Colonel John Franklin (To be replaced)
Athens Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Leader of Connecticut land claimants. Served in Sullivan Campaign, 1779. Imprisoned in 1787-89 for leading new state movement. Later served in Pa. legislature. Moved here in 1789; died in 1831. Homesite and grave are east of road.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
John Franklin was a leading figure in the Connecticut settlers' claim to lands in the Wyoming Valley, a bitter dispute with Pennsylvania over overlapping colonial grants. He served in the Sullivan Campaign of 1779, was imprisoned from 1787 to 1789 for backing a movement to carve a new state out of the contested territory, and later sat in the Pennsylvania legislature. He settled here in 1789 and died in 1831, with his homesite and grave just east of the road.
Why it matters
Franklin's career embodies the fierce land conflicts that accompanied the young republic's westward growth and the process by which rival claims were finally absorbed into Pennsylvania.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museum0.8 mi away
- Sayre Historical Society2.3 mi away
- S.R.A.C. Susquehanna River Archaeological Center4.1 mi away · 343 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
Food & drink
- Maple Lawn Dairy14.7 mi away · 3162 Lower Maple Avenue
Places to stay
- Comfort Inn2.9 mi away · 2160 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Candlewood Suites3.5 mi away · 2775 North Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Econo Lodge3.5 mi away · Spring Street, Sayre, PA
- Hampton Inn Sayre3.7 mi away · 3080 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
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Related people
- · Colonel John Franklin
Related events
- · Sullivan Campaign, 1779
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
NEWTOWN
Town of Elmira, NY
In the late summer of 1779, the Sullivan Expedition swept through the heart of Iroquois country in what is now western New York. The village referenced here, christened "Newtown" by General John Sullivan's troops, was a Loyalist and Native settlement that lay in the army's path. After the nearby Battle of Newtown on August 29, 1779 — the campaign's only major engagement — Sullivan's forces razed villages and crops as part of a scorched-earth strategy ordered by George Washington to break the power of the British-allied Iroquois nations.
Sullivan's Pack Horses Marker
Village of Horseheads, NY
In the autumn of 1779, General John Sullivan led a punishing military expedition through the lands of the Six Nations of the Iroquois, part of a scorched-earth campaign ordered by George Washington during the Revolutionary War. As the weary army withdrew through what is now the Chemung Valley, Sullivan's exhausted pack horses—broken down after weeks of hard marching—were put down near this spot. The bleached skulls left behind so struck later travelers and settlers that the place came to be called Horseheads, a name the village still carries today.
Forty Fort
Forty Fort, PA · est. 1947
Forty Fort took its name from the forty Connecticut pioneers who came to the Wyoming Valley in 1769 and began the stockade the next year. It is remembered above all for the aftermath of July 3, 1778, when its surrender to a British, Loyalist, and Native force under Major John Butler was followed by the Wyoming Massacre, one of the war's bloodiest frontier episodes. The killing of settlers and prisoners shocked the young nation and hardened resolve against the Iroquois allies of the Crown.
Fort Wyoming
Wilkes-Barre, PA · est. 1947
Pennsylvania built Fort Wyoming in 1771 to press its claim in the Wyoming Valley, only to have it seized by the Connecticut settlers it was meant to check. Rebuilt in 1778, it served the following year as a mustering point for General John Sullivan's expedition against the Iroquois during the Revolution. The garrison held until 1784, when Continental and Pennsylvania troops withdrew and the works were destroyed.