Fort Marshall
Montgomery Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
This settlers' refuge, located near Old Warm Spring Trail, was built about 1755 on the land of William Marshall.It was used as a station in the daily military patrol to guard the southwestern frontier of the Conococheague Settlement from raids in French and Indian War days.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Built about 1755 on William Marshall's land near the Old Warm Spring Trail, this refuge was one link in the frontier's early-warning network. It served as a station on the daily military patrols that guarded the Conococheague Settlement against raids during the French and Indian War. Riders moving between such posts carried word of danger, giving scattered farm families precious time to reach safety.
Why it matters
It reveals the organized system of patrols and refuges that colonists devised to hold Pennsylvania's southwestern frontier through the war.
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Related people
- · William Marshall
Related events
- · French and Indian War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rev. Steel's Fort
Montgomery Township, PA · est. 1947
On the mid-1750s frontier, the line between pulpit and battlement often blurred. The Reverend John Steel, pastor of the Upper West Conococheague congregation, was commissioned a militia captain, and his church at Church Hill was stockaded in 1755 to shield the community from raids during the French and Indian War. A house of worship thus doubled as a fortress in the war's most dangerous years.
Fort Davis - PLAQUE
Montgomery Township, PA · est. 1931
Around 1754, as tensions with France and Native nations flared into the French and Indian War, the Welsh settler Philip Davis built a private fort on his plantation here to shelter frontier families from raids. Davis was a local patriot and tax collector active in the Presbytery of New Castle. His fortified home was one of many improvised strongholds that dotted the exposed Pennsylvania backcountry.
Fort Davis
Montgomery Township, PA · est. 1946
Around 1755, as the French and Indian War set the frontier ablaze, Philip Davis's land became the site of a fortified refuge where nearby families could take shelter from raids. It stood as the southernmost link in a chain of such strongholds stretching across the Pennsylvania backcountry. In an age before organized armies patrolled the interior, these settlers' forts were the difference between survival and abandonment.
Fort McDowell - PLAQUE
Peters Township, PA · est. 1916
Fort McDowell grew up around a frontier gristmill before 1754, then became a supply base and munitions store as the French and Indian War closed in, holding that role until Fort Loudon was raised in 1756. From this point in 1755 Col. James Burd pushed a military road westward to link with Braddock's ill-fated route at Turkey Foot. Standing at the edge of settled country, the little fort saw its share of the war's frontier alarms.