One of the first captives of the French and Indian War in 1755 was James Smith, of the Conococheague frontier, in what is now Franklin County.

He survived a long captivity and afterward wrote a remarkable account of his experiences which were published in Archibald Loudon’s “Indian Narratives.”

He was born in Chester County November 26, 1737, and spent his early youth in that neighborhood. In 1755 he was living along the frontier in the vicinity of McDowell’s Mill, in present Franklin County, where he was employed by his brother William, who was a commissioner to build a road from the above mill to the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, over which it was intended to transport supplies for General Braddock.

When the builders reached the base of the Alleghenies a storehouse for supplies was placed in charge of Robert McCoy. The supply of meat was almost exhausted and McCoy dispatched young Smith to meet the wagons, bringing a fresh supply, and hurry along the cattle and provisions.

Before reaching the Juniata Smith met Arnold Vigorus, who advised him that the wagons were near at hand. Smith then started back with Vigorus, but when the wagons arrived at McCoy’s the wagoners reported they had seen nothing of Smith or his companion.

McCoy sent out a searching party, who soon found the boy’s hat and Vigorus’s gun, and a short distance away his scalped body.

James Smith was a captive for five years and experienced a most varied and severe ordeal.

He effected his escape and returned to the Conococheague in 1760. As his family and friends believed him dead, their surprise over his return was the greater and even his gait and manners of the Indians did not lessen their joy in his return.

Smith learned that the sweetheart of his boyhood, believing him long since dead, had married only three days before his return, when his thought was to claim her.

Smith had no sooner returned to his home than he organized a company of Indian fighters, who wore Indian clothes, and were trained to Indian methods. This company soon became known as the “Black Boys,” because they painted their faces in the Indian colors—red and black. Smith was the captain.

During the Pontiac War these “Black Boys” were put under regular pay, and two other Indian captives served as Captain Smith’s lieutenants. This company rendered effective service in the Cumberland Valley.

As Smith had served with Colonel John Armstrong and Colonel Henry Bouquet, he had become familiar with the attitude of the Provincial authorities in their treatment of the Indians.

It so happened that one day he overheard an interview in the Great Cove which revealed the arrogance of the traders and the unfairness of those at the seat of government. He took matters in his own hands, and determined food, clothing and other goods should not be sent to the Western Indians if he could prevent it.

Captain Smith assembled ten of his command. They painted their faces in the Indian fashion and waylaid a pack train at Sideling Hill, an episode in frontier history which has been misunderstood and misrepresented in history.

The engagement was brief and decisive. The horses fell one after the other until the drivers were compelled to surrender.

The goods were assembled on one side, and the drivers led off some distance, under guard. The “Black Boys” examined the contents of the packs, and, as they suspected, found them to consist of blankets, shirts, vermilion, lead, beads, wampum, tomahawks, scalping-knifes, etc. The whole lot was burned.

The English soldiers thought the “Black Boys” were rioters, but the inhabitants viewed their acts with general satisfaction.

Lieutenant Grant attempted to effect the arrest of Captain Smith and his command, but the latter soon raised a force of 300 frontiersmen and promptly captured two British soldiers of the garrison at Fort Loudoun for every one of the “Black Boys” they held as prisoners.

The result of this action was that very few pack trains passed through that valley carrying goods to the Indians along the Ohio.

In 1769, when the Indians became troublesome in the vicinity of Fort Bedford, a new company of “Black Boys” was organized, but members were arrested and confined in irons, as they were not understood.

Captain Smith determined to release the men, and by a ruse managed to apprize the British of his approach and intended attack, which was to occur at midday. But at dawn his command was under the bank of the Juniata awaiting word from William Thompson who had entered the fort as a spy.

At the given signal the little band rushed the fort and secured the arms which were stocked in the center of the parade.

The prisoners were released and the first British fort in America was then and there captured by what they termed “American rebels.”

Captain Smith was afterward arrested in Bedford and confined in jail, on a trumped up charge of murder.

His “Black Boys” would have rescued him but Smith was conscious of his innocence and stood trial. In spite of the fact they desired it otherwise he was acquitted.

Smith afterwards became a valued officer in the Revolution, attaining the rank of colonel, and was several terms in the General Assembly and a most distinguished citizen.

After the Revolution Colonel Smith removed to Kentucky where he again earned an enviable reputation as an able member of the Legislature of that State.

He died there in 1812.

27, 1700

In July, 1683, a post was established from Philadelphia to Maryland by William Penn. Henry Waldy, of Tacony, had authority to run the post and supply the passengers with horses.

The rates of postage were: Letters from the Falls to Philadelphia, three pence; to Chester, five pence; to New Castle, seven pence; to Maryland, nine pence; from Philadelphia to Chester, two pence; to New Castle, four pence; to Maryland, six pence. It went once a week, notice having been placed on the meeting-house door and at other public places. Communication was frequent with Manhattan and New York, the road starting on the eastern side of the Delaware at about Bordentown, New Jersey.

But the pioneer postoffice in the Province of Pennsylvania was established in Philadelphia under an act of Assembly, November 27, 1700.

The act by which this postoffice was established recited that “Whereas, The King and the late Queen Mary, by their royal letters patent under the great seal of England, bearing date the seventeenth day of February, which was in the year one thousand and six hundred and ninety-one, did grant Thomas Neal, Esquire, his executors, administrators and assigns, full power and authority to erect, settle, establish within the King’s colonies and plantations in America, one or more office or offices for receiving and dispatching of letters and packets by post, and to receive, send and deliver the same, under such rates and sums of money, as shall be agreeable to the rates established by act of Parliament in England, or as the planters and others should agree to give on the first settlement, to have, hold and enjoy the same for a term of twenty-one years, with and under such powers, limitations and conditions as in and by the said letters patent may more fully appear.

“And whereas, The King’s Postmaster General of England, and at the request, desire and nomination of the said Thomas Neale, hath deputed Andrew Hamilton, Esquire, for such time and under such conditions as is his deputation is for that purpose mentioned to govern and manage the said General Post Office for and throughout all the King’s plantations and colonies in the mainland or continent of America and the islands adjacent thereto, and in and by the said deputation may more fully appear.

“And whereas, The said Andrew Hamilton hath, by and with the good liking and approbation of the Post Master General of England made application to the proprietary and Governor of this Province and Territories and freemen thereof convened in General Assembly, that they would ascertain and establish such rates and sums of money upon letters and packets going by post as may be an effectual encouragement for carrying on and maintaining a general post, and the proprietary and Governor and Freemen in General Assembly met, considering that maintaining of mutual and speedy correspondencies is very beneficial to the King and his subjects, and a great encouragement to trade, and that the same is best carried on and managed by public post, as well as for the preventing of inconveniences which heretofore have happened for want thereof, as for a certain, safe and speedy dispatch, carrying and recarrying of all letters and packets of letters by post to and from all parts and places within the continent of America and several parts of Europe, and that the well ordering thereof is matter of general concernment and of great advantage, and being willing to encourage such a public benefit.

“Section 1. Have therefore enacted and be it enacted, etc. That there be from henceforth one general letter office erected and established within the town of Philadelphia, from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the neighboring Colonies and plantations on the mainland and continent of America, or into any other of the King’s kingdoms or dominions, or unto any kingdom or country beyond the seas; at which said office all returns and answers may likewise be received, etc.”

Thus Governor Andrew Hamilton, of New Jersey, first devised the postoffice scheme for America, for which he obtained a patent, and the profits accruing. He afterwards sold it to the Crown.

The Assembly appropriated £20 yearly as a salary to Andrew Hamilton, “the postmaster of North America under the Crown.”

Thus was the postal system established, and the postmaster empowered to deliver mail to every corner of the Western World.

The first list of letters advertised appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette, March 21, 1738. It contained about 150 names of all the letters collected and uncalled for in the previous six months, mostly for non-residents.

In July, 1762, the following advertisement appeared in Bradford’s Journal:

“The lad who was lately employed at the Postoffice as penny post having run away, the gentlemen who expect letters are requested to call for them until a suitable person can be procured to carry them. William Dunlap.”

In November, 1756, the first stage was established between New York and Philadelphia by John Butler. The Philadelphia terminal was at the sign of the Death of the Fox in Strawberry Alley. It was to go via Trenton and Perth Amboy, and to arrive in New York in three days. Butler was started in business by the old Hunting Club, to which he had been huntsman and keeper of the kennels.

In 1765 a line of stage vessels and wagons was established between Philadelphia and Baltimore, via Christiana and Frenchtown on the Elk River. These trips were made weekly.

In 1773, Messrs. C. Bessonett & Co., of Bristol, started a stage coach line which made the trip to New York in two days and charged $4 fare.

The old Postoffice was afterwards the Congress Hall Hotel. It was kept by Robert Patton, postmaster from 1791 to 1814.

The first postmaster of Philadelphia who received a newspaper notice as such was Peter Baynton in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 27, 1776.

When the Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia in 1791 the departments were located in private homes, and the “General Postoffice was on the east side of Water Street, a few doors below High Street.”

An early pioneer mail route through the wilderness, across the State was over the old State road. It was established in 1805. The mail was carried on horseback from Bellefonte to Meadville. The first contractor was James Randolph, of Meadville, the second was Hamilton, of Bellefonte.

When the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia there was gloom over America such as to make people lose all confidence in General Washington, the commander-in-chief, and as General Gates had but recently, on October 19, 1777, achieved such a brilliant victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga, the one event to bring joy to their hearts, it was but natural to suggest that Gates was the more competent. Many letters appeared in the public press favoring a change of commanders and Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia.

General Conway had written, “Heaven has been determined to save—your country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it.” The words reached Washington’s ears, and he let Conway know the fact. A personal interview ensued, but Conway refused to apologize, and he boastfully told General Mifflin of his interview with the commander-in-chief. He was commended by Gates, Mifflin and others.

The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.

General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway Cabal.”

The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading, which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from the stormy political atmosphere of the city.

More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.

There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay social gatherings were held.

It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin, would only counsel with General Greene.

They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic of counselors.

In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.

The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates was the man who of right should have the station sustained by Washington.

A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.

The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that “Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this time familiar wherever officers congregated.

On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were miserable, indeed.”

These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.

It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to Washington.

Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.

Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress, then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.

At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said: “Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the commander-in-chief of the American armies.”

The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.

The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.

There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.

Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.

So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done their full duty.

Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform in his administration of the army.

Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept, and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the war.

The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without those in authority adding thereto.

The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as the most trying scenes of his life.

of November, 1823

It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of this continent.

The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.”

Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President, expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.

Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November, 1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic Party.

Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.

In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state, there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense enthusiasm among the people in his favor.

In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs. Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and impressive speech.

This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.

This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825. The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.

Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.

At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.

The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser importance.

In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.

Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa., and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries in Massachusetts in 1826.

In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most important railroad in America.

In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the Ohio.

The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his successor to wrestle with the problem.

On December 15, 1829, George Wolf, of Northampton County, was inaugurated as Governor of Pennsylvania. He had defeated Joseph Ritner, who attempted to seek this high office on the rising wave of the anti-Masonic era, which at this time changed the political horizon of the State and Nation.

Governor Wolf stepped into office at the time the financial affairs were in a deplorable condition. His only remedy was to push the public works to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he, with others, had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed improvements went toward developing the natural resources of Pennsylvania.

The contention between Great Britain and France for the possession of what is now Western Pennsylvania began about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed October 18, 1748, while it nominally closed the war between those two countries, failed to establish the boundaries between their respective colonies in America, and this failure, together with the hostile and conflicting attitude of the colonists in America, was the cause of another long and bloody war.

An association was formed in Virginia about 1748, called the Ohio Company, which was given a royal grant. The object of the company, according to its charter, was to trade with the Indians, but its actual purpose was to settle the region about the forks of the Ohio, now Pittsburgh, with English colonists from Virginia and Maryland.

All the vast territory from the Mississippi to the Alleghany Mountains, south of the Great Lakes, had been explored and partly occupied by the French. They had forts, trading posts and missions at various points and they made every endeavor to conciliate the Indians. It was apparent they intended to extend their occupancy to the extreme tributaries of the Ohio, which they claimed by virtue of prior discovery.

So it was but natural when the English sought to gain a permanent occupancy of the Ohio Valley that the French should begin actively to assert their claims to the same region.

The Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, sent Captain Bienville de Celeron in 1749 down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to take possession in the name of the King of France. His command consisted of two hundred and fifteen French and Canadian soldiers and fifty-five Indians. The principal officers under him were Captain Contrecœur, who afterwards built Fort Duquesne, Coulon de Villiers, and Joncaire-Chabet.

They planted leaden plates, properly inscribed, at different points, beginning at the present town of Warren, and then along the Allegheny River, then along the Ohio, and up the Miami, and they reached Lake Erie, October 19, 1749.

The French affairs were actively pushed by Joncaire-Chabet, who occupied the house at the mouth of French Creek, or Venango, which had been built by John Frazer, a Pennsylvania trader, whom Celeron drove off when he found him there.

Early in January, 1753, a French expedition consisting of 300 men under command of Monsieur Babier set out from Quebec. Traveling over land and ice, they reached Fort Niagara in April, then pushed on to the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. In May Monsieur Morin arrived with an additional force of 500 men, and he assumed command.

It was intended to build a fort here, but the water was found to be too shallow and the expedition moved to a place which, from the peculiar formation of the lake shore, they named Presqu’ Isle, or the Peninsula. This is now the City of Erie.

Here the first fort was built and named Fort la Presqu’ Isle. It was constructed of square logs, was about 120 feet square and fifteen feet high. It was finished in June, 1753 and garrisoned by about 100 men under command of Captain Depontency.

The remainder of the forces cut a road southward about fifteen miles to Le Boeuf River, or French Creek. Here they built a second fort, which they called Fort Le Boeuf, similar to the first, but smaller. This is the site of the present Borough of Waterford, Erie County, Pa.

In 1752 a treaty had been entered into with the Indians which secured the right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by Captain Christopher Gist, established themselves on the Monongahela, and subsequently commenced the erection of a fort where the City of Pittsburgh now stands.

The activity of the French alarmed these settlers, and soon all their proceedings were reported to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. He determined to send an official communication to the commander of the French, who had established his headquarters at Fort Le Boeuf, protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered rights, granted by the Crown of Britain, pointing to the late treaties of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other.

George Washington, then only twenty-three years old, was selected for this mission by Governor Dinwiddie. He performed his duty with the greatest tact and to the satisfaction of his Government.

With a party of seven besides himself, among whom was Christopher Gist, he set out November 15, 1753, from Wills Creek, the site of Fort Cumberland, in Maryland, which was the limit of the road that had been opened by the Ohio Company.

The first place of importance was Logstown, where they arrived on November 30. This important Indian village was on the right bank of the Ohio River, about fourteen miles below the present Pittsburgh. It was at Logstown where the Treaty of 1752 was made. Here Washington enlisted the services of the chief Indians and proceeded on his mission.

Washington writes in his journal that they set out from Logstown for Venango about 9 o’clock in the morning, with Tanacharison, the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and arrived at Venango on December 4.

Soon as Captain Joncaire had finished his greetings wine was passed and after much drinking all restraint was banished, which gave license to their tongues and their true sentiments were revealed.

The French officers told young Washington that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, to which they had undoubted right from a discovery made by LaSalle sixty years since. They also told him they had raised an expedition to prevent the English from settling on the river.

Joncaire endeavored by every means to win the Half-King from the English, but the chief remained true to his mission, and accompanied Washington to Le Boeuf, to which place he was referred, as the commanding officer of the French had his headquarters there.

The party arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. Washington was received with courtesy by the commandant, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.

In regard to the message of Governor Dinwiddie, Saint-PierreSaint-Pierre replied that he would forward it to the Governor-General of Canada, but that in the meantime, his orders were to hold possession of the country, and this he would do to the best of his ability.

With this answer Washington retraced his steps, enduring many hardships and passing through many perils, until he presented his report to the Governor at Williamsburg, Va., January 16, 1754.

Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell, was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July 25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his short and stormy term, which ended the following December.

Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties and made ordinances.

The President and Council of the Province immediately published a proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.

Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a Lieutenant Governor.

The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their Governor and three lower counties rejected him.

Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the consequences he predicted.

These dissensions served to furnish the Crown with a pretext to deprive Penn of his Province. William and Mary seized this opportunity to punish him for this attachment to the late King, and they commissioned Benjamin Fletcher, Governor General of New York, also to be the Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories. The Council of the Province was officially advised of his appointment April 19, 1693.

Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly, require its members to subscribe to the oaths and tests prescribed by acts of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having a vote upon their acts, etc. No mention was made of William Penn, nor of the Provincial constitution, yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the Government was surrendered to him without objection, but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions.

William Penn condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a letter to Colonel Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by many personal favors.

Trouble arose when Fletcher attempted a new form of election contrary to the laws of the Province, and the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal. The Assembly insisted that their rights should first be redressed.

Fletcher claimed the right to alter laws without even the assent of Assembly, and to strengthen his position threatened to annex the Province to New York. The moderate party, rather than submit to this, preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as a favor at the hands of the Governor.

Prior to his departure for New York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed William Markham, the Proprietary’s cousin, to be Lieutenant Governor. Governor Fletcher attended the second session of the Assembly and insisted upon further appropriations for public defense. The Assembly refused to comply with Fletcher’s demand and was dissolved.

The Proprietary was not wholly in accord with the resolute refusal of the Assembly, nor was he unmindful of the effects which such opposition to the wishes of the Crown might have upon his particular interests.

William Penn was now no longer under the cloud of suspicion. He had many friends among the nobles who surrounded the King, and his true character was at last made known.

He succeeded in obtaining a hearing before a Privy Council and was honorably acquitted and restored to his Proprietary rights by a patent dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province were ascribed solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, William Penn’s wife, Gulielma Maria, died.

Penn appointed Markham his Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and Territories September 24, 1694. The restoration of the former government was not happy, for Governor Fletcher had made himself unpopular, and it was not an easy matter for Markham to immediately gain their confidence, even though he had called the Assembly according to the forms prescribed by the charter.

The great bone of contention was the subsidy to be granted to the King. Finally a joint committee of the two branches of the Legislature was acceded to, when it was agreed to accept the new Constitution, and a new subsidy of £300 was granted for the support of the Royal Government and of the suffering Indians. This was raised by a tax of one penny on the pound on all assessed property.

The new Constitution was more democratic. The Council consisted of two from each county, elected biennially. The Assembly had four members from each county, elected annually. The latter was given the right to originate bills, to sit on its adjournments and to be indissoluble during the term for which it was elected.

This instrument was never formally sanctioned by the Proprietary and continued in force only until after his second arrival, when a new and more lasting one was substituted in its place. Under it the people were content.

William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from England in the ship Canterbury in September, 1699, and on account of adverse winds had a tedious voyage of more than three months, arriving in the Delaware, December 1, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being generally understood that he intended to spend the remainder of his life in the Province.

The Proprietary believed the time was ripe for an entirely new form of government and labored earnestly to obtain additional legislative restrictions upon intercourse with the Indians in order to protect them from the artifices of the whites. Penn conferred frequently with the several nations of the Province, visiting them familiarly in their forests, participating in their festivals and entertaining them with much hospitality and state at his mansion at Pennsbury.

He formed a new treaty with the tribes located on the Susquehanna and its tributaries and also with the Five Nations. This treaty was one of peace. In 1701, William Penn took a second trip into the interior of the Province.

The bloody record of the Mollie Maguires began about the time the Civil War was brought to a close and continued until James McParlan, the able detective in the employ of the Pinkerton agency, ferreted out these criminals and brought the guilty to trials which resulted in their execution or long terms of imprisonment.

The anthracite coal regions were not free of this scourge until 1877.

The Mollies were unusually active and bloodthirsty in 1865. August 25 of that year, David Muir, colliery superintendent, was killed in Foster Township, shot to death on the public highway, in broad daylight, within two hundred yards of the office in which he was employed.

January 10, 1866, Henry H. Dunne, of Pottsville, superintendent of a colliery, was murdered on the turnpike, while riding to his home in his carriage.

October 17, 1868, occurred the tragic death of Alexander Rae, near Centralia, Columbia County.

The next important outrage of this character was the murder of William H. Littlehales, superintendent of the Glen Carbon Coal Mining Company, March 15, 1869. He was killed on the highway in Cass Township, Schuylkill County, while enroute to his home in Pottsville.

Then occurred the murders of F. W. S. Langdon, George K. Smith and Graham Powell, each of whom was a mining official.

But the crowning act of the Mollie Maguires, up to the time James McParlan was engaged by Mr. Allen Pinkerton to investigate the workings of this nefarious organization, and the one reaching the culmination of many previous and similar events, was the murder of Morgan Powell.

This event exasperated the good people of the anthracite region to the pitch where endurance ceases to be a virtue, and where only desperate methods to put a stop to these crimes can be put in operation.

This unprovoked murder occurred December 2, 1871. Morgan Powell was assistant superintendent of the Lehigh and Wilkes Barre Coal and Iron Company, at Summit Hill, Carbon County.

The murder was committed about seven o’clock in the evening, on the main street of the little town, not more than twenty feet from the store of Henry Williamson, which place Powell had but a few minutes earlier left to go to the office of Mr. Zehner, the general superintendent of the company.

It seems that one of three men, who had been seen by different parties waiting near the store, approached Mr. Powell from the rear, close beside a gate leading into the stables, and fired a pistol shot into the left breast of the victim. The assassin reached over the shoulder of Powell to accomplish his deadly purpose.

The bullet passed through Powell’s body, lodged in the back near the spinal column, producing immediate paralysis of the lower limbs, and resulting in death two days afterward.

The wounded man was carried back to the store by some of his friends and his son, Charles Powell, the latter then but fourteen years of age, and there remained all night. The next day he was removed to the residence of Morgan Price, where he died the following day.

Hardly had the smoke from the murderer’s pistol mingled with the clear air of that star-lit winter evening, when the assassins were discovered rapidly making their way from the scene of their savage deed toward the top of Plant No. 1.

They were met by the Reverend Allan John Morton and Lewis Richards, who were hurrying to the spot to learn what had caused the firing.

Mr. Morton asked, as they halted on the rigging-stand, what was the trouble, when one of the three strangers answered: “I guess a man has been shot!”

Descriptions of the three men were remembered by the Reverend Morgan and Mr. Richards, and the trio started forward in the direction in which Mr. Powell had pointed when asked which way the attacking party had gone.

“I'm shot to death! My lower limbs have no feeling in them!” exclaimed Mr. Powell, when Williamson first raised his head.

No one could tell who shot him. The three suspects were strangers.

Patrick Kildea, who was thought to resemble one of them, was arrested and tried, but finally acquitted, from lack of evidence to convict. This, for the time, was the end of the matter.

When McParlan, disguised as James McKenna, was working on the case of the murder of B. F. Yost, of Tamaqua, in 1875, he learned first-handed from John Donahue, alias “Yellow Jack,” that he was the murderer of Morgan Powell.

Donahue related the circumstances to his “friend” and named his two confederates. He bragged of the affair as being a clean job.

He said the escape was easy, as they did not go ten yards from the spot where Powell dropped, until the excitement cooled down, when, in the darkness, they quietly departed from the bushes, and reached their homes in safety.

The detective made mental notes of this disclosure, and his report subsequently transmitted to his superiors was the first light upon this crime, which had, for four years baffled the best efforts of the officers of justice.

The time was not ripe to press Donahue for more details, but as the detective was supposed to have recently assisted in a murder, Donahue talked freely with him about others who were soon to be victims of the Mollies.

In the fall of 1876, when the arrests of the Mollies were made, John Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, Patrick McKenna, Alexander Campbell, Patrick O'Donnell, and John Malloy were taken in Carbon County, charged with the murder of Morgan Powell, at Summit Hill, December 2, 1871.

The defendants were tried at different terms of the Carbon County Court, at Mauch Chunk. James McParlan, the detective, now in his true character, frequently appeared as a witness and testified to the confessions of the Mollies.

They were found guilty as follows: Donahue of murder in the first degree, Fisher of murder in the first degree, McKenna of murder in the first degree, and O'Donnell as an accessory. McKenna served nine years and O'Donnell five years’ imprisonment.

Thus was the death of Morgan Powell avenged.