During the minority of Richard and Thomas Penn the Proprietary Land Office had been closed from 1718 to 1732, and many immigrants seated themselves without title on such vacant lands as suited their convenience.

The number of such immigrants entitled them to great consideration. Their rights accruing by priority of settlement were recognized by the public and passed, together with their improvements, through many hands, in confidence that they would receive proprietary sanction.

Much agitation was produced when the Provincial proclamation required all who had not obtained and paid for warrants to pay to the Receiver General, within four months, the sums due for their lands, under penalty of ejectment. As a consequence many and great difficulties arose. The Assembly sought to compromise the matter by postponement of payment of the purchase money for several years.

Great Britain and Spain declared war October 23, 1739, and the old troubles between the Governor and Assembly again appeared to disturb the peace of the Government. The Assembly refused to support England with money or troops and Governor Thomas was compelled to raise Pennsylvania’s quota of 400 men by his own exertion. This he accomplished in three months, but many of his recruits were bond-servants willing to exchange their service and freedom dues for nominal liberty and soldier’s pay.

In March, 1744, hostilities were openly declared between Great Britain and France. The peaceful era in the Province was now at an end, and the dark cloud of the cruel savage warfare began to gather on the western frontier.

The lands acquired by the infamous “Indian Walk,” and those of the Shawnee, which were purchased without their consent, were now to be paid for by the blood of the settlers.

The Delaware Indians refused to leave the forks of the Delaware, even though the “walk” had determined these lands belonged to the Proprietary. The Six Nations were called upon to order off the Delaware, which they did in an overbearing manner. The Delaware retired to Wyoming Valley and the forks of the Susquehanna, at Shamokin, with this additional wrong done them rankling in their breasts.

Franklin published his “Plain Truth” in an endeavor to conciliate the Assembly and the Governor and awaken them both to the importance of military preparations. Franklin was appointed a Colonel, but declined. He preferred to wield the pen, with which he could be of far greater influence to the province. James Logan justified defensive war and assisted with his means.

Defenses were erected below the City of Philadelphia from funds raised for the purpose by means of a public lottery, in which many Quakers sowed a seed, trusting it would bring forth an hundredfold.

These military preparations were necessary for two purposes: to intimidate a foreign enemy and to curb the hostile disposition of the Indians.

The alienation of the Indians was greatly to be dreaded, and Governor Thomas called Conrad Weiser, the provincial interpreter, to the service and dispatched him on a mission to Shikellamy the great vicegerent at Shamokin (now Sunbury), to renew the assurances of friendship and to propose his mediation between the Indians and the Government of Virginia, occasioned by an unpleasant encounter between some Onondaga and Oneida with the English while on an expedition against the Tallapoosa, resident of that colony.

Weiser was happily successful and a treaty was held the ensuing summer. The Indians refrained from hostility in the meantime.

The treaty was convened at Lancaster, June 22, 1744, and ended July 4 following. It was attended by Governor Thomas in person, and by commissioners of Maryland and Virginia.

All matters of dispute were satisfactorily settled, and the Iroquois engaged to prevent the French and their Indian allies from marching through their country to attack the English settlements.

This conference did not, however, remove causes for future disquiet, occasioned by the encroachments of the settlers and the unfair conduct of the Indian traders.

The Shawnee, on the Ohio, allied to the French interest, now assumed a hostile attitude. A great convention was held at Albany, October 26, 1745, to which commissioners from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania were sent.

The Six Nations were urged to take up the hatchet against the French and become parties in the war, but the Indians showed no disposition to enter the contest, and the result of the conference was far from being satisfactory.

In May, 1746, Governor Thomas was directed by the Crown to raise forces for a conquest of Canada. After much delay, the Assembly voted £5000, and Governor Thomas raised four companies of over one hundred men each, commanded by Captain William Trent, John Shannon, Samuel Perry and John Deimer, who marched at once to Albany.

The attempt on Canada was postponed, but the troops were retained nearly eighteen months along the Hudson to intimidate the Indians.

John Penn died, and at a meeting of the Assembly held May 5, 1747, Governor Thomas communicated the news of his death, and at the same time, on account of his own ill-health, he resigned his office.

On the departure of Governor Thomas, the executive administration devolved upon the Council, of which Anthony Palmer was president, until the arrival of James Hamilton, son of Andrew Hamilton, former Speaker of the Assembly, as Lieutenant Governor, November 23, 1749.

The crops were abundant in 1751 and 1752, but these years of plenty were followed by a season of want, covering the years 1753–1755, and on the heels of it came Indian hostilities.

The progress of the white population toward the west irritated the Indians. Especially was this true of the Scotch-Irish, who seated themselves on the west of the Susquehanna, on the Juniata, and in the Great and Little Coves formed by the Kittatinny and the Tuscarora hills, and at the Big and Little Connolloways.

The French applied themselves to seduce the Indians from their allegiance to the English. The Shawnee had already joined them, the Delaware awaited an opportunity to avenge their wrongs, and of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca were wavering.

To keep the Indians in favor of the Province required much cunning diplomacy and expensive presents. A chain of forts and the maintenance of a military force, drew heavily on the Provincial purse, and it is but little wonder that the Assembly and the Proprietaries early divided on questions involving taxes and expenditures. The French and Indian War soon broke in all its fierceness.

Early in the Revolution the Continental Congress opened negotiations for peace with the Indians. The frontier was divided into three Indian departments, of which the middle department included the tribes west of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Congress named a committee, consisting of Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, to hold a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt.

This treaty was assembled October 27, 1775, with the Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes, represented by their leading chiefs. Guyasuta, the principal Seneca, also represented the Iroquois, and he presumed to speak also for the Western tribes, which so aroused the ire of White Eyes, the Delaware orator, that his tribe declared their absolute independence.

The council was neither harmonious nor entirely successful, and the English soon bribed the Indians to take up the hatchet against the Colonists. This they were easily able to accomplish, as they made tempting offers and made a greater display of military prowess.

During the treaty at Fort Pitt the commission selected John Gibson as Indian agent for the Ohio tribes, but he was soon succeeded by Richard Butler.

Early in 1776 Congress assumed direct control of the Indian agencies and placed George Morgan in charge of the most important post at Fort Pitt.

Morgan was a man of education, high family connections and considerable wealth. His home was in Princeton, N. J., but he owned a mercantile establishment in Philadelphia, and as agent of his own trading house he had traveled extensively in the Indian country, from the Allegheny to Illinois.

He arrived at Pittsburgh May 1, 1776, and immediately opened negotiations for a better treaty with the Indians. He sent agents with pacific messages among the tribes, employing in this service William Wilson, Peter Long, Simon Girty and Joseph Nicholson.

The mission upon which he sent Wilson was the most important. He was an Indian trader and acquainted with the tribes between the Ohio River and Detroit. It was his duty to invite the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot chiefs to a council at Fort Pitt.

Early in June he departed, accompanied by Nicholson. They traveled on horseback to the Delaware towns on the Muskingum River. There the chiefs accepted his invitation. He then journeyed to the seats of the Shawnee on the Scioto, where he found many of the warriors to be in a very doubtful humor.

The chief sachem, Hardman, and the brave war chief, Cornstalk, were inclined to peace, but advised that they had received an invitation to take part in a great council with the British Governor at Detroit, and must go there first.

While Wilson was yet at the Shawnee towns, Morgan himself arrived there, and endeavored to arrange a definite date for the treaty.

Before Morgan departed for Fort Pitt, he handed to Wilson a large peace belt of wampum and a written message to deliver to the Wyandot chief. When Wilson and Nicholson departed, they were accompanied by Cornstalk, but they advanced only as far as Pluggystown, on the Upper Scioto. This place was inhabited by renegade Indians.

The chief, Pluggy, was a Mohawk, and his followers, called Mingo, were horse thieves and murderers. Pluggy’s warriors formed a plot to seize Wilson and Nicholson and carry them to the British fort at Detroit, where a handsome reward would be theirs.

This plan was revealed to Cornstalk, who advised the white men to flee to the Delaware town of Coshocton. They were barely able to escape by night and arriving at Coshocton, they placed themselves under the protection of old King Newcomer.

That venerable sachem, believing it would not now be safe for Wilson to proceed to Sandusky, lest the Mingo should waylay the trail, sent Killbuck, a noted Delaware war captain, to bear the American message to the Wyandot chiefs. Killbuck returned eleven days later with the message the Wyandots wished to see Wilson in person as an evidence of his good intentions, but that they could not give a definite answer until they had consulted their great council beyond the lake. The seat of the nation was in Canada, near Detroit.

Wilson determined to go to Sandusky, and the Delaware Council appointed White Eyes and two young warriors to accompany him. Nicholson had been sent back to Fort Pitt with a message to Morgan. Wilson was joined later by John Montour, a grandson of the famous Madam Montour, and he served Wilson faithfully.

Before reaching Sandusky Wilson learned that the Wyandot chief had gone to the Detroit Council, and he therefore made up his mind to venture into the immediate neighborhood of the British post, so that he might deliver his message to the Wyandot chief.

It was the decision of a brave and bold man. He was received with apparent friendliness by a majority of the chiefs and on September 2 he addressed them in council, presenting his peace belt and message from Morgan. He invited them to attend the council at Fort Pitt twenty-five days from that time.

The next morning the Wyandot betrayed Wilson’s presence to the British commander, Colonel Henry Hamilton. They returned the belt to Wilson and advised him to explain his errand to the British official.

Wilson, White Eyes and John Montour were compelled to go with the Wyandots to the great Council House in Detroit. Wilson frankly announced his purpose to the Lieutenant Governor, again presented the peace belt and the written message to the Wyandot chief and handed the articles to Colonel Hamilton.

The British commander addressed the Indians, saying those who bore this message were enemies to his King, and before he would take any of them by the hand he would suffer his right hand to be cut off.

Hamilton thereupon tore up the speech, cut the belt in pieces and scattered the fragments about the Council House. He then spoke to the Wyandot Indians in French, which Wilson did not understand. Hamilton abused Montour for aiding the colonists and denounced White Eyes, whom he ordered to leave Detroit in twenty-four hours if he valued his life.

Hamilton, notwithstanding his anger, respected Wilson’s character as an ambassador and gave him safe conduct through the Indian country. The trader returned to Fort Pitt much discouraged by the outlook and reported to Morgan that the Wyandot would go on the warpath. The Mingo were already in the British service.

In spite of Hamilton’s opposition, Indians of four tribes attended the council with the “rebels” at Fort Pitt, in the latter part of October. The Delaware sent their ruling chiefs; the Wyandot sent Half King; the Shawnee, the great Cornstalk, and the distant Ottawa sent one sachem. Costly presents were given them by the commissioners, and effusive peace speeches were made by the savages, but only the Delaware were sincere.

The lives of men like James Logan ennoble the pages of history and make its study an elevating pursuit and a reinforcement to the resources of public morality. This man was worthy the compliment which the great vicegerent Shikellamy paid him, when he named his son in his honor; he was worthy to have been the trusted friend of William Penn, and to have had Benjamin Franklin for his printer.

The world has not produced many men, who, after forty years spent in the whirl and muddy currents of active business and intense political strife, can, with clean hands and unsullied reputation, calmly step aside out of the turmoil and retire to the company of his books, to endow a library and make a translation of Cicero’s “De Senectute,” printing it, as the writer himself pleasantly says, “in a large and fair character so that old men may not be vexed by the defective eyesight in reading what was so appropriate to their years.”

James Logan was born in Lurgan, Ireland, October 28, 1674. His father, Patrick Logan, grandson of Sir Robert Logan of Restairig, Scotland, sprang from that stock of proud Scottish lairds, distinguished for long pedigrees and barren acres, whose children have lent their genius to the service of the world.

James Logan was a lad of precocious mind—at sixteen he knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and made rapid progress in mathematics. He afterwards mastered French, Italian and Spanish, and probably Dutch and German. He became familiar with several Indian dialects.

He went into trade as a linen-draper’s apprentice in Dublin, then in the Bristol trade for himself.

At Bristol, in 1698, he met William Penn, and became his private secretary and devoted follower ever after.

In the year 1699, he sailed with William Penn on his second visit to his province in America. In mid-ocean another ship came into sight, and as England and France were at war, all feared that the strange vessel might be an enemy. The crew prepared for action. Penn and his friends, who did not believe in warfare, went below. Only one of Penn’s party remained on deck to help defend the ship, James Logan.

Soon Logan went below to tell Penn that the strange vessel was English, when Penn reproved him for undertaking to engage in fighting, as he was a Quaker. The young man replied with spirit: “Why did thee not order me to come down? Thee was willing enough that I should stay and help to fight, when thee thought there was danger!”

Penn expected to stay in Pennsylvania the rest of his life, but on his visit he was able to spend less than two years here. But during his stay, Logan had become not only a helper but also an intimate friend.

Penn trusted his secretary to the utmost, and when he sailed away, left all his affairs in Pennsylvania under Logan’s direction. “I have left thee in an uncommon trust,” wrote Penn, “with a singular dependence on thy justice and care.”

There was no mistake in trusting James Logan. He kept Penn informed of everything, and scrupulously attended to all Penn’s business affairs.

William Penn never came back to see his province again. During the last six years of his life his mind failed, so that his wife, Hannah, carried on all business for him. Had it not been for James Logan, poverty would often have oppressed the great founder and his family.

From the moment of Penn’s departure, in 1701, to Logan’s death, 1751, he was always the power behind the proprietary throne, wielding what was sometimes almost absolute authority with singular propriety and judgment.

He was secretary of the province, commissioner of property, and of Indian affairs, member and president of Council, acting Governor, and chief justice.

After more than twenty-five years of residence in Philadelphia, Logan decided to build a country home for himself. He erected a fine mansion, which he called Stenton, near the Old York Road. Here he lived for nearly a quarter century more.

His thigh was broken in a fall, and he was compelled to live retired, but his love of books was so constant and sincere that the pursuit of literature became his passion.

But even in seclusion he never neglected his public duties for his private tastes. Many important affairs of state were transacted at Stenton, which was nearly always surrounded by deputations of Indians, who camped about the house to seek advice and favors from their honored friend “hid in the bushes.” As many as a hundred Iroquois once stayed at Stenton for three days as Logan’s guests.

Thomas Godfrey’s improvements in the quadrant were made at Stenton under Logan’s eye, and Franklin and he worked together with a thorough appreciation of each other’s good qualities.

The British determined to burn Stenton, when they captured Philadelphia, but the cleverness of an old Negro woman servant saved the historic mansion. Lord Howe afterwards made Stenton his headquarters.

Now the famous house, quite two hundred years old, is owned by the Philadelphia Society of Colonial Dames, and is kept in good condition and open for visitors. It stands near the station at Wayne Junction.

Logan was an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Ann, daughter of Edward Shippen, who married Thomas Story. His wife was Sarah Read, daughter of a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, to whom he was wedded eight years after his ill-success with Miss Shippen.

His children were not literary in their tastes and it was on this account that he left his library to Philadelphia, endowing it for its perpetual maintenance, with the Springettsbury Manor property which he had received from Penn’s estate.

Logan was a fine type, dignified yet courteous, and his conversation was quiet and reserved.

Gordon says, “Never was power and trust more safely bestowed for the donor. The secretary faithfully devoted his time and his thoughts to promote the interests of his master, and bore with firmness, if not with cheerfulness, the odium which his unlimited devotion drew upon himself.”

He died at Stenton, October 31, 1751.

After William Penn issued his frame of government for his new Province of Pennsylvania and had sent a description of his property throughout England, especially among the Friends, offering easy terms of sale, there were many persons from London, Liverpool and Bristol who embarked in this enterprise and the association called “The Free Traders’ Society of Pennsylvania” purchased large tracts of land.

Penn then obtained a deed for the three lower counties (now the State of Delaware), which was duly recorded in New York November 21, 1682.

Having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, Penn wrote an affectionate letter to his wife and children and another “to all faithful friends in England.” Accompanied by about 100 passengers, mostly Friends from Sussex, he embarked in August on the ship Welcome, a vessel of about 300 tons burden.

After a voyage of two months they sighted the American coast about Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, on October 24, 1682, and reached New Castle, Del., on the 27th.

On the following morning Penn produced his deeds from the Duke of York and received possession by the solemn “delivery of turf, and twig, and water, and soil of the River Delaware.”

His arrival off the coast and passage up the river was a continuous demonstration of great joy by all classes—English, Dutch, Swedes, and especially by his devoted followers.

The day following his landing Penn summoned the inhabitants to the court-house at New Castle, where, says Clarkson, “he made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government and of that more particularly which he came to establish.”

At this time he took formal possession of the country and renewed the commissions of the magistrates.

Penn then proceeded to Upland, where he arrived October 29, 1682. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstances. Penn determined, therefore, to change the name of the place, and turning toward his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him on the ship Welcome, he said:

“Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I shall call this place?”

Pearson said, “Chester,” in remembrance of the place from which he came. William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name.

From Chester Penn proceeded, with some of his friends, in an open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, “where there was a high bold shore, covered with lofty pines.”

Here the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and Penn’s approach was hailed with joy by the whole population.

Immediately after his arrival in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Penn dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood and agree upon a time of meeting. Penn then went to New York to pay his respects to the Duke, returning to Philadelphia before the close of November.

It was about this time that the “Great Treaty” took place at Shackamaxon. Tradition has persisted that a great treaty took place here under an elm tree, with William Penn, Deputy Governor Markham and others, and the representatives of the several Indian tribes of that and other localities.

Even if tradition errs in the details of this treaty, it is a fact that the Indians themselves alluded to “the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good Onas” on all public occasions.

Onas was the Indian name for the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it is supposed that the “great and good Onas” referred particularly to William Penn himself.

It is also true that for a period of forty or fifty years the treaty Penn made with the Indians was not broken, and the land of Penn was preserved during all the time from the suffering of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk or the torch.

William Penn convened a General Assembly at Chester, December 4, 1682, of which Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, was chosen speaker.

During a session of four days this Assembly enacted three laws: (1) An act for the union of the Province and Territories; (2) An act of Naturalization; and (3) The great law, or code of laws, consisting of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England and several others afterward suggested.

Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River December 19, where he was received with great ceremony, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question of boundary. The discussion lasted two days, but the weather became severely cold, precluding the possibility of taking observations or making the necessary surveys, so it was agreed to adjourn further consideration of the subject until spring.

The two Governors were taking measure of each other and gaining all possible knowledge of each other’s rights and claims preparatory to the struggle for the possession of this disputed fortieth degree of latitude, which case was destined to come before the home Government and give Penn a great deal of trouble.

Early in 1683 Penn divided the province and territories each into three counties—those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester; those of the latter were New Castle, Kent and Sussex.

Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the several counties, writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable with the Constitution, and on January 10, 1683, Penn met the Council in Philadelphia and the Assembly two days later.

The Provincial Council was composed of eighteen members, three from each county, the Assembly fifty-four with nine from each county, making in all seventy-two. Thus was the Government of the province inaugurated, out of which has grown the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Penn concluded two important treaties with the Indians during June and July, 1683. He also visited the interior of his province, going as far west as the Susquehanna River.

The proprietary set sail for England June 12, 1684.

Penn wrote a farewell letter to his province when on board the vessel, which was couched in the most endearing terms.

After his departure the province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships. There were then 7000 inhabitants, of whom 2500 resided in Philadelphia, which already comprised 300 houses.

The stockades and small forts built along the frontiers during the intense excitement which followed Braddock’s defeat in July, 1755, have always been of great interest to local historians and the many citizens who reside in the vicinity of these provincial defenses.

One such place, to which not a little interesting history is attached, was built about twelve miles east of Manada Gap, near the passage through the Blue Mountains, by which the Swatara Creek wends its way to the fertile acres below, and a few miles farther empties into the Susquehanna.

In the immediate vicinity of Swatara Gap was located Fort Swatara or Smith’s Fort, as it was sometimes called. An unfortunate fact was that this fort was sometimes erroneously called Fort Henry or Busse’s Fort, and many incidents in and about this place are confused.

After the disastrous beginning of the French and Indian War the Indians swept through the frontiers of Pennsylvania and committed terrible massacres.

The news of the Penn’s Creek massacre soon reached the settlements on Swatara Creek and the farmers gathered together, October 30, armed with guns, swords, axes, pitchforks, whatever they happened to possess, until some 200 rendezvoused at Benjamin Spickers, near Stoucksburg, about six miles above Womelsdorf.

The Rev. Mr. Kurtz^[9] of the Lutheran faith, delivered an exhortation and offered prayer, after which Conrad Weiser divided the people into companies of thirty each.

They marched toward the Susquehanna, having first sent a company of fifty men “to Tolkeo in order to possess themselves of the Capes or Narrows of the Swahatawro, where we expected the enemy would come through,” wrote Colonel Conrad Weiser, to Governor Robert Hunter Morris.

The forces were augmented on the way, and by the time they arrived at Squire Adam Read’s plantation on Swatara Creek, they received the intelligence of the surprise and slaughter of members of Captain John Harris’ party at the mouth of the Mahanoy Creek.

This news dampened the ardor of the volunteers and they soon concluded they could be of more effective service guarding their own firesides and they hurried back. The news that 500 Indians had already made their way through Tolkeo Gap and had killed a number of people did not contribute to their joy on the long march home.

Colonel Weiser sensed the situation and fully understood he could not count much upon this group, so he advised them to make a breastwork of trees at Swatara Gap, promising to procure for them a quantity of bread and ammunition. They got as far as the top of the mountain; fired their guns to alarm the neighborhood, and then hurried back.

Soon came the news of the murder of Henry Hartman, just over the mountain. When Mr. Parsons and a party went to bury the body, they learned that two others had been recently killed and scalped, and some had been captured. The roads were filled with persons fleeing from their homes and confusion reigned.

It was clearly apparent that Swatara Gap must be occupied by troops and Colonel Weiser ordered Captain Christian Busse with his company of fifty men to “proceed to Tolihaio Gap, and there erect a stoccado fort of the form and dimensions given you, and to take posts there and range the woods from the fort westward towards the Swatara and eastward towards a stoccado to be built by Cap. Morgan, about half way between the said fort and Fort Lebanon.”

Governor Morris writing to Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, February 1, 1756, advised him that he had arranged to build a chain of forts, about ten or twelve miles apart, between the Delaware and Susquehanna. The best is “built at an important Pass through ye Kittahteny Hills, on our Northern Frontier and I have called it Fort Henry.” This is an error, as he should have written Fort Swatara.

This might be proved by a letter Colonel Conrad Weiser wrote to Governor Morris, July 11, 1756, giving the assignment of his troops. He stated that the men under Captain Smith are all placed in and about Swatara Gap and the Manada Fort; Captain Busse’s men were at Fort Henry and Captain Morgan’s at Fort Northkill and Fort Lebanon. This definitely proves that Fort Swatara and Fort Henry were not one and the same place.

The first and most important of the commanders of Fort Swatara was Captain Frederick Smith, whose company was recruited in Chester County. Captain Smith was ordered, January 26, to proceed as soon as possible to Swatara and in some convenient place there to erect a fort.

Captain Adam Read and Captain Hendrick, who had been ranging the mountains, were ordered to dismiss their men and turn over their arms and supplies to Captain Smith, all of which was done.

Further mention of the actual building of Fort Swatara is missing, as is the case of Manada Fort, but it is very probable that the stockade erected by the settlers was occupied by the provincial troops. This was not a very formidable fortification, and was afterward referred to in a letter to Colonel Washington as “only a block house.” It may therefore be presumed, at this late day, that it consisted of a single building, surrounded by a stockade.

The many murders committed by the savages and their stealthy approach, made it necessary to distribute the soldiers among the various farmhouses, especially during the harvest season.

The distribution of these men was usually made under the direction of Colonel Weiser, at consultations with the several commanders at Fort Henry.

This detail was not always satisfactory to the settlers, as may well be imagined. Each wanted troops to be on guard and there were never sufficient to supply the demand, but Captain Smith, at first negligent in this particular, was afterward complimented by both Colonel Weiser and Governor Morris for the faithful performance of his duty in the face of many hardships.

At the treaty held in Easton, in 1757, Conrad Weiser once more acted as agent for the Proprietaries, and interpreter. He arranged for a guard of 110 men, who were to come from sundry forts, one of which was Fort Swatara.

On February 5, 1758, Adjutant Kern reported Lieutenant Allen and thirty-three men at Fort Swatara, and “its distance to Fort Hunter, on the Susquehanna, as twenty-four miles.”

There are frequent references to be found in the Pennsylvania Archives of Paymaster Young’s visits to Fort Swatara.

Colonel James Burd’s tour of inspection in early spring of 1758 included Fort Swatara, where he remained two days longer than desired on account of incessant rains. He reviewed the garrison Tuesday morning, February 21. He did not seem very much pleased with conditions about the fort and gave orders intended to correct weaknesses. He ordered a cask of powder, 100 pounds of lead and blankets for the garrison.

After this tour of inspection there does not seem to be much more recorded of the transaction of Fort Swatara.

A place of much consequence in provincial Pennsylvania and frequently referred to by public officers and agents was McDowell’s Mill. This was located midway between the Reverend John Steel’s Fort and Fort Loudoun, east of Kittatinny Mountains on the east bank of the Conococheague Creek, in the western part of the present Franklin County.

This defense was built in the year 1756 and was a log structure, rectangular in shape and provided with loop-holes. It stood until the year 1840. There is at present a stone house erected on or near the site of this old fort.

This place was a private establishment, and the earliest public notice of it is in a letter written by Major General Edward Braddock to Governor Morris, dated June 18, 1755, signifying his approbation of the deposits being made at McDowell’s Mill instead of at Shippensburg.

Governor Morris wrote to General Braddock July 3, 1755, saying that he had sent certain enumerated articles to Shippensburg, where “they will remain until I go up into the country, which will be on Tuesday next, and then I shall form the magazine at or near McDowell’s Mill and put some stoccados around it to protect the magazine and the people that will have the care of it; for without something of this kind, as we have no militia and the Assembly will maintain no men, four or five Indians may destroy the magazine whenever they please, as the inhabitants of that part of the Province are very much scattered.

“I send you a plan of the fort or stoccado, which I shall make by setting logs of about ten feet long in the ground, so as to inclose the storehouses. I think to place two swivel guns in two of the opposite bastions, which will be sufficient to guard it against any attack of small arms.”

On October 31 began incursions which lasted for several days. Adam Hoops wrote to Governor Morris, dated Conococheague, November 3, 1755:

“I am sorry I have to trouble you with this Melancholy and disagreeable news, for on Saturday I recd. an Express from Peters Township that the Inhabitants of the great Cove were all murdered or taken Captive and their houses and barns all in Flames. Some few fled, upon notice brought them by a certain Patrick Burns, a Captive, that made his Escape that very Morning before this sad tragedy was done.

“Upon this information, John Potter, Esq., and Self, sent Expresses through our Neighborhood, which induced many of them to Meet with us at John McDowell’s Mill, where I with many others had the unhappy prospect to see the Smoke of two houses that was set on Fire by the Indians, viz, Matthew Patton’s and Mesheck James’s, where their cattle was shot down, the horses standing bleeding with Indian Arrows in them, but the Indians fled.

“The Rev. Mr. SteelSteel, John Potter, Esq., and Several others with us, to the Number of about an hundred, went in Quest of the Indians, with all the Expedition Imaginable, but to no Success; these Indians have likewise taken two Women Captives, belonging to said Township. I very much fear the Path Valley has undergone the same Fate.

“We, to be sure, are in as bad Circumstances as ever any poor Christions were in, For the Cries of the Widowers, Widows, fatherless and Motherless Children, with many others for their Relations, are enough to Pierce the hardest of hearts; Likewise it’s a very sorrowful spectacle to see those that Escaped with their lives with not a Mouthful to Eat, or Bed to lie on, or Clothes to Cover their Nakedness, or keep them warm, but all they had consumed into Ashes.

“These deplorable Circumstances cries aloud for your Honours most Wise Consideration, that you would take Cognizance of and Grant what shall seem most meet, for it is really very Shocking, it must be, for the Husband to see the wife of his Bosom, her head cut off, and the Children’s blood drank like Water by these Bloody and Cruel Savages as We are informed has been the fate of many.”

November 6, Hoops again wrote to Governor Morris, inclosing qualifications for two officers, and said:

“Hans Hamilton is now at McDowell’s Mill with upwards of 200 men and about 200 from this county, in all about 400 men.”

So it may be safely presumed as a fact that Governor Morris finally determined to establish his magazine at McDowell’s Mills and that these soldiers stockaded the buildings according to the plans of Governor Morris.

On Wednesday, February 11, 1756, “two lads were taken or killed at the Widow Cox’s, just under Parnell’s Knob, and a lad who went from McDowell’s Mills to see what fire it was never returned, the horse coming back with reins over his neck; they burnt the House and shot down the Cattle.”

Under date of March 25, 1756, Governor Morris sent the following to the Reverend John Steele: “With these Instructions you will receive a Commission appointing you a Captain of a Company in the pay of the Province, which is to be made up by Draughts of thirteen men out of Each of the Companys composed by James Burd, Hans Hamilton, James Patterson and Hugh Mercer, Esq., * * * also a Commission appointing James Hollowday your Lieutenant * * * When you have formed your Company you are to take post at McDowell’s Mills, upon the road to Ohio, which you are to make your Head Quarters, and to detach patroling partys from time to time to scour the woods. * * * You are to apply to Mr. Adam Hoops, for the Provincial allowance of Provisions for the men under your Command.”

Governor Morris sent instructions to Elisha Salter, Commissary General of Musters, to proceed to McDowell’s Mill and muster the company under Captain John Steel, and direct him to take post at McDowell’s Mill.

Robert Callender wrote to Governor Denny from Carlisle, dated November 4, 1756: “This day I received advice from Fort McDowell that on Monday or Tuesday last, one Samuel Perry and his two sons went from the Fort to their plantation, and not returning at the time they proposed, the commanding Officer sent there a corporal and fourteen men to know the cause of their stay, who not finding them at the plantation, they marched back toward the Fort, and on their return found the said Perry killed and scalped and covered over with leaves; immediately after a party of Indians, in number about thirty, appeared and attacked the soldiers, who returned the fire, and fought for sometime until four of our people fell, the rest of them made off—six of them got into the Fort, but what became of the rest is not yet known; there are two families cut off, but cannot tell the number of people. It is likewise reported that the enemy in their retreat burnt a quantity of grain and sundry horses in the Cove.”

The activities of Fort McDowell ceased during December, 1756, when Colonel John Armstrong removed the stores to Fort Loudoun, and increased the capacity and strength of that place. Further references to McDowell’s Mill are of no consequence, it being afterwards used by rangers who were scouting along that frontier.