’s desire. In 1752 Virginia determined to erect a fort there, and Pennsylvania was willing because the fort would stop the advance of the French, their common enemy, but she reminded Virginia that the land belonged to the Penns.

The French, in 1754, had seated themselves at Logstown, and the Governor of Virginia began to construct a fort on the site of Pittsburgh, but the French surprised the little garrison, captured the works, finished it, and named it Fort Duquesne.

The French held the fort until English forces, under General John Forbes, invested it November 25, 1758. It was abandoned in 1771.

Some time prior to 1756 Virginia erected the District of West Augusta, covering the territory of Pennsylvania west of the Laurel Hills and south of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers, and in that year divided it into three counties, viz: Monongalia, Yohogania and Ohio.

Pennsylvania also erected upon this disputed territory Bedford County, in 1771, and Westmoreland County, in 1773 Penn’s Manor of Pittsburgh, too, was surveyed for the proprietaries early in 1769, and in the beginning of 1771 magistrates were appointed by Pennsylvania and for some time discharged the duties of their offices without having their authority questioned.

The new Governor of Virginia was John, Earl of Dunmore, or Lord Dunmore, of whom Bancroft says: “No royal governor ever showed more rapacity in the use of royal power.” He at once determined on seizing control of the “Forks of the Ohio,” for Virginia and for himself. He appointed Dr. John Connolly, a man of much energy and talent, but without principle, to be “captain commandant of Pittsburgh and its dependencies.”

Connolly arrived in Pittsburgh late in December, 1773, and early in January, 1774, took possession of the dismantled fort, which he renamed, calling it “Fort Dunmore,” required and commanded the people to assemble themselves there as a militia.

He mustered the militia under Virginia law, intimidated the Pennsylvania magistrates, marched some of them off to prison and established the authority of Virginia throughout all the region between the Monongahela and the Ohio.

While a large part of the inhabitants of that region were Virginians by birth and predilection, there were some fearless and loyal Pennsylvania adherents who did all in their power to resist Connolly’s high-handed proceedings.

One of these, Arthur St. Clair (afterward General St. Clair), then prothonotary of the new county of Westmoreland, issued a warrant against Connolly and had him committed to jail at Hannastown, from which he was soon released on giving bail for court appearance there.

Connolly returned to Virginia, was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace for Augusta County, and when court met at Hannastown, he appeared with his militia, armed and with colors flying, and refused to admit the Pennsylvania magistrates. He arrested three of the magistrates and sent them to Staunton, where they were confined in jail.

Subsequently, Simon Girty led a mob to Hannastown, stormed the jail and released such prisoners as were Virginia partisans.

The Tory conduct of Connolly at Pittsburgh became so bold and obnoxious that in June, 1775, he was seized by twenty men, under orders of Captain St. Clair, and carried to Ligonier, with the intention of delivering him to the Continental Government at Philadelphia. He was released, however, and fled from Pittsburgh by night and made his way to Portsmouth, Virginia, where he joined Lord Dunmore on a man-of-war, taking refuge in Canada.

Virginia had revolted from Dunmore’s tyranny at home, but showed no disposition to repudiate his aggressions in Pennsylvania nor the machinations of Connolly.

The boundary dispute was maintained, although, in view of the troubles with the mother country fast approaching, the Virginia and Pennsylvania delegates in Congress, including such men as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin, had united in a circular urging the people in the disturbed region to mutual forbearance.

This action of Congress and the constant fear of an Indian uprising persuaded the Virginia Provincial Convention, in session at Williamsburg, July 17, 1775, to pass a resolution which sent Captain John Neville with one hundred men from the Shenandoah Valley to take possession of Fort Pitt.

The following year the Virginia counties in the disputed territory were organized with their loyal and administrative machinery, but the rancor of the contest had, however, somewhat diminished and there were no such acts of violence committed as during the regime of Connolly and his master.

Captain John Neville continued to command until the Continental Congress determined to take Fort Pitt under its care and provide a garrison at the continental expense. The offer was accepted by Virginia and General Washington selected Brigadier General Edward Hand to relieve Captain Neville of his command.

Early charters granted to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and the Carolinas made the Pacific Ocean the nominal western boundary of those colonies. Prior occupancy by the Dutch and the settlement of the boundaries had created an exception in favor of New York and New Jersey, but all the country west of the Delaware River within the same parallel of latitude with Connecticut was still claimed by that colony as part of her domain.

The southern boundary was to be a straight line beginning at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The line extended west would have entered Pennsylvania near Stroudsburg and crossed the North Branch of the Susquehanna at Bloomsburg, the West Branch at Milton, and passing through Clearfield and Newcastle would cut the State nearly through the middle. Penn’s charter fixed the northern boundary of his province at the forty-second degree of latitude. A large strip of territory was thus granted to both Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

On July 18, 1753, about 250 men, mostly from Connecticut, met at Windham, that State, and organized “The Susquehanna Company.” Then, with the consent of the Connecticut Assembly, application was made to the Crown for leave to plant a new colony west of the Delaware. It was granted, and the company sent agents to the Indian treaty at Albany, June, 1754, who succeeded in obtaining from representatives of the Six Nations the cession of a tract of land on the northern branch of the Susquehanna River, where eleven years before King Tedyuskung and his tribe had built the town of Wyoming.

The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania protested against this purchase, and claimed that this land was within the limits of their charter. They also claimed that the purchase had not been made in open council, but had been effected after making the Indians drunk.

As this council at Albany had been called to form a union of the Colonies with the Six Nations as their allies against the French, the purchase was not then seriously opposed. Besides, Pennsylvania bought a large tract of land from the Six Nations at the same treaty, and in a way not satisfactory to the Indians.

The French and Indian War prevented any attempt at settlement of the Wyoming Valley until 1762, when about 200 colonists and their families entered the valley and commenced building and planting near the site of the present Wilkes-Barre. Before winter set in, extensive fields of wheat had been sown upon lands covered with forest trees in August. But owing to the scantiness of provisions, the settlers returned to Connecticut for the winter.

About the same time another Connecticut association, called the “Delaware Company,” had begun a settlement on the Delaware River. Proclamations were issued and writs of ejectment were placed in the hands of the Sheriff of Northampton County.

Early in the month of May, 1763, the settlers returned, accompanied by many others. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Northampton County, to which the Wyoming Valley then belonged, settlements were made at Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Plymouth and Hanover.

Several hundred acres were improved with corn and other grain, and a large quantity of hay cut and gathered, and everything was moving forward in a prosperous and happy manner when, without the least warning, on October 15, the settlers were attacked while dispersed and engaged in their work, and about twenty of them slain.

Men, women and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away. They abandoned their settlement and made their way back to Connecticut or to Orange County, New York. This is known in the history of Pennsylvania as the first massacre of Wyoming. It was the work of the Delaware Indians, led by Captain Bull, son of King Tedyuskung.

Some believe the Iroquois convinced the Delaware that the white settlers had murdered Tedyuskung and that this massacre was committed in retribution.

For six years after this assault no settlement was attempted. The Indians, anticipating revenge for the massacre, left the valley.

Meanwhile the Penn family made every effort to prove that the title given to the Susquehanna Company was not complete and that their charter was valid. Finally some chiefs, assisted by Sir William Johnson, openly disclaimed the sale to the Susquehanna Company. Then the Six Nations assembled in council at Fort Stanwix and on November 5, 1768, gave a deed of the disputed lands to the Penns.

Meanwhile Pennsylvanians took possession of the Wyoming Valley and built a fortified trading house there. They laid out two manors, one on each side of the river, and extending over the farms abandoned by the New Englanders.

In February, 1769, the Susquehanna Company sent forty men into the valley, to be followed shortly by 200 more. They were given land and 200 pounds Connecticut currency to provide themselves with farming tools and weapons, on condition that they would stay in the valley and defend it against Pennsylvania. They built a blockhouse called, from their numbers, Forty Fort. Their leader was Colonel Zebulon Butler, a hero of the French and Indian War, a brave partisan commander.

A civil war prevailed for some years known as the “Pennamite and Yankee War.” Forts were constructed and many sieges and skirmishes followed. Both parties led men to prison, drove women and children away and committed other outrages.

The Connecticut men were generally successful in this strife. They organized a separate State, but could not maintain it. So in 1774 they attached themselves to Connecticut, as the town of Westmoreland, in the County of Litchfield.

During the Revolution there was a lull in the strife in Wyoming. However, as soon as the war ended the old feud broke out in all its former fury.

Pennsylvania having, in 1779, succeeded the heirs of William Penn, now appealed to Congress to settle the dispute. A commission met at Trenton in 1782 and, after five weeks of deliberation, decided that Connecticut had no right to the land, and that the jurisdiction of the same belonged to Pennsylvania.

Early in the year 1733 a Hollander, named Thomas Quick, came to the colony of New York, a few months later located on the Delaware River, on what afterward became known as Upper Smithfield, near where Milford, Pike County, now stands. He appears to have been the pioneer settler on the Pennsylvania side; here he cleared lands, erected a log cabin and barns, and raised wheat and maize. A son was born July 19, 1734, named Thomas, and he was familiarly known in after years as Tom Quick, the Indian killer.

He was the pet of the household, and even the Indians who roamed over that region frequently visited Quick’s place and much admired the fine looking, stout lad, and often made him presents of plumes, feathers, skins and other articles.

Tom grew up among these Indians, learned their language, and was taught by them how to hunt wild animals, and fish after the manner of the Indians. He grew fond of the Indian life, and became such an expert hunter, trapper and fisherman, that his father could never induce him to follow any other occupation. He even refused to attend school with his sisters, and in fact became almost an Indian by nature.

In the meantime Thomas Quick, Sr., had become the prosperous owner of a grist and saw mill on a small stream entering the Delaware near Milford, called the Vandemark. But Tom, Jr., never became an employe, but did learn much of the beautiful Minisink Valley, with its high cliffs on the Pennsylvania side and receding hills on the New Jersey side, as it extends from Port Jervis to the Delaware Water Gap. The romantic water falls and rocky glens were his hunting and fishing grounds. This knowledge afterward served his purpose in waylaying and murdering Indians.

The Delaware Indians viewed with alarm the steady encroachments of the whites, and many had already taken up arms against the English. The Quick family, however, had always lived on friendly terms with them, but the Indians were not unmindful of the fact that this sturdy Hollander had been the very first to push that far into their favorite hunting grounds.

The prospect of plundering an opulent man like Quick overcame any feelings of gratitude that might linger in the savage breast.

When the French and Indian War commenced, the Quicks were uneasy and their alarm increased as the Indians grew less sociable, and finally withdrew altogether from the Delaware River.

Quiet reigned until the Quicks became careless and one day the father crossed the river to grind grist, accompanied by Tom and his brother-in-law, all unarmed. As they rounded a point near the river they were fired upon from ambush, and the old man fell mortally wounded.

The young men endeavored to carry him across the frozen river but as they stepped on the ice they were fired on and Tom was hit in the foot. They soon got out of danger, but not before they saw the savages take Tom Quick’s scalp.

Young Tom was frantic with rage and grief, and that moment swore that he would never make peace with the Indians as long as one remained upon the banks of the river.

From this time forth the demon of unrelenting savage hatred entered Tom’s heart and he became more like the savages he pursued than like a civilized man. He never entered the army but took Indians at all times, whether in peace or war, and without regard to age or sex.

He seems to have operated about the close of the Indian War, at a time when they began to again visit their former haunts, supposing they would be well received.

Among the Indians who returned was a drunken vagabond named Muskwink, one who had assisted in murdering Tom’s father.

Tom met Muskwink at Decker’s Tavern, on the Neversink, where he had become very bold and abusive, claiming Tom’s acquaintance and desiring him to drink with him. Tom refused and cursed him, which caused a heated exchange of words, during which Muskwink boasted of the part he played in the murder of Tom Quick, Sr. He bragged that he scalped him with his own hands, and at the same time mimicked the grimaces of the dying man, to corroborate his assertion, exhibited the sleeve buttons worn by his victim at the time.

Tom seized a musket, which was hanging in the bar room, and ordered Muskwink to leave the place. He arose slowly and departed, pursued by Tom until they had gone about a mile, when Tom overtook the savage and shot him dead. Tom returned to the tavern, gave up the musket, drank a glass of rum, and left the neighborhood.

His next exploit was when he espied an Indian family in a canoe near Butler’s Rift. Tom concealed himself in the tall grass and as the canoe glided nearer he recognized the Indian as one who had committed many outrages on the frontier.

Only a few words were exchanged when Quick shot the man and tomahawked the woman and three children. He sank the bodies and destroyed the canoe, and did not tell of this crime for years, when he was asked why he killed the children. He replied, “Nits make lice.”

There are many stories told of Tom Quick, which have been preserved by tradition and which are firmly believed by descendants of the older families of Pike County.

One story is told in which several Indians caught him splitting rails and told him to go along with them. Tom asked them to assist him split open the last log and as they put their fingers in the crack to help pull it apart Tom knocked out the wedge and caught them all. He then killed each one at his leisure.

He went on a hunting trip with an Indian and they killed seven deer. He took the meat but gave the Indian the skins. He threw them across his shoulder, Tom fell behind and shot the Indian and took the skins as well as the meat, saying he had shot a buck with seven skins.

He was hunting with another Indian and pushed him off of the high rocks.

Tradition says that on his death bed he claimed to have killed ninety-nine Indians, and that he begged them to bring an old Indian, who lived near, in order that he might bring his record to an even hundred.

In his old age he was regarded as a hero by the pioneer hunters and trappers. He died at James Rosencrantz’s in 1795, and was buried on his farm.

The time has long since passed when such a revengeful murderer can be exalted to the rank of a hero, yet Tom Quick, the Indian slayer, weather-beaten, and with wornout accoutrements and costume in keeping, presented a picturesque and Rip Van Winkle-like appearance that would have formed no bad subject for an artist’s pencil.

William Maclay, son of Charles and Eleanor Query Maclay, was born July 20, 1737, in New Garden Township, Chester County, Pa. He attended the classical school of the Reverend John Blair, in Chester County. He studied law and was admitted to practice at the York County bar in 1760. During the French and Indian War he served as a lieutenant in Colonel Hugh Mercer’s battalion, and distinguished himself during General Forbes expedition in 1758. In 1763 he participated at the Battle of Bushy Run, and during the subsequent progress of Colonel Bouquet’s campaign was stationed in command of a company at one of the stockades on the route of the expedition.

On account of this service he never practiced his profession. Much of his time was taken up in surveying lands allotted to officers, but at a later period Governor John Penn was instrumental in having him admitted to the Cumberland County bar, and for a short time he acted as Prothonotary.

At the close of the French and Indian War he visited England and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to surveys in parts of the Province, and on his return became an assistant of Surveyor General Lukens on the frontier.

In April, 1769, he married Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg.

On the organization of Northumberland County March 21, 1772, he was appointed Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts.

In July, 1772, he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for himself a fine stone house, which, with modern improvements, is still standing.^[5]

At the outset of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary Government, William Maclay took a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only assisting in equipping and forwarding troops to the Continental Army, but marched with the associators which participated in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. He held the position of assistant commissary of purchases.

During the “Great Runaway,” following the Wyoming massacre, July 3, 1778, William Maclay fled with his family from Sunbury to Harris’ Ferry, and in a letter to the president of the Executive Council he gave a very graphic picture of the distress. Again after the attack and destruction of Fort Freeland by the British, Tories and Indians, July 28, 1779, Maclay again wrote to the seat of government in which he described the forlorn situation of the frontiers. In a later letter he deplored the removal of soldiers from the West Branch Valley, where the Indians had committed such terrible depredations.

In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and from that time forward he filled the various offices of member of the Supreme Executive Council, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, etc. After the Revolution he made a visit to England in the interest of the Penn family.

In January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first Senator from Pennsylvania. He drew the short term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert Morris, securing the long term.

Maclay’s election to this body raised him upon a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the young Republic only strengthened his political convictions, which, formed by long intercourse with the people of Central Pennsylvania, were intensely democratic.

Maclay differed with the opinions of President Washington; he did not approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the President with Congress, he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in that chamber boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washington.

Maclay was the original promoter and later the actual founder of the Democratic Party. Long before Thomas Jefferson’s return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short career of only two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the opposition which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia, October 24, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the Administration.

The funding of the public debt and chartering the United States Bank were opposed by Maclay, even at a sacrifice of personal popularity, for he was succeeded in the Senate by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist.

While in the Senate Maclay preserved notes of his discussions, both in open and executive sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the statesmen of the Republic, which have since been published.

On his retirement from the Senate William Maclay resided on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected a fine stone mansion, afterward, for many years, occupied by the Harrisburg Academy.

In 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was again elected in 1803. He was a presidential candidate in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 was one of the Associate Judges of Dauphin County.

William Maclay’s brother, Samuel, was almost as distinguished a citizen as his older brother. He, too, was a soldier in the Continental Army, a surveyor and statesman. He served as Associate Judge, was in the Fourth Congress, State Senate and Speaker of that body, and December 14, 1802, he was elected to the United States Senate. William and Samuel Maclay are the only brothers to sit in that body.

William Maclay was the father of nine children. He died at his home at Harrisburg April 16, 1804, and was interred in the old Paxton Presbyterian Church graveyard at Paxtang. An elegant stone marks the final resting place of this distinguished Pennsylvanian.