Samuel Maclay
Buffalo Township, Union County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Member of Congress, 1794-97. U.S. Senator, 1802-09. Also member of the General Assembly, 1787-91; 1797-1802. Resident of Buffalo Valley after 1770 and died here in 1811. Buried in the nearby church cemetery.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Samuel Maclay was among the first generation of statesmen to represent the new United States, serving in the U.S. House and Senate as well as Pennsylvania's General Assembly in the decades after independence. He had put down roots in the Buffalo Valley of central Pennsylvania as early as 1770, when the region was still a raw frontier, and he lived out his life there until his death in 1811. His grave lies in the churchyard near this spot.
Why it matters
Maclay's career embodies how the sparsely settled Pennsylvania backcountry produced leaders who helped build the political institutions of the early American republic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel Maclay
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Buffalo Church
Buffalo Township, PA · est. 1948
Organized by Presbyterian pioneers in 1773, this Buffalo Valley congregation was broken apart by frontier raids before regathering under its first regular pastor in 1787. A log meetinghouse of about 1775 was succeeded by stone in 1816 and brick in 1846 as the settlement steadied and grew. This marker points travelers toward the church that stands a mile to the north.
Buffalo Church
Buffalo Township, PA · est. 1948
Presbyterian settlers pushing into the Buffalo Valley organized this congregation in 1773, only to see it scattered when frontier warfare swept the West Branch country during the Revolutionary years. The faithful regathered and installed their first settled pastor in 1787, and their humble log meetinghouse of about 1775 gave way to stone in 1816 and brick in 1846. Each rebuilding marked a community putting down deeper roots in a valley it had nearly abandoned.
Ludwig Derr
Lewisburg, PA · est. 1954
Ludwig Derr laid out Lewisburg in 1785, in the first years of the new republic, choosing a spot along the Susquehanna's West Branch where a trading post and a grist and saw mill could anchor a settlement. His log house still survives, folded into the walls of a later structure on this site. Derr died the same year he founded the town, but the community he planned took root and grew.
Albany Purchase
Monroe Township, PA · est. 1947
On July 6, 1754, at the great intercolonial council in Albany, the Six Nations of the Iroquois deeded a vast tract of land to Pennsylvania's Proprietors — a transaction that opened enormous new territory to European settlement. The northeast corner of that purchase lay a mile north of Penns Creek, its boundary running vaguely 'north of the west as far as your Province extends.' Such sweeping and loosely defined cessions would soon fuel bitter conflict on the frontier.