AREA HISTORY:  The Indians, Fairview Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE INDIANS – Page 645

At the mouths of the Conodoguinet, Paxton and Yellow Breeches Creeks, in 1719, 
there were Indian villages, when John Harris located on the site of the present 
city of Harrisburg, who secured a charter for a ferry across the Susquehanna, 
and became an Indian trader.  He afterward purchased the alluvial lands along 
the river at New Cumberland and in Fairview Township immediately below the mouth 
of the Yellow Breeches.  His son, John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, born in 
1727, was “the first white child born in Pennsylvania west of the Conewago Hills 
who attained the age of manhood.”  John Harris, the father, once narrowly 
escaped being tortured to death by a squad of Shawanese Indians who came up the 
river, stopped at his stone mansion and demanded rum.  This being refused the 
Indians tied him to a mulberry tree and were about to torture him when he was 
miraculously rescued by some friendly Paxton Indians, who were his neighbors.  
Under that mulberry tree the remains of Harris were interred at the time of his 
death many years later.  The place is still marked by a tombstone surrounded by 
a fence.

The visit of the celebrated preacher, George Whitfield, in 1740, to Harris’ 
Ferry, was a noted event to the early settlers.  For many miles in every 
direction they collected along the banks of the river to hear him preach.

In 1742 twenty-one Onodago and seven Oneida Indians obtained a pass of the 
authorities of Lancaster County, to pass across it (now western part of York 
County), on an expedition against the Tallapoosa Indians in Virginia.  The noted 
Half-King, Monoatootha, died at Harris’ Ferry October 4, 1754, while there on a 
visit.  His home was at Loggstown, fourteen miles below Pittsburgh.  It was 
believed by his twenty Indian heroes who accompanied him, that the French had 
bewitched him, and they obtained a conjure to ascertain the cause of the 
sickness.  His remains were interred by John Harris.  This was the same Indian 
chieftain that Washington visited in 1753 in order to obtain particulars of Fort 
Du Quesne.

During the French and Indian war in America there was great fear and disturbance 
along the Susquehanna, and, in fact, in all of York County, of the hostile 
Indians who were committing depredations in Cumberland County and up the river.  
The white settlers of those sections flocked into the secluded places and thick 
settlements of York and Lancaster Counties, and some went farther east.  January 
8, 1756, a council with the friendly Indians was held at the mouth of Yellow 
Breeches.  Conrad Weiser, the great Indian interpreter was present.

In 1757 many depredations were committed by Indians in Dauphin, Lebanon and 
Cumberland counties, and it was contemplated to massacre the people in Paxton 
Church, two and one-half miles below Harrisburg, during time of service.  The 
people discovered the plot and went to church armed afterward for many months.  
April 1, 1757, to avert further trouble, a conference was held with the Six 
Nations and their allies, nine tribes in all, on the banks of the river below 
Harrisburg.  There was an Indian trail observable to a late date, extending from 
the mouth of Fishing Creek at Goldsboro up through the valley to the mouth of 
the Yellow Breeches Creek at New Cumberland.  It was a famous pathway for the 
Conoy and Shawanese Indians.  Indian relics have been found at various places in 
Fairview.