Fort Shirley - PLAQUE
Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
One of the chain of frontier defenses of the Province of Pennsylvania in the French and Indian Wars stood on this knoll built 1756 by its commander the noted Indian Trader and Agent GEORGE CROGHAN. Here in 1753 at the site of Aughwick Indian Town he had located his trading post and here September 3-6, 1754 CONRAD WEISER the noted Indian Interpreter and Agent had held a conference with the great Iroquoian Half King TANACHARISON and other chiefs of the Shawnee and Delaware Indians.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This knoll carried Fort Shirley, one of the frontier forts raised in 1756 during the French and Indian War, built by the noted Indian trader and agent George Croghan on the site of his earlier trading post at Aughwick. Two years before, in 1754, Croghan's post here hosted a council in which interpreter Conrad Weiser met the Iroquois "Half King" Tanacharison and chiefs of the Shawnee and Delaware. The place thus joined the twin frontier worlds of diplomacy and defense.
Why it matters
Traders and interpreters like Croghan and Weiser were the essential go-betweens of the frontier, and posts like this show how commerce, diplomacy, and war overlapped on the eve of the struggle for the continent.
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Related people
- · George Croghan
- · Conrad Weiser
- · Tanacharison
Related events
- · French and Indian War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Shirley
Shirleysburg, PA · est. 1947
Built in 1755–56 by the frontier trader and Indian agent George Croghan, Fort Shirley began as a stockade and grew into a key link in the chain of forts guarding Pennsylvania's frontier west of the Susquehanna River during the French and Indian War. In 1756 it served as the base for Colonel John Armstrong's expedition against the Delaware village of Kittanning. Its role reflected the desperate effort to defend backcountry settlers from raids during that conflict.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Dublin Township, PA · est. 1952
The Raystown Path was one of the great Indian trails threading the Allegheny ridges of central Pennsylvania, and in 1758 it became a corridor of war. During the French and Indian War, General John Forbes cut a military road westward toward the French stronghold at the forks of the Ohio, throwing up a chain of forts to guard his slow, methodical advance. The towns strung along his line of march — Littleton, Bedford, Ligonier, and finally Pittsburgh — still carry the names of those wilderness garrisons.
Fort Littleton - PLAQUE
Dublin Township, PA · est. 1924
In 1756, as war between Britain and France spilled across the Pennsylvania frontier, the colony raised a chain of provincial forts to shield its exposed backcountry settlements. Fort Littleton was one of these strongpoints, ordered up under Governor Robert Hunter Morris and planted on this knoll to guard a vital road through the mountains. In the fear-filled years of the French and Indian War, such stockades were refuge and rallying point for settlers who lived within reach of raiding parties.
Fort McCord
Hamilton Township, PA · est. 1947
In the tense years of the French and Indian War, Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley settlers threw up log stockades like Fort McCord to shelter their families when frontier violence flared. Named for the settler John McCord, this refuge was overwhelmed and burned on April 1, 1756, in a raid that left 27 people dead or dragged into captivity. Such attacks were part of the wider war between Britain and France, in which allied Native nations struck deep into the exposed backcountry.