A century and a half has almost elapsed since the American Revolution, and in the interim much has been written and published concerning it. But comparatively little has ever been accessible to the public concerning the medical department of the army of patriots.

To Pennsylvanians particularly this feature of the war should prove of interest, for the only Directors General of Military Hospitals were none other than Dr. William Shippen and Dr. John Cochran, both of Pennsylvania.

In the year 1570 John Cochran, of kin to the Earl of Dundonald, emigrated from Paisley in Scotland, to the North of Ireland. James, his descendant in the sixth generation, crossed the sea to America, and in the early part of the eighteenth century settled in Pennsylvania. His third son, born at Sadsbury, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1730, was Doctor John Cochran, of the Revolution, who was educated for a surgeon by Dr. Robert Thompson of Lancaster.

Having qualified as a physician at the time of the outbreak of the French and Indian War, he entered the English service as surgeon’s mate, and remained on active duty until the close of hostilities. In the campaigns of this war he acquired the medical proficiency and surgical expertness for which he was afterward celebrated.

On December 4, 1760, he married Gertrude Schuyler, only sister of General Philip Schuyler, of New York.

Dr. Cochran afterward removed to Brunswick, N. J., where he practiced his profession, until the British burned his house in the early part of the Revolutionary War.

At the close of 1776 he volunteered his services in the Continental army and General Washington, remembering his experience and usefulness in the French war, was prompt in recommending his name to the Continental Congress.

Dr. Cochran and Dr. William Shippen had prepared a report on hospitals upon plans modeled after those of the British army, and submitted their efforts to Congress, after they were approved by General Washington. On April 7, 1777, Congress adopted this report, which remained in effect until remodeled by Congress, September 30, 1780.

On April 11, 1777, in pursuance of General Washington’s recommendation, Doctor John Cochran received the appointment of Chief Physician and Surgeon-General of the Army.

After nearly four years of exacting service in this position, he was, on January 17, 1781, on the resignation of Dr. William Shippen, promoted to be Director of the Military Hospitals of the United States, in which capacity he continued until the end of the war.

Fortunately a letter book kept by Doctor Cochran has been preserved. The entries, memorandums and letters partake of the authority of an official record. They also disclose the many distressing difficulties of the situation.

The Medical Department, as re-arranged October 6, 1780, consisted of a Director, stationed at general headquarters, a Chief Physician and Surgeon, stationed with the army, three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals stationed variously at the principal hospitals, and other assistants, mates, orderlies, matrons and nurses, as occasion required.

When Doctor Cochran was promoted to be Director, Dr. James Craik was given the place of Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army, and Dr. William Burnet was made first of the three chief physicians, with Dr. Malichi Treat and Dr. Charles McKnight as the other two chiefs. Dr. Thomas Bond was made purveyor and Dr. Andrew Cragie, the apothecary.

Some estimate may be had of Doctor Cochran’s real worth, when it is known that Dr. Craik was the life-long friend and personal physician of General Washington, yet was his subordinate.

Previous to this time there had been several very important hospitals in Pennsylvania, the base hospital twice being at Bethlehem; first on December 3, 1776, until March 27, 1777, when the hospital was removed to Philadelphia; then after the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, Bethlehem again became the base hospital. The wounded from the battle of Germantown were also treated there. On August 28, 1778, the remaining patients were removed to Lancaster and Yellow Springs. Other hospitals in Pennsylvania were at Ephrata, Lititz and Reading.

The position of Director was always most exacting; not only were his duties the alleviation of the suffering, in the rigors of a Valley Forge, or stimulating its convalescence in the camp at Norristown, but often the finances were expended and the medical stores entirely exhausted. At no time did the army abound in medical stores.

At times hundreds were sick and lame when there were no supplies to relieve them, Untended wounds or languishing disease filled hospitals destitute of medicines. Scarcely was convalescence a boon, when lack of subsistence faced the soldier in the hospital and often compelled him to beg in the streets for the very necessaries of life.

In this appalling crisis Doctor Cochran seemed to be the right man in the right place. He remained almost constantly in the field and purchased supplies as they moved from place to place, and made such strong and insistent appeals to Congress that some better support was given him, but not before his staff had been reduced to eight hospital physicians out of the fifteen established by Congress, and only five of these on actual duty.

Early in 1782 a quantity of medicine was received from France and it arrived none too soon.

But the lack of medicine was not the only hardship of those in the Medical Department. A letter from Dr. Cochran to Abram Clark, President of Congress, dated February 28, 1781, says: “I hope some pay is ordered to be advanced to the officers of the department, without which it cannot much longer exist. Many of us have not received a shilling in near two years, nor can we procure public clothing.”

Many hospital physicians resigned owing to their inability to subsist themselves longer. When Congress at length issued warrants they were as worthless as the credit of Congress, and they afforded no relief.

Dr. Cochran was of stately presence and most genial. He won his high place by real merit and experience.

He pawned his personal credit for the cause; the last sheets from his bed were used on the wounded. He quieted dissensions in the department, composed the difficulties of individuals, presented petitions for his subordinate officers, and performed routine work which should have been done by others. All this various labor was performed with cheerfulness in adversity, and courage amid danger.

He was on terms of intimacy with Washington, Lafayette, Wayne, Paul Jones and many more. Washington presented him with his camp furniture, Lafayette gave him his watch, Wayne gave him his sword, the silver hilt of which was melted into goblets.

Dr. Cochran was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died at his country-seat at Palatine, Montgomery County, N. Y., April 6, 1807. His widow survived him until March, 1813.

The convention to frame a Constitution for the government of Pennsylvania as a State completed its labors September 2, 1790.

On that day the members signed the instrument, after which they went in procession from the State House to the court-house, where the new Constitution was proclaimed.

Provision had been made for the continuance in office, until the new government went into operation, of the Supreme Executive Council and other State officers, but not of the Legislature, and the latter body believing its authority had ceased, did not proceed to the transaction of business on the following day.

At the election held in October, Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, who had been president of the Supreme Executive Council since November 5, 1788, was elected governor over General Arthur St. Clair.

The new Legislature met in the State House December 7, and on December 21 the change of government was formally effected.

A procession was formed at the chamber of the Supreme Executive Council, which moved to the old court-house at Second and Market Streets, where the old government yielded up its powers, and the new government was proclaimed. Governor Mifflin was inaugurated “with much ceremony.”

On January 1, 1791, the City Councils, Mayor, Recorder and a great number of citizens waited on Governor Mifflin and tendered him their congratulations.

The first constitutional convention, whose most conspicuous members were Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, George Ross and James Smith, met at Philadelphia July 15, 1776, each one taking, without hesitancy, the prescribed test oath, and organized by the selection of Benjamin Franklin, president.

The labors of this convention were completed September 28, when the Constitution was adopted, and went into immediate effect without a vote of the people.

This Constitution vested executive authority in a Council of Safety, presided over by Thomas Wharton, Jr., composed of twelve members, one from Philadelphia and one from each of the counties. The legislative power was vested in a General Assembly of one house elected annually, and consisting of six members from Philadelphia and six from each county. The supreme executive power was vested in a President, chosen annually by the Assembly and Council.

A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from Philadelphia and two from each county, was to be elected in 1783, and in each seventh year thereafter, whose duty was to supervise the Constitution and the branches of government, with a power to impeach.

The Constitution of 1776 also provided that, “all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” This was the first time in America that higher education was made a part of the fundamental law.

Following the successful termination of the Revolution the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful and effective State Government, and its revision was demanded.

On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions recommending the election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly, but acquiesced in September. An election was held in October, when delegates were chosen.

The convention met November 24, 1789, and in it were the first talents that Pennsylvania could boast. Thomas McKean, Thomas Mifflin, Albert Gallatin, William Findlay, James Wilson, William Lewis, James Ross, Alexander Addison, Edward Hand, Samuel Sitgreaves, Joseph Hiester and Thomas Pickering were among the members. Thomas Mifflin was elected President.

After a long session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet again, when the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and concluded, and the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790.

The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative branches of government.

The Supreme Executive Council was abolished, and a single executive called a governor was created. The Assembly ceased to have the sole right to make laws, as the legislative body was divided into two branches, a Senate and a House.

The former judicial system was continued, excepting that a Supreme Court was provided, the judges of which were to be appointed during good behavior, instead of for seven years.

The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support of any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not included.

The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and the veto power was given to the Governor.

This body, with Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, had met but once, in 1783. It then got itself into such a snarl with the Assembly that it became very unpopular.

Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which the New Federal Government was to be administered.

General Mifflin continued to discharge the duties of the chief executive with great ability, and was re-elected twice, serving in all three terms, the limit allowed by the Constitution.

Governor Mifflin was elected to the Legislature at the end of his service as Governor, and died at Lancaster, January 21, 1800, while serving in that body.

General Edward Hand, M.D., a native of Clyduff, Kings County, Province of Leinster, Ireland, born December 31, 1744, became a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and one of the first distinguished officers of the Revolution. He died at his fine farm “Rockford,” near Lancaster, September 3, 1802.

In 1767 he was appointed by King George III surgeon of the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, and sailed with the regiment from Cork, May 20 of the same year, arriving at Philadelphia July 11.

Dr. Hand was appointed ensign in the same regiment in 1772, and accompanied the command to Fort Pitt, returning to Philadelphia in 1774, when he resigned his commission and was regularly discharged from the service.

In the same year he went to Lancaster, with recommendations, in order to practice his profession in that place.

The following year he married Catherine, daughter of Captain John Ewing and Sarah Yeates, a sister of Hon. Jasper Yeates.

At the beginning of the American Revolution Dr. Hand gave his allegiance to the colonies, and was commissioned, June 25, 1775, lieutenant-colonel in Colonel William Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen.

This battalion consisted of nine companies of troops enlisted in the counties of Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Northumberland, Bedford, Berks and Northampton. After January 1, 1776, it became known as the First Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies.

Lieutenant-Colonel Hand accompanied Colonel Thompson and the battalion to Boston, where they arrived August 17, 1775. He was on Prospect Hill, August 20, when the battalion distinguished itself, and participated in the siege of Boston during the following autumn and winter.

The officers and men of the battalion were publicly thanked by General Washington in general orders the day following the skirmish at Lechmere’s Point, November 9, when each man demeaned himself with unusual skill and daring. The British had landed under cover of a fire from their batteries on Bunker, Breed’s and Copp’s Hills, as well as from a frigate which lay three hundred yards off the point, which at high tide was an island. The regiment marched instantly, and, though the day was stormy, regarded not the tide, nor waited for boats, but took to the water, although up to their armpits, for a quarter of a mile and, notwithstanding the regulars’ fire, reached the island and drove the enemy from behind their cover into their boats.

March 7, 1776, Hand was appointed colonel of the regiment he had commanded since February 2, and, with his command, left Cambridge March 15 to join General John Sullivan in New York.

During May and June this regiment was on Long Island. It picketed the shores until August.

Colonel Hand took part, with his regiment, in the battle of Long Island, and assisted to successfully protect the retreat of the American army. This was a skillful maneuver which effected the retreat of twelve thousand men, within sight of a strong enemy, possessed of a mighty fleet, without any loss of troops and saving all the baggage.

Colonel Hand took part in the battles of White Plains, Trenton and Princeton. At the last of these conflicts, says General Wilkinson, “at the time General Mercer engaged the 17th Regiment, Colonel Hand endeavored, by a rapid movement, to turn the enemy’s left flank, and had nearly succeeded when they fled in disorder ... the riflemen were therefore the first in the pursuit, and in fact took the greatest part of the prisoners; they were accompanied by General Washington in person with a squad of the Philadelphia Troop.”

Colonel Hand continued in command of his regiment until April 1, 1777, when he was promoted to be brigadier-general, and was soon thereafter sent to Fort Pitt in command of the western frontiers of Pennsylvania.

A new fort was erected in Westmoreland County, named Fort Hand.

General Hand did not meet with the expected success in fighting Indians and asked to be relieved of his command, which Congress, May 2, 1778, resolved to do. But before leaving Fort Pitt, General Hand conducted a successful treaty with the Indians June 17, 1778.

In October following he succeeded General Stark in command at Albany, and the next spring General Hand was ordered to take part in General Sullivan’s campaign against the Six Nations. Although the youngest of the generals engaged, Hand held the most important position after that of General Sullivan. His experience in fighting Indians gained on the western frontier was of great value in the expedition.

General Hand afterward joined General Washington and encamped at Morristown, N. J., during the winter.

On the formation of the light infantry corps of the army, August, 1780, General Hand was given command of one of the two brigades.

He was a member of the tribunal that tried and convicted Major André.

General Hand was appointed Adjutant-General of the Army of the United States January 8, 1781. He was present at the siege of Yorktown and returned with the troops to Philadelphia.

September 30, 1783, he was commissioned Major-General of the Pennsylvania Line.

Upon the close of the war he resumed his practice of medicine at Lancaster.

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785, and a member of the General Assembly 1785, and an Elector for the first election of a President and Vice President of the United States in 1789.

General Hand helped frame the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1790, and held other positions of honor and trust.

He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served as President in 1799. He was the lover of fine horses and was himself an excellent horseman.

As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and as a physician greatly sought after and much beloved. He was a great Pennsylvanian.

The first European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made on Tinicum Island, now Essington, not far distant from the mouth of Darby Creek on the Delaware River. The beautiful buildings of the Corinthian Yacht Club are now located on this historic spot.

A monument was unveiled June 14, 1923, to mark the place where the first permanent settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made. This shaft was erected by the Swedish Colonial Society and was unveiled by Miss Nancy J. Paxson, tenth in descent from one of the original founders of the colony.

Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of note, who had recently been knighted by the Swedish Government for the conspicuous role he enacted in the Thirty Years’ War, accompanied by a few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort of green logs and named the settlement he founded New Gottenberg. The fort was mounted with four cannon. Provisions were made for the planting of corn and tobacco.

A short time thereafter Printz built a pretentious mansion on Tinicum Island, “very splendid,” with an orchard and pleasure house, and it bore the name of Printz Hof or Printz Hall. This mansion house was two stories high and built of hewn logs, while two or more fireplaces and ovens were made of bricks imported from Sweden for that purpose. There were even glass windows. The utensils were of copper and tin. Their light was candle. Printz Hall also contained a fine library and every convenience known at that period. This great house stood 160 years, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire.

Printz planted orchards, cleared fields and firmly established himself on the place he determined should be the seat of government for the Swedish colony on the South River, as the Delaware was then known.

Printz sent Maus Kling, the engineer for the colony, to make a settlement on the Schuylkill. Log houses were built there, and Kling built on the east bank of the Schuylkill, near its mouth, probably on what was afterward called Providence Island, a small fort which was called New Korsholm.

These operations of Kling, the plantation and the fort, form the first authenticated occupancy by Europeans of the site of the City of Philadelphia.

On April 17, 1640, the Swedish ship Kalmer Nyckel sailed into the Christiana Creek. Among the immigrants was the Reverend Reorus Torkillus, a clergyman of the Swedish Lutheran Church, who thus became the first minister of the gospel on the Delaware River. Soon after this preacher’s arrival in the colony a meeting house was built, in which the services of the Lutheran Church were conducted.

Governor Printz built a church on Tinicum Island, which had a bell and belfry. It was succeeded by a more imposing and commodious edifice in 1646, built of logs, with a roof of clapboards and an altar with a silver cloth. This church was dedicated by the Reverend John Campanius on September 4, 1646.

Printz reported to his home Government he had the church finished and dedicated, “adorning and decorating it according to our Swedish fashion, so far as our limited means and resources would allow.”

There was a graveyard located adjacent to the church, in which was interred the corpse of Andrew Hanson’s daughter Catherine, who was buried October 28, 1646. This was the first burial of any European in Pennsylvania, certainly the first in any regularly established cemetery.

The marriage of Governor Printz’s daughter, Armegot, to Johan Papegoja, the commandant at Fort Christina, was solemnized in this old church at Tinicum, in 1644, and it is believed to have been the first instance in which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the limits of the present State of Pennsylvania.

The Old Swedes’ Church called the worshippers together with the sound of the first “church-going bell” on the American Continent. But in May, 1673, Armegot Papegoja was in such dire distress for funds that she sold the bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, at Laus Deo.

The worshippers believed this bell should be nowhere but in their own Swedes’ Church and they determined to repurchase it, when the members of the congregation gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the consideration. The bell was brought back to Tinicum, but the facts relating to its subsequent history are lacking.^[6]

It is quite probable that this Old Swedes’ Church remained the active center for worship long after the Swedes were swept from power on the Delaware.

Peter Stuyvesant, at the head of a large fleet and formidable expedition, September, 1654, captured Fort Cassimer, or Trinity, as the Swedes called it, then after a siege of fourteen days compelled the surrender of Fort Christina, which was defended by Governor Johan Claesson Rysingh.

In the articles of capitulation, which were formally drawn up and signed September 25 by the two commanders on the “parade ground” outside the fort, it was agreed that the Swedish soldiers were to march out with the honors of war.

The “guns, ammunition, implements, victuals and other effects belonging to the Crown of Sweden and to the South Company,” in the fort or its vicinity, were to remain their property. The Swedish settlers might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance. Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, the “liberty of the Augsburg Confession,” and have a minister to instruct them.

When the English came to the South River in the fall of 1664, the Swedes at Tinicum still were worshiping in their Lutheran Church.

After the departure of Governor Rysingh, in 1653, there was only one minister among the Swedes on the river, the man who was variously called Laers, Laurentius Carolus, Lock, Lokenius, etc., was a poor fellow whose missteps and mischances, moral lapses and legal misdemeanors are repeatedly mentioned in the scanty chronicles of the time. He preached in the Swedes’ Church at Tinicum and at Crane Hook, between Christina and New Castle, where a log church was built about 1667. Lock died in 1688.

When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle Court decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, “that the church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent.”

Great Tinicum Island stands with Jamestown and Plymouth as one of the birthplaces of America.

Lewis, in the history of Chester County, says that the Swedes came from New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to worship in that building.

About this time the settlement at Upland, now Chester, began to thrive, and it was not long before it became a more important place than Tinicum.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania promptly responded to the “Instructions” of the great meeting of the Provincial deputies held in the State House July 15, 1774, and appointed Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and, subsequently, John Dickinson as delegates to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September.

This body assembled September 5 in Carpenters’ Hall and chose Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, secretary, of what proved to be the first Continental Congress.

The Declaration of Rights was agreed upon. This claimed, first, as natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty and fortune; secondly, they claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they had not consented by their chosen representatives. They denied to Parliament all power of taxation and vested the right of legislation in their own Assemblies.

The common law of England they declared to be their birthright, including the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage, of public meetings and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all legislation by councils depending on the Crown.

Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enumerated the various acts which had been passed in derogation of them. There were eleven in number, passed in as many years—the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain of offenses committed in America, for the regulation of the government of Massachusetts, for the closing of the port of Boston, and the last straw, known as the Quebec bill.

On October 18, articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of which, two days afterward, should be regarded as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality.

On October 26, an address to the people of Great Britain was adopted, also a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to His Majesty. The Congress then adjourned to meet in Philadelphia on the 10th of May following.

Dickinson was a powerful member of this first Congress, his master hand being first employed in the “Address to the inhabitants of Quebec,” forwarded under date of October 26. This address set forth the reasons why the people of that province should join with those of the Colonies in their political interests.

Over the Pennsylvania delegation Galloway, with his wealth, education and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and presiding genius. His influence was clearly seen in the selection of delegates, for both Dickinson and Wilson were omitted in the original list. The failure to name Mr. Dickinson was a grave error, but was corrected when Mayor Rhoads could not serve.

As Congress assembled Galloway did the honors, but his conduct soon revealed him acting as a volunteer spy for the British Government, and he did everything in his power to exert a control over the first Congress.

He even went so far as to hold secret meetings with the Governor of New Jersey and the Lieutenant Governor of New York, when he proposed in Congress a government for America to consist of a President General appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a Grand Council chosen once in three years by the assemblies of the various colonies, the members thereof to be apportioned according to population.

His celebrated scheme was not popular, but in presenting it to Congress, said: “I am as much a friend to liberty as exists, and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you.”

The plan was favored by New York and South Carolina and on final vote was rejected by the close vote of six colonies against five. “With this defeat,” says Bancroft, “Galloway lost his mischievous importance.”

At the October election Galloway was re-elected to the Assembly, but the many changes in the membership foretold the decided advancement of the Whigs. Edward Biddle was elected Speaker. Galloway did not attend until after the report of the preceding Congress had been made.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met on December 8, 1774, was the first Provincial Legislature to which report of the congressional proceedings was made. The Assembly unanimously approved them December 15, and recommended them to the inviolable observance of the people. This body then appointed Messrs. Biddle, Dickinson, Mifflin, Galloway, Humphreys, Morton and Ross as delegates to the new Congress. Mr. Samuel Rhoads, who was then the Mayor of Philadelphia, was too occupied with those duties and was omitted from this delegation.

Upon the return of Benjamin Franklin from London, he was immediately added to the congressional delegation, together with Messrs. James Wilson and Thomas Willing. Mr. Galloway, who had repeatedly requested to be excused from serving, was permitted to withdraw. Galloway had become too much alarmed at the length to which the opposition to the mother country was carried.

Hitherto Governor John Penn had looked upon the proceedings of the Assembly without attempting to direct or control them. He was supposed to favor the efforts made in support of American principles; but now a semblance of regard to the instructions of the Crown induced him to remonstrate in mild terms against the continental system of petition and remonstrance.

In England the proceedings of the Americans were viewed with great indignation by the King and his ministry, and the petition of Congress, although declared by the Secretary of State, after a day’s perusal, “to be decent and proper and received graciously by His Majesty, did not receive much favor at the hands of the ministry, which resolved to compel the obedience of the Americans.”

The remonstrances of three millions of people were therefore treated, perhaps believed, as the clamors of an unruly multitude.

Both houses of Parliament joined in an address to the King, declaring “that they find a rebellion actually exists in the Province of Massachusetts.” That was followed by an act for restraining the trade and commerce of the New England Provinces and prohibiting them from carrying on the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, which was subsequently extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and the Lower Counties on the Delaware.

Conciliatory measures were introduced in Parliament, which provided a relief from tax or duties for those colonies which would yield strict obedience to the laws of the mother country. This proposition was opposed as an admission of the correctness of the American views. Upon Pennsylvania’s reply to the resolutions of Parliament much depended, and the Assembly acted promptly and with unanimity.

By reason of Edward Biddle’s illness, John Morton was elected Speaker, March 15, 1775.

In the early days of the Revolution the settlers on the frontiers suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and this was particularly true in the region of the Susquehanna valleys. A chain of forts or blockhouses was established from Fort Jenkins on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, about midway between the present towns of Berwick and Bloomsburg, to Fort Reid, in the present borough of Lock Haven.

Each of these forts was garrisoned by troops from large Fort Augusta at the forks of the Susquehanna, and each in its turn was attacked by Indians or by British and Indians, during the period of the Revolution, and all but one or two of them were destroyed.

The most important attack on any of the above forts occurred July 28, 1779, when the British under Captain John MacDonald and Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiakatoo, defeated the garrison at Fort Freeland, took all the men and boys prisoners and destroyed the fort. This story is told on July 28.

In 1769, William Patterson patented 700 acres of land in what is now Lewis Township, Northumberland County, which he named Paradise. Two years later he sold his Paradise farm to John Montgomery, of Paxtang, and removed to White Deer Creek, to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter. John Montgomery established his family at Paradise, and his descendants still reside in that beautiful valley.

At the time of the battle at Fort Freeland, John Montgomery heard the firing, mounted two of his young sons on horses and sent them to the top of a hill to learn the cause of the shooting. They soon discovered the fort on fire and a fight raging in the timber below them. They hurriedly returned and reported what they had seen, when their father loaded his family in a wagon, with what provisions and clothing they could carry, and rapidly drove across the country to the cabin of Philip Davis, on Chillisquaque Creek, near the present village of Pottsgrove. Davis gathered up his family and together they hurriedly journeyed to Fort Augusta, then down the river to Paxtang, where they remained until after the war was closed.

The precaution of Montgomery was intuitive, for the victorious British and Indians soon reached Paradise and burned his home and buildings.

With Fort Freeland destroyed and Montgomery’s home in ruins, it was necessary that one of these places be immediately rebuilt and fortified.

A detachment of the German Regiment, then in that vicinity, was sent to Paradise under command of Captain John Rice, and in the winter of 1779–80 they built a stockade around a fine spring of water, which forms the headwaters of Muddy Run. This was built permanently out of limestone found in that locality and today is in an excellent state of preservation and used by the tenant of the farm.

After completing this real fort they ably defended it, as an attack took place there early in September, 1780, which is told in a letter written by Colonel Samuel Hunter, county lieutenant, dated Fort Augusta, September 21, 1780, as follows:

“We were alarmed by a large party of the enemy making their appearance in our county on the 6th inst. They came first to a small fort that Colonel Weltner’s troops had erected on the headwaters of the Chillisquaque, calling it Fort Rice, about thirteen miles from Sunbury. (Three errors: Headwaters of Muddy Run; should be Fort Montgomery, the owner and original builder, and not Fort Rice, just because such a soldier was in charge of the detail, and the distance is seventeen miles from Sunbury, or about four from Milton).

“When the German Regiment marched off the enemy attacked the fort about sundown, and fired very smartly. The garrison returned the fire with spirit, which made them withdraw a little off, and in the night they began to set fire to a number of houses and stacks of grain which they consumed.

“In the meantime our militia had collected to the number of one hundred men under command of Colonel John Kelly, who marched to the relief of the garrison, and arrived there next day. The people of the garrison acquainted Colonel Kelly that there must be two hundred and fifty or three Hundred of the Enimy, which he did not think prudent to engage without being Reinforced. The confusion this put the inhabitants in, it was not easy to collect a party equal to fight the savages.

“I immediately sent off an express to Col. Purdy on Juniata whom I heard was marching to the Frontiers of Cumberland County with the militia, he came as quick as possible to our assistance with one Hundred and ten of the militia and about Eighty Volunteers, which was no small Reinforcement to us.

“Genl. Potter just coming home from camp at this critical time came up to Sunbury and took command of the party that went in Quest of the Enimy. But previous to his marching, discharged the Volunteers as he concluded by the information he had received from spyes we had out that the enemy did not exceed one Hundred and fifty and that they had withdrawn from the inhabitants to some Remote place.

“General Potter, However, marched on to Muncy Hills, but was a little baffled by the information to their route and did not come on their track till the 13th and followed on about 50 miles up Fishing Creek, the road the enemy took, but finding they had got too far ahead returned here the 17th inst. The enemy got but one scalp and one prisoner. (Colonel Hunter did not know of the Sugar Loaf Massacre when he wrote.)

“We all concluded the enimy had got off, but on the 18th there was a small party made their appearance on the West Branch about fourteen miles above this place, they killed one man and wounded another, and killed their horses they had in the plow, which plainly shows they have scattered into small parties to Harass the inhabitants, which I am afraid will prevent the people from getting crops put in the ground this fall.

“When the German Regiment marched off from here I gave orders for the Frontier’s Companys to embody and keep one-fourth of the men Constantly Reconnoitering.

“After garrisoning Fort Jenkins, Fort Rice and Fort Swartz with twenty men in each of them, this was the only method I could think of encouraging the people as we were left to our own exertions. Only about thirty of Capt. McCoy’s company of Volunteers from Cumberland County, until the 10 inst., that two companies of militia came here from the same county in the whole about eighty men.

“When I received the intelligence of a large party of savages and tories coming against Fort Rice, I gave orders to evacuate Fort Jenkins as I did not look upon it to be tenable, which is since burned by the Enimy, and would have shared the same had the men staid there on act. of the Buildings, that were adjoining it, etc.”

John Montgomery and his family returned after peace was declared. Finding the buildings of his farm destroyed and a good, strong stone house supplying its place, he at once occupied the fort, which, with additions, made him a comfortable home for years.