Leroy Massacre
Limestone Township, Union County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Near here John Jacob Leroy was killed by Indians on Oct. 16, 1755, following the Penn's Creek Massacre. This was the first Indian hostility in the region after Braddock's defeat.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On October 16, 1755, John Jacob Leroy was killed by Indians near this site, one of the earliest victims of frontier warfare in the region. His death came just after the Penn's Creek Massacre and in the wake of General Braddock's disastrous defeat, events that shattered the fragile peace and opened years of bloody conflict during the French and Indian War. Central Pennsylvania's exposed settlements suddenly found themselves on the front line.
Why it matters
These early attacks marked the collapse of Pennsylvania's long peace with its Native neighbors and the beginning of frontier warfare that would define the French and Indian War in the colony.
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Related people
- · John Jacob Leroy
Related events
- · Penn's Creek Massacre
- · Braddock's Defeat
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Jacob Leroy - PLAQUE
Limestone Township, PA · est. 1919
John Jacob Leroy was among the settlers slain in the October 1755 violence along Penn's Creek, one of the first blows struck on Pennsylvania's frontier after General Braddock's defeat earlier that summer. His daughter Marie and a neighbor girl, Barbara Leininger, were carried west into captivity as far as the Muskingum in Ohio. After years among their captors the two young women escaped and made their way back to Philadelphia, later leaving one of the era's rare firsthand captivity accounts.
Snyder County
Middleburg, PA · est. 1982
Established in 1855 from Union County, Snyder County honors Simon Snyder, the Selinsgrove miller's son who served three terms as Pennsylvania governor early in the 19th century. Long before statehood, this stretch of the Susquehanna frontier was the scene of the 1755 Penns Creek Massacre, an attack on settlers that helped ignite frontier warfare in the region. Middleburg, the county seat, was laid out in 1800 as the countryside filled with farms.
Penns Creek Massacre
Monroe Township, PA · est. 1947
On October 16, 1755, a war party struck the scattered settlers along Penns Creek, killing, wounding, or carrying off some two dozen people. Coming just weeks after General Braddock's catastrophic defeat near Fort Duquesne, it was the first such attack to fall on the Pennsylvania frontier as the French and Indian War spilled eastward. The raid shattered the colony's fragile peace and sent shockwaves through the backcountry.
Penns Creek Massacre - PLAQUE
Monroe Township, PA · est. 1919
In October 1755, along the banks of Penn's Creek, frontier families were attacked and roughly two dozen settlers were killed, wounded, or carried off into captivity. The raid came just months after General Edward Braddock's disastrous defeat near the Monongahela, which shattered British prestige and emboldened France's Native allies. It is remembered as the first such outbreak of frontier violence within Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War.