Union County PA: History: Annals of the Buffalo Valley by John Blair Lynn: Pages 1 thru 40

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                       INTRODUCTION.

INDIAN TRIBES - SHIKELLIMY - LOGAN - ABORIGINES OF THE VALLEY THEIR
VILLAGES AND PATHS - PURCHASE OF 1754 - PENN'S CREEK MASSACRE -
SOURCES OF EMIGRATION TO THE VALLEY - PURCHASE OF 1758.


     In the year 1868, when I proposed to myself the labor 
of collating these Annals, I supposed their commencement would, 
in point of time, be with the date of the purchase made at 
Fort Stanwix, November 5, 1768.  I thought, too, the 
first sounds breaking the stillness of the Valley were 
the cheerful ring of the surveyor's axe, and the merry shouts of 
advancing settlers, let loose upon the "New Purchase," by the 
land office advertisement of February 23, 1769.  But when I 
came to trace the southern line of that purchase, I found it 
skirting the deserted clearings and blackened hearth-stones of 
earlier white settlers, of whose sad fate I had never heard.
These annals, therefore, would not be complete, without an 
account of the Penn's Creek massacre of 1755, although it makes 
the history of the early settlement of Buffalo Valley 
unpleasantly like that of nearly all others in America, in the 
injustice of the settlers toward the Indians, and the bloody 
retribution that followed; and I have further concluded to add 
all the reliable information I could obtain of the Valley prior 
to its settlement by the whites.
     The localities of the Indian tribes prior to William Penn's 
arrival, (October 24, 1682,) have been identified as follows: 
"The Five Nations," as they were then called, (after 1714, "The 
Six Nations,") occupied the territory north of the sources of 
the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers.  After the partial settlement 
of the country, these


2	          ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

confederate tribes, were known among themselves by the 
name Aquanoschioni; united people; by the English they were 
called the Six Nations; by the French, the Northern Iroquois; 
settlers called them sometimes Mingoes and Maquais.  This will 
explain the reason Shikellimy, the first noted inhabitant of 
Buffalo Valley, is called, in letters from Conrad Weiser and 
others, indifferently, an Iroquois chief, a Mingo chief, and a 
chief of the Six Nations.
     South of the mouth of the Hudson lived the Delewares; otherwise 
called Lenni-Lenape, or original people.  They occupied the 
country to the Potomac, and were divided into three tribes: 1, 
the Turkeys; 2, the Turtles; 3, the Wolfs or Muncys.  The Muncys 
occupied Pennsylvania, from the Kittatinny or Blue mountains to 
the source of the Susquehanna, and were the most active and 
warlike. At the time of Penn's arrival, the Five Nations had 
brought under their dominion the whole country of the Delawares.  
About the year 1700, the Shawanese, who came originally from 
Florida and Georgia, by permission of Penn's government, settled 
in Cumberland valley, having their council fire near Carlisle, 
and extending northerly into what is now the territory of Snyder 
county, and as far as Chillisquaque creek, subject, of course, 
to the authority of the Five Nations.
     In 1714, the Five Nations became the Six Nations, by adopting 
the Tuscarora tribe which had been expelled from North Carolina 
and Virginia; and subsequently Shikellimy, who was a chief of 
the Oneida tribe, was sent down upon the Susquehanna as the 
governing chief of the conquered Delawares and their allies, the 
Shawanese.  In a letter of instruction to Smith and Pettys, 
written in  1728, Governor Patrick Gordon speaks of Shikellimy as 
being placed over the Shawanese; adding "he is a good man, and I 
hope will give a good account of them."  Shikellimy fixed his 
residence at the old Muncy town, in Buffalo Valley, and here he 
was visited by the first white man who, as far as we know, ever 
set foot within it.


     (1737.) 27th February, 1737, Conrad Weiser records in his 
journal: "Left home for Onondaga.  1st March, left Tolheo,* which is 
the last place in the inhabited part of Pennsylvania.  On the 4th 
we reached Shamokin+ but did not find a living soul at home who 
could assist us in crossing the Susquehanna river.  On the 5th we 
lay still;

     *At the gap in the Blue mountains, where the Big Swatara breaks 
through into Lebanon county.	
     +Now Sunbury.

                           INTRODUCTION.                  3


we had now made about eighty miles.  6th, we observed a smoke on 
the other side of the river, and an Indian trader came over and 
took us across.  We again lay still to-day.  On the 7th we 
started along one branch of the river, going to the north-west.  
An old Shawano, by name Jenoniawana, took us in his canoe across 
the creek at Zilly Squachne.*  On the 8th we reached the village 
where Shikelimo lives, who was appointed to be my companion and 
guide on the journey.  He was, however, far from home on a hunt.  
Weather became bad and the waters high, and no Indian could be 
induced to seek Shikelimo until the 12th, when two young Indians 
agreed to go out in search of him.  On the 16th, they returned 
with word that Shikelimo would be back next day, which so 
happened.  The Indians were out of provisions at this place.  I 
saw a new blanket given for about one third of a bushel of 
Indian corn."
     The site of this village is, beyond doubt, on the farm of Hon. 
George F. Miller, at the mouth of Sinking run, or Shikellimy's 
run, as it was called formerly, at the old ferry, one half mile 
below Milton, on the Union county side.  It is a beautiful spot 
for a village; protected on the north by a range of hills, with 
the river much narrowed in front, giving easy access to the 
Northumberland side.
     When the land office was open for "the new purchase," on the 
3d of April, 1769, there were very many applications made for this 
location.  In all of them it is called either old Muncy town, 
Shikellimy's town, or Shikellimy's old town.  It is referred to 
as a locality in hundreds of applications for land in the 
Valley.  I will only quote one:
"Samuel Huling applies for three hundred acres on the West 
Branch of the Susquehanna, about one mile above Shikellimy's old 
town, including a small run that empties into the river opposite 
an island." The Huling location was secured by John Fisher, one 
of the oldest of our settlers, and West Milton is now built upon 
it.  Shikellimy's town was on the "Joseph Hutchinson" and 
"Michael Weyland," warrantee tracts, from whom the title can be 
readily traced to the present owner.  Colonel James Moore, who 
lived there many years, told me that thousands of Indian darts 
were plowed up there, and once, when blasting at the quarry, 
they uncovered a grave hollowed in the solid rock, in which they 
found the skeleton of an Indian.
    Shikellimy, sometime after Weiser's visit, removed to Shamokin,

     *Chillisquaque.


4                 ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY


now Sunbury, as a more convenient point for intercourse with the 
Proprietary Governors.  On the 9th of October, 1747, Conrad 
Weiser says he was at Shamokin, and that "Shikellimy was very 
sick with fever.  He was hardly able to stretch forth his hand.  
His wife, three sons, one daughter, and two or three 
grandchildren were all bad with the fever.  There were three 
buried out of the family a few days before one of whom was 
Cajadis, who had been married to his daughter above fifteen 
years, and was reckoned the best hunter among all the Indians." 
He recovered, however, from this sickness, and, in March, 1748, 
we find him at Weiser's, in Tulpehocken, with his eldest son, 
Tagheneghdourus. He died in April 1749, at Sunbury, and the 
latter succeeded him as chief and representative of the Six 
Nations.*
     Loskiel thus notices this celebrated inhabitant of our Valley:
"Being the first magistrate and head chief of all the Iroquois 
living on the banks of the Susquehanna as far as Onondaga, [now 
Syracuse, New York,] he thought it incumbent upon him to be very 
circumspect in his dealings with the white people.  He 
mistrusted the brethren [Moravians] at first, but upon 
discovering their sincerity, became their firm and real friend.  
Being much engaged in political affairs, he had learned the art 
of concealing his sentiments; and, therefore, never contradicted 
those who endeavored to prejudice his mind against the 
missionaries, though he always suspected their motives. In the 
last years of his life he became less reserved, and received 
those brethren that came to Shamokin into his house.  He 
assisted them in building and defended them against the insults 
of drunken Indians, being himself never addicted to drinking, 
because, as he expressed it, he never wished to make a fool of 
himself.  He had built his house upon pillars for safety, in 
which he always shut himself up when any drunken frolic was 
going on in the village.  In this house, Bishop Johannes Von 
Watteville, and his company, visited and preached the Gospel to 
him.  It was then the Lord opened his heart.  He listened with 
great attention, and at last, with tears, respected the doctrine 
of a crucified Jesus, and received it with faith. During his 
visit to Bethlehem, a remarkable change took place in his heart, 
which he could not conceal. He found comfort, peace, and joy by 
faith in his Redeemer, and the brethren considered him a 
candidate for baptism.  But hearing that he had been already 
baptized by a Roman Catholic priest


     *As such, signing the deed for the Indian purchase of 22d August, 
1749.



                           INTRODUCTION                    5


in Canada, they only endeavored to impress his mind with a 
proper idea of the sacramental ordinance, upon which he 
destroyed a small idol which he wore about his neck.  After his 
return to Shamokin, the grace of God bestowed upon him was truly 
manifest.  In this state of mind, he was taken ill, was attended 
by brother David Zeisberger, and in his presence fell asleep, 
happy in the Lord, in full assurance of obtaining eternal life 
through the merits of Jesus Christ."
     The most celebrated of his sons was Logan, the Mingo chief. By 
the journey of Mack and Grube, Moravian missionaries, it appears 
he lived at the mouth of the Chillisquaque creek, August 26, 
1753. In 1765 he lived in Raccoon valley, at the foot of the 
Tuscarora mountain.  Loudon, in his "collections," says he could 
speak tolerable English, was a remarkably tall man - over six feet 
high - and well proportioned  of brave, open, and manly 
countenance, as straight as an arrow, and apparently afraid of 
no one.  In 1768 and 1769 he resided near Reedsville, in 
Mifflin county, and has given his name to the spring near that 
place, to Logan's branch of Spring creek, in Centre county, 
Logan's path, &c.  See a notice of an interview with him in the 
memoir of Samuel Maclay, posted, year 1811.  Heckewelder says 
he was introduced to Logan in 1772. "I thought him a man of 
superior talents.  He then intended settling on the Ohio, below 
Big Beaver.  In April, 1773, I called at his settlement, and was 
received with great civility."  In 1774 occurred Lord Dunmore's 
expedition against the Shawanese towns, now Point Pleasant, West 
Virginia, which was the occasion of Logan's celebrated speech, 
commencing "I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered 
Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat;" which will go 
down to all time, whether properly or not, as a splendid 
outburst of Indian eloquence.
     Heckewelder says he afterwards became addicted to drinking, and 
was murdered, between Detroit and his own home, in October, 
1781, and he was shown the place.  "He was, at the time, sitting 
with his blanket over his head, before a campfire, his elbows 
resting on his knees, when an Indian, who had taken some 
offense, stole behind him, and buried his tomahawk in his 
brains."  Howe's Ohio Collections, page 409, who quotes as his 
authority Good Hunter, an aged Mingo chief.


6                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.


                 Aborigines of the Valley.

     Of the Indians who occupied Buffalo Valley, nothing can be 
positively ascertained, except that they belonged to the Muncy-Minsi 
(or Wolf) tribe of the Lenni-Lenape, or original people.  The 
Valley was more a hunting ground than a residence.  Some remains 
have been found at prominent points along the river, as, for 
instance, at Colonel Slifer's house, on the river, above the 
mouth of Buffalo creek, some skeletons, evidently of one family 
only, were uncovered. The large mounds were on the other side 
of the river, on Joseph Nesbit's place; and the principal towns 
or villages, Chillisquaque, at the mouth of that creek, south 
side, and Shamokin, on the island and mainland, where Sunbury 
now stands.
     In quite a number of applications of 1769 mention is, however, 
made of an old Indian town and fort, on the Dietrick Rees tract, 
just above New Columbia; an Indian improvement at Laird Howard's 
spring, in Kelly; one on the Craig tract, on the river, near 
Winfield; one below that yet, on the Andrew Culbertson, 
afterwards known as the Merrill place; on the "Richard 
Edward's," now Stoltzfus' place, in Kelly, was an Indian field 
and plum orchard; and there was an improvement at Strohecker's 
landing, south of Lewisberg.

                          Indian Paths.

     The great Indian path through the Valley left the river at the 
first ravine, a few rods below the Northumberland bridge, passed 
up it, following the main road, as it now is, for a few miles, 
then turning towards the river, it came down the hill upon the 
Merrill place; thence followed the bank of the river, up through 
the old Macpherson place, to Lees, Winfield; thence passing up 
the present road, it crossed directly through the fields from 
the Gundy road to Fourth street, Lewisburg; thence to Buffalo 
creek, where the iron bridge now is, a very old fording place; 
thence it curved towards the river, passed up through 
Shikellimy's town, and along the river road, around the rocks, 
into White Deer Hole valley.  A. H. McHenry, the noted 
surveyor, told me it could be distinctly traced by the calls of 
surveys; but as all traces of it are now obliterated within the 
Valley, further identification is unnecessary.


                        INTRODUCTION.                  7

The paths through the Valley westward are obliterated, 
historically and topographically, except the small portion of 
the one passing into Brush valley, which may still be traced in 
the woods west of Solomon Heberling's.


             Early Notices of Names of Creeks, &c.

	Buffalo creek is mentioned by its name in the Indian deed of 
October 23, 1758.  Penn's is called John Penn's creek in the 
same deed. In the deed of July 6, 1754, it is called 
Kaarondinhah.  It was called by the settlers, between 1754 and 
1769, and marked on Scull's map of 1759, Big Mahany, and is so 
recited in deeds as late as 1772. Thus the "Henry Christ" 
warrantee, (now in Monroe township, Snyder county,) afterwards 
Herbster's place, is described as in "Buffalo township, 
formerly of the name of Shamokin, and bounded by Big Mahany 
creek, lands of George Gabriel, Abraham Herr, and others." - Deed 
of Herbster to George Haines, 26th May, 1772.  In a deed from 
John Turner to John Harris, June, 1755, for an improvement, (now 
in Hartley township, owned by R. V. B. Lincoln, Esquire,) the 
creek is called "Mahanoy."
     Turtle creek was so called before 1769, and in the latter year 
I found the stream below it, traversing Dry valley, called Lee's 
run, after John Lee, the first settler of the site of Winfield.
Switzer run had an alias in 1769 - Lick run, probably after Peter 
Lick, who was carried off by the Indians in 1755; but the 
interest felt in the mournful tragedy hereafter related 
substituted the name of Switzer for the name given it by the 
surveyors in 1769.
     White Deer creek is marked on Scull's map of 1759 with the 
Indian name of Opaghtanoten, or White Flint creek.  The run 
entering the river on the late Samuel Henderson's place, in 
White Deer township, was called by William Blythe, the first 
settler there, Red-Bank run; and the bottom above, between it 
and White Deer creek, had, before 1769, the name Turkey bottom, 
from the immense number of wild turkeys haunting it.
     Dog run came in by the old Indian fort, which stood near New 
Columbia.  Beaver run, in Buffalo township, had that name before 
1769, from a large beaver dam near its mouth.  Wilson's run, 
entering at Lewisburg, had the name of Limestone run.  White 
Springs



 8                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

(at Barber's, in Limestone township) is so called in the return 
of a survey made by Colonel John Armstrong, in 1755.  Laurel run 
had that name prior to 1773; and Spruce run also called on 
Colonel Kelly's application for land upon it, dated 11th June, 
1769.
     The hills bounding the Valley on the south were called Shamokin, 
from the earliest times I find them mentioned; of late years 
they have had the name of Chestnut Ridge.  Nittany mountain had 
its name is early as 1768.  Buffalo and White Deer mountains 
took their names from the respective creeks.  Jack's mountain, 
extending from Centreville, Snyder county, to Scottsville, 
Huntingdon county, was so called from Jack Armstrong, an Indian 
trader, who was murdered in the narrows, in 1744, near Mt. 
Union.  Pennsylvania Archives, second volume, 136.

          (1755.) The Mahany or Penn's Creek Massacre.

     Cumberland county was erected out of Lancaster, on the 27th 
of January, 1750, and was to embrace all the lands within the 
Province of Pennsylvania westward of the Susquehanna and north 
and west-ward of York county.  The country was then purchased 
from the Indians as far north as the present southern line of 
Perry county. Nevertheless, settlers pushed on north of the 
boundary - the Kittatinny or Blue mountains.  As early as 1753, at 
a council held at Carlisle, the Indians protested against the 
occupation of the country north of the line by the white 
settlers, and "wished the people called back from the 'Juniata' 
lands until matters were settled between them and the French, 
lest damage should be done, and then the English would think ill 
of them."  Then came the treaty of the 6th of July, 1754, at 
Albany, between the chiefs of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagos, 
Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, known as the Six Nations, 
and Thomas and Richard Penn, conveying that part of the 
Province west and south of a line commencing at the
"Kittochtinny" or Blue hills, on the Susquehanna river, (a 
little south of where the southern line of Perry county now 
strikes the river;) thence, by said river, to a point one mile 
above the mouth of a certain creek, called Kaarondinhah; thence 
north-west and by west as far as the Province of Pennsylvania 
extends, to its western line or boundary, &c.  On an old map I 
have, printed in 1771, this


                   INTRODUCTION.                          9

line is marked running from a mile above Penn's creek, N. 45º 
W., crossing the river a little above the mouth of 
Sinnemahoning, and striking Lake Erie a few miles north of 
Presqu'Isle, (now Erie.)  Within the Valley, it crossed Penn's 
creek, near New Berlin, the turnpike, near Ray's church, thence 
over Buffalo creek and mountain.
     The Indians alleged afterwards (see Weiser's journal of the 
conference at Aughwick, September, 1754) that they did not under-
stand the points of the compass, and that if the line was so run 
as to include the West Branch of the Susquehanna, they would 
never agree to it.
     Settlers, nevertheless, pushed their way up along Penn's creek. 
George Gabriel had a house where Selinsgrove now stands as early 
as 1754, and Godfrey Fryer, John Young, George Linn, George 
Schnable, and others were in his immediate neighborhood.  The 
Proprietaries, with their understanding of the line, made 
surveys along Penn's creek, in Buffalo Valley, as early as the 13th 
of February, 1755; and William Doran had an improvement where 
Jacob Shively now lives before that date.  I have a copy of a 
survey General John Armstrong, then deputy under Nicholas Scull, 
made for Henry Nufer, adjoining Doran's, dated 13th February, 
1755.
     The inhabitants along the creek in the Valley proper numbered 
twenty-five.  Their names and their places of residence, for the 
most part, were obliterated with them.  One John Turner had 
improved Esquire Lincoln's place.  It appears by John Harris' 
ledger, published among "The Dauphin County Historical 
Contributions," that Turner sold his improvement to Harris, June 
17, 1755.  There was a settlement near Kaufman's grist-mill.  A 
man by the name of Andrew Smith lived at White springs.  Jacob 
LeRoy, or King, as he was called by the settlers, lived at the 
spring on the late Hon. Isaac Slenker's place, in Limestone 
township.  There was a settlement on the New Berlin road, called 
for many years afterwards Breylinger's improvement, after the 
German killed there.  The late Philip Pontius told me his 
grandfather had made an improvement at Cedar spring, his late 
residence, in 1755.

     (1755.) Braddock's defeat (July 9) emboldened the Indians, 
and they determined to clear out all these settlements; and they did it 
so effectually, that although, by the treaty of 1758, the western part




10                      ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

of the Valley became the Proprietaries, no settlers ventured 
upon the bloody ground until after the surveys of 1768.
     In October, 1755, the Indians came down upon the settlers.  Two 
men were murdered within five miles of George Gabriel's, and 
four women carried off.  The following contemporary record tells 
the whole story.  It is a petition, addressed to Robert Hunter 
Morris, then Governor under the Proprietaries:
     "We, the subscribers, living near the mouth of Penn's creek, on 
the west side of the Susquehanna, humbly show that, on or about 
the 16th October, the enemy came down upon said creek, killed, 
scalped, and carried away all the men, women, and children, 
amounting to twenty-five in number, and wounded one man, who, 
fortunately, made his escape, and brought us the news.  
Whereupon the subscribers went out and buried the dead.  We 
found thirteen, who were men and elderly women, and one child, 
two weeks old; the rest being young women and children, we 
suppose to be carried away.  The house (where we suppose they 
finished their murder,) we found burned up, the man of it, named 
Jacob King, a Swisser, lying just by it.  He lay on his back, 
barbarously burned, and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead; 
one of them newly marked W. D. We have sent them to your Honor.  
The terror of which has drove away all the inhabitants except us.  
We are willing to stay, and defend the land, but need arms, 
ammunition, and assistance.  Without them, we must flee, and 
leave the country to the mercy of the enemy.
     George Glidwell,     Jacob Simmons,
     George Auchmudy,     Conrad Craymer,
     John McCahan,        George Fry,
     Abraham Sowerkill,   George Schnable,
     Edmund Matthews,     George Aberhart,
     Mark Curry,          Daniel Braugh,
     William Doran,       George Linn,
     Dennis Mucklehenny,  Godfrey Fryer.
     John Young,

     Jacob King, alias John Jacob LeRoy, was killed at the spring on 
the late Mr. Slenker's farm.  He came over, in the ship Phoenix, 
from Rotterdam, arriving at Philadelphia, November 22, 1752, in 
the same vessel which brought over John Thomas Beck, grand-




                       INTRODUCTION.                         11

father of Doctor S. L. Beck, of Lewisburg.  Rupp's Collection, 
page 225.
     In the third volume of the Pennsylvania Archives, on page 633, 
will be found the "Examination of Barbara Liningaree and Mary 
Roy, 1759.  They say they were both inhabitants of this 
Province, and lived on John Penn's creek, near George 
Gabriel's; that on the 16th October, 1755, a party of fourteen 
Indians fell upon the inhabitants at that creek by surprise, and 
killed fifteen, and took and carried off prisoners examinants 
and eight more, viz; Jacob Roy, brother of Mary Roy; Rachel 
Liningaree, sister of Barbara; Marian Wheeler; Hannah, wife of 
Jacob Breylinger, and two of her children, (one of which died at 
Kittanin' of hunger;) Peter Lick and two of his sons, named John 
and William.
     "The names of the Indians were Kech Kinnyperlin, Joseph Compass 
and young James Compass, young Thomas Hickman, one Kalasquay, 
Souchy, Machynego, Katoochquay.  These examinants were carried 
to the Indian town Kittanning, where they staid until September, 
1756, and were in ye fort opposite thereto when Colonel Armstong 
burned it.  Thence they were carried to Fort Duquesne, and 
many other women and children, they think an hundred, who were 
carried away from the several Provinces of Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and Virginia.  They staid two months, and were carried 
to Saucang, twenty-five miles below, at the mouth of Big Beaver 
creek. In the spring of 1757 they were carried to the Kuskusky, 
up Beaver creek twenty-five miles, where they staid until they 
heard the English were marching against Duquesne, and then the 
Indians quitted Kuskusky, and took these examinants with them to 
Muskingham, as they think, one hundred and fifty miles,  On the 
16th March made their escape, and got to Pittsburgh on the 31st." 
The date of this deposition is about May 6, 1759.

     There was a Catharine Smith among the prisoners re-captured by 
General Armstrong, September 8, 1756, at Kittanning, and brought 
back, said to have been taken from Shamokin; but as her name is 
not mentioned above, it may be doubtful whether she was of the 
family of Andrew Smith, who lived at White springs.  As the 
others were captives over four years, possibly they had 
forgotten her. Barbara Leininger was the name of the girl called 
Liningaree.  The next place west of David Oldt, and about two 
miles below New



12                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

Berlin, is called, in the old survey, "Breylinger's 
improvement," and was where Jacob Breylinger lived.  Peter 
Lick, no doubt, lived on Lick run, or Switzer run, a short 
distance above New Berlin. A full narrative of Anne M. LeRoy and 
Barbara Leininger's adventures was published by Peter Miller, at 
Philadelphia, in 1759.  I have had diligent search made for it, 
but without success.
     Anne M. LeRoy was living in Lancaster in 1764, when she made 
affidavit again in regard to her capture and the visits of the 
Conestoga Indians to Kittanning.  The only further trace of the 
LeRoy family that I can find is a recital in a deed, that on the 
19th of October, 1772, John James LeRoy, the son, of Prince 
George county, Maryland, sold the LeRoy tract in Buffalo Valley 
to Andrew Pontius, of Tulpehocken.  The latter was an uncle of 
the late Philip Pontius, of Buffalo, to whom I am indebted for 
several reminiscences.  He said, years afterward, when clearing 
up John Hoy's place, adjoining, they found several gold eagles, 
dropped, no doubt, by the Indians or their captives.  This gave 
rise to rumors that money had been buried on the place.  Many 
expeditions were made by night to dig for the treasure; but, 
except a few sleeve buttons, nothing was ever found.  From 
conversation with people of the neighborhood, I find the witch 
cloud still lingers about that fateful spring, although the wintry 
winds of more than a century have swept above it.  Switzer run 
preserves the nationality of the first settler. It empties into 
Penn's creek, a short distance above New Berlin.
     Among the settlers on Middle creek, then called Christunn, I.
D. Rupp informed me, was John Zehring, a relative of the Rupp 
family, who was driven off by this massacre.  He is corroborated 
by a recital I find upon Zehring's warrant, dated November 12, 
1765, "for two hundred acres, including his improvement made in
1755, from which he was driven off by the Indians, adjoining 
Christunn or Middle creek."  The Zehrings have still descendants 
there. Old Peter Decker married a Zehring, and Michael S. 
Decker, of Paxtonville, Snyder county, is of the family.
     (1756.)  A sequence of the Penn's creek massacre was the 
building of Fort Augusta, (Sunbury,) at the then Indian town of 
Shamokin, in July, 1756.  This was done with the consent and at 
the request of the Indians, from a well-grounded fear that the 
French meant to take possession of the place, and build a fort 
there.  Among the



                        INTRODUCTION.                      13

officers of Colonel Clapham's regiment, by whom the fort was 
built, I note the names of John Hambright and William Plunket, 
afterwards prominent in the political affairs of Northumberland 
county. George Gabriel and Joseph Greenwood, as appears by their 
autographs to an affidavit before James Burd, Esquire, dated 2d 
June, 1756, were sworn as guides to Colonel Clapham's regiment.
Ensign Miles, afterward Colonel Samuel Miles, of the Revolution, 
and proprietor of Milesburg, in Centre county, who belonged to 
Colonel Clapham's regiment, in his manuscript journal says, "we 
marched up the west side of the Susquehanna; until we came 
opposite where the town of Sunbury now stands, where we crossed in 
batteaux, and I had the honor of being the first man who put his 
foot on shore at landing,  In building the fort, Captain Levi 
Trump and myself, had charge of the workmen; and after it was 
finished, our battalion remained there in garrison until the 
year 1758.  In the summer of 1757, I was nearly taken prisoner 
by the Indians. At about one-half mile distance from the fort 
stood a large tree that bore excellent plums, on an open piece 
of ground, near what is now called the Bloody spring.  
Lieutenant Samuel Atlee and myself one day took a walk to this 
tree, to gather plums.  While we were there, a party of Indians 
lay a short distance from us, concealed in the thicket, and had 
nearly got between us and the fort, when a soldier, belonging to 
the bullock guard not far from us, came to the spring to drink.  
The Indians were thereby in danger of being discovered; and, in 
consequence, fired at and killed the soldier, by which means we 
got off, and returned to the fort in much less time than we were 
in coming out."  See Burd's journal, Pennsylvania Archives, 
second series, 745, for an interesting account of difficulties 
encountered in completing the fort.
     As it will be of interest to many to trace their ancestry as 
far backward in the history of the settlement of the Province as 
possible, I have collated from I. D. Rupp's histories and other 
sources all I could find in reference to the emigration and 
former settlement of the families of the Valley.
     (1723.)  Among those who came from Albany, New York, with 
Conrad Weiser, and settled in Tulpehocken, now in Berks county, 
in the year 1723, occur the names of Henry Boyer, Philip Brown, 
Simon Bogenreif, George Christ, John A. Diffenbach, Jacob Fisher,


14                  ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

Jacob Follmer, Jacob Huffman, Peter Kephart, John Pontius, Leonard 
Rees, Henry Reidenbaugh, Adam Ream, John Spyker, Ulrich 
Schwartz, Adam Stein, Peter Sarvey, Mathias Shafer, Christopher 
Weiser.
     In the same year, there were already settled in Donegal 
township, Lancaster county, the Andersons, Campbells, Clarks, 
Cooks, Carothers, Ewings, Fosters, Howards, Kerrs, Kellys, 
Lowreys, Littles, Moores, McClellans, Pattersons, Semples, 
Scotts, Smiths, and Walkers.
     (1729, August.)  Robert Barber, Esquire, ancestor of the Barber 
family, was the first sheriff of Lancaster county.  The Wrights 
came from Lancastershire, England, in 1714.  Settled at Columbia 
in 1726, and John Wright named Lancaster county from his old 
residence.
     As early as 1735, the following families had settled in 
Lancaster county: the Allisons, Adams's, Alexanders, Bishops, 
Buchanans, Barretts, Bears, Blythes, Blacks, Douglass's, 
Daughertys, Greenes, Hustons, Hennings, Hendersons, Irwins, 
Ketlers, Keysers, Kings, Lowdons, Lynks, McClenahans, Murrays, 
Mitchells, Meixells, McPhersons, McClures, Phillips's, Royers, 
Ramsays, Robinsons, Ranks, Ross's, Steeles, Saunders's, 
Thomas's, Wolf's, Wise's, Webbs, Watsons, Walters, and Walls.
     (1749, September 27.) Wendell Baker, ancestor of the Baker 
family, landed at Philadelphia.  On the same vessel came John 
George Schnable, John Henry Beck, John Simon Shreiner, and 
R. Fries.
     (1750.)  Among the dwellers in West Derry, Lancaster county,
(now Dauphin,) were the Candors, Clarks, Chambers, Caldwells,
Lairds, Morrisons, Ramseys, Shaws, and Thompsons. In East Derry,
the Boyds, James Duncan, James Foster, John Foster, Hugh and
Patrick Hayes, William Huston, John Moore, Orrs, William Wilson.
In Paxton, West - Robert Correy, George Gabriel, George Gillespie,
James Harris, Samuel Hunter, Thomas McCormick, James McKnight, 
James Reed.  South end - John Gray, John Johnston, Richard 
McClure, John Morrison, John Wilson.  Of the Narrows - the
Armstrongs, Robert Clark, George Clark, William Foster, Thomas
McKee.  In Hanover - John Brown, James Finney, William Irwin,
William Laird, Thomas McGuire, Robert Martin, George Miller,



                      INTRODUCTION.                       15    

Andrew Wallace, Samuel Young.  In Hanover, East - John Crawford, 
John Graham, Robert Haslett, Adam Harper, Jacob Musser, Edward 
McMurray, and James Young.
     In Middleton township, Cumberland county, we find the names of 
William Armstrong, William Blythe, James Chambers, James Dunlap, 
William Fleming, Andrew Gregg, James Henderson, Jonathan 
Holmes, William Jordan, John Kinkaid, Hugh Laird, John Robb, 
John Reed, Robert Reed, George Templeton.  In Hopewell, Cumberland 
also, were John Beatty, Robert Chambers, John Nesbit, 
Robert Simonton, William Thompson.  In Logan township, now in 
Franklin county, were Isaac Grier, William Greenlee, Samuel Jordan, 
Samuel Laird, William Linn, senior, William Linn, junior.  
In Peters township, same county, John Potter, (father of the 
General) and Samuel Templeton.
     (1754.)  In Bethel, the most remote north-west township in 
Berks county, we find, in 1754, George Boeshor, George Emerick, 
Michael Grove, George Grove, Nicholas Pontius, George Reninger, 
Jacob Leininger, Jacob Seirer, Ulrich Seltzer, Baltzer Smith, 
Michael Weyland.
     (1756.) In Cumru township, occur the names of George 
Englehart, George Ream, Andrew Wolf, &c.  In Exeter, the same year, 
the names of John Aurand, William Boone, Peter Boechtel, Leonard 
High, Fredrick Kunkle, Mordecai Lincoln, Michael Ludwig, Peter 
Noll, Peter Smith, Jacob Yoder.  In Greenwich, same year, John 
C. Baum, Henry Faust, Michael Gotshall, Peter Leonard, Michael 
Leiby, Michael Lesher, Michael Smith.  In Heidelberg, same year, 
George Aumiller, Peter Betz, Peter Bolender, Philip Bower, Henry 
Christ, Ludwig Derr, Andrew Ruhl, George Rorabaugh, Frederick 
Stump, Jacob Wetzel.  In the docket of Peter Spyker, Esquire, 
Tulpehocken, 1756, we find, among the names of referees, John 
George Anspach, Henry Bogenreif, George Christ, Peter Gebhart, 
John Heberling, Henry Hetzel, Peter Kaufman, Jacob Lutz, Jacob 
Miller, Nicholas Pontius, Nicholas Reed, William Spotts, Adam 
Smith, Martin Trester, Nicholas Wolf, Peter Winkleplecht, Jacob 
Zerbe.  He records that Adam Guyer was bound to learn the shoe-
maker's trade, (a trade the same family, to my knowledge, 
followed a hundred years.) John George Wolfe also bound to Jacob 
Follmer, for thirteen years, &c.


16                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

     (1757.) In Maiden Creek township, occur the names of the 
Dunkels and Hoys.  In Maxatawney, John Bear, Andrew Boalich, John 
Frederick, Joseph Gross, Samuel Guilden, Samuel High, Jacob 
Kaufman, Henry Lutz.  In Oley, John Yoder.  In Rockland, John 
Albright, George Angstadt, Lewis Bitting, Peter Keiffer, John Moll, 
Henry Mertz.  Windsor - Mathias Alspach, Killian Dunkel, Jacob 
Hummel, John Hess, Conrad Heiser, Wendell Keiffer, Jacob Roush 
Michael Rentchler, Leonard Reber.  October 16, 1768, came over in 
the same vessel Michael Beeber, Valentine Beeber, (grandfather 
of John Beeber, late of Lewisburg, deceased, to whose accurate 
memory I am indebted for many dates and incidents,) Andrew 
Hauck, and John Peter Frick.  More than a century has elapsed, 
and their descendants are still within an hour's ride of each 
other.
     (1758.)  The south-western portion of Buffalo Valley was 
included in the purchase from the Six Nations, made at Easton, 
Pennsylvania, on the 23d of October, 1758, with the bounds of 
which they declared themselves perfectly satisfied.  I copy the 
boundary line from the original deed in the Executive Chamber, 
at Harrisburg: "Beginning at the Kittachtinny or Blue hills, 
on the west bank of the river Susquehannah, and running thence 
up the said river, binding therewith, to a mile above the mouth 
of a creek called Kaarondinhah, (or John Penn's creek;) thence 
north-west and by west to a creek called Buffalo creek;. thence 
west to the east side of the Allegany or Appalachian hills; 
thence, along the east side of the said hills, binding 
therewith, to the south line or boundary of the said Province; 
thence, by the said south line or boundary, to the south side 
of the Kittachtinny hills; thence, by the south side of the said 
hills, to the place of beginning."

     The change of boundary from that of the deed of 1754, it will 
be observed, excluded all the territory subsequently included in 
the purchases of 1768 and 1784, or more than one half of the 
State as now constituted.  To localize and modernize the change 
and new boundary, it excluded more than the one half of the 
territory of Union county as at present constituted.  The 
boundary, instead of running north-west to Lake Erie, stopped at 
Buffalo creek, near where Orwig's mill now stands, in Lewis 
township, and thence ran directly west, or nearly so, to the 
junction of Spring creek with Bald Eagle, now Milesburg; thence 
south-westerly to what is now the



                       INTRODUCTION.                  17

north-east corner of Cambria; thence along the west side of 
Blair and Bedford, terminating at the Maryland line, between the 
boundaries of Bedford and Somerset counties.
     This line was never run, nor were there any official surveys 
made quite near it until six years afterwards.  So cautious were 
the Proprietaries at this period of offending the Indians by making 
surveys beyond the lines, that the most positive instructions 
were given on this head, and the west end of Nittany mountains, 
Lamont now, appeared to have been assumed as the most northerly 
and westerly station. Its assumed locality, however, marked the 
boundary between Cumberland and Berks counties, which can still 
be identified upon the ground.  As, for instance, a little 
distance north of Ray's church, on the turnpike, on or near the 
boundary line of Benjamin and Abraham Mench's, stood, and 
probably stands yet, a black oak, common corner of the Little, 
Templeton, Mackamiss, and David Johnston's surveys of 1769.  
The course of the south-western line of the latter survey being 
N. 57º W., that of the county or Indian line N. 45º W., left 
a little corner of the David Johnston, a Berks county survey, in 
Cumberland county, and it was not cleared for many years, 
under the supposition that it could not be held by the David 
Johnston warrant, not being in Berks county.
     The north-east corner of this purchase was, no doubt, made 
one mile above the mouth of Penn's creek, in order to include 
Gabriel's improvement, on the spot where Selinsgrove now stands.  
Otherwise, what inure natural course than to stop opposite the 
mouth of Mahanoy creek, the north-western corner of the purchase 
of 1749, now Port Trevorton.
     A line of marked trees was made by George Gabriel and the 
Indians, from a Spanish oak standing on the river bank, which, 
in 1766, when William Maclay ran the John Cox survey, stood two 
hundred and ninety-two perches above the mouth of Penn's creek, 
to a black oak on Penn's creek, about one mile up Penn's creek, 
near App's grist-mill, (corner of Henry Christ and Adam Ewig 
surveys.)  Their line, being made without a compass, ran west, 
instead of N. 45º W., or rather N. 49º W., as Mr. Maclay made the 
boundary line between the two purchases in 1768.  Gabriel 
settled on the site of Selinsgrove in 1754.   His location was 
surveyed to John Cox, by Mr. Maclay, on the 15th of May, 1766; 
but Mr. Maclay

18                  ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

notes on his return to the Cox warrant that Gabriel had made a 
settlement and improvement upon it at least ten years ago, and 
that he then lived on and claimed the property, and his 
pretensions must be satisfied by Mr. Cox before the return could 
be accepted.  In quite a number of surveys this line of marked 
trees is alluded to; and it's western terminus, on Penn's 
creek, was identified, on the 25th of October, 1765, by William 
Maclay, when he surveyed the "Henry Christ" tract, (lately owned 
by Leonard App,) at the black oak, which, he says, "was made a 
corner of the purchased lands by Gabriel and the Indians, say 
both Weiser and Gabriel."
     The line of this purchase of 1758 was the line between 
Cumberland and Berks counties, within Buffalo Valley, until the 
erection of Northumberland county, out of Berks and other 
counties, in 1772, (when Mahantango creek became the north line 
of Cumberland.) This line, as stated, ran from a black oak that 
stood on the bank of the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, 
one mile above the mouth of Penn's creek, N. 45º W., to Buffalo 
creek, near what is now Orwig's mill, in Lewis township; thence 
directly west.  The settlers north of this line were assessed in 
Berks county, and repaired to Reading to attend court; those 
south of that line were assessed in Penn township, Cumberland 
county, and attended the sessions at Carlisle.  From 1772, 
Sunbury attracts attention as the seat of justice for the people 
of the Valley, until the erection of Union county, March 22, 
1813 - a period of forty-one years, to a day-when New Berlin 
became the county seat, holding it for forty-two years; when, 
(March 2, 1855,) by the erection of Snyder county out of Union, 
Lewisburg became the political center of the territory within 
the immediate scope of these Annals.
     (1760.) A letter from Governor James Hamilton, dated November 
15, 1760, to Richard Peters, Esquire, incloses a rough draft, 
showing the mountains north of the Valley, Buffalo creek, Penn's 
creek, the North and West Branches, and main river down to 
Gabriel's, (whose place is marked at the mouth of Penn's creek,) 
Shamokin creek, Shamokin marked between it and the North Branch 
and Chillisquaque creek.  The space included within a dotted 
line running from the mouth of Buffalo creek down to a point 
opposite the mouth of the Chillisquaque, thence in a semi-circle 
to a point on Buffalo creek, six or eight miles above its mouth, 
is marked "Manor."


                        INTRODUCTION.                    19

     The letter states: "Abel James and two others of the Friendly 
Association have been with me, and delivered me the inclosed 
plot of lands about Shamokin, and particularly of the Manor, 
which, by Job Chillaway's information and description, they 
suppose John Armstrong to have lately surveyed, and at which 
they are in fear the Indians will take offense.  I told them I 
was entirely ignorant of it, as I supposed you to be, from what 
you said to me yesterday, but that I would order an inquiry to 
be made.  I, therefore, desire that you will immediately write 
to Mr. Armstrong, and know from him what truth there is in all 
this, what it is he has actually been doing in that part of the 
country, and by what authority, and require his answer as soon 
as possible.
     "I think it also advisable that you should see Teedyuscung 
before he leaves town, apprise him of this report, and satisfy 
him that nothing is intended to the prejudice of the Indians 
with respect to lands, lest, hearing it from other hands on his 
return, it may make impressions on him and other Indians to our 
disadvantage."
     Mr. Peters wrote Mr. Armstrong, Philadelphia, 17th November, 
1760:
     "Sir: Inclosed is a letter I received from the Governor, with a 
draught of a pretended survey delivered to him by the clerk of the 
Association of Friends for Indian Affairs, who said that John 
Chillaway, the Indian, who was with you, complained that the 
lines run into the land not yet granted by the Indians.
Be pleased to send to the Governor a letter fully explaining 
this affair, in order to obviate any complaints that may be 
made, and make no delay.
	"It is proposed that the west line, which is the boundary in the 
proprietary release executed at Easton, shall be run by the 
surveyors on behalf of the Proprietaries, and by a deputation of 
Indians, to be appointed at the next public Indian treaty, to be 
held in this city, in the spring."
     The above allusion to Teedyuscung will be understood from the 
following information, taken from  "The Memorials of the Moravian 
Church," edited by the late Reverend William C. Reichel, a 
thorough investigator and the best authority upon the history of 
the Indians who resided within our state:*

     *Reverend William C. Reichel born at Salem, North Carolina, 
died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Wednesday, October 25,1876, 
Atat 53. "Murmuring of the Rock of Ages, he passed away quietly 
as an infant falls asleep." He was professor in the Moravian 
Theological Seminary, a ripe scholar, an indefatigable 
student, and, in the language of John Jordan, junior, Esquire, 
his decease an irreparable loss.


20                    ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

     The Lenape or Delawares, although under the power of the Six 
Nations, had their own king. Allummapees held this position as 
early as 1718, and as the purchases of the Proprietaries forced 
the withdrawal of the tribes from the Delaware, he removed, in 
1728, from on the Delaware to Shamokin, "which is eighty miles 
from Tulpehocken, and the residence of the king (Allummapees) of 
the Delawares and of the Oneida (Shikellimy) viceroy.  The 
latter virtually maintains the balance of power between the 
different tribes and between the Indians and the whites, acting 
as agent for the Iroquois confederacy in all affairs of state 
and war." - Zinzendorf's Narrative, dated at Shamokin, September 
29, 1742, Reichel, page 67.  (The year 1728 is, no doubt, the 
date of the withdrawal of the Muncys, who were proverbially 
impatient of the white man's presence in the Indian country," 
from Buffalo Valley, and their removal to the head waters of 
the Allegheny, succeeded by the straggling Shawanese.)  In July, 
1739, Richard Penn treated with deputies of "the Shawanese, 
scattered far abroad from the Great Island to the Allegheny."
     In June, 1746, Weiser writes that Allummapees has no successor 
of his relatives, and will hear of none as long as he is alive.  
Shikellimy advises that the Government should name a successor, 
and set him up by their authority; that he has lost his senses, 
and is incapable of doing anything.  Allummapees is dead, writes 
Weiser to Peters, in 1747.  Lapappiton is allowed to be the 
fittest to succeed him, but he declines.  Finally, Teedyuscung 
was made king of the Delawares, in the spring of 1756.  He had 
his headquarters in 1757-8, at Teedyuscung's town, (a little 
below the site of WilkesBarre,) marked Wioming on Scull's map of 
1759.  Here he was burned in his lodge, on the night of the 19th 
of April, 1763, and hence the Delawares fled, in October of the 
same year, after having struck the last blow for the possession 
of the "Great Plains," on the 15th of the month, when they fell 
upon the Connecticut settlers.
     Reichel differs from Loskiel as to the date, before quoted, 
of Shikellimy's death, and places it on the 17th of December, 
1748, and adds, that his son Logan, returned home from a far 
off journey 


                      INTRODUCTION.                         21

several days after his decease, to weep over the lifeless body of a 
parent he so much esteemed.  The brethren, Zeisberger and Henry 
Fry, made him a coffin, and the Indians having painted the 
corpse in gay colors, and decked it with the choicest ornaments, 
carried the remains of their honored chieftain to the burial 
place of his fathers, on the banks of the "winding river."  He 
was succeeded in his vicegerency by his eldest son, 
Tachnachdoarus, "a spreading oak," alias John Shikellimy.  His 
second son was James Logan, named for Secretary Logan, of 
Germantown.  Logan was lame.  John Petty was the youngest of the 
three brothers, and bore the name of an Indian trader.
                [End of page 21.  Page 22 is blank.]


                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.

                             1768.

PENN TOWNSHIP SETTLERS - WILLIAM GILL - MURDER OF WHITE MINGO -
          WILLIAM BLYTHE - PURCHASE OF 1768.


     THE following list of inhabitants of Penn township, Cumberland 
county, is taken from the original assessments at Carlisle, Penn 
township then embracing nearly all of what is now Snyder county 
John Aumiller, Philip Aumiller, William Blythe, Jacob 
Carpenter, George Drowner, Adam Ewig, George Gabriel, Jacob 
Hammersly, John Lee, Arthur Moody, Michael Regar, George Rine, 
John Reighbough, junior and senior, Michal Rodman, Casper 
Reed, Frederick Stump, (who is taxed with one negro,) Peter 
Straub, Adam Stephen, and Andrew Shafer. The freemen are John 
McCormick, William Gill, Edward Lee, and Joseph Reynolds.
      Of these early settlers I can fix the locality of but few. 
William Blythe lived at the mouth of Middle creek; Adam Ewig on the 
creek just above App's mill; George Gabriel on the site of 
Selinsgrove; Frederick Stump where Middleburg now stands; Peter 
Straub at Straubstown; William Gill on Tuscarora creek, not far 
from New Berlin.  The latter came originally from Bucks county. 
Belonging to a regiment in Forbes' campaign, he was wounded in 
the leg in Grant's defeat, September 14, 1758, or in the attack on 

24                     ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.	    [1768.

Bouquet's camp, at Loyalhanna, and made for home, through the 
woods, with a bullet in his leg.  He lived mostly on wild grass 
on the way.  Reaching Penn's creek, he stopped, married a German 
woman there, and settled.  He served in Captain Clarke's company 
the winter of 1776-7, and when, during the war of 1812, one of 
his sons was drafted, and for some reason could not go, the old 
man went with him to Sunbury, and asked to be substituted for 
his son.  The board rewarded his patriotism by discharging his 
son. He died in Beaver township, about the year 1820, leaving a 
large family of boys.  His grandson Jacob was a member of 
Captain Middleswarth's company, in 1814, and now resides about 
two miles from Bellefonte, (1877.)  I am indebted for these 
facts to William Gill, nephew of William, senior, who at the 
advanced age of ninety years, had a remarkable recollection of 
dates and events, which I have frequently verified by old papers 
and assessments.  He died at Bellefonte, November 21, 1876.


                   Murder of White Mingo.

     Sunday, 10th of January, occurred the murder of White Mingo 
and five other Indians, by Frederick Stump.  The information of 
William Blythe, made at Philadelphia, on the 19th of January, is 
in substance, that, hearing of the murder, he went to George 
Gabriel's, where he met Stump and several others, on the 12th, 
and was then told by Stump himself that six Indians, White 
Mingo, Cornelius, John Campbell, Jones, and two women, came to 
his house, near the mouth of Middle creek.  Being drunk and 
disorderly, he endeavored to get them to leave, which they would 
not do.  Fearing injury to himself, he killed them all, dragged 
them to the creek, and making a hole in the ice, threw in their 
bodies.  Then fearing the news might be carried to the other 
Indians, he went the next day to two cabins, fourteen miles up 
the creek, where he found one woman and two girls, with one 
child.  These he killed, and putting their bodies into the 
cabin, he burned it.  That he (Blythe) sent four men up the 
creek, who reported that they had found the cabins burned, and 
the remains of the limbs of the Indians in the ashes.  The scene 
of the latter deed was on the run that enters the creek at 
Middleburg, which goes by the name of Stump's run to this 


1768.]             ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.               25

day.  Stump and his companion, Iron-Cutter, were arrested at 
Gabriel's, and taken to Carlisle jail.  They were forcibly rescued 
on the 29th, were concealed about Fort Augusta a few days, and 
then fled the country.  Tradition has it, that Stump died in 
Virginia, many years afterwards.
     For William Blythe's services in this matter, he received the 
two tracts of land which were surveyed on applications in the 
names of his daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, containing, 
together, six hundred and forty acres, lying immediately south 
of White Deer creek, whither he removed during the year, and 
was, therefore, one of the first settlers of Buffalo Valley 
after the purchase.  He was an Indian trader at Shippensburg in 
1748, and a lieutenant in the French war, 1758.
     His cabin stood on Red-Bank run, near the river, on the Eliza-
beth Blythe tract, below the late Samuel Henderson's house.  Her 
application of 3d April, 1769, describes it as including an old 
Indian fort and a settlement begun by her.  William Blythe lived 
to be a very old man.  Roley McCorley informed me he knew him 
well, and that he was a tall, raw-boned man, and, in latter 
years, quite blind.
     His daughter Margaret married Captain John Reed, who had 
commanded the "Paxton Boys."  Her tract was patented to Captain 
Reed in 1774.  Her children by Captain Reed were William, 
(father of James Reed, who still resides near Hartleton, and 
grandfather of Doctor Uriah Reed, of Jersey Shore, and of Robert 
Reed, now of Clearfield, Pennsylvania,) James, who moved west, 
and Elizabeth, who married John Armstrong.  Captain Reed died 
before 1778, and, with "the Runaway" of that year, the Reeds 
went to Cumberland county.  William Reed's family remained there 
until some years after, when he came up and settled in Hartley 
township. Captain Reed's widow married Captain Charles 
Gillespie, an officer of the Revolution, and raised a second 
family - Edward Gillespie, Susanna, (married to Arthur Thomas,) 
Eleanor, Charles, junior, Thomas, and John.  By a division of 
the place, the lower half, one hundred and seventy-six acres, fell 
to Charles Gillespie and wife, the upper to the Reeds, who 
conveyed it, on the 6th of May, 1796, to Gillespie and wife.  
The Gillespies all went west, except Edward, who hung himself, 
many years ago, at the old homestead, which


26               ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.          [1768.

passed into the hands of the late Daniel Ludwig, Esquire.  
Margaret Blythe survived the fortunes of her second family, and 
took refuge with her first husband's children.  She died at her 
son's, William Reed, in Hartley township, and her remains were 
interred in the graveyard at Kester's school-house.
     Elizabeth Blythe married Doctor Joseph Eakers, who had been a 
surgeon in the revolutionary army.*  In October, 1798, they sold 
the place to James Hepburn, and went West, where she died.  The 
Doctor returned, resumed practice, and was drowned in Muddy run, 
above Milton, many years ago.
     5th November.  Thomas and Richard Penn purchased from the Six 
Nations, at Fort Stanwix, (now Rome, New York,) the remainder of 
the Valley whose annals we are writing.  As one of the 
incentives to this purchase, I may state that, as early as the 
year 1764, the officers of the first and second battalions who 
served under Colonel Bouquet, made an agreement with each other, 
in writing, at Bedford, "that they would apply to the 
Proprietaries for a tract of land sufficiently extensive and 
conveniently situated, whereon to erect a compact and defensible 
town; and, also, to accommodate each of us with a reasonable and 
commodious plantation; which land and lots of ground, if 
obtained, we do agree shall be proportionably divided, according 
to our several ranks and subscriptions," &c.  Signed by 
Lieutenant Colonels Turbutt Francis and Asher Clayton, Major 
John P. deHaas, Captains Jacob Kern, John Procter, James 
Hendricks, John Brady, William Piper, Timothy Green, Samuel 
Hunter; Henry Watson, adjutant first battalion; Conrad Bucher, 
adjutant second battalion; William Plunket and James Irvine, 
captains; Lieutenant Daniel Hunsicker; Ensigns McMeen and Piper, 
et al.  They appointed Colonel Francis, Captain Irvine, &c., 
commissioners to act for all the officers.  These commissioners 
made an application to the Proprietaries on the 30th of April, 
1765, in which they proposed to embody themselves in a compact 
settlement, on some good land, at some distance from the 
inhabited part of the Province, where, by their industry, they 
might procure a comfortable subsistence for themselves, and by 
their arms, union, and increase, become a powerful barrier to 
the Province.  They

     *In a petition to the Executive Council, dated February 15, 
1779, he states that he had been a long time surgeon's mate in 
the hospital department.


1769.                 ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.             27

further represented that the land already purchased did not 
afford any situation convenient for their purpose; but the 
confluence of the two branches of the Susquehanna at Shamokin 
did, and they, therefore, prayed the Proprietaries to make the 
purchase, and make them a grant of forty thousand acres of 
arable land on the West Branch of the Susquehanna.  Lieutenant 
Thomas Wiggins and Ensign J. Foster, who were absent from 
Bedford when the agreement was signed, were subsequently 
admitted into the association.  The minutes of the association 
are published in full in the first volume of the Collections of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.



                            1769.

OFFICIALS - FIRST SURVEYS IN THE VALLEY - JOHN EWING, et al. - 
OFFICERS SURVEYS - ORIGINAL SETTLERS.

     GOVERNOR, JOHN PENN.  Representative of Berks, Edward Biddle; 
Sheriff, Jacob Shoemaker. Representatives of Cumberland, William 
Allen and John Montgomery; Sheriff, David Hoge; Prothonotary, 
Hermanus Alricks.
     On the 3d of February, the commissioners of the officers of the 
first and second battalions met at the Governor's, and obtained 
an order allowing them to take up twenty-four thousand acres, to 
be divided among them in distinct surveys, on the waters of the 
West Brand of the Susquehanna, each three hundred acres to be 
seated with a family within two years from the time of survey, 
paying £5 sterling per hundred, and one penny per acre, &c.  The 
names of the officers in whose favor the order of survey issued 
were Colonel Francis, Major deHaas, Captains Irvine, Plunket, 
Hunter, Kern, Green, Houssegger, Sems, Hendricks, Brady, Piper, 
Bucher, Lieutenants, Stewart, Wiggins, Hays, Nice, Hunsicker, 
Askey, McAl-


28              ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.	         [1769.

lister, Ensigns Piper, McMeen, Morrow, Steine, and Foster and 
the order signed by John Lukens, surveyor general, and directed 
to William Scull and William Maclay.
     By advertisement, dated the 23d of February, the land office 
was to open to receive applications for lands in the "New Purchase," 
on the 3d of April.  "So long a day was fixed to give the back 
inhabitants time to repair to the office."  Meanwhile surveys 
were made on special orders for the Proprietaries or their 
friends.
     On the 18th of February, William Maclay made the first survey 
in person on the west side of the river.  His field notes are yet 
preserved among the records of the deputy surveyor's office of 
Union county.  He began at a black oak on the river, afterwards 
the south-east corner of the Richard Manning tract, and ran S. 
60º W. 7º, W. 212, S. 45º W. 755, S. 49º E. 295, to the black oak or 
Spanish oak on the river, on the line of the purchase or 
Gabriel's land; thence up the river N. 36º E. 51, N. 45º E. 
233 1/2, N. 39º E. 462, and N. 26 1/2º E. 220, to the place of 
beginning.  He says this survey is of land above George 
Gabriel's, for which Andrew Allen has a warrant, and on which 
Charles Willing intends an old right of five hundred acres, 
"neither of which are in my hands yet."  The next day, Sunday, 
the 19th, he says he received from Colonel Francis the Charles 
Willing location.  The caveat, Willing vs. Allen, was determined 
on the 21st of December, 1772, by the board of property. 
Present, Mr. Tilghman, Hockley, Physick, and Lukens. "That the 
location on the warrant of Charles Willing (which bore date the 
24th December, 1768) is such an appropriation of five hundred 
acres and allowance, that it was not liable to the 
Proprietaries' warrant," and they directed the surveyor general 
to divide the land by a line N. 49º W. from the river, so as to 
leave five hundred acres of the lower end to be returned for 
Willing.  This division line is about where the present road 
running west from Hettrick's store, in Monroe township, Snyder 
county, is laid.
     The distance of the river line of the John Cox survey, (which 
included Gabriel's settlement,) from the mouth of Penn's creek 
to the Indian line, was two hundred and ninty-two perches; of 
the Richard Willing, from the black oak or Spanish oak, marked 
by Gabriel and the Indians, to a white oak, which stood on the 
river bank near Hettrick's store, was two hundred and ninty-five 
and one half perches.


1769.]               ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.            29

The Andrew Allen reached thence six hundred and seventy-one 
perches, to a black oak which stood below the Sunbury ferry, 
nearly opposite the old tavern.  The Richard Manning survey 
(made in 1770) extended up one hundred and fifty perches to a 
maple, where began the John Galloway, which ran up three hundred 
and forty-eight perches, to the confluence of the West Branch.  
I will here add, as having interest upon the question of the 
location of Fort Augusta, that a topographical survey found 
among the same papers of this date, has a station on the mouth 
of the little stream that enters the river below the present 
bridge.  The course to the main point is N. 27º E. and S. 
53 1/2º E. to the " redoubt at Fort Augusta."
     The survey next above the "Galloway," is the Daniel Hoffman, 
(1814,) extending one hundred and eighteen perches; then comes 
the Joshua McAfee, (the John Mason place,) surveyed in 1771, 
extending up sixty-eight perches, and we are in Buffalo Valley.
     22d February, the Reverend John Ewing's survey was made; the 
first in the Valley.  It extends from the mouth of Buffalo 
creek, six hundred and seventy-five perches, to a walnut that 
formerly stood on Doctor Dougal's line.  Mr. Maclay's starting 
point for this survey was sixty or seventy rods above the 
present site of the iron bridge across Buffalo creek.  This 
survey contained eleven hundred and fifty acres.
     24th February, Mr. Maclay surveyed the Bremmer tract for John 
Penn.  He notes in his field-book the fine spring at late Andrew 
Wolfe's, the one on the Cameron farm, and the one at Ellis Brown's,
and leaves out "the pine barrens," as he calls the present 
Linn place.  This tract contained one thousand four hundred and 
thirty-four acres, and was called the " fiddler's tract," 
tradition said, because given a fiddler for one night's 
performance on the violin. Bremmer was a music dealer in the 
Strand, London, and was, perhaps, a fiddler by occupation.
     28th February, the site of Lewisburg was surveyed for the 
Proprietaries, by Mr. Maclay, commencing at a white oak, at the 
present Strohecker's landing.  At sixty-eight perches he notes 
the spring now belonging to the University grounds.  This line 
he makes one mile long, to the mouth of Buffalo creek; he then 
ran up the creek to a hickory that stood where the present road 
reaches the creek at the iron bridge; thence he ran due south, 
two hundred and


30                ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.           [1769.

eight perches, to a pine, the stump of which was dug up when the 
railroad excavation was made north of the Eighth Street school-
building; it stood some eight feet inside of Jacob Derr's fence;) 
thence he ran S. 50º E., two hundred and ninety-eight perches, 
to the river. Several of the latter line trees stand near the 
cemetery. These lines now mark the limits of the borough, with 
the exception of the Jacob Spidler place, which was taken out of 
the borough many years ago by act of the Legislature.
     In the latter part of February many of the officers of the 
first and second battalions met at Fort Augusta, and agreed to take 
the land upon the terms proposed by the Proprietaries, and that 
one of the tracts should he surveyed on the West Branch, 
adjoining Montour's place, (Chillisquaque creek,) and one in 
Buffalo Valley.  In order to expedite business, it was agreed 
that Captains Plunket, Brady, Piper, and Lieutenant Askey, 
should go along with Mr. Maclay to Buffalo Valley, and Captains 
Hunter and Irvine with Mr. Scull, to direct the survey in the 
Forks.
    On the 1st, 2d, and 3d of March, Samuel Maclay, for William, 
ran out the officers' survey.  He commenced at a white oak on now 
William Spotts' land, at the east of the Limestone ridge, and 
ran west and south-west to the east line of what is now William 
Young's land, in Lewis township.  The western line he ran N. 318 
to Buffalo creek; thence he ran north of the present turnpike, 
until he crossed its site a little east of Vicksburg, and came 
back to a white oak, yet standing, one hundred and twenty-five 
rods east of where Salem church is now; thence he ran south to 
an elm on Turtle creek, and west and south-west to the place of 
beginning.  This survey embraced the heart of Buffalo Valley, 
and, as their minutes say, "was made without opposition;" and 
the officers returned to Fort Augusta, held a meeting, and 
determined that the third tract of eight thousand acres should 
be surveyed on Bald Eagle creek.  Captains Hunter, Brady, and 
Piper were appointed to over-see that survey, to be made by 
Charles Lukens.  The record says that Colonel Francis, Doctor 
Plunket, and Major deHaas, furnished the stores on the present 
occasion.
     16th May, The officers met at Harris' Ferry.  Messrs. Maclay, 
Scull, and Lukens laid before them the drafts of their 
respective surveys.  Mr. Maclay reported the tract surveyed by 
him in Buffalo


1769.]             ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.           31

Valley contained eight thousand acres; Mr. Scull that in the 
Forks, six thousand and ninety-six, which left nine thousand 
nine hundred and four for Bald Eagle creek, and Mr. Lukens' 
survey was several thousand acres short of the quantity.  They 
agreed then that Colonel Francis should receive his share, two 
thousand seven hundred and seventy-five acres, surveyed to him 
in one tract, adjoining the tract purchased by him of Montour.  
Colonel Francis' tract accordingly extended from Chillisquaque 
creek down to and included Northumberland point.  Boyd and 
Wilson purchased of him, and erected the mill at the mouth of 
Chillisquaque creek, in 1791, and John Lowdon bought the site of 
Northumberland town from Colonel Francis, and it was patented to 
his wife, Sarah Lowdon, 7th July, 1770.  Same day, 16th of May, 
lots were drawn for the choice of lands.  Captain Hendricks, 
having won the first choice, took the eastern end of Buffalo 
Valley survey, now the Zellers, Aurands, &C., farms.  Captain 
William Plunket then chose the Dreisbach place, site of the 
church, &c.  Captain Brady the Maclay place afterwards, now 
Joseph Green's, William Cameron, Esquire's, &c.  Captain Kern 
next took the site of Vicksburg.  Lieutenant Doctor Thomas 
Wiggins got three hundred and thirty-nine acres.  Doctor Wiggins 
resided in Lower Paxton township, now Dauphin county.  By his 
will, proved August 31, 1798, he devised to his brother, John 
Wiggins, his land in Northumberland county; and by the will of 
John Wiggins, second, proved November 30, he devises it to John 
and James Wiggins Simonton, each one hundred and ten acres.  
Honorable John W. Simonton many years associate judge of Union 
county, still owns this military fief.  Reverend Captain Conrad 
Bucher secured the tract now owned by the Pontius's; Captain 
Timothy Green the site of the Rockey mill; Lieutenant Askey the 
site of Mifflinburg; Captain Irvine the place so long owned by 
the Kleckners; Lieutenant Stewart the old Foster place; and 
Lieutenant McAllister the old John Hayes place.  Captains 
Plunket and Brady superintended the running of the division 
lines, which was accomplished by Samuel Maclay, on the 25th, 
26th, 27th, and 28th of May.
     The John Ewing survey was made on the 3d of March, extending 
from the east line of the officers' survey, down Turtle creek, to



32                ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.             [1769

the Gundy farm.  These are the leading surveys, run with 
astonishing accuracy, and well marked all around.
     The John Harris surveys, from Jacob M. Shively's, near White 
spring, up to and including Esquire Lincoln's farm, were also 
upon special warrants, before the opening of the land office.  
They were made on the 23d of February.  The walnut, the beginning 
point, stood on Penn's creek, below the mouth of White Spring 
run. John Harris had bought, as stated before, the improvement 
made by Turner in 1755.  He also owned the Edward Lee, the White 
Spring tract, the improvement title of which also dated back to 
1755; both re-surveyed, however, by Mr. Maclay, in February, 
1769. He was the father-in-law of William Maclay, and was 
favored by the Proprietaries in consequence of his services 
with the Indians.
     On the 3d of April the land office was opened, and a great 
crowd attended.  Numerous applications or locations, as they were 
called, were received for the same spots of land, from different 
persons, under various or similar descriptions.  The method 
taken to decide the preference was to put them all into a trunk, 
and after mixing them well together, an indifferent person drew 
them out, and they were numbered in the order of drawing, 
priority thus being determined by lottery.  To illustrate by 
example: there were numerous applications for the old Muncy town 
or Shikellimy's town tract.  Michael WeyLand's was the thirty-
second application drawn, and so numbered, and put down on the 
list.  Any subsequent application descriptive of the same 
locality was, when opened and read, laid aside.  Jacob Weyland's 
application for land, "on a run of water adjoining Michael 
Weyland's at Shikellimy's town," was the sixth drawn. John Grove 
now owns part of that warrantee tract.  Dietrick Rees' appli-
cation for land, "on a run below Dog run, adjoining land of Lud-
wig Derr, in Walnut bottom," came out the eighth.  It embraces 
New Columbia, and the land north and west of it.  Derr seems to 
have marked out a claim for himself, near New Columbia, before 
the drawing, which he failed to get.
     In August, the greater part of the surveys on the north side 
of Buffalo Creek were made, from Colonel Slifer's place up to 
Farmersville, together with most of the surveys in Buffalo and 
the Lowdon surveys in West Buffalo.  Those along the river, down 
to Turtle creek, also in August.  From thence to the county line 
below, in October.


1769.]              ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.             33

The surveys from Doctor Dougal's place up to the mouth of White
Deer creek, along the river, were made by Charles Lukens, in 
October. He speaks in his field notes of Ludwig Derr being with him. 
Along Penn's creek, above and including the mouth of Switzer run, the 
surveys were made in August.  In November, William Maclay made 
surveys of some of the best land in the Valley, including Ray's 
church, John and Isaac Reish's land, in which he was interested.  
Colonel Kelly's tracts were also surveyed in August.  In December, 
Samuel Maclaf surveyed the lands in Dry valley, now owned by Isaac 
Eyer, David Gross, &c.
     The settlers this year, as far as I can ascertain them, were 
John Lee, at the spring near the stone barn at Winfield; John 
Beatty, at the spring near New Berlin; Jacob Grozean, near 
Hoffa's mill; Barney Parson, at the old Iddings place; John 
Wilson,* at Jenkin's mill; Adam Haines, on the McCorley place, 
White Deer. William Blythe's cabin is marked on a survey made 24th 
October, as standing twenty-five rods from the river, on the 
little run above the Ard place. Joseph McLaughlin had an 
improvement on White Deer creek, west of Blythe's, and one 
Bennett had a cabin on White Deer creek, about one mile above 
the cotton factory.  John Fisher took up the place now known as 
Datesman's, West Milton, and settled upon it.  Michael Weyland 
the George F. Miller place.  William Armstrong lived where the 
road comes out to the old ferry, below New Columbia. James Parr 
commenced an improvement on the same tract, a little above, and 
they agreed to divide the land, Armstrong to fill up his 
application by taking more land in the rear.  In doing so, he 
encroached on the Earnest Burke, a tract belonging to Hawkins 
Boone. Hence a law suit reported in 2 Binn., 55.

     *John Wilson died in 1774. He was the father of Thomas Wilson, 
afterwards a prominent citizen of Erie county, and of Mrs. 
David Mead, (of Meadville.) Sanford'S Erie, page 220.


                             1770.

       EARLY SURVEYS - SETTLERS FROM PAXTON - SCULL'S MAP.


     JOHN PENN, Governor.  Officials the same as in 1769. May 21, 
Turbutt Francis, Esquire, appointed Prothonotary of Cumberland 
county, vice H. Alricks, resigned. The following notices of settlers 
are derived from old conveyances and notes of surveyors:
     As early as the 28th of March, John Buchanan and his father 
resided on the Richard Edwards tract, where Stoltzfus now lives.  
By a lease, dated that day, he agreed with Thomas Lemmon and 
Sarah, his wife, to build a log house, eighteen by twenty, 
thereon, clear and fence ten acres of field, two of meadow, 
plant ten apple and twenty cherry trees, &c.
     Jacob Fought bought of Captain Timothy Green two hundred and 
sixteen acres at the mouth of Cedar run, including the forks of 
Buffalo creek, the Rockey mill site, and moved there.  23d March, 
James Wilson surveyed the George Palmer tract, embracing Win-
field, for John Lee.  He speaks of commencing at Lee's spring, 
and running S. 40º, E. 53, to an ash at the river, and thence, 
by the back side of Lee's fields, N. 40º W.  This explains the 
corner left cut of the Craig survey below, and shows that Lee 
had cleared the fields where Thomas Pursel now lives as early as 
the 4th of October, 1769, when Craig's survey was made.  The 
first regular clearing, perhaps, in the Valley, and its exact 
locality is thus identified.  In May, Wilson surveyed the 
addition to David Moore, along Buffalo creek, now A. J. 
Rishel's, and speaks of Hans Fleming


1770.]              ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.             35



living in there.  On the 12th of May, he surveyed the Thomas 
Sutherland place in Dry valley, where Emerick's family was 
afterwards captured.  He says "this land Robert King has 
bought," indicating the residence of the first constable of 
Buffalo township.  17th May he surveyed the John Umstead tract, 
on Stony run, which empties into Buffalo creek, east of the 
mouth of Rapid run.  On the 18th, the Peter Horning, where 
Esquire Sheckler now lives. This land was afterwards in 
litigation between Christopher Johnston and Matthew Irwin for 
over thirty years.  His field notes explain the origin of the 
trouble.  He commenced at an ash, (which stood in the road 
afterwards laid out, nearly in front of Esquire Sheckler's house  
in the line of the eight hundred tract made for Foster and Rees; 
thence ran north 168, to a black oak of same, (this distance was 
found by subsequent surveys to be one hundred and eighty-two 
perches;) and thence, by an old Indian cabin, W. 74 to a maple; 
and thence, by a ridge, crossing a run at seventy-two perches, 
N. 78 to a hickory, west 122 to a chestnut oak, and by a ridge 
S. 138 to a Spanish oak, E. 80 to a white oak, and by a ridge S. 
122 to a white oak, (subsequent surveys made this distance 135.)  
"I had set the course east from this white oak, and at 54 I 
intersected a line of Doctor Plunket's, made by Samuel Maclay, 
which I found ran north and south.  The distance between two 
black oak corners was between sixty and seventy perches, where, 
I made a halt, and left open the line between white oak and ash 
beginning."  Leaving this line open, made the difficulty, the 
white oak having disappeared.
     On 25th of September, he surveyed for John Lee the small thirty-
eight acre tract, at Strohecker's landing.  He says he began at 
the white oak of the survey Ludwig Derr lives on; thence ran N. 
50º, W. 56, &c., showing that Derr then lived on the site of 
Lewisburg. I found Lee's receipt for the purchase money among 
Youngman and Walters' papers, who lately owned the place where 
Lee was killed by the Indians.
     Michael Pfoutz was Wilson's chain-carrier.
     Colonel John Kelly at this time lived on the place where he 
died, as appears by Mr. Wilson's notes.
     In an assessment for the year 1770, of Paxton township, now 
Dauphin county, occur the names of Robert Clark, Walter Clark, 
Robert Fruit, William Maclay, Matthew Smith, William Plunket, 
George



36                    ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.       [1771

Overmeier, Michael Troy, William Clark, the four last named 
marked inmates, indicating either a widower or unmarried man; 
and in Middletown we find the name of Albright Swineford, all 
prominent in the subsequent annals.
     William Scull's map of date April 4, 1770, has Mahantango creek, 
Middle creek, Penn's creek, Turtle, Buffalo, and White Deer 
creeks laid down, with their respective names.  Reed's residence 
is marked halfway between Mahantango and Penn's.  Gabriel's, now 
Selinsgrove, is marked "Cox's borough."  Nittany and Jack's 
mountains are on, with these respective names, but he has a 
range of mountains running up the river from the mouth of 
Buffalo creek.



                          1771.

GREAT FLOOD - PENN TOWNSHIP SETTLERS - GEORGE GABRIEL - FIRST
MILLS BUILT - DREISBACH'S CHURCH - MICHAEL WEYLAND.


     RICHARD PENN, Lieutenant Governor from October 16. Edward 
Biddle and Henry Christ, Representatives of Berks county; Sheriff, 
George Nagle.  William Allen and John Montgomery, Representatives 
of Cumberland; Sheriff, Ephraim Blame.
     9th March, the Susquehanna river, Bald Eagle creek up to Spring 
creek, and Penn's creek, for twenty miles above its mouth, were 
declared public highways.  John Lowdon was appointed one of the 
commissioners for making them navigable.  I Smith's Laws, 324.
     On the same day, the officers of the first and second battalions 
held another meeting.  Charles Lukens reported that the whole 
tract surveyed by him on Bald Eagle creek contained only eight 
thousand three hundred and eighty acres, which is fifteen 
hundred and twenty-four acres less than the quantity allowed 
them.  He divided the Bald Eagle tract into twenty shares, the 
last of which


1771.]	           ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.                37



Lieutenant Askey got; so that Lieutenant McAllister, Ensign 
Piper, Captain Sems, and Captain Kern yet lacked their shares.  
Colonel Francis then said that a grant might be obtained for the 
tract of land in Buffalo Valley formerly intended to be located 
by Captain Plunket, and since surveyed for the Proprietaries, 
containing one thousand and five acres.  Piper was, therefore, 
given lot No. 6, on Bald Eagle, surveyed for Ensign Morrow, who 
was excluded from the grant by the Penns, because he was of the 
party that rescued Stump and Iron-Cutter, the murderers of the 
Indians on Middle creek; Captain Kern, two hundred and eighty-
seven acres, late the Chamberlain mill tract, in Kelly, now 
Hoffa's; Lieutenant McAlister, two hundred and ninety acres, 
late Howard farm, adjoining the above; and Colonel Francis, for 
Captain Sems, five hundred and twenty-seven and one half acres, 
adjoining.  Colonel Francis sold the latter tract to William 
Linn, of Lurgan township, Franklin county, who divided it among 
his children.  His grandson, W. T. Linn, still owns his father's 
share.
     Loskiel mentions that in the spring of this year there was a 
great flood in the Susquehanna, which compelled the Indians at 
Wyoming to leave their houses, and take to the hills, where they 
remained four days.
    The assessment of Penn's township contains this year the names 
of the following additional settlers: Frederick Albright, 
Thomas Allen, Tobias Bickle, Henry Bower, Robert Boyd, Tobias 
Bickle, junior, Michael Beidenbaugh, William Burchard, Abraham 
Billman, George Bowerman, Peter Druckenmiller, Widow Dowd, 
Michael Egulph, John Foutz, George Herrold, Joseph Jacobs, 
Michael Kerstetter, Bostian Kerstetter, Andrew Moor, Jacob Myer, 
Robert Moody, Edward McConnell, William Nees, John Regenbach, 
junior, Michael Stoke, Michael Swingle, Harman Snyder, Michael 
Weaver, George Miller, Andrew Ulsh.  Freemen:  Casper Snyder, 
Conrad Hayslick, and Michael Foutz.
     George Gabriel, no doubt, died this year, as his name disappears 
from the assessment list.  His obituary, or the only one I can 
find, at least, is not very complimentary.  On the 13th November, 
1772, at a meeting of "the officers," Mr. Lukens and Little had 
a claim, they said, for a location of three hundred acres, 
presented to them by Colonel John Armstrong, which was included 
in the officers' sur-


38                   ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.                [1771.

vey, insisting that the place now called Cedar springs, Pontius's now, 
was the same to which Colonel Armstrong gave the name of Snake spring, 
in 1755  and Mr. Ewing read a paper, said to be a copy of George 
Gabriel's deposition, who was with Colonel Armstrong when the name was 
given. "We told them that their location was extremely vague, being for 
land near John Penn's creek, twelve miles south-ward of Fort Augusta, 
which did not affect our claim in the least. As to Gabriel's deposition, 
it is but ex parre testimony.  The man is since dead, but is well known 
to have been a man of infamous character.  That Colonel Armstrong, the 
gentleman who gave the location, is still living, and has declared that 
he cannot fix upon the spot."  This claim was, no doubt, founded upon 
the Manor survey of 1760.
     Jacob Fought built the first mill in West Buffalo township, and, 
perhaps, the first in the Valley, unless, we except Derr's, at Lewis-
burg, the exact date of the building of which I cannot ascertain, 
though, probably, in 1770.  The date of Fought's is fixed by an 
agreement, yet on record, with George Rote, dated 14th November, 1776.  
It recites that Fought built the mill in 1771, and a dam on the south 
branch of the creek.  Finding that insufficient, he dug a water-course, 
and erected a dam to take the water from the north branch of Buffalo 
creek.  George Rote had purchased the adjoining tract of Colonel deHaas, 
who had purchased of Ensign Foster.  By this agreement, the Yearly 
damage to Rote's land was fixed at £1 5s, and Fought bound himself, his 
heirs, and successors to pay said sum yearly; but if the mill-dam became 
"extink" or the water ceased to do damage, the agreement was to be void.  
Marks were to be made on a big rock, on an iron-wood, and on a white 
oak. When the water reached these marks, it was to be run over the dam. 
The dam on the north branch was to be three feet, and no higher. At 
Fought's mill the first elections in the Valley were held.
     James Wilson made numerous surveys this year: 31st May, the William 
Kelly tract, on Black's run, on which Stahl, the noted wagonmaker, lived 
so long; 22d June, Peter Herrold and John Flackinger, on White Deer 
creek; 16th August, the Thomas Mackemiss, beginning at a black oak, he 
says, where Samuel Maclay stopped with the officers' line, on the west 
line of Cumberland county, (north of Ray's church;) 17th September, the 
Joseph Updegraff, the lead-




1771.]              ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.           39

ing survey on the north branch of Buffalo creek, (Kelly's mills.)
Thomas McGuire, the elder, was then a resident of the Valley.
Hawkins Boone made this year the John Musser surveys, in White
Deer Hole valley, four miles from the river.
     From a short sketch of the Dreisbach church, compiled by the 
late John Schrack, Esquire, it appears there were Lutheran and 
German Reformed churches organized in the Valley at this date.  
He speaks of a record of baptisms, extending from 1771 to 1775.  
The church was not built, however, and worship was held in 
private houses. Among he names of parents, occur those of Henry 
Bolender, Henry Pontius, Christian Storms, Simon Himrod.  (The 
latter lived in Turbutt township.  Was afterwards member of 
Assembly.  The family removed to near Waterford, Erie county, in 
1798.) Leonard Welker, Philip Stover, Christian Biehl, Yost 
Derr, Christian Ewig, Stephen Duchman, and Henry Bickel, 
afterwards killed by the Indians.
     During this year, Daniel Nargong made an improvement on Dog 
run, near the site of New Columbia.  He afterwards took up a tract 
higher up the run.  His daughters married Nicholas and Jacob 
Welch, whose family owned the place within a few years back, 
and, perhaps, do still.
     In November, 1771, Walter Clark, of Paxton township, bought the 
one thousand one hundred and fifty acres, surveyed to Reverend 
John Ewing, in trust for himself, Robert Fruit, William Gray, 
Robert Clark, and William Clark, all of the same township.  They 
divided it into six tracts, agreed each to take one sixth, and 
sell the remaining tract, which they did to Ludwig Derr, 31st 
July, 1773. Walter Clark settled on the place now owned by 
Honorable Eli Slifer, William Gray where Major Paul Geddes now 
lives, Robert Fruit on the Heinly place, William Clark on the 
place now owned by M. H. Taggart, and Robert on what is now 
Judge Hummel's farm.  Walter Clark sold to Joseph Musser in 
1802, and moved to Mercer county, where his family became 
prominent.  His son John was a member of the Legislature from 
that county.  Captain Gray, afterwards an officer in the 
Revolution, lived and died on his place. He was ancestor of 
Dunlaps's, Hayes, Hutchinsons, Hudsons, Wallaces, W. G. 
Williams, (of Bellefonte,) &c.  Richard Fruit sold out to Henry 
Hursh in 1812, and moved to Derry, Northumberland


40                  ANNALS OF BUFFALO VALLEY.          [1772.



county.  Robert and William Clark died on their respective places. 
Among the deaths this year occurred that of Michael Weyland, 
leaving a widow, Magdalena, and nine children, Michael, junior, 
Jacob, George, John, Samuel, Mary, (married to Peter Swartz, 
junior,) Margaret, (to Christian Moyer,) Catherine, and 
Magdalena. He was buried on the place, in an old grave-yard 
there.  Colonel James Moore told me it was still in existence 
when his father lived there, a little piece up the road running 
from the river.