Fort Robinson
Northeast Madison Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Pioneers' stronghold built 1755 on lands of George Robinson; in use for several years as refuge from Indian attacks. The site was about a mile away on the side road.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1755, as the French and Indian War set the Pennsylvania frontier ablaze, settlers in the Sherman's Valley threw up a fortified stronghold on George Robinson's land. Fort Robinson was one of a chain of rough private and provincial forts where scattered farm families could shelter when war parties swept through. For several harrowing years it served as a place of refuge on an exposed and dangerous frontier.
Why it matters
Backwoods forts like this one reveal how ordinary settlers survived the brutal frontier warfare that accompanied the imperial struggle for the continent.
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Related people
- · George Robinson
Related events
- · French and Indian War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Patterson's Fort
Walker Township, PA · est. 1947
In the mid-1750s the Juniata Valley was a raw and dangerous edge of Pennsylvania's frontier, where scattered settler families lived within reach of raiding parties as the French and Indian War set the backcountry aflame. Around 1755 Captain James Patterson threw up a timber stockade on high ground above the Juniata River, serving as both its builder and commandant—one link in a chain of private and provincial forts that gave neighbors a place to shelter when alarms swept through. Such refuges were rough affairs of sharpened logs and blockhouses, but for a farm family with minutes to flee, they meant the difference between survival and disaster.
Fort Bigham
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Built around 1754 in the Tuscarora Valley, Fort Bigham was a stockaded blockhouse raised to shelter the traders and settlers pushing into Pennsylvania's frontier. In 1756, during the French and Indian War, it was destroyed in a raid by Native warriors—one of many such attacks that terrorized the backcountry and drove families to abandon their farms. Its brief existence captures the vulnerability of frontier life during that conflict.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Carlisle, PA · est. 1952
In 1758, during the French and Indian War, General John Forbes set out from his base at Carlisle to seize Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio. Rather than follow Braddock's ill-fated earlier route, Forbes drove a new road westward, keeping as close as army wagons allowed to the old Raystown Indian and Traders Path. Axemen under Colonel Henry Bouquet widened the trail into a military road that ended with the French abandoning and burning the fort.
Fort Granville - PLAQUE
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Raised in 1755–56 on the high bank of the Juniata, Fort Granville guarded a vulnerable stretch of the Pennsylvania frontier during the French and Indian War. It was attacked twice, and in July 1756 a large French and Indian force overwhelmed it, killing its commander, Lieut. Edward Armstrong, and either killing or carrying off the entire garrison. The loss was a shock that helped provoke Col. John Armstrong's retaliatory raid on the Delaware town of Kittanning weeks later.