French & Indian War

Dunbar Township, PA · est. 1948

Christopher Gist was a frontier surveyor for the Ohio Company who accompanied the young George Washington on his 1753 mission to warn the French at Fort LeBoeuf. He settled this plantation in the wilderness in 1753, but the following year the frontier war caught up with it: Washington paused his campaign here in 1754 before falling back to Fort Necessity, and pursuing French forces destroyed the place. It was one of the earliest English settlements west of the Alleghenies.

Lehighton, PA · est. 2005

In 1746 Moravian missionaries established Gnadenhuetten, a mission town meant to shelter a growing community of Mohican and Delaware converts and the first European settlement in what is now Carbon County. As the French and Indian War engulfed the frontier, tensions boiled over, and on November 24, 1755, the settlement was attacked and burned in a raid encouraged by the French. The victims were laid to rest in what is now the Lehighton Cemetery nearby.

Henry Clay Township, PA · est. 1947

This bend of the Youghiogheny had served as a fording place since Native peoples first traced paths through the mountains. In 1754 young George Washington's Virginia troops camped here on the eve of the frontier clashes that opened the French and Indian War, and the next year Braddock's ill-fated army tramped through on its march west. Decades later, in 1818, the National Road threw a bridge across the water at this very spot, cementing its role as a great gateway through the Alleghenies.

Delaware Township, PA · est. 1949

The Great Shamokin Path was once the main Indian highway west, running from Shamokin—now Sunbury—toward the Ohio country. Along it traveled the Delawares (Lenape) as they were pushed out of their eastern Pennsylvania homelands by the pressure of colonial settlement. After the crushing defeat of General Braddock in 1755, Delaware warriors used this very trail to strike back at the frontier settlements during the French and Indian War.

Bell Township, PA · est. 1950

The Great Shamokin Path was a major Indian thoroughfare linking the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers, running near this spot long before European roads followed the same ground. Delaware and Shawnee people used it for hunting and trade, and warriors traveled it during the French and Indian War. In July 1772 the Moravian missionary Bishop John Ettwein led some 200 Native Americans and their cattle along this stretch as they migrated west to the settlement of Friedensstadt.

Kittanning, PA

John Armstrong was a Scots-Irish frontier soldier who first won fame leading the 1756 raid on the Delaware town of Kittanning during the French and Indian War. When the Revolution came, he rose to brigadier general in the Continental Army and later major general of the Pennsylvania Militia, commanding militia at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in 1777. He lived to see independence secured, dying in 1795.

Reading, VT

In the summer of 1754, as the French and Indian War flared along the northern frontier, an Abenaki raiding party captured the Johnson family and their companions at Fort No. 4 and marched them toward Montreal to be ransomed. On the night of August 30 they camped at this spot, and the next day Susanna Johnson gave birth to a daughter in a rough shelter the Abenaki built beside Knapp Brook. The child was fittingly named Captive.

Reading, VT

The Indian Stones near Reading, Vermont, mark the spot where, on August 31, 1754, a daughter was born to the captive Johnson family as they were being marched north by a Native war party during the tensions that erupted into the French and Indian War. The Johnsons' captivity and long journey to Canada became one of New England's best-known captivity narratives. The frontier of the upper Connecticut River valley was a dangerous borderland in those years.

Monroe Township, PA · est. 1915

In the autumn of 1755, the Pennsylvania frontier along the Susquehanna erupted in violence as the French and Indian War spread east of the mountains. John Harris — the ferryman and trader whose settlement would grow into Harrisburg — led some forty men upriver to look into the raid on nearby settlers, only to be ambushed near the mouth of this creek at the head of the Isle of Que. The skirmish was one of many that convinced Pennsylvania's Quaker-led government it could no longer leave its backcountry undefended.

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.

St. Thomas Township, PA · est. 1960

Joseph Armstrong settled this Franklin County land in the 1730s, on the contested edge of Pennsylvania's frontier. He served in the colonial Assembly and rose as a militia captain, and his home became a ranging station in 1757 for troops during the French and Indian War. It served the same purpose during Pontiac's War of 1763–64, when Native resistance again swept the backcountry.

Applewold, PA

For a generation before the French and Indian War, Kittanning was the largest Delaware (Lenape) town beyond the Allegheny front, a thriving community on the Allegheny River whose name carried the sense of the "great river" that fed the Ohio country. From the 1730s it grew into a hub of Native life and, by the 1750s, a staging ground for raids on frontier settlements. In September 1756 a Pennsylvania force under Lt. Col. John Armstrong marched west and burned the town, one of the war's few colonial strikes deep into Indian country.

Kittanning, PA

For roughly a generation, this bluff above the Allegheny River held Kittanning, the largest Delaware (Lenape) town west of the Appalachian ridges — a thriving community whose name honored the "great river" it overlooked. During the French and Indian War it became a staging ground for raids on Pennsylvania's frontier settlements, and in September 1756 a colonial force under Colonel John Armstrong marched over the mountains and burned it. The destruction of the village broke a key node in the borderland war and became one of Pennsylvania's most celebrated frontier exploits.

Kittanning, PA

On this river flat above the Allegheny stood Kittanning, also called Attiqué, a Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) town that by 1727 had become the most important Native settlement west of the mountains as the Delaware pushed westward from the Susquehanna. During the French and Indian War it served as a staging base for raids on Pennsylvania's frontier settlements. In September 1756 Colonel John Armstrong led some 300 provincial troops from the Cumberland Valley on a surprise strike that destroyed the town.

Limestone Township, PA · est. 1947

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.

Harmony Township, PA · est. 1946

Logstown was one of the great Native towns of the upper Ohio, home between 1727 and 1758 to a mix of Iroquois, Delaware, Shawnee, and other peoples. Its council fires drew British and French agents alike, each competing for Indian alliances as the two empires maneuvered for control of the Ohio Country. The conferences held here helped set the stage for the French and Indian War.

Bethesda, MD

This is one of twelve identical "Madonna of the Trail" monuments the Daughters of the American Revolution placed across the country in 1928 and 1929, each a stern pioneer mother in bonnet and shawl striding westward with a child at her side. The DAR raised them to honor the women of the covered-wagon generation and to mark the National Old Trails Road, a coast-to-coast auto route that stitched together older paths of American expansion. As the inscription notes, this ground carried far older traffic too: in the spring of 1755 General Edward Braddock led his ill-fated British and colonial army along this corridor toward Fort Duquesne, in the opening campaign of the French and Indian War.

Nescopeck, PA · est. 1948

On this ground stood Nescopeck, a village of Shawnee and Delaware people along the Susquehanna. After General Braddock's shattering defeat in 1755 opened the Pennsylvania frontier to raids, the town became a gathering place for Native fighters aligned against the English, until the building of Fort Augusta the following year shifted the balance. For that brief, violent interval it sat at the heart of the borderland war.

Smithfield Township, PA · est. 1947

Nicholas Depuy came to this stretch of the Delaware around 1727, among the very first Europeans known to settle the region. When the French and Indian War brought raiding to the frontier after 1755, his stockaded and garrisoned home was pressed into service as Fort Depuy, one of the fortified farmsteads that dotted the wartime backcountry. Such homes-turned-forts show how thin the line was between domestic life and frontier warfare.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1982

When Northumberland County was formed in 1772 from pieces of five older counties, it sprawled across a vast frontier that would later be divided into some twenty-seven counties. At its heart lay Sunbury, laid out that same year at the confluence of the Susquehanna's branches. The site was already strategic: Fort Augusta, built in 1756–57 during the French and Indian War, stood here as a key military post guarding the colonial frontier.

Millcreek Township, PA · est. 1946

Long before highways, travelers crossed this high ground on the Presque Isle Portage, the carrying-path that linked Lake Erie to the headwaters flowing toward the Ohio. It formed part of the older Venango Trail worn by Native people through the forests of northwestern Pennsylvania. In 1753 the French widened an Indian path into their military French Road, and the modern highway still shadows and departs from that ancient route here.

Walpack Township, NJ

The Old Mine Road ran roughly a hundred miles from the copper mines along the Delaware to Esopus (today's Kingston) on the Hudson, one of the earliest long roads carved through the colonial backcountry. Along its route stood a frontier fort raised during the French and Indian War and the 1750 stone house of Isaac Van Campen, a way-station substantial enough that travelers of note broke their journeys there. It threads through a landscape of early mining, Dutch settlement, and colonial defense.

Scott Township, PA · est. 2001

After the French and Indian War, veteran Maj. William Lea founded this congregation on his land grant, making it the oldest Episcopal church in southwestern Pennsylvania, with Francis Reno as first vicar. Its members included Gen. John Neville, the deeply unpopular federal tax collector whose office helped spark the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion that convulsed the surrounding country. A revival of interest in 1852 produced the stone church that stands today, home to an 1823 English pipe organ said to be the first carried over the Alleghenies.

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.

Lower Paxton Township, PA · est. 1947

Somewhere near this spot stood Patton's Fort, a base for the Paxton Rangers who patrolled the gaps of the Blue Mountains during the French and Indian War. From the Susquehanna River to Swatara Creek, these frontier militiamen guarded farmsteads and mountain passes against raids between 1756 and 1763. Theirs was a grinding, dangerous vigil along an unsettled border.

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.

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.

Pittsburgh, PA · est. 1946

When British General John Forbes captured the smoldering ruins of French Fort Duquesne in 1758, he renamed the strategic point where three rivers meet in honor of British statesman William Pitt. The little town laid out in 1764 sat at the literal doorway to the trans-Appalachian frontier, and by the time it became a city in 1816 it was already funneling settlers and goods westward. In the century that followed, its furnaces and mills earned it a global reputation as the steel capital of the world.

Forest Hills, PA · est. 1946

The forks of the Ohio, where the Allegheny and Monongahela join, were among the most fought-over ground in colonial America. After General John Forbes forced the French to abandon Fort Duquesne in 1758, the point was renamed for William Pitt, laid out as a town in 1764, and chartered as a city in 1816. From that frontier outpost grew the steelmaking colossus that supplied the nation's rails, bridges, and armaments.

McKeesport, PA · est. 2003

In the years before the French & Indian War, the forks of the Ohio were contested ground where the Seneca and other nations navigated the rivalry between Britain and France. Queen Aliquippa was a respected leader whose favor the British colonies actively courted — so much so that a young George Washington detoured to pay his respects to her in 1753 during his mission to the Ohio Country. Her death the following year came just as the frontier war she had aligned with was erupting.

East Hanover Township, PA · est. 1949

In 1755, as war raged along Pennsylvania's frontier, the home of Adam Reed just south of this point was fortified into a place of refuge. From here Reed and a company of Rangers drawn from Hanover Township stood guard over the surrounding countryside during a period of frequent raids. It was one link in the improvised chain of frontier defenses that ordinary settlers threw up when the empire's protection fell short.

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.

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.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1947

Laid out in 1772 as the seat of newly formed Northumberland County, Sunbury rose on the site of Shamokin, a major Native town at the forks of the Susquehanna. Surveyors John Lukens and William Maclay platted the town where Fort Augusta had stood since 1756, guarding the frontier, and the community grew into a hub of travel, trade, and industry before its incorporation as a borough in 1797.

Shamokin Dam, PA · est. 1948

Sunbury was laid out in 1772 as the seat of newly formed Northumberland County, planted on the site of Shamokin, an important Native American town at the forks of the Susquehanna. Sixteen years earlier, during the French and Indian War, colonial authorities had built Fort Augusta here to guard the frontier. The spot's command of the river made it a lasting hub of travel, trade, and industry.

Union Township, PA · est. 1947

Swatara Gap is a natural break in the Blue Mountain, and in the 1750s it became a dangerous doorway. During the French and Indian War, war parties allied with the French slipped through the gap to strike the scattered farms of the Pennsylvania frontier, and colonial authorities answered by raising Fort Swatara nearby to guard the pass. The steep, wooded notch that had long served as a travel route became a frontline in a brutal borderland conflict.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1967

During the French and Indian War, the Susquehanna frontier was a dangerous borderland where British colonists, French forces, and Native nations contested the land. From the garrison at nearby Fort Augusta, soldiers ventured out at their peril; here, one man is said to have been killed, his blood coloring the spring that gave the place its grim name. The story preserves the fear and violence that hung over Pennsylvania's backcountry in those years.

Slatington, PA · est. 1952

A sawmill standing here before 1755 turned the forests of the Lehigh Valley into lumber for a growing frontier. When the French and Indian War set the backcountry ablaze, the sturdy mill — also called Kern's Fort — became a defensive station and shelter for troops. Sitting at the crossing of two pioneer roads, it commanded a position of real military value in a dangerous borderland.

Unity Township, PA · est. 1946

In 1758, as British and colonial forces cut Forbes Road through the wilderness toward the French stronghold at the Forks of the Ohio, a young George Washington helped set up an encampment near this spot. The rough military road was a decisive artery of the French and Indian War, opening the western country to armies and, later, settlers. A generation on, in 1774, Fort Shippen rose on the same ground as the frontier remained contested.

Irwin Township, PA · est. 1987

Long before wagon roads, an Indian path threaded the wooded ridges of western Pennsylvania, linking the Forks of the Ohio at present Pittsburgh to the native town of Venango near Franklin. It was along this route that a young George Washington rode north in 1753, carrying a British ultimatum to the French at Fort Le Boeuf on the eve of a continental war. Decades later the trail was broadened for troops and then for commerce, and the crossroads at Mayes Forks grew a busy hotel and stagecoach stop where travelers changed horses and collected the mail.