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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch
+Valley, 1769-1784, by George D. Wolf
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784
+       A Study of Frontier Ethnography
+
+Author: George D. Wolf
+
+Release Date: August 31, 2007 [EBook #22471]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIR PLAY SETTLERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                    _The Fair Play Settlers
+                   of the West Branch Valley,
+                           1769-1784:
+                A Study of Frontier Ethnography_
+
+
+
+                               BY
+                         GEORGE D. WOLF
+
+
+
+                  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
+                  THE PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL
+                     AND MUSEUM COMMISSION
+
+                        Harrisburg, 1969
+
+
+
+
+                  THE PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL
+                     AND MUSEUM COMMISSION
+
+
+                 JAMES B. STEVENSON, _Chairman_
+
+                CHARLES G. WEBB, _Vice Chairman_
+
+ HERMAN BLUM                   MRS. FERNE SMITH HETRICK
+
+ MARK S. GLEESON               MRS. HENRY P. HOFFSTOT, JR.
+
+ RALPH HAZELTINE               MAURICE A. MOOK
+
+                      THOMAS ELLIOTT WYNNE
+
+                 DAVID H. KURTZMAN, _ex officio
+             Superintendent of Public Instruction_
+
+
+               MEMBERS FROM THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
+
+             MRS. SARAH ANDERSON, _Representative_
+
+ PAUL W. MAHADY, _Senator_     ORVILLE E. SNARE, _Representative_
+
+                  JOHN H. WARE, III, _Senator_
+
+
+                      TRUSTEES EX OFFICIO
+
+       RAYMOND P. SHAFER, _Governor of the Commonwealth_
+
+               ROBERT P. CASEY, _Auditor General_
+
+               GRACE M. SLOAN, _State Treasurer_
+
+
+                      ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
+
+          SYLVESTER K. STEVENS, _Executive Director_
+
+         WILLIAM J. WEWER, _Deputy Executive Director_
+
+                   DONALD H. KENT, _Director
+                Bureau of Archives and History_
+
+                  FRANK J. SCHMIDT, _Director
+            Bureau of Historic Sites and Properties_
+
+                 WILLIAM N. RICHARDS, _Director
+                       Bureau of Museums_
+
+
+
+
+_Preface_
+
+
+In an Age when man's horizons are constantly being widened to include
+hitherto little-known or non-existent countries, and even other planets
+and outer space, there is still much to be said for the oft-neglected
+study of man in his more immediate environs. Intrigued with the
+historical tale of the "Fair Play settlers" of the West Branch Valley of
+the Susquehanna River and practically a life-long resident of the West
+Branch Valley, this writer felt that their story was worth telling and
+that it might offer some insight into the development of democracy on
+the frontier. The result is an ethnography of the Fair Play settlers.
+This account, however, is not meant to typify the frontier experience;
+it is simply an illustration, and, the author hopes, a useful one.
+
+No intensive research can be conducted without the help and
+encouragement of many fine and wonderful people. This author is deeply
+indebted to librarians, archivists and historians, local historians and
+genealogists, local and county historical societies, and collectors of
+manuscripts, diaries, and journals pertinent to the history of the West
+Branch Valley. A comprehensive listing of all who have assisted in this
+effort would be too extensive, but certain persons cannot be ignored. My
+grateful appreciation is here expressed to a few of these; but my
+gratitude is no less sincere to the many persons who are not here
+mentioned.
+
+Librarians who have been most helpful in providing bibliographies,
+checking files, and obtaining volumes from other libraries include Miss
+Isabel Welch, of the Ross Library in Lock Haven; Mrs. Kathleen Chandler,
+formerly of the Lock Haven State College library; and Miss Barbara Ault,
+of the Library of Congress.
+
+Archivists and historians who have been most generous in their aid are
+the late Dr. Paul A. W. Wallace, of the Pennsylvania Historical and
+Museum Commission; Mrs. Phyllis V. Parsons, of Collegeville; Dr. Alfred
+P. James, of the University of Pittsburgh; and Mrs. Solon J. Buck, of
+Washington, D. C.
+
+Perhaps the most significant research support for this investigation was
+provided by a local historian and genealogist, Mrs. Helen Herritt
+Russell, of Jersey Shore.
+
+Dr. Samuel P. Bayard, of the Pennsylvania State University, analyzed the
+Fair Play settlers using linguistic techniques to determine their
+national origins. This help was basic to the demographic portion of this
+study.
+
+Dr. Charles F. Berkheimer and Mrs. Marshall Anspach, both of
+Williamsport, magnanimously consented to loan this author their copies,
+respectively, of William Colbert's _Journal_ and the Wagner Collection
+of Revolutionary War Pension Claims.
+
+County and local historical societies which opened their collections for
+study were the Clinton County Historical Society, the Lycoming
+Historical Society, the Northumberland County Historical Society, the
+Centre County Historical Society, the Greene County Historical Society,
+and the Muncy Historical Society and Museum of History.
+
+For his refreshing criticisms and constant encouragement, Dr. Murray G.
+Murphey, of the University of Pennsylvania, will find me forever
+thankful. Without him, this study would not have been possible.
+
+The author would like to thank the members of the Pennsylvania
+Historical and Museum Commission and its Executive Director, Dr. S. K.
+Stevens, for making possible this publication; he would also like to
+thank Mr. Donald H. Kent, Director of the Bureau of Archives and
+History, and Mr. William A. Hunter, Chief of the Division of History,
+who supervised publication; and members of the staff of the Division of
+History: Mr. Harold L. Myers, Associate Historian and Chief of the
+Editorial Section, who readied the manuscript for publication; Mrs. Gail
+M. Gibson, Associate Historian, who prepared the index; and Mr. George
+R. Beyer, Assistant Historian.
+
+My sincerest thanks are also extended to Mrs. Mary B. Bower, who typed
+the entire manuscript and offered useful suggestions with regard to
+style.
+
+Finally, for providing almost ideal conditions for carrying on this work
+and for sustaining me throughout, my wife, Margaret, is deserving of a
+gratitude which cannot be fully expressed.
+
+                                        GEORGE D. WOLF
+
+
+
+
+_Introduction_
+
+
+Between 1769 and 1784, in an area some twenty-five miles long and about
+two miles wide, located on the north side of the West Branch of the
+Susquehanna River and extending from Lycoming Creek (at the present
+Williamsport) to the Great Island (just east of the present Lock Haven),
+some 100 to 150 families settled. They established a community and a
+political organization called the Fair Play system. This study is about
+these people and their system.
+
+The author of a recent case study of democracy in a frontier county
+commented on the need for this kind of investigation.[1] Cognizant of
+the fact that a number of valuable histories of American communities
+have been written, he noted that few of them deal explicitly with the
+actual relation of frontier experience to democracy:
+
+    No one seems to have studied microscopically a given area that
+    experienced transition from wilderness to settled community with the
+    purpose of determining how much democracy, in Turner's sense,
+    existed initially in the first phase of settlement, during the
+    process itself, and in the period that immediately followed.
+
+This research encompasses the first two stages of that development and
+includes tangential references to the third stage.
+
+The geography of the Fair Play territory has been confused for almost
+two centuries. The conclusions of this analysis will not prove too
+satisfying to those who unquestioningly accept and revere the old local
+legends. However, it will be noted that these conclusions are based upon
+the accounts of journalists and diarists rather than hearsay. This
+should put the controversial "question of the Tiadaghton" to rest.
+
+A statistical analysis has been made as a significant part of the
+demography of the Fair Play settlers. However, limitations in data may
+raise some questions regarding the validity of the conclusions.
+Nevertheless, the national and ethnic origins of these settlers, their
+American sources of emigration, the periods of immigration, the reasons
+for migration, and population stability and mobility have all been
+investigated. The result offers some surprises when compared with the
+trends of the time--in the Province and throughout the colonies.
+
+The _politics_ of Fair Play is the principal concern of this entire
+study--appropriately, it was from their political system that these
+frontiersmen derived their unusual name. This was not the only group to
+use the name, however. Another "fair play system" existed in
+southwestern Pennsylvania during the same period, and perhaps a similar
+study can be made of those pioneers and their life. As for the Fair Play
+community of the West Branch, we know about its political structure
+through the cases subsequently reviewed by established courts of the
+Commonwealth. From these cases, we have reconstructed a "code" of
+operation which demonstrates certain democratic tendencies.
+
+In addition to studying the political system, an effort has been made to
+validate the story of the locally-famed Pine Creek Declaration of
+Independence. Although some evidence for such a declaration was found,
+it seems inconclusive.
+
+The West Branch Valley was part of what Turner called the second
+frontier, the Allegheny, and so this agrarian frontier community has
+been examined for evidence of the democratic traits which Turner
+characterized as particularly American. This analysis is not meant to
+portray a typical situation, but it does provide support for Turner's
+evaluation. As this was a farmer's frontier, and as transportation and
+communication facilities were extremely limited, a generally
+self-sufficient and naturally self-reliant community developed as a
+matter of survival. The characteristics which this frontier nurtured,
+and the non-English--even anti-English--composition of its population
+make understandable the sentiment in this region for independence from
+Great Britain. This, of course, is supremely demonstrated in the
+separate declaration of independence drawn, according to the report, by
+the settlers of the Fair Play frontier.
+
+Fair Play _society_ is, perhaps, the second-most-important facet of this
+ethnographic analysis. An understanding of it necessitated an inquiry
+into the social relationships, the religious institutions, the
+educational and cultural opportunities, and the values of this frontier
+community. The results, again, lend credence to Turner's hypothesis.
+Admittedly, Turner's bold assertion that "the growth of nationalism and
+the evolution of American political institutions were dependent on the
+advance of the frontier" is somewhat contradicted by the nature of this
+Pennsylvania frontier. Western lands in Pennsylvania were either
+Provincial, Commonwealth, or Indian lands, but never national lands. As
+a result, western land ordinances, and the whole controversy which
+accompanied the ratification of the Articles of Confederation, had no
+real significance in Pennsylvania. However, in subsequent years, the
+expansion of internal improvement legislation and nationalism sustains
+Turner's thesis, as does the democratic and non-sectional nature of the
+middle colonial region generally.[2]
+
+The _intellectual character_ which the frontier spawned has been
+described as rationalistic. However, this was a rationalism which was
+not at odds with empiricism, but which was more in line with what has
+been called the American philosophy, pragmatism. Or, to put it in the
+vernacular, "if it works, it's good." The frontiersman was a
+trial-and-error empiricist, who believed in his own ability to fathom
+the depths of the problems which plagued him. If the apparent solution
+contradicted past patterns and interpretations, he justified his actions
+in terms of the realities of the moment. It is this pragmatic
+ratio-empiricism which we imply when we use the term "rationalistic."
+
+An examination of the role of _leadership_, suggested by the Curti
+study, presents the first summary of this type for the West Branch
+Valley. Here, too, the limited numbers of this frontier population,
+combined with its peculiar tendency to rely upon peripheral residents
+for top leadership, prevents any broad generalizations. The nature of
+its leadership can only be interpreted in terms of this particular group
+in this specific location.
+
+The last two chapters of this study are summary chapters. The first of
+these is an analysis of democracy on one segment of the Pennsylvania
+frontier. Arbitrarily defining democracy, certain objective criteria
+were set up to evaluate it in the Fair Play territory. Political
+democracy was investigated in terms of popular sovereignty, political
+equality, popular consultation, and majority rule, and the political
+system was judged on the basis of these principles. Social democracy
+was ascertained through inquiries concerning religious freedom, the
+social class system, and economic opportunity. The conclusion is that,
+for this frontier at least, democratic tendencies were displayed in
+various contexts.
+
+The final chapter, although relying to a large extent upon Turner's
+great work, is in no way intended to be a critical evaluation of that
+thesis. Its primary objective is to test one interpretation of it
+through a particular analytic technique, ethnographic in nature.
+Frontier ethnography has proved to be a reliable research tool, mainly
+because of its wide scope. It permits conclusions which a strictly
+confined study, given the data limitations of this and other frontier
+areas, would not allow.
+
+Democracy, it is no doubt agreed, is a difficult thing to assess,
+particularly when there are so many conflicting interpretations of it.
+But an examination of it, even in its most primitive stages in this
+country, can give the researcher a glimpse of its fundamentals and its
+effectiveness. In a time when idealists envision a world community based
+upon the self-determination which was basic in this nation's early
+development, it is essential to re-evaluate that principle in terms of
+its earliest American development. If we would enjoy the blessings of
+freedom, we must undergo the fatigue of attempting to understand it.
+
+Some seventy years ago, a great American historian suggested an
+interpretation of the American ethos. Turner's thesis is still being
+debated today, something which I am certain would please its author
+immensely. But what is needed today is not the prolongation of the
+debate as to its validity so much as the investigation of it with newer
+techniques which, it might be added, Turner himself suggested. This is
+the merit of frontier ethnography, and, perhaps, the particular value of
+this study.
+
+To me, Robert Frost implied as much in his wonderful "Stopping by Woods
+on a Snowy Evening." Yes, the "woods" of contemporary history are
+"lovely, dark and deep,
+
+    But I have promises to keep,
+    And miles to go before I sleep,
+    And miles to go before I sleep."
+
+It is hoped that this investigation is the beginning of the answer to
+that promise, but it is well-recognized that there are miles to go.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Merle Curti _et al._, _The Making of an American Community: A Case
+Study of Democracy in a Frontier County_ (Stanford, 1959), p. 3.
+
+[2] _Frontier and Section: Selected Essays of Frederick Jackson Turner_,
+intro. by Ray Allen Billington (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1961), pp.
+52-55.
+
+
+
+
+_Table of Contents_
+
+
+       PREFACE                                         iii
+
+       INTRODUCTION                                      v
+
+    I. FAIR PLAY TERRITORY: GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY     1
+
+   II. THE FAIR PLAY SETTLERS: DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS      16
+
+  III. THE POLITICS OF FAIR PLAY                        30
+
+   IV. THE FARMERS' FRONTIER                            47
+
+    V. FAIR PLAY SOCIETY                                58
+
+   VI. LEADERSHIP AND THE PROBLEMS OF THE FRONTIER      76
+
+  VII. DEMOCRACY ON THE PENNSYLVANIA FRONTIER           89
+
+ VIII. FRONTIER ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE TURNER THESIS      100
+
+       BIBLIOGRAPHY                                    113
+
+       INDEX                                           119
+
+
+
+
+[Map]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+_Fair Play Territory: Geography and Topography_
+
+
+The Colonial period of American history has been of primary concern to
+the historian because of its fundamental importance in the development
+of American civilization. What the American pioneers encountered,
+particularly in the interior settlements, was, basically, a frontier
+experience. An ethnographic analysis of one part of the Provincial
+frontier of Pennsylvania indicates the significance of that colonial
+influence. The "primitive agricultural democracy" of this frontier
+illustrates the "style of life" which provided the basis for a
+distinctly "American" culture which emerged from the colonial
+experience.[1]
+
+While this writer's approach is dominantly Turnerian, this study does
+not necessarily contend that this Pennsylvania frontier was typical of
+the general colonial experience, nor that this ethnographic analysis
+presents in microcosm the development of the American ethos. However, on
+this farmer's frontier there was adequate evidence of the composite
+nationality, the self-reliance, the independence, and the nationalistic
+and rationalistic traits which Turner characterized as American.
+
+In his famed essay on "The Significance of the Frontier," Turner saw the
+frontier as the crucible in which the English, Scotch-Irish, and
+Palatine Germans were merged into a new and distinctly American
+nationality, no longer characteristically English.[2] The Pennsylvania
+frontier, with its dominant Scotch-Irish and German influence, is a case
+in point.
+
+The Fair Play territory of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna
+River, the setting for this analysis, was part of what Turner called the
+second frontier, the Allegheny Mountains.[3] Located about ninety miles
+up the Susquehanna from the present State capital at Harrisburg, and
+extending some twenty-five-odd miles westward between the present cities
+of Williamsport and Lock Haven, this territory was the heartland of the
+central Pennsylvania frontier in the decade preceding the American
+Revolution.
+
+The term "Fair Play settlers," used to designate the inhabitants of this
+region, is derived from the extra-legal political system which these
+democratic forerunners set up to maintain order in their developing
+community. Being squatters and, consequently, without the bounds of any
+established political agency, they formed their own government, and
+labeled it "Fair Play."
+
+However, despite the apparent simplicity of the above geographic
+description, the exact boundaries of the Fair Play territory have been
+debated for almost two centuries. Before we can assess the democratic
+traits of the Fair Play settlers, we must first clearly define what is
+meant by the Fair Play territory.
+
+The terminal points in this analysis are 1768 and 1784, the dates of the
+two Indian treaties made at Fort Stanwix (now Rome), New York. The
+former opened up the Fair Play territory to settlement, and the latter
+brought it within the limits of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thus
+legalizing the _de facto_ political structure which had developed in the
+interim.
+
+According to the treaty of 1768, negotiated by Sir William Johnson with
+the Indians of the Six Nations, the western line of colonial settlement
+was extended from the Allegheny Mountains, previously set by the
+Proclamation of 1763, to a line extending to the mouth of Lycoming
+Creek, which empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The
+creek is referred to as the Tiadaghton in the original of the treaty.[4]
+The question of whether Pine Creek or Lycoming Creek was the Tiadaghton
+is the first major question of this investigation. The map which faces
+page one outlines the territory in question.
+
+Following the successful eviction of the French in the French and Indian
+War, the American counterpart of the Seven Years' War, the crown sought
+a more orderly westward advance than had been the rule. Heretofore, the
+establishment of frontier settlements had stirred up conflict with the
+Indians and brought frontier pleas to the colonial assemblies for
+military support and protection. The result was greater pressure on the
+already depleted exchequer. The opinion that a more controlled and less
+expensive westward advance could be accomplished is reflected in the
+Royal Proclamation of 1763.
+
+This proclamation has frequently been misinterpreted as a definite
+effort to deprive the colonies of their western lands. The very language
+of the document contradicts this. For example, the expression "for the
+present, and until our further pleasure be known" clearly indicates the
+tentative nature of the proclamation, which was "to prevent [the
+repetition of] such irregularities for the future" with the Indians,
+irregularities which had prompted Pontiac's Rebellion.[5] The orderly
+advancement of this colonial frontier was to be accomplished through
+subsequent treaties with the Indians. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768
+is one such example of those treaties.[6]
+
+The term "Fair Play settlers" refers to the residents of the area
+between Lycoming Creek and the Great Island on the north side of the
+West Branch of the Susquehanna River, and to those who interacted with
+them, during the period 1769-1784, when that area was outside of the
+Provincial limits. The appellation stems from the annual designation by
+the settlers of "Fair Play Men," a tribunal of three with
+quasi-executive, legislative, and judicial authority over the residents.
+
+The relevance of the first Stanwix Treaty to the geographic area of this
+study is a matter of the utmost importance. The western boundary of that
+treaty in the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna has been a source of
+some confusion because of the employment of the name "Tiadaghton" in the
+treaty to designate that boundary. The question, quite simply, is
+whether Pine Creek or Lycoming is the Tiadaghton. If Pine Creek is the
+Tiadaghton, an extra-legal political organization would have been
+unnecessary, for the so-called Fair Play settlers of this book would
+have been under Provincial jurisdiction.[7] The designation of Lycoming
+Creek as the Tiadaghton tends to give geographic corroboration for the
+Fair Play system.
+
+First and foremost among the Pine Creek supporters is John Meginness,
+the nineteenth-century historian of the West Branch Valley. His work is
+undoubtedly the most often quoted source of information on the West
+Branch Valley of the Susquehanna, and rightfully so. Although he wrote
+when standards of documentation were lax and relied to an extent upon
+local legendry as related by aged residents, Meginness' views have a
+general validity. However, there is some question regarding his judgment
+concerning the boundary issue.
+
+Quoting directly from the journal of Moravian Bishop Augustus
+Spangenburg, who visited the West Branch Valley in 1745 in the company
+of Conrad Weiser, David Zeisberger, and John Schebosh, Meginness
+describes the Bishop's travel from Montoursville, or Ostonwaken as the
+Indians called it, to the "Limping Messenger," or "Diadachton Creek,"
+where the party camped for the night.[8] It is interesting to note that
+the Moravian journalist refers here to Lycoming Creek as the Tiadaghton,
+some twenty-three years prior to the purchase at Fort Stanwix, which
+made the question a local issue. Yet Meginness, in a footnote written
+better than a hundred years later, says that "It afterwards turned out
+that the true _Diadachton_ or _Tiadachton_, was what is now known as
+Pine Creek."[9]
+
+Perhaps Meginness was influenced by the aged sources of some of his
+accounts. It may be, however, that he was merely repeating the judgment
+of an earlier generation which had sought to legalize its settlement
+made prior to the second Stanwix Treaty. The Indian description of the
+boundary line in the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 may also have had some
+impact upon Meginness. Regardless, a comparison of data, pro and con,
+will demonstrate that the Tiadaghton is Lycoming Creek.
+
+John Blair Linn, of Bellefonte, stood second to Meginness in popular
+repute as historian of the West Branch Valley. However, he too calls
+Pine Creek the Tiadaghton, though the reliability of his sources is
+questionable. Unlike Meginness, whose judgment derived somewhat from
+interviews with contemporaries of the period, Linn based his contention
+upon the statements made by the Indians at the second Stanwix Treaty
+meeting in 1784.[10]
+
+At those sessions on October 22 and 23, 1784, the Pennsylvania
+commissioners twice questioned the deputies of the Six Nations about the
+location of the Tiadaghton, and were told twice that it was Pine
+Creek.[11] In the first instance, Samuel J. Atlee, speaking for the
+other Pennsylvania commissioners, called attention to the last deed made
+at Fort Stanwix in 1768 and asked the question about the Tiadaghton:
+
+    This last deed, brothers, with the map annexed, are descriptive of
+    the purchase made sixteen years ago at this place; one of the
+    boundary lines calls for a creek by the name of _Tyadoghton_, we
+    wish our brothers the Six Nations to explain to us clearly which you
+    call the _Tyadoghton_, as there are two creeks issuing from the
+    _Burnet's Hills_, _Pine_ and _Lycoming_.[12]
+
+Captain Aaron Hill, a Mohawk chief, responded for the Indians:
+
+    With regard to the creek called _Tyadoghton_, mentioned in your deed
+    of 1768, we have already answered you, and again repeat it, it is
+    the same you call _Pine Creek_, being the largest emptying into the
+    west branch of the _Susquehannah_.[13]
+
+This, of course, was the "more positive answer" which the Indians had
+promised after the previous day's interrogation.[14] It substantiated
+the description given in the discussions preceding the Fort Stanwix
+Treaty of 1768.[15] However, the map illustrating the treaty line,
+although tending to support this view, is subject to interpretation.[16]
+Regardless, this record of the treaty sessions provides the strongest
+evidence to sustain the Pine Creek view.
+
+There is little doubt that Meginness and Linn were influenced by the
+record. This is certainly true of D. S. Maynard, a lesser
+nineteenth-century historian, whose work is obviously based upon the
+research of Meginness. Maynard repeated the evidence of his predecessor
+from the account of Thomas Sergeant by describing the Stanwix Treaty
+line of 1768 as coming "across to the headwaters of Pine Creek."
+Maynard's utter dependence upon Meginness suggests that his evidence is
+more repetitive than substantive.[17]
+
+A more recent student of local history, Eugene P. Bertin, of Muncy,
+gives Pine Creek his undocumented support, which appears to be nothing
+more than an elaboration of the accounts of Meginness and Linn.[18] Dr.
+Bertin's account appears to be better folklore than history.[19]
+
+Another twentieth-century writer, Elsie Singmaster, offers more
+objective support for Pine Creek, although her argument appears to be
+better semantics than geography.[20]
+
+Edmund A. DeSchweinitz, in his biography of David Zeisberger, errs in
+his interpretation of the term "Limping Messenger" (Tiadaghton), used by
+Bishop Spangenburg in his account of their journey to the West Branch
+Valley in 1745. He notes that on their way to Onondaga (Syracuse) after
+leaving "Ostonwaken" (Montoursville) they passed through the valley of
+Tiadaghton Creek. They were following the Sheshequin Path. But he
+identifies the Tiadaghton with Pine Creek. There was an Indian path up
+Pine Creek, but it led to Niagara, not Onondaga.[21]
+
+Aside from the designation by the Indians at the second Stanwix Treaty,
+there is only one other source which lends any credibility to the Pine
+Creek view, and that is Smith's _Laws of the Commonwealth of
+Pennsylvania_. After the last treaty was made acquiring Pennsylvania
+lands from the Indians, the legislature, in order to quell disputes
+about the right of occupancy in this "New Purchase,"[22] passed the
+following legislation:
+
+    And whereas divers persons, who have heretofore occupied and
+    cultivated small tracts of land, without the bounds of the purchase
+    made, as aforesaid, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven
+    hundred and sixty-eight, and within the purchase made, or now to be
+    made, by the said commissioners, have, by their resolute stand and
+    sufferings during the late war, merited, that those settlers should
+    have the pre-emption of their respective plantations:
+
+    _Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid_, That all and
+    every person or persons, and their legal representatives, who has or
+    have heretofore settled on the north side of the west branch of the
+    river Susquehanna, upon the Indian territory, between Lycomick or
+    Lycoming creek on the east, and Tyagaghton or Pine creek on the
+    west, as well as other lands within the said residuary purchase from
+    the Indians, of the territory within this state, excepting always
+    the lands herein before excepted, shall be allowed a right of
+    pre-emption to their respective possessions, at the price
+    aforesaid.[23]
+
+It may be worth observing, however, that legislation tends to reflect
+popular demand rather than the hard facts of a situation. In this case
+the settlers of the region prior to 1780 stood to benefit by this
+legislation and formed an effective pressure group.
+
+The contrary view in this long-standing geographical debate is based,
+for the most part, upon the records of journalists and diarists who
+traveled along the West Branch _prior_ to the first Stanwix Treaty and
+who thus had no axe to grind.
+
+That the Lycoming Creek was in fact the Tiadaghton referred to by the
+Indians at Fort Stanwix in 1768 is strongly indicated by the weight of
+evidence derived from the journals of Conrad Weiser (1737), John Bartram
+(1743), Bishop Spangenburg (1745), Moravian Bishop John Ettwein (1772),
+and the Reverend Philip Vickers Fithian (1775). In addition, the maps of
+Lewis Evans (1749) and John Adlum (1792), the land applications of
+Robert Galbreath and Martin Stover (1769), and a 1784 statute of the
+Pennsylvania General Assembly all tend to validate Lycoming's claim to
+recognition as the Tiadaghton. Each datum has merit in the final
+analysis, which justifies the specific examination which follows:
+
+Supporting evidence is found in Weiser's German journal, which was meant
+for his family and friends, and translated into English by his
+great-grandson, Hiester H. Muhlenberg. (Weiser also kept an English
+journal for the Council at Philadelphia.) Weiser wrote: "The stream we
+are now on the Indians call Dia-daclitu, (die berirte, the lost or
+bewildered) which in fact deserves such a name."[24] (This is an obvious
+misspelling of Diadachton.) Weiser was following the Sheshequin Path
+with Shickellamy to Onondaga and this entry is recorded on March 25,
+1737, long before there was any question about the Tiadaghton.
+
+There seems to be some confusion over Bishop Spangenburg's use of the
+term "Limping Messenger" in his journal for June 8, 1745. He too was
+traveling the Sheshequin Path with David Zeisberger, Conrad Weiser,
+Shickellamy, Andrew Montour, _et al._ He describes the "Limping
+Messenger" as a camp on the "Tiadachton" (Lycoming), whereas
+DeSchweinitz in his _Zeisberger_ interprets the term to mean Pine
+Creek.[25]
+
+Another traveler along the Sheshequin Path was the colonial botanist,
+John Bartram. Bartram, in the company of Weiser and Lewis Evans, the map
+maker, notes in his diary of July 12, 1743, riding "down [up] a valley
+to a point, a prospect of an opening bearing N, then down the hill to a
+run and over a rich neck lying between it and the Tiadaughton."[26]
+Incidentally, the editor of this extract from Bartram's journal makes
+the quite devastating point that Meginness did not know of Bartram's
+journal, which was published in London in 1751 but which did not appear
+in America until 1895.[27]
+
+One of the Moravian journalists who visited the scenic Susquehanna along
+the West Branch was Bishop John Ettwein, who passed through this valley
+on his way to Ohio in 1772. He wrote of "Lycoming Creek, [as the stream]
+which marks the boundary line of lands purchased from the Indians."[28]
+
+Perhaps the most interesting and informative diarist who journeyed along
+the West Branch was the Reverend Philip Vickers Fithian. Fithian came to
+what we will establish as Fair Play country on July 25, 1775, at what he
+called "Lacommon Creek." His conclusion was that this creek was the
+Tiadaghton.[29] It is this same Fithian, it might be added, whose
+Virginia journals were the primary basis for the reconstruction of
+colonial Williamsburg.
+
+The work of colonial cartographers also substantiates the claim that
+Lycoming Creek is the Tiadaghton. Both Lewis Evans, following his 1743
+journey in the company of Bartram and Weiser, and John Adlum, who
+conducted a survey of the West Branch Valley in 1792 for the
+Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, failed to label Pine Creek as the
+"Tiadaghton" on their maps.[30] In fact, Adlum's map of 1792, found
+among the papers of William Bingham, designates the area east of
+Lycoming Creek as the "Old Purchase." Furthermore, as is the case with
+Evans' map, Adlum does not apply the Tiadaghton label to either Pine
+Creek or Lycoming Creek.[31]
+
+Two applications in 1769 for land in the New Purchase show that the
+Tiadaghton, or in this case "Ticadaughton," can only be Lycoming Creek.
+The application of Robert Galbreath (no. 1823) is described as "Bounded
+on one side by the Proprietor's tract at Lycoming." Martin Stover
+applied for the same tract (application no. 2611), which is described as
+"below the mouth of Ticadaughton Creek."[32] The copies of these two
+applications, together with the copy of the survey, offer irrefutable
+proof of the validity of Lycoming's claim.
+
+Perhaps the final note is the action of the General Assembly of the
+Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on December 12, 1784.[33] The legislators
+affirmed the judgments of the frontier journalists, whose recorded
+journeys offer the best proof that the Lycoming is the Tiadaghton. Prior
+to this action, the Provincial authorities had issued a proclamation on
+September 20, 1773, prohibiting settlement west of Lycoming Creek by
+white persons. Violators were to be apprehended and tried. The penalties
+were real and quite severe: £500 fine, twelve months in prison without
+bail, and a guarantee of twelve months of exemplary conduct after
+release.[34] Court records, however, fail to indicate any prosecutions.
+
+Finally, the latest scholar to delve into the complexities of the
+Stanwix treaties, Professor Peter Marshall, says that there was no
+prolonged and close discussion about the running of the treaty line in
+Pennsylvania (the Tiadaghton question), no discussion in any way
+comparable to that which took place over its location in New York.[35]
+
+In summary then, it appears that the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 was
+responsible for opening the West Branch Valley to settlement, such
+settlement being stimulated by the opening of the Land Office in
+Philadelphia on April 3, 1769. James Tilghman, secretary of the Land
+Office, published the notice of his office's willingness "to receive
+applications from all persons inclinable to take up lands in the New
+Purchase."[36] The enthusiasm generated by the opening of the Land
+Office is shown by the better than 2,700 applications received on the
+very first day. However, the question of the Tiadaghton came to be a
+source of real contention. The ambiguity of the Indian references to the
+western boundary of the first Stanwix Treaty led the eager settlers, who
+were seeking to legitimize claims in the area between Lycoming and Pine
+creeks, to favor Pine Creek. There was substance to the settlers' claim.
+
+The significance of the boundary question to this study is better
+understood when it is recognized that the so-called Fair Play system of
+government in lands beyond the Provincial limits must have a definable
+locale. It is this writer's firm conviction that Fair Play territory
+extended from Lycoming Creek, on the north side of the West Branch of
+the Susquehanna, to the Great Island, some five miles west of Pine
+Creek. The foundation for the establishment of Lycoming Creek as the
+Tiadaghton, and consequently, as the eastern boundary of the Fair Play
+territory is apparent once all the evidence is examined. Aside from the
+comments of the Indians at the treaty negotiations and Smith's _Laws of
+the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania_, there are only secondary accounts
+with little documentation to sustain the Pine Creek argument.
+
+On the other hand, the Lycoming Creek claim is buttressed by such
+primary sources as the journals of Weiser, Bartram, Spangenberg,
+Ettwein, and Fithian, three of which were written before the location of
+the Tiadaghton became a subject of dispute. Since none of these men was
+seeking lands, they can be considered impartial observers. Furthermore,
+the cartographic efforts of Lewis Evans and John Adlum followed actual
+visits to the region and say nothing to favor the Pine Creek view.
+
+Perhaps the Indians were merely accepting an already accomplished fact
+at the meeting in 1784. Dr. Paul A. W. Wallace says that this would have
+been expected from the subservient, pacified Indian. Regardless, the
+Provincial leadership made no effort to settle the lands in what some
+called "the disputed territory" until after the later agreement at
+Stanwix; in fact, they discouraged it.[37] The simple desire for
+legitimacy gives us very little to go on in the light of more than
+adequate documentation of the justice of the Lycoming view.
+
+This evidence might suggest changing the name of the long-revered
+"Tiadaghton Elm" to the "Pine Creek Elm" and bringing to a close the
+vexatious question of the Tiadaghton. However let us strike a note of
+caution, if not humility. Indian place names had a way of shifting,
+doubling, and moving, since they served largely as descriptive terms and
+not as true place names. It is not at all unusual to find the same name
+applied to several places or to find names migrating. The Tiadaghton
+could have been Lycoming Creek to some Indians at one time, and Pine
+Creek to others at the same or another time. Consider, for example, that
+there were three Miami rivers in present Ohio, which are now known as
+the Miami, the Little Miami, and the Maumee. It hardly makes any real
+difference to the geography of the Fair Play territory, or to the
+delimiting of its boundaries, which stream was the Tiadaghton. Actually,
+it was the doubt about it which drew in the squatters and created Fair
+Play. These settlers justified their contention that the Tiadaghton was
+Pine Creek by moving into the territory and holding onto it. This may be
+reason enough for calling the famous tree the Tiadaghton Elm, even if
+early travelers and the proprietary officials said that the Tiadaghton
+was Lycoming Creek.[38]
+
+The topography of the region also influenced the delineation of what we
+call Fair Play territory. The jugular vein which supplies the life-blood
+to this region is undoubtedly the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
+This branch of the great river, which drains almost fifty per cent of
+the State, follows a northeasterly course of some forty miles from the
+Great Island, which is just east of present Lock Haven, to what is now
+Muncy, then turns southward.[39]
+
+The West Branch of the mighty Susquehanna, which has plagued generations
+of residents with its spring floodings, was the primary means of ingress
+and egress for the area. Rich bottom lands at the mouths of Lycoming,
+Larrys, and Pine creeks drew the hardy pioneer farmers, and here they
+worked the soil to provide the immediate needs for survival. Hemmed in
+on the north by the plateau area of the Appalachian front and on the
+south by the Bald Eagle Mountains, these courageous pioneers of frontier
+democracy carved their future out of the two-mile area (more often less)
+between those two forbidding natural walls. With the best lands to be
+found around the mouth of Pine Creek, which is reasonably close to the
+center of this twenty-five-mile area, it seems quite natural that the
+major political, social, and economic developments would take place in
+close proximity--and they did.[40]
+
+Thus, an area never exceeding two miles in width and spanning some ten
+miles (presently from Jersey Shore to Lock Haven) was the heartland of
+Fair Play settlement. Lycoming Creek, Larrys Creek, and Pine Creek all
+run south into the West Branch, having channeled breaks through the
+rolling valley which extends along the previously defined territory.
+
+"The land was ours before we were the land's," the poet said, and it
+seems apropos of this moment in history.[41] Fair Play territory,
+possessed before it was owned and operated under _de facto_ rule, would
+be some time in Americanizing the sturdy frontiersmen who came to bring
+civilization to this wilderness.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Carl L. Becker, _Beginnings of the American People_ (Ithaca, N. Y.,
+1960), p. 182.
+
+[2] Turner, _Frontier and Section_, p. 51.
+
+[3] Frederick Jackson Turner, _The Frontier in American History_ (New
+York, 1963), p. 9.
+
+[4] E. B. O'Callaghan, _Documentary History of the State of New York_
+(Albany, 1849), I, 587-591.
+
+[5] Henry Steele Commager, _Documents of American History_ (New York,
+1958), I, 49.
+
+[6] An earlier twentieth-century historian misinterprets the first
+Stanwix Treaty in much the same manner as earlier colonial historians
+erred in their judgments of the Proclamation of 1763. Albert T.
+Volwiler, _George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741-1782_
+(Cleveland, 1926), p. 250, really overstates his case, if the Fair Play
+settlers are any example, when he claims that the Fort Stanwix line, by
+setting a definite boundary, impeded the western advance. Establishing
+friendships with the Indians and then persuading them to sell their
+lands proved valuable to more than speculators, whose case Volwiler
+documents so well, as West Branch settlements after 1768 will attest.
+
+[7] The extension of Provincial authority to Pine Creek would have taken
+in three-fourths of what we have labeled Fair Play territory.
+
+[8] John F. Meginness, _Otzinachson: A History of the West Branch Valley
+of the Susquehanna_ (Williamsport, 1889), p. 106. The full passage from
+the Bethlehem Diary (now in the Moravian Archives) was translated by the
+late Dr. William N. Schwarze for Dr. Paul A. W. Wallace, historian of
+the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, as follows: "In the
+afternoon [June 8, New Style] our brethren left that place [beyond
+Montoursville] and came in the evening to the Limping Messenger on the
+Tiadachton Creek, where they spent the night." In the _Pennsylvania
+Magazine of History and Biography_, II (1878), 432 (hereafter cited as
+_PMHB_), Zeisberger's account is translated in this manner: "In the
+afternoon we proceeded on our journey, and at dusk came to the 'Limping
+Messenger,' or Diadachton Creek [a note identifies this as Lycoming],
+and encamped for the night." Here the error is in identifying the
+Limping Messenger with the stream. Meginness, of course, repeated the
+error in his _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 106. Referring the passage to
+Vernon H. Nelson of the Moravian Archives, through Dr. Wallace, resulted
+in a clarification of the translation and the affirmation of the
+"Limping Messenger" as a camp on the stream. In the Bethlehem Diary,
+under June 8, 1754, the sentence appears as follows: "des Nachm.
+reissten unsre Brr Wieder von da weg u kamen Abends zum hinckenden Boten
+an der Tiatachton Creek, u lagen da uber Nacht." In the original travel
+journal the passage reads: "des Nachm. reissten wir wieder von da weg, u
+kamen Abends zum _hinckenden Boten_ an der Tiatachton Crick u lagen da
+uber Nacht." De Schweinitz in his _Zeisberger_ further confused the
+issue in his description of the journey. He takes the adventurers
+(Zeisberger, Spangenburg, Conrad Weiser, Shickellamy, and Andrew
+Montour) through the valley of the Tiadaghton Creek on the Sheshequin
+Path to Onondaga (Syracuse). There was an Indian path up Pine Creek, but
+it led to Niagara, not Onondaga.
+
+[9] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 106. This is an added note of
+Meginness' commentary upon the citation noted above.
+
+[10] John Blair Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties,
+Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1883), p. 468. Linn also deals with the
+Tiadaghton question in his "Indian Land and Its Fair Play Settlers,"
+_PMHB_, VII (1883), 420-425. Here he simply defines Fair Play territory
+as "Indian Land" encompassing the Lycoming-Pine Creek region.
+
+[11] _Minutes of the First Session of the Ninth General Assembly of the
+Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ..._ (Philadelphia, 1784), Appendix,
+Proceedings of the Treaties held at Forts Stanwix and McIntosh, pp.
+314-322.
+
+[12] _Ibid._, Oct. 23, p. 319.
+
+[13] _Ibid._
+
+[14] _Ibid._, Oct. 22, p. 316.
+
+[15] E. B. O'Callaghan, _Documents Relative to the Colonial History of
+the State of New York_, VIII (Albany, 1857), 125. In the discussions
+preceding the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768, the Indians' description of
+the boundary line could be interpreted as favoring Pine Creek: "... to
+the Head of the West Branch of Susquehanna thence down the same to Bald
+Eagle Creek thence across the River at Tiadaghta Creek below the great
+Island, thence by a straight Line to Burnett's Hills and along the
+same...." The juxtaposition of Bald Eagle Creek, the Great Island, and
+"Tiadaghta" Creek makes this conclusion plausible.
+
+[16] _See also ibid._, Guy Johnson's map illustrating the treaty line,
+opposite p. 136.
+
+[17] D. S. Maynard, _Historical View of Clinton County, From Its
+Earliest Settlement To The Present Time_ (Lock Haven, 1875), p. 8. The
+line is given by Maynard as follows: "... and took in the lands lying
+east of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, beginning at Owego, down to
+Towanda, thence up the same and across to the headwaters of Pine Creek;
+thence down the same to Kittanning...."
+
+[18] Eugene P. Bertin, "Primary Streams of Lycoming County," _Now and
+Then_, VIII (1947), 258-259.
+
+[19] Dr. Bertin, former associate secretary of the Pennsylvania State
+Education Association, adds nothing to the Meginness and Linn accounts,
+his probable sources. He speaks of settlements as early as 1772, whereas
+it is a matter of record that Cleary Campbell squatted in what is now
+north Lock Haven sometime shortly after 1769. He refers to the
+establishment of homes, properly, but then goes on to add churches and
+schools. The source for his "Children and elders met together
+periodically to recite catechism to the preacher, who was a travelling
+missionary, one being Phillip Fithian," was J. B. Linn. But Fithian, an
+extremely accurate diarist, fails to mention the occasion during his
+one-week visit to this area in the summer of 1775. However, the real
+value of this article is the editorial note by T. Kenneth Wood on the
+Tiadaghton question. In it he refers to John Bartram's journal of 1743,
+twenty-five years before the Stanwix Treaty at Rome, N. Y., with the
+Iroquois, which recounts his travels with the Oneida Chief Shickellamy
+and Conrad Weiser. Lewis Evans was also in the party, making notes for
+his map of 1749. The party, on its way to Onondaga (Syracuse), was
+approaching Lycoming Creek at a point just south of Powys, via the
+Sheshequin Indian path. Bartram, the first American botanist, who wrote
+in his journal nightly after checking with his two guides, gives this
+account, T. Kenneth Wood (ed.), "Observations Made By John Bartram In
+His Travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego and the Lake Ontario
+in 1743," _Now and Then_, V (1936), 90: "Then down a hill to a run and
+over a rich neck of land lying between it and the Tiadaughton." No
+contact was made with Pine Creek. Dr. Wood contends in his note to the
+Bertin article, and this writer is inclined to agree, that the Indian of
+1743 and the Indian of 1768 were telling the truth and that the white
+settlers of 1768, and for sixteen years thereafter, were wrong, either
+through guile and design or ignorance. He says, "The original Indian
+principals signing the treaty had retreated westward and sixteen years
+of fighting over the question (and possibly a few bribes) had settled it
+to the white man's satisfaction. The Indians always had to yield or get
+out." This is essentially the point which Dr. Wallace made to me in his
+letter of Feb. 16, 1961.
+
+[20] Elsie Singmaster, _Pennsylvania's Susquehanna_ (Harrisburg, 1950),
+p. 87. Her Pine Creek description (while describing tributaries of the
+Susquehanna) speaks of the gorge as the upper course of Pine Creek,
+which is now part of Harrison State Park. Here, she says, "The rim is
+accessible by a paved highway, and from there one may look down a
+thousand feet and understand why the Indians called the stream
+Tiadaghton or Lost Creek."
+
+[21] Edmund A. DeSchweinitz, _The Life and Times of David Zeisberger_
+(Philadelphia, 1871), p. 133. Further evidence of DeSchweinitz'
+confusion is found in his Geographical Glossary in the same book. On
+page 707, he calls the Great Island, Lock Haven; on page 709, he calls
+Long Island, Jersey Shore; and on page 713, he refers to Pine Creek as
+the Tiadaghton, "also called Diadaghton."
+
+[22] The term "New Purchase" was frequently used, both officially and
+otherwise, to designate the area on the north side of the West Branch of
+the Susquehanna from Lycoming Creek to the Great Island, although in
+actuality the purchase line terminated at Lycoming Creek.
+
+[23] Charles Smith, _Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania_
+(Philadelphia, 1810), II, 274.
+
+[24] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Conrad Weiser, Friend of Colonist and Mohawk_
+(Philadelphia, 1945), p. 81.
+
+[25] Wallace mistakenly attaches the appellation "Limping Messenger" to
+"a foot-sore Indian named Anontagketa," _ibid._, p. 220. However, this
+error was corrected in a letter to this writer, August 24, 1962.
+
+[26] Wood (ed.), "Observations Made By John Bartram," p. 90.
+
+[27] _Ibid._, p. 79.
+
+[28] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 411.
+
+[29] Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Leonidas Dodson (eds.), _Philip
+Vickers Fithian: Journal, 1775-1776_ (Princeton, 1934), pp. 69-76.
+
+[30] Hazel Shields Garrison, "Cartography of Pennsylvania before 1800,"
+_PMHB_, LIX (1935), 255-283. Information on Adlum's maps was obtained
+from [T. Kenneth Wood], "Map Drawn by John Adlum, District Surveyor,
+1792, Found Among the Bingham Papers," _Now and Then_, X (July, 1952),
+148-150.
+
+[31] [Wood], "Map Drawn by John Adlum," pp. 148-150.
+
+[32] Bureau of Land Records, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, New Purchase
+Applications, Nos. 1823 and 2611, April 3, 1769.
+
+[33] _Pennsylvania Archives_, First Series, XI, 508.
+
+[34] _Colonial Records_, X, 95.
+
+[35] In a letter to this writer, May 19, 1962, Professor Marshall
+states: "It was my opinion that the treaty marked, in one aspect, a
+bargain between Johnson and the Six Nations. I do not accept
+Billington's charge of betrayal of their interests. But it does seem to
+me that this meant hard bargaining in New York, when the state of Indian
+and colonial lands was precisely known to both sides, and indifference
+and ignorance beyond this point.... As far as I am aware, there was no
+prolonged and close discussion about the running of the line in
+Pennsylvania in the least comparable to that which took place over its
+location in New York." _See_ Peter Marshall, "Sir William Johnson and
+the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768," _The Journal of American Studies_, I
+(Oct., 1967), pp. 149-179.
+
+[36] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 340.
+
+[37] Helen Herritt Russell, "Signers of the Pine Creek Declaration of
+Independence," _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings
+and Addresses_, XXII (1958), 1-15.
+
+[38] The fame of this historic elm stems from the fact that it is
+reputed to be the site of a local declaration of independence made the
+same day as the adoption of Jefferson's draft in Philadelphia, July 4,
+1776. The author is indebted to Donald H. Kent, Director of the Bureau
+of Archives and History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,
+for the idea and some of the expression in this paragraph.
+
+[39] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation_ (New York,
+1962) p. 3. This delightful book in the "Regions of America" series,
+edited by Carl Carmer, contains an excellent chapter on the significance
+of Pennsylvania's "Three Rivers."
+
+[40] Gristmills--meeting places of the Fair Play tribunal--a school, and
+a church would all be found in this Pine Creek region. However, the
+church (Presbyterian) would not be built until the territory became an
+official part of the Commonwealth following the second Stanwix Treaty in
+1784.
+
+[41] Robert Frost, _Complete Poems of Robert Frost_ (New York, 1949), p.
+467. This poem somehow characterizes the experiences of the settlers of
+this frontier and many frontiers to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+_The Fair Play Settlers: Demographic Factors_
+
+
+James Logan, president of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania,
+1736-1738, once declared that "if the Scotch-Irish continue to come they
+will make themselves masters of the Province."[1] His prediction, which
+was to be generally proven in the Province during the French and Indian
+War, was to be demonstrated particularly in the West Branch Valley
+during the Revolutionary period. The Scotch-Irish were the dominant
+national or ethnic group in the Fair Play territory from 1769 to 1784.
+This dominance is demonstrated in Chart 1, which indicates the national
+origins of eighty families in the Fair Play territory.
+
+
+ CHART 1
+
+ National Origins of Fair Play Settlers[2]
+ Expressed in Numbers and Percentages
+
+  Total  Scotch-Irish   English  German  Scots  Irish  Welsh  French
+ ====================================================================
+   80         39          16       12     5       4     2       2
+    %         48.75       20       15     6.25    5     2.5     2.5
+ --------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+Not only were the Scotch-Irish the most numerous national stock among
+the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch Valley, but they also
+represented a plurality and almost a majority of the entire population.
+The significance of this finding in terms of the "style of life" of the
+Fair Play settlers cannot be over-emphasized. It influenced the
+politics, the religion, the family patterns, and thus the values of this
+frontier society.
+
+Several other important conclusions can be drawn from this chart. In
+contrast to the population of Pennsylvania in general and the
+assumptions regarding frontier areas in particular, the English, rather
+than the Germans, were the second most numerous national stock group.
+The Germans, however, made up the third-largest segment of the West
+Branch Valley population. The Scots, Welsh, Irish, and a few French
+inhabitants formed the remaining sixteen per cent of the population.
+Obviously, this was a dominantly Anglo-Saxon Protestant area of
+settlement.
+
+The impact of this Scotch-Irish hegemony upon the religion, politics,
+family life, and social values in general will be dealt with in a later
+chapter. However, it can be noted at this juncture that the
+strong-willed individualism which characterized these sturdy people was
+as much influenced by their national origin as by their experience on
+the American frontier. Furthermore, Presbyterianism influenced and was
+influenced by a developing democratic political system, which paralleled
+the American Presbyterian system of popular rather than hierarchical
+church government.[3] A prominent immigration historian has pointed out
+that "the theory of Presbyterian republicanism, as a matter of church
+policy, could easily be reconciled with demands of the more radical
+democrats of 1776."[4] Finally, the social life and customs and, hence,
+the values of this frontier society were governed for the most part by
+this majority group. Thus, dogmatic faith, political equality, social
+and economic independence, respect for education, and a tightly-knit
+pattern of family relationships express appropriately the institutional
+patterns by which the Scotch-Irish of the West Branch operated.
+
+It is interesting to contrast the national stock groupings of this
+Susquehanna frontier with the results of a study of national origins of
+the American population made by the American Council of Learned
+Societies and published in 1932:[5]
+
+
+ CHART 2
+
+ Classification of the White Population into Its National
+ Stocks in the Continental United States and Pennsylvania:
+ 1790; and in the Fair Play Territory: 1784 (Expressed in Percentages).
+
+         Scotch-Irish  English  German  Scots  Irish  Welsh  French  Other
+ =========================================================================
+ Conti-
+ nental
+ United
+ States         5.9     60.1      8.6     8.1   3.6      0     2.3    10.6
+
+ Penn-
+ sylva-
+ nia           11.0     35.3     33.3     8.6   3.5      0     1.8     6.5
+
+ Fair
+ Play
+ Terri-
+ tory         48.75       20       15    6.25     5    2.5     2.5       0
+ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+From this comparison it can readily be seen that the national origins of
+the Fair Play settlers in no way conform to either the national pattern
+or the State pattern of just a few years later. Although this limited
+frontier area can be recognized as having its own individual ratio of
+component stocks, it is representative rather than unique in its culture
+and values. The reaction of those of other national stocks to the
+frontier experience buttresses the conclusion that their values were
+influenced more by the frontier than by national origin. It is this
+common reaction to the problems of the frontier which gives rise to the
+conclusion that this West Branch Valley environment was characterized by
+and that its inhabitants held values which Turner evaluated as
+democratic. The nature of those democratic values is, however, dealt
+with in greater detail in subsequent chapters.
+
+The American sources of emigration form the next question to be
+considered in examining the origins of the Fair Play settlers. Lacking
+adequate statistical data for a complete picture of migration in terms
+of percentages, the following chart indicates only the probable origins
+of the three most numerous national stock groupings in the Fair Play
+territory:
+
+
+ CHART 3
+
+ American Sources of Emigration[6]
+
+  National     Percentage of
+   Stock        Population      American Source of Emigration
+ ===============================================================
+ Scotch-Irish     48.75       Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin,
+                              Lancaster counties
+
+ English          20          New Jersey, New York, southeastern
+                              Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and
+                              Bucks counties)
+
+ German           15          Chester, Lancaster, Philadelphia,
+                              and York counties
+
+ Total            83.75
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+Obviously, the primary sources for the West Branch settlements were the
+lower Susquehanna Valley and southeastern Pennsylvania. However, an
+appreciable number of English settlers appear to have come originally
+from New Jersey to settle in what they called "Jersey Shore,"
+immediately east of the mouth of Pine Creek. One explanation for the
+migration of the dominant stock, the Scotch-Irish, is probably the fact
+that the Provincial government refused to sell more lands in Lancaster
+and York counties to the Scotch-Irish. In effect, they were driven to
+use squatter tactics in the Fair Play territory.[7]
+
+The internal origins of sixteen of these settlers can be verified in
+either Meginness or Linn. Four came from Chester County, three each from
+the Juniata Valley and Lancaster County, two each from Cumberland County
+and New Jersey, and one each from Dauphin County and from Orange County
+in New York. Nine of these settlers, incidentally, were Scotch-Irish.
+Although these data are insufficient for any valid generalization, they
+do conform to the characteristic migratory trends indicated in Chart 3.
+
+In analyzing the migration of settlers into the West Branch Valley
+beyond the line of the "New Purchase," it becomes apparent that the
+Scotch-Irish came from the fringe areas of settlement, whereas the
+English and Germans tended to migrate from more settled areas.
+Furthermore, the English migrants often came from outside the Province
+of Pennsylvania, either from New Jersey or New York. In fact, if one
+were to construct a pattern of concentric zones, with the core in the
+southeastern corner of the Province and the lines radiating in a
+north-westerly direction, the English would be found at the core, the
+Germans in the next zone, and the Scotch-Irish in the outlying area.
+This zoning offers no real contradiction of the usual pattern of
+Pennsylvania migrations. However, when one combines the data of internal
+movements with those of external origins, certain contradictions do
+appear. The most noteworthy of these is, of course, the prominence of
+English settlers on this Fair Play frontier vis-à-vis the Germans.
+
+Since the Pennsylvania frontiersmen of the Wyoming Valley were of
+English stock, and immigrated from New England, it might have been
+assumed that some of these Connecticut settlers came into the West
+Branch Valley. Here, however, all evidence points to the fact that
+Connecticut settlers did not migrate west of Muncy, which is located at
+the juncture of Muncy Creek and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River
+(where the bend in the river turns into a directly western pattern).
+Thus the Connecticut boundary dispute of 1769-1775, which erupted into
+the Pennamite Wars, did not involve the Fair Play settlers.[8]
+Nevertheless, at least one Fair Play settler looked forward to the
+possibility of an advance of the Connecticut settlement along the West
+Branch.[9]
+
+The impact of events upon the settlement of the Fair Play territory is
+particularly apparent when one examines the periods of immigration to
+and emigration from the region. Three events seemed to have had the
+greatest influence upon the immigration: the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in
+1768, which extended the Provincial limits to Lycoming Creek in this
+region, and the resultant opening of the Land Office for claims in the
+"New Purchase" on April 3, 1769;[10] the almost complete evacuation of
+the territory in the "Great Runaway" of the summer of 1778, which was
+prompted by Indian attacks and the fear of a great massacre comparable
+to the "Wyoming Valley Massacre" of that same year;[11] and finally, the
+Stanwix Treaty of 1784, which brought the Fair Play area within the
+limits of the Province.[12]
+
+The first Stanwix Treaty, made by Sir William Johnson with the Six
+Nations in November of 1768, extended the legitimate line of English
+colonial settlement from the line established by the Proclamation of
+1763 to a point on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River at the mouth
+of Lycoming Creek (the Tiadaghton, as it was so ambiguously
+labeled).[13] This extension, ostensibly for the purpose of providing
+lands for the colonial veterans of the French and Indian War, became a
+boon to speculators and an inducement to the Scotch-Irish squatters who
+took lands beyond the limits of this "New Purchase" in what was to
+become the Fair Play territory.
+
+In the summer of 1778 the war whoop once again caused the settlers of
+the West Branch Valley to flee from their homes for fear of a repetition
+of the Wyoming Massacre. The peril of the moment is vividly described in
+this communication to the Executive Council in Philadelphia from Colonel
+Samuel Hunter, commander of Fort Augusta:
+
+    The Carnage at Wioming, the devastations and murders upon the West
+    branch of Susquehanna, On Bald Eagle Creek, and in short throughout
+    the whole County to within a few miles of these Towns (the recital
+    of which must be shocking) I suppose must have before now have
+    reached your ears, if not you may figure yourselves men, women, and
+    children, Butchered and scalped, many of them after being promised
+    quarters, and some scalped alive, of which we have miserable
+    Instances amongst us.... I have only to add that A few Hundreds of
+    men well armed and immediately sent to our relief would prevent much
+    bloodshed, confusion and devastation ... as the appearance of being
+    supported would call back many of our fugitives to save their
+    Harvest for their subsistence, rather than suffer the inconveniences
+    which reason tells me they do down the Country and their with their
+    families return must ease the people below of a heavy and
+    unprofitable Burthen.[14]
+
+Robert Covenhoven, who lived at the mouth of the Loyalsock Creek and who
+fled to Sunbury (Fort Augusta) also, described the flight:
+
+    Such a sight I never saw in my life. Boats, canoes, hog-troughs,
+    rafts hastily made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article,
+    had been put in requisition, and were crowded with women, children,
+    and plunder. There were several hundred people in all.... The whole
+    convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire range of farms
+    along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians.[15]
+
+In this eighteenth-century Dunkirk, the West Branch Valley was
+practically cleared of settlers.
+
+The Indians, it is true, proved troublesome to the entire advancing
+American frontier; but unlike the French, whose menacing forts had been
+removed in the recent wars, the Indians were unable to halt the westward
+penetration. An expedition under the leadership of Colonel Thomas
+Hartley was sent out expressly for the purpose of boosting morale in the
+West Branch Valley following the Wyoming Massacre and the Great Runaway.
+Colonel Hartley's letter to Thomas McKean, chief justice of Pennsylvania
+and a member of the Continental Congress, gives bitter testimony to the
+conditions which he observed in September of 1778:
+
+    You heard of the Distresses of these Frontiers they are truly
+    great--The People which we found were Difident and timid The Panick
+    had not yet left them--many a wealthy Family reduced to Poverty &
+    without a home, some had lost their Husbands their children or
+    Friends--all was gloomy.... the Barbarians do now and then attack an
+    unarmed man a Helpless Mother or Infant....
+
+The colonel indicated, however, that strong militia support and some
+offensive action would restore confidence and cause the people to return
+to the valley. His interpretation of the significance of his mission is
+quite clearly stated in the conclusion of his letter: "We shall not have
+it in our Power to gain Honour or Laurels on these Frontiers but we have
+the Satisfaction to think we save our Country...." Hartley's solution to
+the Indian problem, which had driven off the settlers, was to expel them
+"beyond the Lakes" excepting only the more civilized Tuscaroras and
+Oneidas.[16]
+
+Despite the danger from the Indians, the Fair Play settlers began
+trickling back to their homes, or what was left of them, toward the end
+of the Revolutionary War. Once the war was ended and the Fair Play
+territory was annexed by subsequent purchase, the mass movement of
+settlers to the West Branch Valley resumed.
+
+Incidentally, Dr. Wallace in his _Conrad Weiser_ assesses one John Henry
+Lydius with the major responsibility for the Indian massacres in central
+and northeastern Pennsylvania. Wallace notes that Lydius' Connecticut
+purchase from the Indians in 1754 caused "war between Pennsylvania and
+Connecticut and ... [precipitated] the Massacre of Wyoming in 1778."
+This massacre, as West Branch historians know, had its subsequent impact
+on the West Branch Valley in the Great Runaway, although the Winters
+Massacre of June 10, 1778, which prompted the evacuation of the valley,
+actually preceded the Wyoming affair.[17]
+
+Finally, the purchase of the remaining Indian lands in Pennsylvania
+(except for the small corner of the Erie Triangle) was made on October
+3, 1784, in a second Stanwix Treaty. This accession ended the
+Pennsylvania boundary dispute with the Six Nations; and it also ended
+the need for any extra-legal system of government in the West Branch
+Valley, for this new treaty encompassed the Fair Play territory.[18]
+However, this treaty raised the troublesome Tiadaghton question once
+again, a question only partly resolved by the Legislature's designation
+of Lycoming Creek as the Tiadaghton and the recognition of the
+squatters' right of pre-emption to their settlements along the West
+Branch of the Susquehanna.[19] The land office was opened for the sale
+of this purchase July 1, 1785; by 1786 fifty heads of families were
+listed for State taxes in Northumberland County.[20] Approximately fifty
+per cent of these taxables had been in the area earlier.
+
+Perhaps the only significant nationality trend to be noted in this
+important sequence of events is the tenacity of the Scotch-Irish and the
+subsequent increase of English and German settlers following this last
+"New Purchase."[21] Over half of the taxables in Pine Creek Township,
+the new designation for much of the Fair Play territory after it became
+an official part of the Province, were Scotch-Irish. As a result, these
+Scots from the north of Ireland continued to maintain their position of
+leadership even after the area was included in the Commonwealth.
+
+The reasons for migrating to the West Branch Valley in this fifteen-year
+period from 1769 to 1784 were varied and numerous. For the most part,
+the various nationality groups which emigrated from Europe came for
+economic opportunity and because of religious and political
+persecutions. Their movement to the frontier regions was prompted by
+similar problems. In fact, much the same as the earlier settlers of
+Jamestown and Plymouth, the squatters of the West Branch Valley came for
+gain and for God. Furthermore, the promise of Penn's "Holy Experiment,"
+in which men of diverse backgrounds could live together peacefully in
+religious freedom and political equality, encouraged them to come to
+Pennsylvania. However, once the dominant group of the Fair Play
+frontier, the Scotch-Irish, arrived in Pennsylvania, they found
+themselves unsuited to the settled areas. The natural enemy of the
+English, who had oppressed them at home, these settlers soon found
+themselves repeating the Old World conflicts. In addition, the German
+Pietists caused them further embarrassment in their new homes. Their
+Calvinism, fierce political independence, and earnest desire for land
+and opportunity soon made them _personae non gratae_ in the established
+areas. Hence, they migrated to the frontier areas and even beyond the
+limits of Provincial interference and control.[22]
+
+The paucity of population data makes impossible any extensive analysis
+of the stability and mobility of the Fair Play settlers. However, the
+tax lists, both in the published archives and in the files of the county
+commissioners in Northumberland County, offer limited evidence for the
+early years, though they provide ample data for the years after 1773.
+Prior to the Great Runaway in 1778, tax lists are available for the
+entire county of Northumberland; the lists simply indicate the taxable's
+township, acreage, and tax. Records in the Northumberland County
+courthouse give the assessments for 1773, 1774, 1776, and 1778.
+
+Due to the fact that the Fair Play territory was outside the Provincial
+limits until after the purchase of Fort Stanwix in 1784, the assessment
+lists give only those persons residing within Northumberland County. As
+a result, there were only six to twelve settlers who associated with the
+Fair Play men who were included in the lists for 1773-1778. Chart 4
+indicates the names, national origins, and years listed for those
+settlers.
+
+
+ CHART 4
+
+ Fair Play Settlers on the Tax Rolls 1773-1778.[23]
+
+ Name                   National Origin  1773  1774  1776  1778
+ ==============================================================
+ James Alexander          Scotch-Irish     x     x
+ George Calhoune          Scotch-Irish     x     x     x     x
+ Cleary Campbell          Scotch-Irish           x
+ William Campbell, Jr.    Scotch-Irish     x     x     x     x
+ William Campbell, Jr.    Scotch-Irish                 x     x
+ John Clark               English                x
+ Thomas Forster           English          x     x     x     x
+ James Irwin              Scotch-Irish     x     x     x     x
+ John Jamison             English                            x
+ Isaiah Jones             Welsh                  x
+ Robert King              German           x           x     x
+ John Price               Welsh                  x     x
+                                          ---   ---   ---   ---
+ Totals                                    6     8     7     7
+ --------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+From these limited data one obviously concludes that the Scotch-Irish
+were not only the most numerous but also the most persistent of these
+frontiersmen. Also, nine of these men, that is all except Clark, Jones,
+and King, appear on the tax lists for Northumberland County for the year
+1785.[24] Interestingly enough, six of these nine were Scotch-Irish; and
+although our sample is limited, it is readily apparent that the stalwart
+Scots had a way of "hanging on." It would be presumptuous to conclude
+that seventy-five per cent of the residents before 1778 returned by
+1785; but it is fact that some forty families had made improvements in
+the area by 1773 when William Cooke was sent out by the Land Office to
+"Warn the People of[f] the unpurchased Land."[25] Furthermore, as
+indicated earlier, some fifty families appear on the assessments for
+1786, more than half of whom had been in the region before.
+
+Any effort to analyze the population in terms of stability and mobility
+runs head-on into the creation of new townships in the 1780's, the
+inability to establish death rates for this frontier, and the inadequacy
+of probate records. The result is that the data are intuitively rather
+than statistically sound. Chart 5 offers a comparison of tax lists over
+a period of nine years as the basis for some conclusions regarding the
+stability and mobility of the Fair Play settlers.
+
+
+ CHART 5
+
+ Population Stability and Mobility
+ Based Upon a Comparison of Tax Lists
+ For the Period From 1778 to 1787.[26]
+
+                         1778-80  1781  1783-84  1786  1787
+ ==========================================================
+ Number of residents
+   assessed                 27     29      34     40    68
+ Number appearing on
+   previous assessments      6     19      21     14    33
+ ----------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+Except for the 1783-84 figures, all of the tax data are for State taxes.
+The exception is the listing for the federal supply tax in 1783-84. The
+steady growth rate of the area is easily recognizable both in raw
+figures and in percentages. Beginning with an increase of a little more
+than seven per cent between the first two listings, we find a seventy
+per cent increase in the final figures. The tremendous increase in the
+last two assessments may be due to the purchase of 1784 and the
+subsequent legitimizing of claims through the establishment of
+pre-emption rights.
+
+The stability of the population is particularly noted in the
+consistently high percentage of residents with some tenure in the
+valley. Furthermore, the apparent contradiction of this statement by the
+decline to fourteen residents in the 1786 listing who had once left and
+then returned is offset when one examines the neighboring township
+assessments for that same year. Here fourteen additional names of former
+Fair Play settlers are to be found which would sustain the
+characteristic pattern of tenure. The statistical problem is complicated
+by the creation of new townships following the purchase of 1784. Pine
+Creek and Lycoming were the new designations for the former Fair Play
+territory, Pine Creek running from the creek of that same name west, and
+Lycoming extending from Pine Creek east to Lycoming Creek.
+
+Petitions from the area in 1778, 1781, and 1784 give a similar picture.
+Almost half of the names which are found on the tax lists appear on two
+or more of these appeals. These include a distress petition in June of
+1778, and petitions asking recognition of pre-emption rights in 1781 and
+1784.[27] The signatures on the petitions range in number from
+thirty-nine to fifty-one, and at least twenty-four of these settlers
+signed two or more of these documents. The very nature of these
+petitions, particularly the later ones, indicates the tremendous desire
+on the part of these sturdy pioneers to remain in or return to their
+homes in the West Branch Valley. Here too, however, this tenacity of
+purpose is not strictly confined to the Scotch-Irish.
+
+What conclusions can be drawn from this analysis of the demographic
+factors in the Fair Play settlement? Particularly evident is the
+dominance of the Scotch-Irish, who numerically composed the greatest
+national stock group in the population. This dominance, as we have
+already noted, greatly influenced the political and social institutions
+of the area. Secondly, one might consider the numbers of English
+settlers, as compared with the number of Germans, surprising. As a
+matter of fact, if one adds the numbers of Scots and Welsh inhabitants
+to the English and Scotch-Irish, the result is an "English" percentage
+of seventy-seven and one half for the entire population. Thus it is
+quite logical to assume that English customs and language would prevail,
+and they did. Incidentally, it should be added that the "English" nature
+of the population, combined with the Scotch-Irish plurality, meant that
+the Scotch-Irish were more representative of this frontier than they
+were innovators of its customs and values.
+
+If a majority of the Fair Play settlers came from the British Isles,
+from where did they emigrate in America? Here it is quite clear that
+these frontiersmen were predominantly from the lower Susquehanna Valley
+and southeastern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was to them a land of
+liberty and opportunity;[28] and when they failed to find these
+privileges in the settled areas, they moved out on the frontier where
+they could make their own rules, that is to say, establish their own
+familiar institutions. The result was the Fair Play system.
+
+Although the Fair Play settlers came to America and central Pennsylvania
+for the usual political, economic, and social reasons, the two Stanwix
+treaties and the Indian raids of 1778 had the most influence on
+population fluctuations. The pioneers came into the territory
+over-reaching the limits of the "New Purchase" of 1768. They were driven
+out, almost to a man, in the Great Runaway of 1778. And finally, they
+returned after the second "New Purchase" in 1784, which resulted in the
+recognition of their pre-emption claims for their earlier illegal
+settlements. It is interesting to note that pre-emption claims were
+recognized in the West Branch Valley some forty-five years prior to
+federal legislation to that effect.[29]
+
+Despite fluctuations in the population, the Scotch-Irish were able to
+maintain their hold over the valley and thus influence the pattern of
+development for this frontier outpost. Horace Walpole, addressing the
+English Parliament during the American Revolution, said, "There is no
+use crying about it. Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian
+parson, and that is the end of it."[30] The Scotch-Irish with their
+Presbyterianism had run off with the West Branch Valley as well; and
+their independent spirit would see them in the foreground of the
+"noblest rupture in the history of mankind." That independent spirit and
+leadership is particularly noted in the political system which they
+established along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Their "Fair
+Play system" is the primary concern of the next chapter.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] E. Melvin Williams, "The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania," _Americana_,
+XVII (1923), 382.
+
+[2] This chart was compiled by making a list of eighty names appearing
+in an article on the genealogy of the Fair Play men, Helen Herritt
+Russell, "The Documented Story of the Fair Play Men and Their
+Government," _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings
+and Addresses_, XII (1958), 16-43. Mrs. Russell is genealogist of the
+Fort Antes chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Jersey
+Shore, Pa. The names were checked in Meginness and Linn for possible
+national origin. Approximately one-fourth were verified in these
+sources. Although this writer questioned the validity of the geographic
+conclusions of Meginness and Linn, both have ample documentation for
+their findings regarding genealogy and national origins. These findings
+can be validated in the published archives. The entire sample of names
+was submitted to Dr. Samuel P. Bayard, a folklore specialist and
+professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University, whose
+determination was made on the basis of linguistic techniques.
+
+[3] Popular control was an American rather than a Scottish influence
+necessitated by the absence of sufficient numbers of ministers. In
+Scotland, the minister chose his elders and thus dominated the session;
+in America, the selection was made by the congregation. _See_ James G.
+Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish: A Social History_ (Chapel Hill, 1962), p.
+150.
+
+[4] Carl Wittke, _We Who Built America_ (Cleveland, 1963), p. 57.
+
+[5] American Council of Learned Societies, "Report of Committee on
+Linguistic and National Stocks in the Population of the United States,"
+_Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1931_
+(Washington, 1932), I, 124.
+
+[6] This summary has been prepared from three main sources: Wayland F.
+Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_ (Hamden, Conn.,
+1962), pp. 89-91; Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), pp. 161-167; and John
+B. Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania_
+(Philadelphia, 1883), pp. 447, 481-482.
+
+[7] Williams, "The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania," p. 382.
+
+[8] Wayland F. Dunaway, _A History of Pennsylvania_ (Englewood Cliffs,
+N. J., 1948), pp. 131-137. According to John Bacon Deans, "The Migration
+of the Connecticut Yankees to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River,"
+_The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings and
+Addresses_, XX (1954), 34-35, eighty-two Yankees came to Warrior's Run
+in September of 1775, but none went farther west.
+
+[9] Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., The
+Zebulon Butler Papers, Jonas Davis to Zebulon Butler, March 16, 1773.
+
+[10] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 340.
+
+[11] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 475; Meginness,
+_Otzinachson_ (1889), pp. 508-511.
+
+[12] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 477; Meginness,
+_Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 666.
+
+[13] O'Callaghan, _Documentary History of the State of New York_, I,
+587-591.
+
+[14] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 509. This July 12, 1778,
+communication from Colonel Hunter did not fall on deaf ears, for Colonel
+Thomas Hartley was ordered to the area with his regiment before the
+summer was out.
+
+[15] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 475.
+
+[16] Richmond D. Williams, "Col. Thomas Hartley's Expedition of 1778,"
+_Now and Then_, XII (1960), 258-259.
+
+[17] Wallace, _Conrad Weiser_, pp. 362-363. Lydius had gotten the
+Indians drunk following the settlement at Albany between the Six Nations
+and the Proprietaries. This boundary line (Albany) "crossed the West
+Branch below the Big Island," p. 374.
+
+[18] _Pennsylvania Archives_, First Series, XI, 508.
+
+[19] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 667.
+
+[20] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 477.
+_Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 711-713.
+
+[21] The ambiguity of the term "New Purchase" becomes apparent once it
+is recognized that territorial acquisitions of both Stanwix treaties
+adopted that appellation.
+
+[22] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, pp. 28-49.
+
+[23] Northumberland County Courthouse, Sunbury, Pa., Penns & C.
+1782-1811 Tax Assessments, Cabinet #1. This book, found in the cellar of
+the courthouse, also contains the Pine Creek assessment for 1789.
+
+[24] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 618-622.
+
+[25] _Pennsylvania Archives_, First Series, XII, 286-287. The squatters,
+apparently warned in advance, had practically all vacated the premises.
+However, neighbors across the river willingly gave their names.
+
+[26] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 437, 468, 557, 711,
+790.
+
+[27] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III (1875), 217, 518-522.
+The original petitions of 1781 and 1784 are located in the State
+Archives, Harrisburg.
+
+[28] Penn's colony was well advertised, and the emphasis upon liberty of
+conscience, when contrasted with the restrictions of the Test Act, gives
+ample support for the significance of liberty as a motivating factor.
+However, economic causes predominated.
+
+[29] Ray Allen Billington, _Westward Expansion_ (New York, 1960), p.
+380. Billington refers here to the distribution-pre-emption measure of
+1841, whereas Congress actually recognized squatters' rights in the act
+of 1830.
+
+[30] Williams, "The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania," p. 382.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+_The Politics of Fair Play_
+
+
+The political system of these predominantly Scotch-Irish squatters in
+the Susquehanna Valley, along the West Branch, offers a vivid
+demonstration of the impact of the frontier on the development of
+democratic institutions. Occupying lands beyond the reach of the
+Provincial legislature, with some forty families of mixed national
+origin in residence by 1773, these frontier "outlaws" had to devise some
+solution to the question of authority in their territory.[1] Their
+solution was the extra-legal creation of _de facto_ rule historically
+known as the Fair Play system. The following is a contemporary
+description of that system:
+
+    There existed a great number of locations of the third of April,
+    1769, for the choicest lands on the West Branch of Susquehanna,
+    between the mouths of _Lycoming_ and _Pine creeks_; but the
+    proprietaries, from extreme caution, the result of that experience,
+    which had also produced the very penal laws of 1768, and 1769, and
+    the proclamation already stated, had prohibited any surveys being
+    made beyond the _Lycoming_. In the mean time, in violation of all
+    law, a set of hardy adventurers, had from time to time, seated
+    themselves on this doubtful territory. They made improvements, and
+    formed a very considerable population. It is true, so far as
+    regarded the rights to real property, they were not under the
+    protection of the laws of the country; and were we to adopt the
+    visionary theories of some philosophers, who have drawn their
+    arguments from a supposed state of nature, we might be led to
+    believe that the state of these people would have been a state of
+    continual warfare; and that in contests for property the weakest
+    must give way to the strongest. To prevent the consequences, real
+    or supposed, of this state of things, they formed a mutual compact
+    among themselves. They annually elected a tribunal, in rotation, of
+    three of their settlers, whom they called _fair play men_, who were
+    to decide all controversies, and settle disputed boundaries. From
+    their decision there was no appeal. There could be no resistance.
+    The decree was enforced by the whole body, who started up in mass,
+    at the mandate of the court, and execution and eviction was as
+    sudden, and irresistible as the judgment. Every new comer was
+    obliged to apply to this powerful tribunal, and upon his solemn
+    engagement to submit in all respects, _to the law of the land_, he
+    was permitted to take possession of some vacant spot. Their decrees
+    were, however, just; and when their settlements were recognized by
+    law, and _fair play_ had ceased, their decisions were received in
+    evidence, and confirmed by judgments of courts.[2]
+
+The idea of authority from the people was nothing new; in fact, it is as
+old as the Greeks. Nor is the concept of a "social compact," here
+implied, particularly novel to the American scene. The theory was that
+people hitherto unconnected assembled and gave their consent to be
+governed by a certain ruler or rulers under some particular form of
+government.[3] Theoretically justified by John Locke in his persuasive
+defense of the Glorious Revolution, it had been practiced in Plymouth,
+Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, where practical necessity
+had required it for settlements occasionally made outside charter
+limits. The frontier, whether in New England or in the West Branch
+Valley, created a practical necessity which made popular consent the
+basis of an actual government.
+
+They were not "covenanters" in the Congregational sense of having
+brought an established church with them to the Fair Play territory. But
+the Fair Play settlers understood and subscribed to the principle of
+popular control, which was fundamental to such solemnly made and
+properly ratified agreements. Separated from the authority of the crown,
+detached from the authority of the hierarchy of the church by the
+Protestant Reformation, possessing no American tradition of extensive
+political experience, these settlers could only depend upon themselves
+as proper authorities for their own political system.
+
+Furthermore, the great majority of the settlers who came to the Fair
+Play territory came from families who had left their homes in the old
+country to escape political, economic, and social restrictions, only to
+be made unwelcome in their new homes in the settled areas of
+Pennsylvania. Displaced persons in a new country, they were forced by
+lives of conflict to seek better opportunity by moving to undeveloped
+lands. As a result, they settled along the West Branch of the
+Susquehanna, beyond the authority of the crown and outside the pressures
+of the Provincial legislature.
+
+If man is a predatory beast in his natural state, a belief some
+expressed in the eighteenth century, then it follows naturally that
+every society must have some agency of authority and control. The
+universally standardized solution to the problem of social control is
+government. The Fair Play system was the answer on this Susquehanna
+frontier to the need for some legitimate agency of force.[4] This system
+vested authority in the people through annual elections of a tribunal of
+three of their number. The members of the tribunal were given
+quasi-executive, legislative, and judicial powers over all the settlers
+in the West Branch Valley "beyond the purchase line."[5]
+
+Although no record of any of these elections has been preserved, the
+composition of the Fair Play tribunal in 1776 has been established and
+verified by subsequent reviews of land claims in the county courts.[6]
+Also, two of the members of the tribunal of 1775 are identified in a
+pre-emption claim made before the Lycoming County Court in 1797.[7] It
+is interesting to note that among these five men are represented the
+three most prominent national stock groups in the area, with the
+Scotch-Irish, as our earlier sample demonstrated, in the majority.
+
+Lacking returns of the annual elections of the tribunal and minutes of
+its actual meetings, we have only Smith's _Laws of the Commonwealth of
+Pennsylvania_, petitions from the Fair Play settlers, and the subsequent
+review of land questions by the Northumberland and Lycoming County
+courts to evaluate the tribunal, its members, and its procedures.
+However, these data are more than adequate in giving us a picture of
+this _de facto_, though illegal, rule, which existed in the West Branch
+Valley until the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784 brought the territory
+under Commonwealth jurisdiction. The composition of the electorate
+varied with the fluctuations in population caused by the two Stanwix
+treaties, the Revolution, and the Great Runaway.
+
+Since property and religious qualifications were the primary
+prerequisites to voting at this time, it seems logical to assume that a
+similar basis for suffrage operated in the West Branch Valley.[8] Having
+no regular church--the first, a Presbyterian, was not organized until
+1792--property qualifications appear to have been the basis for what, in
+this area, was practically universal manhood suffrage. Due to the fact
+that the entire settlement consisted of squatters, practically all of
+the heads of households were property holders, regardless of the
+questionable legality of their holdings. The tax lists indicate holdings
+of some 100 to 300 acres on the average for residents, so it is
+particularly difficult to know whether or not a minimum holding
+requirement prevailed. The Provincial suffrage requirement in this
+period was generally fifty acres of land or £50 of personal property.[9]
+
+Although this study encompasses a fifteen-year period from 1769 to 1784,
+it appears that the Fair Play system functioned for about five years,
+from 1773 to 1778. This is due to the fact that only "fourty
+Improvements,"[10] meaning forty family settlements, existed in the area
+by 1773, and that following the Great Runaway of 1778, the territory was
+almost devoid of settlers. The void was filled, however, when settlers
+began returning toward the end of the Revolution and following the
+accession of the territory in the second Stanwix Treaty, in 1784. Thus,
+for all practical purposes, the functioning of the Fair Play system was
+confined to this more limited time. Furthermore, the system was
+supplemented in 1776 by the introduction of the Committee of Safety, and
+later that year by the Council of Safety.[11]
+
+As is indicated in Smith's _Laws_, annual meetings were held to select
+the governing tribunal of three for the ensuing year. Generally convened
+at some readily accessible place, these sessions were presumably held in
+the open or at one of the frontier forts erected in the area: Fort
+Antes, across the river from Jersey Shore; or Fort Horn, located on the
+south side of the Susquehanna about eight miles west of Jersey Shore.
+There were frontier forts in the vicinity of the present Muncy--Fort
+Muncy--and Lock Haven--Fort Reed; but Fort Muncy was some twenty-odd
+miles east of the Fair Play territory and Fort Reed was beyond the Great
+Island at its western extremity. As a result, these outposts were
+unlikely meeting places for the tribunal or for its election.[12]
+Unfortunately, there is no recorded evidence of a specific meeting of
+the Fair Play men.
+
+The authority of the Fair Play tribunal extended across the entire
+territory from Lycoming Creek to the Great Island on the north side of
+the West Branch of the Susquehanna. However, most of the disputed cases,
+which can be verified by subsequent court reviews in either
+Northumberland or Lycoming counties, seem to have involved land claims
+in the area between Lycoming and Pine creeks. The tribunal accepted or
+rejected claims for settlement in the area and decided boundary
+questions and other controversies among settlers.[13] As to a specific
+code of laws, there is none of record. However, the cases subsequently
+reviewed in the established county courts refer to some of their regular
+practices. For example, any man who left his improvement for six weeks
+without leaving someone to continue it, lost his right to the
+improvement;[14] any man who went into the army could count on the Fair
+Play men (the tribunal) to protect his property;[15] any man who sought
+land in the territory was obliged to obtain not only the approval of the
+Fair Play men but also of his nearest potential neighbors;[16] and the
+summary process of ejectment which the Fair Play men exercised was real
+and certain and sometimes supported by the militia.[17]
+
+The specific membership of the Fair Play tribunal is rather difficult to
+ascertain due to its failure to keep minutes of its proceedings and the
+absence of any recorded code. However, as indicated earlier,[18] the
+existence of the tribunal between the years 1773 and 1778, and its
+actual composition in 1775 and 1776, have already been established from
+the review of its decisions by the Circuit Court of Lycoming County.
+Assuming the principle of rotation from a contemporary description,
+some eighteen settlers held the positions of authority during the years
+noted.[19] The cases reviewed reveal the names of five of these
+eighteen. Recognizing the limitations of our twenty-eight per cent
+sampling, however, it is interesting to note that the three major
+national stocks are represented in this restricted sample. Furthermore,
+as was mentioned previously,[20] the Scotch-Irish settlers, being in the
+majority, enjoyed the majority representation on the tribunal. An
+analysis of leadership in the territory, to be developed more fully
+later, leads one to conclude that the Scotch-Irish, in the main, were
+the political leaders of the area.[21]
+
+A diligent search of some sixty cases in the Court of Common Pleas in
+both Northumberland and Lycoming counties yielded some documentary
+evidence regarding the procedures of the Fair Play tribunal.[22] Three
+cases in Lycoming County and one from Northumberland County contain
+depositions which describe the activities of the Fair Play men in some
+detail. One case, _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_, was appealed to the Supreme
+Court of the Commonwealth. All of the cases deal with the question of
+title to lands in the Fair Play territory following the purchase of
+these lands at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784. The depositions taken
+in conjunction with these cases indicate the processes of settlement and
+ejectment, in addition to the policies regarding land tenure. The
+fairness of the Fair Play decisions is noted by the fact that the
+regular courts concurred with the earlier judgments of the tribunal.[23]
+
+An anecdote involving one of the Fair Play men, Peter Rodey, illustrates
+the nature of this frontier justice. According to legend, Chief Justice
+McKean of the State Supreme Court was holding court in this district,
+and, curious about the principles or code of the Fair Play men, he
+inquired about them of Peter Rodey, a former member of the tribunal.
+Rodey, unable to recall the details of the code, simply replied: "All I
+can say is, that since your Honor's coorts have come among us, _fair
+play_ has entirely ceased, and law has taken its place."[24]
+
+The justice of "fair play" and the nature of the system can be seen from
+an analysis of the cases reviewed subsequently in the established
+courts. As mentioned previously, these cases describe the procedures
+regarding settlement, land tenure, and ejectment. Although no recorded
+code of laws has been located, references to "resolutions of the Fair
+Play men" regularly appear in the depositions and summaries of these
+cases.[25] According to Leyburn, a customary "law" concerning settlement
+rights operated on the frontier, particularly among the
+Scotch-Irish.[26] This "law" recognized three settlement rights: "corn
+right," which established claims to 100 acres for each acre of grain
+planted; "tomahawk right," which marked off the area claimed by
+deadening trees at the boundaries of the claim; and, "cabin right,"
+which confirmed the claim by the construction of a cabin upon the
+premises. If the decisions of the regular courts are at all indicative,
+Fair Play settlement was generally based upon "cabin right." However,
+the frequent allusion to "improvements" implies some secondary
+consideration to what Leyburn has defined as "corn right."
+
+In the case of _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_, the significance of
+"improvements," or "corn rights," vis-à-vis "cabin rights" is
+particularly noted.[27] The following summary of that case, found in
+_Pennsylvania Reports_, emphasizes that significance, in addition to
+defining a Fair Play "code" pertaining to land tenure:
+
+    THIS was an ejectment for 324 acres of land, part of the Indian
+    lands in _Northumberland_ county.
+
+    The plaintiff claimed under a warrant issued on the 2d _May_ 1785,
+    for the premises, and a survey made thereon upon the 10th _January_
+    1786. The defendant, on the 20th _June_ 1785, entered a caveat
+    against the claims of the plaintiff, and on the 5th _October_
+    following, took out a warrant for the land in dispute, on which he
+    was then settled. Both claimed the pre-emption under the act of 21st
+    _December_ 1784,[28] and on the evidence given the facts appeared to
+    be:
+
+    That in 1773, one _James Hughes_, a brother of the plaintiff,
+    settled on the lands in question and made some small improvements.
+    In the next year he enlarged his improvement, and cut logs to build
+    an house. In the winter following he went to his father's in
+    _Donegal_ in _Lancaster_ county, and died there. His elder brother
+    _Thomas_ was at that time settled on the Indian land, and one of the
+    "Fair Play Men," who had assembled together and made a resolution,
+    (which they agreed to enforce as the law of the place,) that "if any
+    person was absent from his "settlement for six weeks he should
+    forfeit his right." [Quotation marks as published.]
+
+    In the spring of 1775 the defendant came to the settlement, and was
+    advised by the Fair Play Men to settle on the premises which
+    _Hughes_ had left; this he did, and built a cabin. The plaintiff
+    soon after came, claiming it in right of his brother, and aided by
+    _Thomas Hughes_, took possession of the cabin; but the defendant
+    collecting his friends, an affray ensued, in which _Hughes_ was
+    beaten off and the defendant left in possession. He continued to
+    improve, built an house and stable, and cleared about ten acres. In
+    1778 he was driven off by the enemy and entered into the army. At
+    the close of the war, both plaintiff and defendant returned to the
+    settlement, each claiming the land in dispute.
+
+    The warrant was taken out in the name of _James Hughes_, (the father
+    of the plaintiff who is since dead,) for the benefit of his
+    children.
+
+    After argument by Mr. _Charles Smith_ and Mr. _Duncan_ for the
+    plaintiff, and Mr. _Daniel Smith_ and Mr. _Read_ for the defendant,
+    Justice _Shippen_ in the charge of the court to the jury, said--
+
+    The dispute here, is between a first improvement, and a subsequent
+    but much more valuable improvement. But neither of the parties has
+    any legal or equitable right, but under the act of the 21st
+    _December_ 1784. The settlement on this land was against law. It was
+    an offence that tended to involve this country in blood. But the
+    merit and sufferings of the actual settlers cancelled the offence,
+    and the legislature, mindful of their situation, provided this
+    special act for their relief. The preamble recites their "resolute
+    stand and sufferings," as deserving a right of pre-emption. The
+    legislature had no eye to any person who was not one of the
+    occupiers after the commencement of the war, and a transient settler
+    removed, (no matter how,) is not an object of the law. This is our
+    construction of the act. _James Hughes_ under whom the plaintiff
+    claims, died before the war, the other occupied the premises after,
+    and in the language of the act, "stood and suffered." If this
+    construction be right, the cause is at an end.
+
+    Besides, the plaintiff claims as the heir of _Thomas_, who was the
+    heir of _James_, the first settler. I will not say that the fair
+    play men could make a law to bind the settlers; but they might by
+    agreement bind themselves. Now _Thomas_ was one of these, and was
+    bound by his conduct, from disputing the right of the defendant.
+
+    This warrant it seems, is taken out in the name of the father, and
+    it is said, as a trustee for his children. It is sometimes done for
+    the benefit of all concerned. If this be the case, it may be well
+    enough; but still it is not so regular, as it might have been[.]
+    With these observations, we submit it to you.
+
+                                        Verdict for the defendant.[29]
+
+This case, although originated in the Northumberland County Court in
+1786, was appealed to the State Supreme Court, where the lower court
+decision was affirmed in 1791. The summary runs the gamut of Fair Play
+procedures from settlement, through questions of tenure, to ejectment.
+Its completeness indicates its usefulness. Partial and occasional
+depositions in the other cases cited help to round out the picture of
+the Fair Play "code."
+
+For example, the right of settlement included not only the approval of
+the Fair Play men, but also the acceptance of the prospective
+landholder by his neighbors. Allusions to this effect are made in the
+Coldren deposition as well as in the Huff-Latcha case. Eleanor Coldren's
+deposition, made at Sunbury, June 7, 1797, concerns the disputed title
+to certain lands of her deceased husband, Abraham Dewitt, opposite the
+Great Island. Her comments about neighbor approval demonstrate the
+point. She says, for instance, that
+
+    ... in the Spring of 1775, Henry Antes and Cookson Long, two of the
+    Fair-Play Men, with others, were at the deponent's house, next below
+    Barnabas Bonner's Improvement, where Deponent's Husband kept a
+    Tavern, and heard Antes and Long say that they (meaning the
+    Fair-Play Men) and the Neighbors of the Settlement had unanimously
+    agreed that James Irvin, James Parr, Abraham Dewitt and Barnabas
+    Bonner should ... have their Improvement Rights fitted....
+
+She speaks of the resolution of the claims problem "as being the
+unanimous agreement of the Neighbors and Fair-Play Men...."[30]
+
+William King, who temporarily claimed part of the land involved in the
+dispute between Edmund Huff and Jacob Latcha, also refers to neighbor
+approval in his deposition taken in that case. He said, "I first went to
+Edmund Huff, then to Thomas Kemplen, Samuel Dougherty, William McMeans,
+and Thomas Ferguson, and asked if they would accept me as a
+neighbor...."[31]
+
+Land tenure policy is noted by this same William King in the case of
+_James Grier_ vs. _William Tharpe_. Repeating what we have already
+pointed out in the case of _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_, King testified that
+"there was a law among the Fair-play men by which any man, who absented
+himself for the space of six weeks, lost his right to his
+improvement."[32] In the Huff-Latcha case, King recounts the case of one
+Joseph Haines who "had once a right ... but had forfeited his right by
+the Fair-play law...."[33]
+
+The forfeiture rule was tempered, however, in cases involving military
+service. Bratton Caldwell's deposition in _Grier_ vs. _Tharpe_ is a case
+in point. Caldwell, one of the Fair Play men in 1776, declared that
+"Greer went into the army in 1776 and was a wagon-master till the fall
+of 1778.... In July, 1778, the Runaway, John Martin, had come on the
+land in his absence. The Fair-play men put Greer in possession. If a man
+went into the army, the Fair-play men protected his property."[34]
+Meginness mentions a similar decision in the case of John Toner and
+Morgan Sweeney.[35] Sweeney had attempted to turn a lease for
+improvements in Toner's behalf to possession for himself, but the
+Northumberland County Court honored the Fair Play rule concerning
+military service and decided in favor of Toner.
+
+The summary process of ejectment utilized by the Fair Play men,
+occasionally with militia support, is evident from William King's
+deposition in the Huff-Latcha case. King, having sold his right to one
+William Paul, recounts the method as follows:
+
+    William Paul went on the land and finished his cabin. Soon after a
+    party b[r]ought Robert Arthur and built a cabin near Paul's in which
+    Arthur lived. Paul applied to the Fair-play men who decided in favor
+    of Paul. Arthur would not go off. Paul made a complaint to the
+    company at a muster at Quinashahague[36] that Arthur still lived on
+    the land and would not go off, although the Fair-play men had
+    decided against him. I was one of the officers at that time and we
+    agreed to come and run him off. The most of the company came down as
+    far as Edmund Huff's who kept Stills. We got a keg of whisk[e]y and
+    proceeded to Arthur's cabin. He was at home with his rifle in his
+    hand and his wife had a bayonet on a stick, and they threatened
+    death to the first person who would enter the house. The door was
+    shut and Thomas Kemplen, our captain, made a run at the door, burst
+    it open and instantly seized Arthur by the neck. We pulled down the
+    cabin, threw it into the river, lashed two canoes together and put
+    Arthur and his family and his goods into them and sent them down the
+    river. William Paul then lived undisturbed upon the land until the
+    Indians drove us all away.[37] William Paul was then (1778) from
+    home on a militia tour.[38]
+
+Although land disputes offer documentary evidence of the Fair Play
+system, it seems quite likely that the tribunal's jurisdiction extended
+to other matters. A few anecdotes, obviously based quite tenuously upon
+hearsay, will suffice to illustrate. Joseph Antes, son of Colonel Henry
+Antes, used to tell this story: It seems that one Francis Clark, who
+lived just west of Jersey Shore in the Fair Play territory, gained
+possession of a dog which belonged to an Indian. Upon learning of this,
+the Indian appealed to the Fair Play men, who ordered Clark's arrest and
+trial for the alleged theft. Clark was convicted and sentenced to be
+lashed. The punishment was to be inflicted by a person decided by lot,
+the responsibility falling upon the man drawing the red grain of corn
+from a bag containing grains of corn for each man present. Philip Antes
+was the reluctant "winner." The Indian, seeing that the decision of the
+"court" was to be carried out immediately, magnanimously suggested that
+banishment would serve better than flogging. Clark agreed and left for
+the Nippenose Valley, where his settlement is a matter of record.[39]
+
+Another anecdote, if true, gives further testimony to the justice of
+Fair Play. In this instance, a minister and school teacher named Kincaid
+faced the Fair Play tribunal on the charge of abusing his family. Tried
+and convicted, he was sentenced to be ridden on a rail for his
+offense.[40] Here again, the tale, though legendary, is made plausible
+by the established fact of Kincaid's residence in the area.[41]
+
+Doubtless the most notable political action of the Fair Play settlers is
+their declaration of independence, which Meginness calls "a remarkable
+coincidence" because "it took place about the same time that the
+Declaration was signed in Philadelphia!"[42] Aware, as were many of the
+American colonists in the spring and summer of 1776, that independence
+was being debated in Philadelphia, these West Branch pioneers decided to
+absolve themselves from all allegiance to the Crown and declare their
+own independence. Meeting under a large elm on the west bank of Pine
+Creek, mistakenly known as the "Tiadaghton Elm," the Fair Play men and
+settlers simply resolved their own right of self-determination, a
+principle upon which they had been acting for some time. Unfortunately,
+no record of the resolution has been preserved--if it was actually
+written. However, the names of the supposed signers, all bona fide Fair
+Play settlers, have been passed down to the present.[43]
+
+As every careful historian knows, no declaration was signed in
+Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, except by the clerk and presiding officer
+of the Continental Congress. Consequently, the Pine Creek story arouses
+justifiable skepticism. However, there does seem to be some evidence to
+substantiate this famous act.
+
+First of all, Fithian's _Journal_ gives insight into the possible
+motivation for such independent action. In an entry for Thursday, July
+27, 1775, he writes of reviewing "the 'Squires Library," noting that
+"After some Perusal I fix'd in the Farmer's memorable Letters."[44]
+Fithian was reading John Dickinson's _Letters from a Farmer in
+Pennsylvania_, which he had come across in the library of John Fleming,
+his host for a week in the West Branch Valley. Dickinson's dozen
+uncompromising epistles in opposition to the Grenville and Townshend
+programs both inspired and incited liberty-lovers. Furthermore, Fleming
+himself was a leader among the Fair Play settlers, and may have been
+aroused to action by the eloquence of Dickinson's expression. Every idea
+is an incitement to action and the ideas of _Letters from a Farmer_,
+which made Dickinson the chief American propagandist prior to Thomas
+Paine, reached into the frontier of the West Branch Valley.
+
+The best contemporary evidence in support of the Pine Creek declaration
+is found in the widow's pension application of Anna Jackson Hamilton,
+daughter-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, who was one of the early settlers
+and a prominent leader along the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Mrs.
+Hamilton, whose pension application and accompanying statement were
+made in 1858, lived within one mile of the reputedly historic elm. In
+her sworn statement she says, "I remember well the day independence was
+declared on the plains of Pine Creek, seeing such numbers flocking
+there, and Independence being all the talk, I had a knolege of what was
+doing."[45] Her son John corroborates this in his statement that "She
+and an old colored woman are the only persons now living in the country
+who remembers the meeting of the 4th of July, 1776, at Pine Creek. She
+remembers it well."[46] Mrs. Hamilton was ninety years old at the time
+of her declaration, which was made some eighty-two years after the
+celebrated event.[47]
+
+Following the outbreak of the Revolution and the meeting of the Second
+Continental Congress, the Fair Play system of the West Branch Valley was
+soon augmented by another extra-legal organization, the Committee of
+Safety. Ostensibly created for the purpose of raising and equipping a
+"suitable force to form Pennsylvania's quota of the Continental Army,"
+it soon exercised executive authority dually with the assembly.[48] The
+Council of Safety was instituted as the successor to the Committee of
+Safety by a resolution of the Provincial Convention of 1776, then
+meeting in Philadelphia to draw up a new constitution for Pennsylvania.
+It was continued by an act of the assembly that same year. It functioned
+from July 24, 1776, until it was dissolved on December 6, 1777, by a
+proclamation of the Supreme Executive Council.[49] Locally, however,
+the township branches continued to function and were still referred to
+as "committees."
+
+It appears from the resolutions and actions of the local committee that
+the Fair Play men maintained jurisdiction in land questions, but that
+all other cases were within the range of the committee's authority. In
+fact, a resolution dated February 27, 1776, asserted that "the committee
+of Bald Eagle is the most competent judges of the circumstances of the
+people of that township."[50] This resolution was made in conjunction
+with an order from the county committee to prevent the loss of rye and
+other grains which were being "carried out of the township for
+stilling."[51] Although cautioned against "using too much rigor in their
+measures," the committee was advised to find "a medium between seizing
+of property and supplying the wants of the poor."[52] The county
+committee even went so far as to recommend the suppression of such
+practices as "profaning the Sabbath in an unchristian and scandalous
+manner."[53] In April of 1777, the county committee required an oath of
+allegiance from one William Reed, who had refused military service for
+reasons of conscience.[54]
+
+Although Bald Eagle Township did not, at this time, extend into Fair
+Play territory,[55] it is interesting to note that the local committee,
+whose three members frequently changed, often included settlers from
+that territory or those who were in close association with the Fair Play
+men.[56] The Revolution apparently gave a certain quasi-legality to the
+claims of the "outlaws" of the West Branch Valley.
+
+One further political note is worthy of mention. After Lexington and
+Concord and the formation of the various committees of safety, the
+civil officers of Bald Eagle Township, that is to say the constable,
+supervisor, and overseers, were often chosen from among settlers on the
+borders of, or actually in, Fair Play territory.[57]
+
+The politics of fair play then was nothing more than that--fair play. It
+was a pragmatic system which the necessities of the frontier experience,
+more than national or ethnic origin, had developed. The "codes" of
+operation represented a consensus, equally, freely, and fairly arrived
+at--a common "law" based upon general agreement and practical
+acceptance. There were subsequent appeals to regular courts of law, but,
+surprisingly enough, in every instance the fairness of the judgments was
+sustained. No Fair Play decision was reversed. Furthermore, the
+frequency of elections and the use of the principle of rotation in
+office were additional assurances against the usurpation of power by any
+small clique or ruling class. Popular sovereignty, political equality,
+and popular consultation--these were the basic elements of fair play.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Colonial Records_, X, 95. The Fair Play settlers were outlawed by a
+proclamation of the Council signed by Governor John Penn on Sept. 20,
+1773. The proclamation was issued "strictly enjoyning and requiring all
+and every Person and Persons, already settled or Residing on any Lands
+beyond the Boundary Line of the Last Indian Purchase, immediately to
+evacuate their illegal Settlements, and to depart and remove themselves
+from the said Lands without Delay, on pain of being prosecuted with the
+utmost rigour of the Law." The "Last Indian Purchase" referred to here
+is, of course, the Stanwix Treaty of 1768.
+
+[2] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[3] Richard W. Leopold and Arthur S. Link (eds.), _Problems in American
+History_ (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1957), p. 22. The entire first
+problem in this excellent text deals with the question of authority in
+American government.
+
+[4] This Fair Play system was certainly not unique, for other frontier
+societies employed the same technique, even down to the ruling tribunal
+of three members. See Solon and Elizabeth Buck, _The Planting of
+Civilization in Western Pennsylvania_ (Pittsburgh, 1939), pp. 431, 451.
+However, it must be pointed out that the Bucks' "Fair Play" reference is
+based on Smith, _Laws_, II, 195, which Samuel P. Bates used in "a
+general application of the practice to W. Pa. areas after 1768," in his
+_History of Greene County, Pennsylvania_ (Chicago, 1888). This was the
+interpretation given in a letter from Dr. Alfred P. James to the author,
+July 17, 1963. Dr. James also says that "It is possible that there are
+evidences of Fair Play Men titles in the court records of Washington and
+Greene Counties."
+
+[5] This designation was often employed to classify those settlers who
+took up lands beyond the limits of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768,
+that is to say, west of Lycoming Creek on the north side of the West
+Branch of the Susquehanna.
+
+[6] Russell, "Signers of the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence," p.
+5. Mrs. Russell, whose historical accuracy can be verified through her
+indicated sources, refers to old borough minutes of Jersey Shore as her
+source for the names of the tribunal of 1776, namely, Bartram Caldwell,
+John Walker, and James Brandon. Upon discussing the matter with her, I
+learned that a clipping from an old Jersey Shore paper, now lost, which
+described the minutes, was her actual source. However, adequate
+documentation and meticulous research characterize her work.
+Furthermore, Bratton Caldwell (he signed his name Bartram) is also
+labeled a Fair Play official by Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair Play
+Settlers, 1773-1785," p. 422. Linn's identification comes in the case of
+_Greer_ vs. _Tharpe_, Greer's case being a pre-emption claim on the
+basis of military service.
+
+[7] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," _Now and Then_, XII (1959), 220-222.
+The deposition reads "That in the Spring of 1775, Henry Antes and
+Cookson Long, two of the Fair-Play Men, with others, were at the
+deponent's house...."
+
+[8] Oscar T. Barck, Jr. and Hugh T. Lefler, _Colonial America_ (New
+York, 1958), pp. 258-260. Although Barck and Lefler indicate in this
+section on "The Colonial Franchise" that universal suffrage did not
+prevail in the colonies, they do note the significance of "free land,"
+of which Fair Play territory was an excellent example.
+
+[9] _Ibid_, p. 260.
+
+[10] William Cooke to James Tilghman, _Pennsylvania Archives_, First
+Series, XII, 286-287.
+
+[11] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Fourth Series, III, 545-546.
+
+[12] _Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts
+of Pennsylvania_ (Harrisburg, 1896), I, 390, 392, 394-418.
+
+[13] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[14] Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair-Play Settlers," p. 424. This six
+weeks provision is noted in the deposition of John Sutton in the case of
+_William Greer_ vs. _William Tharpe_, dated March 13, 1797.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, 422. Bratton Caldwell, one of the Fair Play men, indicates
+this practice in his deposition in the _Greer_ vs. _Tharpe_ case.
+
+[16] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," pp. 220-222.
+
+[17] Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair-Play Settlers," pp. 422-424.
+William King, in his deposition taken March 15, 1801, in _Huff_ vs.
+_Satcha_ [sic], in the Circuit Court of Lycoming County, notes the use
+of a company of militia, of which he was an officer, to eject a settler.
+Linn errs in his reference to the defendant as "Satcha." The man's name
+was Latcha, according to the Appearance Docket Commencing 1797, No. 2,
+Lycoming County.
+
+[18] _See_ nn. 6 and 7, p. 33.
+
+[19] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195. _See also_, pp. 31 and 32, this chapter, in
+which the excerpt from this source is quoted verbatim.
+
+[20] _Supra_, p. 33.
+
+[21] _Infra_, Chapter Six. The question of leadership in conjunction
+with the problems of this frontier is discussed in Chapter Six.
+
+[22] The Appearance Dockets and Files were checked for Northumberland
+County from 1784 to 1795 and for Lycoming County from 1795 to 1801.
+These records, obtained in the offices of the respective prothonotaries,
+produced thirty-seven cases in Northumberland and twenty-two in Lycoming
+County dealing with former Fair Play settlers. Unfortunately, only four
+were reviews of actual Fair Play decisions.
+
+[23] Northumberland County originated in 1772 and Lycoming County in
+1795. Clinton County was not created until 1839.
+
+[24] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (Philadelphia, 1857), p. 172.
+
+[25] The cases referred to here are: _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_, _Huff_
+vs. _Satcha_, and _Grier_ vs. _Tharpe_. They were located in the
+Appearance Dockets of Lycoming and Northumberland counties in the
+respective prothonotaries' offices. _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_ appears in
+the Northumberland County Docket for November, 1783, to August, 1786, in
+the February term of the Court of Common Pleas, file 42. Both the Huff
+and Grier cases were found in the Lycoming County Docket No. 2,
+commencing 1797, court terms and file numbers indicated as follows:
+_Huff_ vs. _Satcha_, February, 1799, #2, and _Grier_ vs. _Tharpe_, May,
+1800, #41. A partial deposition by Eleanor Coldren, _Now and Then_, XII
+(1959), 220-222, was also employed. Although the case appears to be
+_Dewitt_ vs. _Dunn_, I could not locate it in the Appearance Dockets.
+Depositions taken in the Huff and Grier cases were published in Linn,
+"Indian Land and Its Fair-Play Settlers," pp. 422-424.
+
+[26] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 205.
+
+[27] Jasper Yeates, _Pennsylvania Reports_, I (Philadelphia, 1817),
+497-498.
+
+[28] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[29] Yeates, _Pennsylvania Reports_, I, 497-498.
+
+[30] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," pp. 220-222.
+
+[31] Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair-Play Settlers," p. 422.
+
+[32] _Ibid._
+
+[33] _Ibid._
+
+[34] _Ibid._
+
+[35] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 469.
+
+[36] Now Linden, in Woodward Township, a few miles west of Williamsport.
+
+[37] King refers here to the Great Runaway of 1778.
+
+[38] Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair-Play Settlers," p. 423-424.
+
+[39] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 470.
+
+[40] _Ibid._, p. 471.
+
+[41] D. S. Maynard, _Historical View of Clinton County_ (Lock Haven,
+1875), pp. 207-208. Maynard has reprinted here some excerpts from John
+Hamilton's "Early Times on the West Branch," which was published in the
+Lock Haven _Republican_ in 1875. Unfortunately, recurrent floods
+destroyed most of the newspaper files, and copies of this series are not
+now available. John Hamilton was a third-generation descendant of
+Alexander Hamilton, one of the original Fair Play settlers.
+
+[42] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1857), p. 193.
+
+[43] _Ibid._ An alleged copy of the declaration published in _A Picture
+of Clinton County_ (Lock Haven, 1942), p. 38, is clearly spurious. The
+language of this Pennsylvania Writers' project of the W.P.A. is
+obviously twentieth-century, and it contains references to events which
+had not yet occurred.
+
+[44] _Fithian: Journal_, p. 72.
+
+[45] Muncy Historical Society, Muncy, Pa., Wagner Collection, Anna
+Jackson Hamilton to Hon. George C. Whiting, Commissioner of Pensions,
+Dec. 16, 1858.
+
+[46] _Ibid._, John Hamilton to Hon. George C. Whiting, Commissioner of
+Pensions, May 27, 1859.
+
+[47] The veracity of the witness is an important question here.
+Meginness, in his 1857 edition, devotes a footnote, p. 168, to this
+remarkable woman who was in full possession of her faculties at the
+time. The Rev. John Grier, son-in-law of Mrs. Hamilton and brother of
+Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Grier, wrote to President Buchanan on
+Nov. 12, 1858, (Wagner Collection), stating that "Mrs. Hamilton is one
+of the most intelligent in our community." Buchanan then wrote an
+affidavit in support of Grier's statements to the Commissioner of
+Pensions, Nov. 27, 1858, (Wagner Collection). Aside from the
+declarations of Mrs. Hamilton and her son, the only other support, and
+this is hearsay, is found in the account of an alleged conversation
+between W. H. Sanderson and Robert Couvenhoven, the famed scout. W. H.
+Sanderson, _Historical Reminiscences_, ed. Henry W. Shoemaker (Altoona,
+1920), pp. 6-8. Here again, the fact that the reminiscences were not
+recorded until some seventy years after the "chats" raises serious
+doubts.
+
+[48] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Fourth Series, III, 545.
+
+[49] _Ibid._, p. 546.
+
+[50] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 473.
+
+[51] _Ibid._
+
+[52] _Ibid._
+
+[53] _Ibid._
+
+[54] _Ibid._ _See also_ John H. Carter, "The Committee of Safety of
+Northumberland County," _The Northumberland County Historical Society
+Proceedings and Addresses_, XVIII (1950), 44-45.
+
+[55] _See_ map of the Fair Play territory in Chapter One.
+
+[56] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 469. _See also_,
+Carter, "The Committee of Safety," pp. 33-45, for a full account of the
+activities of the Committee. Carter notes that the county committee
+consisted of thirty-three members, three from each of the eleven
+townships chosen for a period of six months.
+
+[57] _Ibid._, pp. 472-474.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+_The Farmers' Frontier_
+
+
+The economy of the West Branch Valley was basically agrarian--a farmers'
+frontier. The "new order of Americanism"[1] which arose on this frontier
+was in part due to the cultural background of its inhabitants, the
+knowledge and traditional values which they had brought with them. It
+was further influenced by the frontier status of the region itself--an
+area of virgin land in the earliest stages of development. And finally,
+it was affected by the physical characteristics of the territory,
+particularly the mountains which separated these settlers from the more
+established settlements. It has been said that "many of the enduring
+characteristics of the American creed and the American national
+character originated in the way of life of the colonial farmer."[2] The
+Fair Play territory was typical of this development.
+
+The early pioneer, particularly if he was Scotch-Irish, generally came
+into the area from the Cumberland Valley, the "seed-plot and nursery" of
+the Scotch-Irish in America, the "original reservoir" of this leading
+frontier stock, via the Great Shamokin Path.[3] Since there were no
+roads, only Indian trails, the frontier traveler customarily followed
+the Indian paths which had been cleared along the rivers and streams.
+The Great Shamokin Path followed the Susquehanna from Shamokin (now
+Sunbury) to the West Branch, then out along the West Branch to the
+Allegheny Mountains.[4] Loading his wife and smaller children on a pack
+horse, his scanty possessions on another horse, the prospective settler
+drove a cow or two into the wild frontier at the rate of about twenty
+miles a day.[5] This meant that a trip of approximately two days brought
+him from Fort Augusta to the Fair Play country.
+
+Indian paths were the primary means of ingress and egress, although
+supplemented by the waterways which they paralleled. In addition to the
+Great Shamokin Path, there were paths up Lycoming Creek (the Sheshequin
+Path), and up Pine Creek, besides the path which followed Bald Eagle
+Creek down into the Juniata Valley. These trails and adjoining water
+routes were usually traveled on horseback or in canoes, depending upon
+the route to be followed. However, the rivers and streams were more
+often passages of departure than courses of entry.
+
+Established roads, that is authorized public constructions, were not to
+reach the West Branch region until 1775, although the Northumberland
+County Court ordered such construction and reported on it at the October
+term in 1772.[6] Appointments were made at the August session of 1775
+"to view, and if they saw cause, to lay out a bridle road from the mouth
+of Bald Eagle Creek to the town of Sunbury."[7] It was not until ten
+years later that extensions of this road were authorized, carrying it
+into the Nittany Valley and to Bald Eagle's Nest (near Milesburg, on the
+Indian path from the Great Island to Ohio).[8]
+
+Travel was usually on horseback or on foot. Canoes and flatboats, or
+simply rafts, were used on the rivers and creeks where available.
+Wagons, however, appeared after the construction of public roads and
+were seen in the Great Runaway of 1778.[9]
+
+The problem of communication between the frontier and the settled areas
+was a difficult one compounded by the natural geographic barriers and
+the fact that post and coach roads did not extend into this central
+Pennsylvania region. As a result the inhabitants had to depend upon
+occasional travelers, circuit riders, surveyors, and other Provincial
+authorities who visited them infrequently. Otherwise, the meetings of
+the Fair Play tribunal, irregular as they were, and the communications
+from the county Committee of Safety were about the only sources of
+information available. Of course, cabin-building, cornhusking, and
+quilting parties provided ample opportunities for the dissemination of
+strictly "local" news.
+
+Newspapers were not introduced into the upper Susquehanna Valley until
+around the turn of the century. The _Northumberland Gazette_ was
+published in Sunbury in 1797 or 1798.[10] The first truly West Branch
+paper was not circulated until 1802, when the _Lycoming Gazette_ was
+first published in Williamsport.[11] On the eve of the Revolution there
+were only seven newspapers available in the entire Province, none of
+which circulated as far north as the Fair Play territory.[12] As a
+matter of fact, there were only thirty-seven papers printed in all
+thirteen colonies at the beginning of the Revolution.[13]
+
+The Fair Play settler was an "outlaw," a squatter who came into this
+central Pennsylvania wilderness with his family and without the benefit
+of a land grant, and who literally hacked and carved out a living. The
+natural elements, the savage natives, and the wild life all resisted
+him; but he conquered them all, and the conquest gave him a feeling of
+accomplishment which enhanced his independent spirit.
+
+If the story of the Great Plains frontier can be told in terms of
+railroads, barbed-wire fences, windmills, and six-shooters,[14] then the
+cruder tale of the West Branch frontier can be told in terms of the
+rifle, the axe, and the plow. The rifle, first and foremost as the
+weapon of security, was the basic means of self-preservation in a wild
+land where survival was a constant question.[15] The axe, which Theodore
+Roosevelt later described as "a servant hardly standing second even to
+the rifle,"[16] was the main implement of destruction and construction.
+It was used for clearing the forest of the many trees which encroached
+upon the acreage which the settler had staked out for himself, and for
+cutting the logs which would provide the rude, one-room shelter the
+pioneer constructed for himself and his family. The crude wooden plow
+was the implement which made this frontiersman a farmer, although its
+effectiveness was extremely limited. However, the soil was so fertile,
+and the weeds so sparse, that scratching the earth and scattering seeds
+produced a crop.[17]
+
+A contemporary description of squatter settlements in Muncy Hills, some
+twenty-odd miles east of the Fair Play territory, but in the West Branch
+Valley, gives a vivid picture of the nature of these early
+establishments:
+
+    They came from no Body enquires where, or how, but generally with
+    Families, fix on any Spot in the Wood that pleases them. Cut down
+    some trees & make up a Log Hut in a Day, clear away the underweed &
+    girdle.... The Trees they have no use for if cut down after their
+    Hut is made. They dig up & harrow the Ground, plant Potatoes, a Crop
+    which they get out in three Months, sow Corn, etc., (& having sown
+    in peace by the Law of the Land they are secured in reaping in
+    peace) & continue at Work without ever enquiring whose the Land is,
+    until the Proprietor himself disturbs & drives them off with
+    Difficulty.[18]
+
+This experience was duplicated in the Fair Play territory where there
+were no immediate neighbors whose permission was necessary for
+settlement, or until a dispute was carried to the tribunal for
+adjudication. This procedure was detailed in the last chapter.
+
+Having selected a site, preferably on or near a stream, and obtained
+approval from the Fair Play men and his neighbors, the prospective
+settler was faced with the long and tedious work of clearing the land
+for his home and farm. This was an extended effort for he could clear
+only a few acres a year. In the meantime, his survival depended upon the
+few provisions he brought with him--some grain for meal, a little flour,
+and perhaps some salt pork and smoked meat. These supplies, combined
+with the wild game and fish which abounded in the area, served until
+such a time as crops could be produced. It was a rigorous life
+complicated by the fact that the meager supplies often ran out before
+the first crop was brought in. The first month's meals were too often
+variations on the limited fare of water porridge and hulled corn, as
+described by a later pioneer.[19]
+
+Homes in the Fair Play territory were built "to _live_ in, and not for
+_show_...."[20] The following description, by the grandson of one of the
+original settlers, illustrates the cooperative nature of the enterprise,
+in addition to giving a clear picture of the type of construction which
+replaced the early lean-to shelter with which the frontiersman was first
+acquainted:
+
+    Our buildings are made of hewn logs, on an average 24 feet long by
+    20 wide, sometimes a wall of stone, a foot or more above the level
+    of the earth, raised as a foundation; but in general, four large
+    stones are laid at the corners, and the building raised on _them_.
+    The house is covered sometimes with shingles, sometimes with
+    clapboards. [The latter required no laths, rafters, or nails, and
+    was put on in less time.] ... The ground logs being laid
+    saddle-shaped, on the upper edge, is cut in with an axe, at the
+    ends, as long as the logs are thick, then the end logs are raised
+    and a "notch" cut to fit the saddle. This is the only kind of tie or
+    binder they have; and when the building is raised as many rounds as
+    it is intended, the ribs are raised, on which a course of clapboards
+    is laid, butts resting on a "butting pole." A press pole is laid on
+    the clapboards immediately over the ribs to keep them from shifting
+    by the wind, and the pole is kept to its berth by stay blocks,
+    resting in the first course against the butting-pole. The logs are
+    run upon the building on skids by the help of wooden forks. The most
+    experienced "axe-man" are placed on the buildings as "cornermen;"
+    the rest of the company are on the ground to carry the logs and run
+    them up.[21]
+
+In this fashion, the frontier cabin was raised and covered in a single
+day, without a mason, without a pound of iron, and with nothing but dirt
+for flooring. The doors and windows were subsequently cut out of the
+structure to suit the tastes of its occupants.
+
+In this one-room cabin lived the frontier settler and his family, who
+might be joined by guests. Small wonder, then, that additions to this
+construction took on such significance that they were items of mention
+in later wills.[22]
+
+Once having cleared a reasonable portion of his property, raised his
+cabin, and scratched out an existence for his first few months of
+occupation, the pioneer was now ready to get down to the business of
+farming. Working around the stumps which cluttered his improvement, the
+frontier farmer planted his main crops, which were, of course, the food
+grains--wheat, rye, with oats, barley, and corn, and buckwheat and corn
+for the livestock. Some indication of the planting and harvesting
+seasons can be seen from this account:
+
+    I find Wheat is sown here in the Fall (beging. of Septr.) Clover &
+    timothy Grass is generally sown with it. The Wheat is cut in June or
+    beginning of July after which the Grass grows very rapidly & always
+    affords two Crops. Where Grass has not been sown they harrow the
+    Ground well where the Wheat is taken off & sow Buck Wheat which
+    ripens by the beginning & through September is excellent food for
+    Poultry & Cattle & makes good Cakes.[23]
+
+The amazing fertility of the soil, as noted by more than one journalist,
+eased the difficulties of the crude wooden implements which were the
+farmer's tools. Reference is made to "one [who] plowed the same spot ...
+for eight years ... [taking] double Crops without giving it an Ounce of
+Manure."[24] Scientific farming had not yet come to the West Branch
+Valley, although the Philadelphia area had been awakened to its
+possibilities through the publications of Franklin's American
+Philosophical Society.
+
+Fertile soil was practically essential when one considers the crude
+implements with which the frontier farmer carried on his hazardous
+vocation. In addition to the crude wooden plow, which we have already
+mentioned, the agrarian pioneer of the West Branch possessed a
+long-bladed sickle, a homemade rake, a homemade hay fork, and a grain
+shovel.[25] All of these items were made of wood and were of the crudest
+sort.[26] As time went on, he added a few tools of his own invention,
+but these, and his sturdy curved-handled axe, constituted the essential
+instruments of the farmer's craft.
+
+July was the month of harvest for the mainly "subsistence" farmers
+scattered along the West Branch. The uncertainties of the weather and
+the number of acres planted had some influence upon the harvesting, so
+that it was not unusual to see the wheat still swaying in the warm
+summer breezes in the last week of July. However, if possible, the grain
+was generally cut the first part of the month in order that buckwheat,
+or other fodder, might be sown and harvested in the fall.
+
+Harvesttime was a cooperative enterprise and whole families joined in
+"bringing in the sheaves." The grain had to be cut and raked into piles,
+and the piles bundled into shocks tied together with stalks of the grain
+itself. This took "hands" and the frontier family was generally the only
+labor force available. In time, however, field work was confined to the
+men of the family among the Scotch-Irish, who attached social
+significance to the type of work done by their women.
+
+Fithian's _Journal_ reveals, however, that class-consciousness was not
+yet apparent in the division of labor on this frontier. On two occasions
+he describes daughters of leading families engaged in other than
+household tasks. Arriving at the home of Squire Fleming, with whom he
+was to stay for a week, Fithian notes on July 25, 1775, that Betsey
+Fleming, his host's daughter, "was milking."[27] The very next day, upon
+visiting the Squire's brother, who had "two fine Daughter's," this
+Presbyterian journalist found "One of them reaping."[28] If Leyburn's
+comment that social status among the Scotch-Irish depended in part upon
+the work done by the women of the family, then these examples attest to
+the fact that "status" was a luxury which the Fair Play settlers could
+not yet afford.[29]
+
+Threshing was either done by hand with flails, or, if the family had a
+cow or two (and the tax lists indicate that they did), the grain was
+separated by driving the livestock around and around over the unbundled
+straw. Finally, the chaff was removed by throwing the grain into the air
+while the breeze was flowing. The grain was then collected and readied
+for milling.
+
+Gristmills were available in the West Branch Valley almost from the
+outset of settlement due to the many fine streams which flowed through
+the territory. As a result, few farmers had to travel more than five
+miles, generally on horseback, to carry their bags of grain to the mill.
+If the farmer had no horse, he had to carry his sack of grain on his
+shoulder. If the settler lived on or near a stream, he put his sacks of
+grain in a canoe and paddled downstream to the nearest mill. In the
+early days before the mills, the grain was pounded into meal by using a
+heavy pestle and a hollowed-out stump, a crude mortar which served the
+purpose.
+
+In time, the gristmill owners also operated distilleries, converting the
+pioneer's wheat, rye, and barley into spirited beverages which were
+freely imbibed along this and other frontiers. By the time of the
+Revolution, distilling was so common as to cause the Committee of Safety
+to take action to conserve the grain.[30] "Home brew," however, was
+quite the custom, and it was not long before most farmers operated their
+own stills.
+
+Self-sufficiency was both a characteristic and a necessity among these
+Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers of central Pennsylvania.
+Bringing their agrarian traditions with them from the "old country,"
+where they had operated small farms, they were bound to a "subsistence
+farming" existence by the inaccessibility of markets to the frontier.
+One diarist found this conducive to a "perfect Independence" which made
+a "Market to them, almost unnecessary."[31] This economic independence
+carried over into frontier manufacturing, if it can be called that,
+because the industry, except for the gristmills and their distilleries,
+was strictly domestic.
+
+It has often been said that the frontier farmer was a "jack-of-all
+trades," and the West Branch settler of the Fair Play territory was a
+typical example. With no market of skilled labor, or any other market
+for that matter,[32] he was his own carpenter, cooper, shoe-maker,
+tailor, and blacksmith. Whatever he wanted or needed had to be made in
+his own home. Thus, frontier industry was of the handicraft or domestic
+type, with tasks apportioned among the various members of the family in
+accordance with their sex and talent. It was truly a "complete little
+world" in which the pioneer family supplied its every demand by its own
+efforts.[33]
+
+Although the role of the women was to take on status significance as the
+frontier areas became more stable, in the earlier years of settlement
+their tasks were extensive and varied. Though they were busy with
+household duties such as churning butter, making soap, pouring candles,
+quilting, and weaving cloth for the family's clothing, it was not
+uncommon for the women to join the men in the field at harvesttime. The
+domesticity of the American housewife may be one impact on American life
+made by the Germans.[34]
+
+The children, too, were important persons in the economic life of the
+frontier family. Their labors lightened the load for both father and
+mother. With no available labor market from which to draw farm hands and
+household help, it was both necessary and useful to give the boys and
+girls a vocational apprenticeship in farming or homemaking. The girls'
+responsibilities were usually, although not exclusively, related to the
+hearth; the efforts of the boys were generally confined to the field and
+the implements employed there, although they did service too as
+household handymen, hauling wood, making fires, and the like.[35]
+
+In addition to their farming and domestic industry, the other economic
+activities of these agrarian pioneers included the care of their
+livestock and the exploitation of the available natural resources in
+their subsistence pattern of living. The tax lists for Northumberland
+County indicate the possession of two or three horses and a like number
+of cows for each head of a household.[36] There were also "various
+Breeds of Hogs" although they were not listed by the tax assessor.[37]
+Mr. Davy's comment that "Sheep are not well understood ... often
+destroyed by the Wolves ... few ... except [those] of good Capital keep
+them" may explain their absence from these same assessments.[38]
+
+Maple syrup provided the sugar supply, a fact noted by land speculators
+who touted this "Country Abounding in the Sugar Tree."[39] Anti-slave
+interests later thought that maple sugar would replace the
+slave-produced cane sugar.[40] Mr. Davy described the process as he
+observed it at Muncy:
+
+    The Maple Trees yield about 5 w of Sugar each on an average
+    annually, some give as much as 15 ws but these are rare. It is drawn
+    off in April & May by boring holes in the Tree into which Quills &
+    Canes are introduced to convey the Juice to a Trough placed round
+    the bottom of it. This juice is boiled down to Sugar & clarified
+    with very little trouble & is very good.[41]
+
+Honey also existed in great quantities in the area and was used
+extensively. Apparently the "sweet tooth" of the West Branch settlers
+was well satisfied by the ample resources for saccharine products.
+
+The trade and commerce of the West Branch Valley were strictly confined
+to its own locale. Mountain barriers, limited transportation facilities,
+and insufficient contact with the settled areas of the Province only
+served to heighten the essential self-sufficiency of the Fair Play
+settlers. The result was an economic independence which doubtless had
+its political manifestations.[42]
+
+Economic conditions have their political implications, but it was the
+total impact of the frontier and not simply the commercial restrictions
+of some outside authority which made the Fair Play settlers self-reliant
+and independent "subsistence" farmers. The farmers' frontier did not
+result from the impact of any particular national stock groups, for
+Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers reacted similarly. As the
+most recent historian of the Scotch-Irish, the most numerical national
+stock on this frontier, suggests, "authentically democratic principles,
+when the Scotch-Irish exhibited them in America, were rather the result
+of their experiences on colonial frontiers than the product of the
+Scottish and Ulster heritage."[43] The farmers' frontier with its
+characteristics of individualistic self-reliance was a product of the
+frontier itself.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 18.
+
+[2] Henry Bamford Parkes, _The American Experience_ (New York, 1959), p.
+44.
+
+[3] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 59.
+
+[4] Paul A. W. Wallace, _Indian Paths of Pennsylvania_ (Harrisburg,
+1965), pp. 66-72, includes two maps.
+
+[5] Chester D. Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," _The
+Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings and Addresses_, VII
+(1935), 18.
+
+[6] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 400.
+
+[7] _Ibid._, p. 401.
+
+[8] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 472.
+
+[9] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 401.
+
+[10] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1857), p. 454.
+
+[11] _Ibid._, p. 458
+
+[12] Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, _Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia
+in the Age of Franklin_ (New York, 1962), p. 76.
+
+[13] Barck and Lefler, _Colonial America_, p. 409.
+
+[14] Walter Prescott Webb, _The Great Plains_ (New York, 1931), pp.
+238-244.
+
+[15] Herbert H. Beck, "Martin Meylin, A Progenitor of the Pennsylvania
+Rifle," _Papers Read Before The Lancaster County Historical Society_,
+LIII (1949), 33-61.
+
+[16] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," p. 19.
+
+[17] Lewis E. Theiss, "Early Agriculture," _Susquehanna Tales_ (Sunbury,
+1955), p. 89.
+
+[18] Norman B. Wilkinson (ed.), "Mr. Davy's Diary," _Pennsylvania
+History_, XX (1953), 261.
+
+[19] James W. Silver (ed.), "Chauncey Brockway, an Autobiographical
+Sketch," _Pennsylvania History_, XXV (1958), 143.
+
+[20] Maynard, _Historical View of Clinton County_, p. 11.
+
+[21] _Ibid._
+
+[22] The probate records of Northumberland and Lycoming counties, found
+in the respective offices of the Register of Wills and Recorder of
+Deeds, contain entries leaving to the widow the "best room in the
+house," or, "her choice of rooms." No doubt, the simplicity of the
+earlier home accentuated the value of the additions.
+
+[23] "Mr. Davy's Diary," p. 259.
+
+[24] _Ibid._, p. 341. The Reverend Philip Vickers Fithian notes the
+richness of the land in the journal of his one-week visit to the area in
+the summer of 1775. He was also surprised to find that "many have their
+Grain yet in the Field," a notation for the 26th of July. _Fithian:
+Journal_, p. 71.
+
+[25] Theiss, _Susquehanna Tales_, p. 88.
+
+[26] The Museum of the Muncy Historical Society contains examples of
+these early farm implements and offers vivid evidence of their
+crudeness.
+
+[27] _Fithian: Journal_, p. 71.
+
+[28] _Ibid._, p. 72.
+
+[29] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 262.
+
+[30] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 469.
+
+[31] "Mr. Davy's Diary," p. 258.
+
+[32] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 171. Even
+in the more settled areas of the Susquehanna Valley markets were slow to
+develop as this note from "Mr. Davy's Diary," p. 338, reported on Oct.
+3, 1794: "At present there is no Market here but if many English
+Families settle this will soon follow as there is an excellent supply of
+every necessary & even Luxury in the Neighbourhood."
+
+[33] J. E. Wright and Doris S. Corbett, _Pioneer Life in Western
+Pennsylvania_ (Pittsburgh, 1940), p. 74.
+
+[34] Arthur W. Calhoun, _A Social History of the American Family_ (New
+York, 1960), I, 202.
+
+[35] Wright and Corbett, _Pioneer Life in Western Pennsylvania_, pp.
+86-92.
+
+[36] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 405-805.
+
+[37] "Mr. Davy's Diary," p. 265.
+
+[38] _Ibid._
+
+[39] _Ibid._, pp. 263-264.
+
+[40] _Ibid._, p. 264.
+
+[41] _Ibid._, p. 263.
+
+[42] One student of the commerce of the Susquehanna Valley made sweeping
+generalizations about its significance which can hardly be
+substantiated. _See_ Morris K. Turner, _The Commercial Relations of the
+Susquehanna Valley During the Colonial Period_ (Ph.D. Thesis, University
+of Pennsylvania, 1916). This dissertation, although claiming to deal
+with the Susquehanna Valley, never gets much beyond Harrisburg and
+seldom reaches as far north as Fort Augusta. Its accounts of roads,
+navigation improvements, and trade fail to reach the Fair Play settlers.
+This lends further support to their independent and self-sufficient
+existence. Turner's concluding paragraph is, however, a gem of economic
+determinism and bears repeating in full. Found on page 100, it reads as
+follows:
+
+"If then, the commercial relations of the Susquehanna Valley were so far
+reaching affecting as they did in the pre-Revolutionary period the
+attitude of the people on all the questions, practically, of the day it
+is only fair to say that it was these relations which promoted the
+Revolution in the Province and drove the old government out of
+existence. The political issues were aided and abetted, yes, were
+created, were born from the womb of the neglected commercial relations
+of the Province and no other section at the time had such extensive
+relations as the Susquehanna Valley. No other conclusion can be reached
+after a serious study of the history of the period."
+
+[43] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 150.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+_Fair Play Society_
+
+
+The society of the Fair Play territory, between the year 1769 and 1784,
+was indeed simple. There were no towns or population clusters, either in
+the territory or within a range of some thirty-five or forty miles.
+Furthermore, as we have already noted, transportation and communication
+facilities were so limited as to make contact with the "outside world"
+an exception rather than the rule. As we have also seen, economic
+functions on this farmers' frontier were not highly specialized. Even
+the political system, with its tribunal of Fair Play men, operated
+without the benefit of any formal code.
+
+But it would be easy, from these indications, to magnify the simplicity
+of the social structure and of social relationships in the West Branch
+Valley. If we are to consider the development of democracy on this
+frontier, we must take into account the various national stock groups
+who settled this area and, in so doing, weigh their relative economic
+and social status, the amount of intermarriage between them, and the
+ease and frequency with which they visited each other. These and other
+social relationships, such as their joint participation in voluntary
+associations, their prejudices and conflicts, and the assimilation of
+alien groups, must all be evaluated. The leadership, the existence of
+social classes, and the family patterns must, of necessity, be a part of
+our inquiry. And finally, the religious institutions, the educational
+and cultural opportunities, and the system of values have to be
+considered in arriving at a judgment regarding the democratic nature of
+Fair Play society.
+
+Fair Play society was composed of Scotch-Irish (48.75 per cent), English
+(20 per cent), German (15 per cent), Scots (6.25 per cent), Irish (5 per
+cent), Welsh (2.5 per cent) and French (2.5 per cent) settlers.[1] Due
+to the pioneering conditions under which all of these national stock
+groups developed their "improvements," economic privilege was rather
+difficult to attain. Furthermore, even after the legislature granted
+pre-emption in the act of December, 1784, the grants were limited to
+300 acres.[2] In consequence of this, massive holdings were impossible
+to maintain legally, as the customary holdings of two to three hundred
+acres indicate in the tax lists for the years after 1784.[3] In fact,
+the tax lists suggest that absentee-owners or persons outside the actual
+geographic limits of the Fair Play territory who participated with the
+Fair Play settlers were the only ones to possess 700 to 1,000 acres or
+more.[4] This fact, combined with the "subsistence farming" which all of
+the area settlers pursued, suggests a relatively comparable economic
+status for the members of the Fair Play society. Consequently, social
+status was not necessarily dependent upon economic status.
+
+Social status on this frontier depended more upon achieved status than
+ascribed status. This may have been an influence of the Scotch-Irish,
+who judged, and thus classified, a neighbor by the size and condition of
+his dwelling, the care of his farm, the work done by the women in the
+family, his personal characteristics and morality, and his
+diversions.[5] Journalists, pension claimants, and the operative,
+although unwritten, code of the Fair Play men all give corroborative
+evidence in this regard.[6] Of all these criteria, personal character
+and morality seemed to have been most important. The Scotch-Irish, who,
+like the people of other national stocks, accepted social classes as the
+right ordering of society, shifted their emphasis, as a result of the
+frontier experience, from family heritage to individual achievement.[7]
+
+Intermarriages provide a further key to the social relationships of the
+Fair Play settlers. If a small sample is any indication, the cases of
+intermarriages among the various national stock groups were relatively
+high, with better than one-third of the marriages sampled falling within
+this classification.[8] The fact that the Scotch-Irish frequently
+married within their own group was probably due to their being more
+"available" in terms of numbers. Industry and good character were the
+prime criteria for selecting a frontier mate, as Dunaway points out.[9]
+
+The ease and frequency of neighborly visits is vividly demonstrated in
+the characteristically cooperative cabin-raisings, barn-raisings,
+cornhuskings and similar activities in which joint effort was usual. The
+women, too, exchanged visits and, on occasion, gathered at one place for
+quilting or other mutually shared activities.[10] Furthermore, the
+frontier journalists often noted the fine hospitality and congeniality
+of their backwoods hosts.[11]
+
+Further evidence of the egalitarian influence of this frontier is found
+in the joint participation of Fair Play settlers in voluntary
+associations.[12] This is particularly noticeable in their attendance
+at outdoor sermons and involvement in the various political activities.
+At a time when fewer than 100 families lived in the territory, Fithian
+observed that "There were present about an Hundred & forty" people for a
+sermon which he gave on the banks of the Susquehanna, opposite the
+present city of Lock Haven, on Sunday, July 30, 1775.[13] Although
+William Colbert, a Methodist, later "preached to a large congregation of
+willing hearers" within the territory, he did not think that it was
+"worth the preachers while to stop here."[14] This may have been due to
+the fact that they were mainly Presbyterians. Colbert's reception was
+apparently fair for he makes a point of saying, "I know not that there
+is a prejudiced person among them."[15] No regular church was
+established in this region until 1792, so it appears that the settlers
+generally participated in group religious activities regardless of the
+denominational affiliation of the preacher conducting the services.
+However, as we will point out later, this is not to suggest that there
+was no friction between denominations.
+
+The political activities of the Fair Play settlers demonstrate the mass
+participation, at least of the adult males, in this type of voluntary
+association. The annual elections of the Fair Play men were conducted
+without discrimination against any of the settlers by reason of
+religion, national origin, or property. In addition, the decisions of
+the tribunal were carried out, as Smith reports, "by the whole body, who
+started up in mass, at the mandate of the court."[16] Special occasions,
+such as the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence, were also marked by
+the participation _en masse_ of these West Branch pioneers. Mrs.
+Hamilton, in her widow's pension application, speaks of "seeing such
+numbers flocking there" (along the banks of Pine Creek in July of
+1776).[17] Apparently, as Mrs. Hamilton says, most of the settlers "had
+a knolege of what was doing," particularly with regard to political
+affairs.[18]
+
+These evidences of group participation in religious and political
+activities should not mislead one into thinking that conflict, legal or
+otherwise, was alien to the West Branch frontiersmen. The cases brought
+before the Fair Play "court" and the friction between Methodists and
+Presbyterians affirm this strife. The first settler in the territory,
+Cleary Campbell, was an almost constant litigant, both as plaintiff and
+defendant, in the Northumberland County Court from the time of his
+arrival in 1769.[19] His name, along with the names of other Fair Play
+settlers, appeared regularly on the Appearance Dockets of the
+Northumberland and Lycoming County courts. The cases usually involved
+land titles and personal obligations or debts.
+
+The religious conflict is clearly seen in the journal of the Reverend
+William Colbert. An incident which occurred about twenty miles south of
+the West Branch illustrates this friction:
+
+    This is a town [present-day Milton] with three stores, three
+    taverns, two ball allies. Agreeable to its size it appears to be one
+    of the most dissipated places I ever saw. I could not tell how to
+    pass them--I inquired at one of the ball allies if preaching was
+    expected--A religious old Presbyterian standing by where they were
+    playing answered that he did not know. I then asked them that were
+    playing ball, they answered no. I farther asked them if they did not
+    think they would be better employed hearing preaching than playing
+    ball. Their answer was a laugh, that there was time for all things
+    and that they went to preachings on Sundays. I told them they would
+    not be willing to go to judgment from that exercise--they said they
+    ventured that. So after a little conversation with the old man I
+    left them ripening for destruction....[20]
+
+Colbert's journal is filled with snide remarks and caustic comments
+about Presbyterians in general and Calvinist doctrines in
+particular.[21] He was especially concerned for the "lost souls" of the
+Presbyterians of the West Branch Valley. A twentieth-century theologian
+suggests that Presbyterian dogmatism had driven the Scotch-Irish to the
+frontier; this same problem complicated their social relationships in
+the backwoods country.[22]
+
+The process of acculturation of the frontier was marked by the impact of
+the aborigines upon the new white settlers in terms of the developing
+style of life in the West Branch Valley. In fact, the culture of the
+Indian may have affected the white settlers more than theirs affected
+that of the Indian. For instance, Mr. Davy says that "the Dress &
+manners of the People more nearly assimilate to those of the Indians
+than lower down, but the purest English Language is universally
+spoken."[23]
+
+The West Branch Valley was a new world whose experiences made new men,
+rather than a transplanted old world with its emphasis on heritage and
+tradition.[24] However, the English language and Scots Presbyterianism
+were basic ingredients in the melting pot of this and other frontiers
+where the American character emerged.
+
+The social class structure of Fair Play society is rather difficult to
+assess. Extensive land holdings and material possessions were not
+characteristic of these "squatter" settlements. Consequently, property
+was not the distinguishing factor in stratifying the social levels of
+the Fair Play community. Furthermore, there was no slave population or
+indentured servant class to be confined to the lowest rung of the social
+ladder. Here, each man either owned his "improvement" or operated under
+some condition of tenancy. However, both indentured servitude and Negro
+slavery existed in the "New Purchase" of 1768 in nearby Muncy.[25] Thus,
+it was a two-class pattern, in the main, which constituted the Fair Play
+society--landholders and tenants. In addition, though, there was a
+further delineation within the landholding class on the basis of
+character and morality. This characteristically Scotch-Irish
+differentiation may have been due to the predominance of the Ulsterites
+in the West Branch population.[26] In consideration of this fact, a
+three-class structure, consisting of an elite, other landholders, and
+tenants, would best describe the social class system of the Fair Play
+territory.
+
+The elite of the Fair Play society were generally the political and
+economic leaders as well. They owned the "forts," operated the
+gristmills, and held the prominent political positions in the vicinity.
+Surprisingly enough, though, they frequently resided on the fringe areas
+of the territory and were thus able to acquire more land.[27] A fuller
+description of this elite and its leadership is given in the next
+chapter.
+
+The frontier family was undoubtedly the key social institution in
+transmitting this new "American" culture to subsequent generations.
+Regardless of national origin, the families were closely-knit,
+well-disciplined units, whose members formed rather complete social and
+economic entities. As we have already noted, the agrarian family had its
+own division of labor, with each member carrying out his assigned tasks
+and, at the same time, learning the practices and procedures of the
+farmers' frontier. It was also the cultural and educational core, in
+which its members learned their faith, received their education, and
+acquired the values which would serve them throughout their lives.
+Family loyalty was a marked characteristic on the frontier and,
+incidentally, among the Scotch-Irish. The woman's lot was severe but she
+accepted it with a submissiveness which can still be seen in some
+backcountry areas of Pennsylvania today.[28] Clannish and dependent upon
+each other, the frontier family had no use for divorce, which was
+practically unknown.[29] If the patterns and values of these frontier
+families tended to approximate those of the Scotch-Irish in particular,
+and they did, it was because the Scotch-Irish were representative rather
+than unique.[30]
+
+The church was probably the second most important social institution in
+developing a system of values and a "style of life" in the Fair Play
+territory. Here again, the Scotch-Irish with their Presbyterianism
+provided the most significant influence, and ultimately the first
+regular church--although Methodists, such as Colbert, found little to
+favor in Calvinism. Almost without exception, the wills probated in the
+courts of Northumberland and Lycoming counties between 1772 and 1830
+asked for burial "in a decent and Christian like manner," and committed
+the departed soul to "the Creator." A Christian life and a Christian
+burial were valued in this frontier society.
+
+Due to the absence of regular churches, religious instruction was
+primarily carried on by mothers "abel to instruct," as Mrs. Hamilton put
+it.[31] Prayer, the reading of the Bible, and a rudimentary catechism
+were all a part of this home worship, conducted by one or both parents.
+Baptism and other sacraments of the church were provided by itinerant
+pastors who made their "rounds" through the valley. Presbyterians and,
+later, Methodists developed the practice of gathering together in their
+cabins in "praying societies."[32] Originally consisting of neighbor
+groups, these societies, in time, took in areas consisting of several
+miles.[33]
+
+Itinerant pastors began to include the Fair Play territory in their
+travels in the decade of the 1770's. Philip Vickers Fithian learned from
+his host, Squire Fleming, that he was the first "orderly" preacher in
+the area.[34] Fithian's visit came about after he obtained an honorable
+dismissal from the first Philadelphia Presbytery--as no vacancies
+existed--in order to preach outside its bounds.[35] Although in the
+territory for only one week in the summer of 1775, Fithian's account of
+his Sunday sermon on the banks of the Susquehanna clearly describes the
+nature of wilderness preaching:
+
+    At eleven I began Service. We crossed over to the Indian Land, &
+    held Worship on the Bank of the River, opposite to the Great Island,
+    about a Mile & a half below 'Squire Fleming's. There were present
+    about an Hundred & forty; I stood at the Root of a great Tree, & the
+    People sitting in the Bushes, & green Grass round me.
+
+    They gave great Attention. I had the Eyes of all upon me. I spoke
+    with some Force, & pretty loud. I recommended to them earnestly the
+    religious Observation of God's Sabbaths, in this remote Place, where
+    they seldom have the Gospel preached--that they should attend with
+    Carefulness & Reverence upon it when it is among them--And that they
+    ought to strive to have it established here.[36]
+
+Fithian's recommendation was not carried out until 1792, when the Pine
+Creek Church was organized under the historic "independence" elm with
+Robert Love and a Mr. Culbertson as the first elders.[37] This church,
+along with the Lycoming Church, which was formed in the eastern part of
+the former Fair Play territory in October of that same year, was served
+by the Reverend Isaac Grier, who was called to serve Lycoming Creek,
+Pine Creek, and the Great Island, and ordained and installed by the
+Carlisle Presbytery, April 9, 1794.[38] He thus became the first
+regularly installed pastor in what had been the Fair Play territory.
+
+It was not until 1811 that the Presbyterian General Assembly organized
+the Northumberland Presbytery, which serves West Branch Valley
+Presbyterians to this day. In the days of the Fair Play system the area
+was assigned to Donegal Presbytery, although in 1786 the Carlisle
+Presbytery was formed out of the western part of Donegal.[39]
+
+Missionary efforts of Presbyterians in the Fair Play territory go all
+the way back to September of 1746, when the Reverend David Brainerd
+preached to the Indians of the Great Island.[40] But from that time
+until the opening of the West Branch Valley to settlement, following the
+first treaty at Fort Stanwix, nothing concerning the area appears on
+presbytery records. However, after the treaty one Presbyterian minister,
+the Reverend Francis Alison, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
+Philadelphia and vice-provost of the College of Philadelphia, applied
+for land above the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek and was granted some 1,500
+acres.[41] Alison never came into the region and, in fact, sold his
+entire purchase to John Fleming in 1773.[42]
+
+Although Fithian was the first "orderly" preacher assigned to the West
+Branch, the Donegal Presbytery had received an application from "setlers
+upon the W. Branch of Susquehannah" for ministerial supplies (pastors)
+in the middle of April, 1772.[43] Apparently these supplies never
+reached north of present-day Lewisburg.
+
+Presbyterianism, then, was the most significant religious influence in
+the Fair Play territory. Methodists and Baptists penetrated the region
+after the Revolution, but that penetration, although marked by some
+conflict, was not vital to the development of a system of values on this
+frontier during the period under study.[44] Furthermore, it was not
+until well into the nineteenth century that other Protestant sects
+established churches in the West Branch Valley.
+
+The extent of that influence and the nature of this frontier faith were
+central to the development of Fair Play society. Since there were no
+organized churches in the area, the family was the key agency of
+religious instruction and service. This fact, combined with the impact
+of the Great Awakening, led to the freeing of the individual from the
+communal covenant, resulting in a secularization of religion which
+culminated in a kind of "predestined freedom."[45] Consequently, the
+political implications of American Presbyterianism, which had the
+largest church membership in colonial Pennsylvania and the strongest
+affiliation on this frontier, were demonstrated in the democratic
+radicalism which the frontier spawned. Political maturity, that is to
+say, independence, was a logical evolution from religious
+emancipation.[46]
+
+In addition to the political implications of Presbyterianism, respect
+for education was a significant factor in the value structure of this
+frontier. The probate records of this period are filled with examples of
+the great desire to see the "children schooled," and specific
+educational instructions were often included in the wills.[47] The
+Presbyterian emphasis upon an educated ministry suggests that this
+reverence for education may also have been an education for reverence.
+Morality, education, and political equality and freedom--these were the
+basic tenets of this frontier faith.
+
+Despite the high value placed upon education, the educational and
+cultural opportunities on this frontier, as on others, were extremely
+limited. Aside from home instruction and the occasional visit of an
+itinerant pastor, formal education was a luxury which these pioneers
+could not yet afford. However, earlier historians of the West Branch
+refer to the existence of a "log school" at "Sour's ferry" in 1774.[48]
+Instruction in the "three R's," enforced with strict discipline, was
+given here a few months out of the year. A Presbyterian preacher who
+came into the region and stayed was the first teacher. Educational
+opportunity was extremely limited but education was highly respected.
+
+Books, too, were a luxury in the West Branch Valley. Although some of
+the wills of Fair Play settlers indicate the importance of books by
+mentioning them specifically, there was no common library from which the
+settlers could draw. However, Fithian's _Journal_ contains a note that
+he "reviewed the 'Squires Library"; so we do know of at least one
+library in the territory. Its accessibility for most of these pioneers
+is, of course, another question.
+
+Frontier art was mainly functional. Its objects were generally the
+furniture, the tools and weapons, and the implements of the household.
+Individual expressions of creative talent, these items, whether they
+were designs on the rifle stock or styles of tableware, were outlets of
+artistic demonstration. Probably the most prized and picturesque of the
+frontier folk arts was the making of patchwork quilts.[49] Although we
+have found no "Fair Play" pattern, we do know that the women of every
+frontier household sewed, and, because of the demand for bed quilts,
+every scrap was saved for the quilt-making. Colbert's _Journal_ tells of
+his dining at one Richard Manning's "with a number of women who were
+quilting."[50] Quilting parties were social events in the lives of these
+frontier women, and their _objets d'art_ were fully discussed from
+patterns and designs down to the intricate techniques of needlecraft.
+Perhaps the patchwork quilt is the enduring legacy of frontier folk art.
+
+The music of the frontier was primarily vocal--the singing of hymns and,
+possibly, folk songs. Instrumental music was confined to the fiddle,
+which one Fair Play settler felt valuable enough to mention in his
+will.[51] The fiddle also provided the musical background for the
+rollicking reels and jigs which the Scotch-Irish enjoyed so much.[52]
+That it was a hard life is certainly true, but it had its happy moments
+and music was the source of much of that happiness.
+
+Medical practices throughout the frontier were primitive, to say the
+least, and the West Branch Valley was no exception. A diary of a
+minister in the Susquehanna Valley around Lancaster provides specific
+examples of the purges, blood-letting, and herb concoctions which the
+frontier settler endured in order to survive.[53] In spite of the
+liberal use of spirited stimulants, ailing frontiersmen often suffered
+violent reactions both from their illnesses and their cures.
+
+Although the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch Valley doubtless had
+their own mythology and folklore, most of it was passed on by word of
+mouth; as a result, little of record remains. The Revolutionary pension
+claims are filled with tales of the courage and patriotism of the
+stouthearted men and women of this frontier. A frequent claim is that
+the measures taken to defend Fort Augusta, after the Great Runaway,
+urged by Fair Play settlers who had fled to that point, saved the
+frontier and made independence a reality.
+
+Perhaps the best-known story is that of the "independence elm" on Pine
+Creek. However, as a recent writer suggests, the story of the "Pine
+Creek Declaration" may refer merely to the reading of a copy of the
+national declaration rather than to a separate document drawn up by the
+inhabitants of this frontier.[54] Mrs. Hamilton's testimony to the event
+notwithstanding, no copy of the declaration has ever been found.
+
+Another tale concerns the frequent reference to the upper Pine Creek
+area as "Beulah Land."[55] It seems that a circuit rider singing hymns
+approached a camp up Pine Creek in the Black Forest. Later, asked to
+sing, he offered the familiar "Beulah Land." Still later, he met with an
+accident between Blackwell and Cammal resulting in his death. The
+entertained were his mourners. Subsequently, they kept his name alive by
+singing the old hymn to such an extent that the name "Beulah Land"
+became attached to this region on Pine Creek.
+
+Frontier life afforded little leisure time so that recreation was
+generally economically oriented or related to some household task. In
+addition, wrestling, foot-racing, jumping, throwing the tomahawk, and
+shooting at marks were popular sports.[56] But drinking was probably the
+most common frontier recreation. It has been said that the Scotch-Irish
+made more whiskey and drank more of it than any other group.[57]
+Everyone drank it, even the ministers. In fact, the tavern preceded the
+church as a social center in the West Branch Valley.[58] Moderation,
+however, was the rule; excessive drinking was frowned upon.[59]
+
+The value system of Fair Play society can be analyzed in terms of the
+expressed ideals and beliefs, the conduct, and the material possessions
+of the pioneers who settled along the West Branch during this period.
+Journalists, diarists, and pension claimants offer recorded evidence of
+the ideals and beliefs of these settlers. Their actual behavior gives us
+some understanding of conduct as value. And finally, the probate records
+of the Northumberland and Lycoming County courts contribute some
+documentation concerning the material values of these frontier
+inhabitants. The result was a society dedicated to the idea of progress
+and oriented to a future of political and social equality and economic
+opportunity.
+
+A firm conviction concerning the right of property, that is, the right
+of individual private ownership, was developed early in the American
+experience in Virginia and Massachusetts and was reinforced by the
+experience of successive frontiers, of which the Fair Play territory was
+one. This is noted particularly in the pride in individual
+"improvements" and the vigorous assertion of property rights before the
+Fair Play tribunal and, later, in the regular courts. The large
+Scotch-Irish population on this and other frontiers characteristically
+asserted this view. Motivated by a spirit of individualism and the
+desire for a better way of life, the Fair Play settlers found land
+ownership basic to the accomplishment of their desired ends.[60]
+
+In conjunction with the policy of private land ownership, the support of
+squatters' rights tended to emphasize the equality of achievement rather
+than that of ascription. No man's position was ascribed in the Fair
+Play territory--he had to earn it. However, as we noted earlier, the
+pioneer farmer had to obtain the approval of his neighbors in order to
+settle in the area; but no evidence exists to show that this approval
+was in any way dependent upon social class or national origin.
+Furthermore, the annual election of the Fair Play men by the settlers,
+along with their rotation in office, gave a fair measure of political
+equality, which was reflected in the decisions of the tribunal affecting
+land claims.
+
+The hospitality of the Fair Play settlers is particularly stressed by
+the journalists who traveled in the West Branch Valley.[61] Despite the
+limitations of rooms and furnishings, the frontier cabin was ever open
+to the weary traveler, and spirited conversation and beverages were
+always available to revive him. Good food and fine friends could be
+found on the frontier. The frontiersman took great pride in his
+hospitality. Dependent upon outside travelers for news, the latest
+remedies for ailments, and mail, the inhabitants of the frontier opened
+the doors of their cabins and their hearts to visitors. Taken into a
+home, the weary traveler often found himself treated to the best in food
+and comfort which the limitations of the frontier permitted. Generally
+sharing the one-room cabin, like any member of the family, he soon
+learned that he was a welcome guest rather than a stranger in their
+midst. The loneliness of the frontier stimulated the hospitality of the
+frontiersman.
+
+Although no "frontier philosophy," as such, existed, the conduct of its
+inhabitants demonstrated their faith, their patriotism, their spirit of
+mutual helpfulness, and their temperance. The pioneer was not a
+philosopher or a thinker, because the rigorous struggle for survival,
+which was his, did not permit the leisure to develop these traits. He
+was a doer whose values and beliefs were reflected in his behavior.
+
+The favorable, but not always eager, reception of itinerant pastors, the
+religious instruction which took place in the home, and the frequent
+references to "the Creator" in the wills testify to the relevance of
+faith in influencing the character and behavior of these early
+Americans. Faith was not only relevant but also a matter of choice, and
+freedom of worship was practiced on this frontier. Here again, the
+Scotch-Irish Presbyterian influence may have been significant.[62]
+
+Patriotism, with few exceptions, was characteristic of the frontier. But
+loyalty to what? On this frontier it seems to have meant devotion to an
+America which developed through New World experience. Like Topsy, "it
+jus' growed," and no frontiersman wanted it taken away. The enthusiastic
+reception of the Declaration of Independence by the Fair Play settlers
+combined with the legend of their own resolutions on the question
+indicate this patriotic feeling. Despite their political differences
+with the settled areas, the West Branch pioneers were overwhelmingly
+loyal to the patriot cause in the American Revolution.[63] Their
+loyalty, however, was more to the ideal of freedom, or "liberty" as they
+termed it, than to any organization or state. They believed in and
+supported the liberty which their own hard work and the circumstances of
+the frontier had made possible.
+
+Mutual helpfulness was essential to survival in the wilderness and
+valued among its pioneers. Cabin-raisings, cornhuskings, harvesttime,
+and quilting parties are just a few examples of this spirit in action.
+Individualistic in his approach, the frontier farmer realized the need
+for neighborly support and appreciated its offer.
+
+In spite of the availability of a more-than-adequate supply of spirited
+liquid refreshment, temperance was both commended and respected on this
+Pennsylvania frontier. One historian points out that there was probably
+less drunkenness on the frontier than there was in eastern Pennsylvania,
+where it was not unusual for young men to get drunk at the taverns or to
+drink themselves under the table at weddings or at other social
+functions.[64] Drunkards were few and generally despised on the
+frontier.[65]
+
+Material values, in a society where possessions, beyond the land itself
+and the rude cabin built upon it, are limited, are best gleaned from the
+probate records, which listed the prized possessions of this frontier
+community. Beds and bedsteads are the items which appear most frequently
+in the wills of the Fair Play settlers. Occasionally, the ultimate in
+frontier affluence is reached in the form of a "feather Bed."[66] Beds,
+or feather beds, and bedsteads were so highly valued as pieces of
+furniture that they were often passed on to the daughters, serving as a
+substantial part of their dowries.[67] Surprisingly enough, the widow
+often received "the room she now sleeps in" or, "her choise of any one
+room in the house." This is not so amazing, however, when one realizes
+that additional rooms beyond the original one-room cabin quite logically
+became highly valued. Pewterware was the silver of the frontier, and, if
+the probate records are any indication, there was little of it and no
+silver. Aside from references to furniture such as spinning wheels,
+bureaus, tables, and chairs, and these not too regularly, it is quite
+evident that material possessions were few.
+
+What then was the nature of Fair Play society? The frontier, by its very
+nature, had an egalitarian influence which is readily apparent from this
+analysis of the "style of life" along the West Branch. A relative
+political and social equality existed in this land of economic
+opportunity where faith, patriotism, helpfulness, and self-determination
+were the outstanding traits. The frontier brought the democratizing role
+of achievement to the fore in American life, and the Fair Play settlers
+were an excellent example.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _See_ Chart 1 in Chapter Two.
+
+[2] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[3] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 557-805.
+
+[4] For example, in the County Assessments for 1781, _Pennsylvania
+Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 468, 484, the individual holdings of
+resident property owners range from 50 to 1,500 acres, whereas
+non-residents' range from 200 to 13,000. Only six of thirty residents
+showed property in excess of 325 acres and four of these had 550 acres
+or less. The two large landowners were peripheral Fair Play residents.
+Subsequent tax lists indicate that non-residents eventually sold their
+property in sections.
+
+[5] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 262.
+
+[6] _Fithian: Journal_ (1775) and _Journal of William Colbert_
+(1792-1794). These journals of the first regularly assigned itinerant
+pastors, Presbyterian and Methodist, to the West Branch Valley, contain
+numerous references concerning the personal character and morality of
+the settlers. In the Hamilton Papers of the Wagner Collection of
+Revolutionary War pension claimants, p. 11, Mrs. Hamilton writes to the
+Honorable George C. Whiting, Commissioner of Pensions, on Dec. 16, 1858:
+"I believe they were people of clear sound mind, just, upright, morrall,
+religious, and friendly to all. I should say they came nearest to
+keeping the commandment, love your nabour as yourself, then any people I
+ever lived among."
+
+[7] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 269.
+
+[8] Helen Herritt Russell, "The Documented Story of the Fair Play Men
+and Their Government," _The Northumberland County Historical Society
+Proceedings and Addresses_, XXII (1958), 16-43. Mrs. Russell, whose
+genealogical studies were the basis of Chart 1 in Chapter Two, notes 24
+marriages among the 80 names, 9 of which were intermarriages of
+different national stocks. Of the 24 marriages, 9 were between
+Scotch-Irish couples. Intermarriages produced 5 English-Scotch-Irish
+couples, 2 German-Scotch-Irish, 1 Welsh-Scotch-Irish, and 1
+German-English. The intermarriages appear to follow the national stock
+percentages in the population. This would suggest that the
+intermarriages were a matter of choice rather than of necessity.
+
+[9] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 198.
+
+[10] _Journal of William Colbert_ (1792-1794). This entry for Thursday,
+Sept. 5, 1793, is from a typescript belonging to Dr. Charles F.
+Berkheimer, of Williamsport. The original is in Chicago at the Garrett
+Biblical Seminary.
+
+[11] Here again, Fithian, Colbert, and Mr. Davy all mention the friendly
+reception which was theirs on this frontier. Davy, in an entry for Oct.
+10, 1794, p. 265, says, "In the Winter Sleighs are in general use on the
+Rivers & on Land & it is time of Visiting & Jollity throughout the
+Country."
+
+[12] _Journal of William Colbert_, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 1792. Here the
+Reverend Colbert refers to the existence of a class in religion among
+the group of Presbyterians, although the prospects appear none too
+favorable. In fact, he says, "I had no desire to meet the class, so
+disordered are they, therefore omitted it." Quarterly meetings of
+Methodists were also held in the West Branch Valley, as Colbert notes in
+his journal for Saturday, Sept. 15, 1792, and Saturday, Sept. 7, 1793.
+In 1792, Colbert remarks that "Our Quarterly Meeting began at Joshua
+White's today." The following year he wrote that "brother Paynter and I
+have to hold a Quarterly meeting at Ammariah Sutton's at Lycommon." Each
+of these instances indicates the presence of some sort of voluntary
+religious association. However, it must be recalled that Fithian
+mentioned no such classes or meetings extant during his visit in July of
+1775.
+
+[13] _Fithian: Journal_, pp. 80-81.
+
+[14] _Journal of William Colbert_, Thursday, Oct. 17, 1793, and
+Saturday, Aug. 18, 1792.
+
+[15] _Ibid._, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 1793.
+
+[16] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[17] Muncy Historical Society, Wagner Collection, Hamilton Papers, p.
+10.
+
+[18] _Ibid._
+
+[19] _See_ the Appearance Dockets Commencing in 1772 for Northumberland
+County and 1795 for Lycoming County.
+
+[20] _Journal of William Colbert_, Monday, June 18, 1792.
+
+[21] _Ibid._, Saturday, Aug. 4, 1792: "Calvinist must certainly be the
+most damnable doctrine upon the face of the globe." Sunday, July 29,
+1792: "Here for telling the people they must live without sin, I so
+offended a Presbyterian, that he got up, called his wife and away he
+went." Sunday July 22, 1792: "... in the afternoon for the first time
+heard a Presbyterian at Pine Creek.... He is an able speaker but could
+not, but, Calvinistic like speak against sinless perfection." Monday,
+Aug. 20, 1792: "... rode to John Hamilton's in the afternoon. Here the
+unhappy souls [Presbyterian Fair Play settlers] that were joined
+together in society, I fear are going to ruin." Thursday, Oct. 17, 1793:
+"I went to John Hamilton's on the Bald Eagle Creek spoke a few words to
+a few people: I do not think that is worth the preachers while to stop
+here."
+
+[22] F. B. Everett, "Early Presbyterianism along the West Branch of the
+Susquehanna River," _Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society_,
+XII (1927), 481. According to the Reverend Mr. Everett, whose article
+also appeared in the Montgomery _Mirror_ for Oct. 27, 1926, the
+Scotch-Irish, with the Anglicans, were the dogmatists of Pennsylvania.
+The Quakers and Pietistic German sects were anti-dogmatic. Dogmatically
+adhering to his catechisms, the Scotch-Irishman "resented the aspersions
+cast upon dogma and creed." The frontier gave him freedom from the
+Quakers who still considered Presbyterians as those "who had burnt a
+Quaker in New England from the cart's tail, and had murdered other
+Quakers."
+
+[23] "Mr. Davy's Diary," p. 259.
+
+[24] Thomas J. Wertenbaker, _The First Americans, 1607-1690_ (New York,
+1927). Wertenbaker's first chapter, "A New World Makes New Men,"
+develops this thesis generally for the American colonial experience,
+and, as Turner said, those first colonies were the first frontier.
+
+[25] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," pp. 28, 63. Clark notes
+that indentured servitude appeared in Muncy, where Samuel Wallis' great
+holdings made such service feasible. He also mentions Wallis' ownership
+of slaves, verified by the Quarter Session Docket of 1778. Wallis freed
+two Negro slaves, Zell and Chloe, posting a £30 bond that they would not
+become a charge on the township.
+
+[26] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 262. _See also_ Dunaway, _The
+Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, pp. 180-200.
+
+[27] These "fringe area" participants in Fair Play society actually
+resided, for the most part, in Provincial territory and hence enjoyed
+greater stability and more land.
+
+[28] Calhoun, _A Social History of the American Family_, I, 207.
+
+[29] _Ibid._
+
+[30] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 271. Leyburn points out that since
+the Scotch-Irish were never a "minority," in the sense that their values
+differed radically from the norms of their areas of settlement, they
+never suffered the normlessness which Durkheim calls anomie--the absence
+of clear standards to follow. As Leyburn states it,
+
+    Anomie was an experience unknown to the Scotch-Irishman, for he
+    moved immediately upon arrival to a region where there was neither a
+    settlement nor an established culture. He held land, knew
+    independence, had manifold responsibilities from the very outset. He
+    spoke the language of his neighbors to the East through whose
+    communities he had passed on his way to the frontier. Their
+    institutions and standards differed at only minor points from his
+    own. The Scotch-Irish were not, in short, a "minority group" and
+    needed no Immigrant Aid society to tide them over a period of
+    maladjustment so that they might become assimilated in the American
+    melting pot.
+
+This, however, is not to suggest that minorities are necessarily anomic.
+The Jews, for example, were always a cultural minority in Europe, yet
+they adhered intensely to their own cultural norms.
+
+[31] Muncy Historical Society, Wagner Collection, Hamilton Papers, p.
+10.
+
+[32] J. E. Wright and Doris S. Corbett, _Pioneer Life in Western
+Pennsylvania_ (Pittsburgh, 1940), p. 142.
+
+[33] _Ibid._ The existence of these "praying societies" is further
+substantiated in Colbert's _Journal_. During these services, lay persons
+gave exhortations or assisted Colbert in some fashion.
+
+[34] _Fithian: Journal_, p. 76.
+
+[35] Robert S. Cocks, _One Hundred and Fifty Years of Evangelism, The
+History of Northumberland Presbytery 1811-1961_ (n. p., 1961), p. 2.
+
+[36] _Fithian: Journal_, pp. 80-81.
+
+[37] Joseph Stevens, _History of the Presbytery of Northumberland, from
+Its Organization, in 1811, to May 1888_ (Williamsport, 1888), p. 38.
+
+[38] _Ibid._, p. 18.
+
+[39] Cocks, _One Hundred and Fifty Years of Evangelism_, p. 2.
+
+[40] Guy S. Klett, "Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Pioneering Along the
+Susquehanna River," _Pennsylvania History_, XX (1953), p. 173.
+
+[41] _Ibid._, p. 174.
+
+[42] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 520.
+
+[43] Klett, "Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Pioneering," p. 175.
+
+[44] _Journal of William Colbert_, Monday, June 18, 1792; and Robert
+Berger, "The Story of Baptist Beginnings in Lycoming County," _Now and
+Then_, XII (1960), 274-280. According to the Reverend Robert Berger, of
+Hughesville, a few Baptist settlers came into Lycoming County from New
+Jersey, but were soon driven out by the Indians. Apparently, the
+Philadelphia Baptist Association sent missionaries to the area in 1775
+and 1778. However, not until the association commissioned Elders Patton,
+Clingan, and Vaughn in 1792 did any extensive Baptist preaching take
+place in this region. They were sent out for three months on the Juniata
+and the West Branch. The Loyalsock Baptist Church, established in 1822,
+is the first church.
+
+[45] Dietmar Rothermund, _The Layman's Progress: Religious and Political
+Experience in Colonial Pennsylvania 1740-1770_ (Philadelphia, 1961), p.
+142. As Rothermund describes it, "The Pilgrim's progress had turned into
+the layman's emancipation, and finally into the citizen's revolution"
+(p. 137). He calls "the political maturity which followed the era of
+religious emancipation ... America's real revolutionary heritage" (p.
+138).
+
+[46] _Ibid._, p. 137. It must first be recognized that American
+Presbyterianism differed from that of Scotland particularly with regard
+to local autonomy. The Presbyterian Church, like the United States under
+the Constitution of 1787, was federal in its governmental structure, and
+the autonomy of the local religious institutions was later carried into
+politics. Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 313, emphasizes the fact that
+the Scotch-Irishman's church had accustomed him to belief in government
+by the consent of the governed, in representative and republican
+institutions. The relationship between the church covenant and the
+social compact is quite direct. If men can bind themselves together to
+form a church, then it seems quite logical that they can bind themselves
+together to form a government. Fair Play democracy was simply political
+Presbyterianism. Its impact has been noted by a number of historians.
+Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 135, claims
+that "The actual means by which Pennsylvania was transformed from a
+proprietary province into an American commonwealth was the new political
+organization developed by the Scotch-Irish in alliance with the eastern
+radical leaders of the continental Revolutionary movement. This
+extra-legal organization, consisting of the committee of safety, the
+provincial and county committees of correspondence, and the provincial
+conventions, supplanted the regular provincial government by absorbing
+its functions." Becker, _Beginning of the American People_, p. 180,
+calls the Scotch-Irish a people "whose religion confirmed them in a
+democratic habit of mind."
+
+[47] Lycoming County Courthouse, Will Book #1, George Quigley's Will, p.
+69.
+
+[48] Maynard, _Historical View of Clinton County_, p. 208.
+
+[49] Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger, _The Romance of the
+Patchwork Quilt in America_ (New York, 1935), p. 27.
+
+[50] _Journal of William Colbert_, Thursday, Sept. 5, 1793.
+
+[51] Lycoming County Courthouse, Will Book #1, William Chatham's Will,
+p. 177. Chatham's bequest is "To Robert Devling My Fidel."
+
+[52] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 196.
+
+[53] Rev. John Cuthbertson's Diary (1716-1791), microfilm transcript, 2
+rolls, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg. An
+example, found on p. 252, is this "_famous American Receipt for the
+Rheumatism_. Take of garlic two cloves, of gum ammoniac, one drachm;
+blend them by bruising together. Make them into two or three bolus's
+with fair water and swallow one at night and the other in the morning.
+Drink strong sassafras tea while using these. It banishes also
+contractions of the joints. 100 pounds been given for this."
+
+[54] Rebecca F. Gross, "Postscript to the Week," Lock Haven _Express_,
+Aug. 3, 1963, p. 4.
+
+[55] Eugene P. Bertin, "Primary Streams of Lycoming County," _Now and
+Then_, VIII (1947), 257-258.
+
+[56] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, p. 193.
+
+[57] _Ibid._, p. 197.
+
+[58] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," pp. 220-222. Mrs. Coldren refers to
+a tavern, just west of Chatham's Run, in the spring of 1775. The first
+church appeared in 1792.
+
+[59] "Diary of the Unknown Traveler," _Now and Then_, X (1954), 307. The
+diarist tells of a tavernkeeper who refused a man a pint of wine because
+"he had had enough" (Thursday, July 24, 1794).
+
+[60] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, pp. 148-150. Leyburn suggests, and the
+Fair Play settlers demonstrate, that Ulster and America were similar
+experiences. He says (p. 148) that the Scotch-Irish "lived on land in
+both regions often forcibly taken from the natives. The confiscation
+itself was declared legal by the authorities, and the actual settlement
+was made in the conviction that the land was now rightfully theirs.
+Might makes right--at least in the matter of life and land ownership."
+
+[61] _Fithian: Journal_, the _Journal of William Colbert_, and "Mr.
+Davy's Diary" all refer to the hospitality of the people of this
+frontier. For example, Fithian speaks of his hosts as "sociable, kind";
+while Colbert constantly mentions the "liberty" which he enjoyed in the
+various homes which he visited.
+
+[62] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, pp. 146-147. Leyburn suggests that
+belief in the superiority of the Presbyterian church to any king
+justifies revolt; if one may, others may, leading to anarchy. Thus
+freedom of worship for a minority allied itself in America with liberty
+of worship for all. The right of revolution, as it was acted upon in
+America, was also implied.
+
+[63] Loyalists in the West Branch Valley suffered the usual privations
+as this excerpt from the "Diary of the Unknown Traveler," p. 310,
+indicates: "_Thursday, July 24, 1794_.... Mr. Witteker and his family
+are of the people called Quakers but was turned out of the society
+during the time of war for paing the money called substitute [relief
+from the draft]* money to the Congress agents. M[r]. W's case is really
+hard. He suffered as above by his friends for aiding Congress and his
+estate was conviscated [_sic_] by the state for being a loyalist."
+[*Phrase bracketed in quotation.]
+
+[64] Dunaway, _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, pp. 197-198.
+
+[65] _Ibid._, p. 198. An example of this attitude is found in this entry
+in the "Diary of the Unknown Traveler," p. 310: "This afternoon 24 July
+[1794] a person with two horses, one he rode, the other lead, called at
+Wittekers for a pint of wine, but on account of him being intoxicated
+before Mr. W. told him he had had enough & would not let him have any.
+Where could we find so disinterested a tavernkeeper in England? In
+England they never refuse as long as they pay, but here the man had the
+money ready if they would let him have the wine."
+
+[66] This conclusion was reached after the reading of some three hundred
+wills in the probate records of Northumberland and Lycoming counties.
+This particular reference is from James Caldwell's will, Nov. 20, 1815,
+located in Will Book #1, p. 108, Lycoming County Courthouse.
+
+[67] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," p. 22. Beds and feather
+beds seem to have been status symbols of a sort often willed to the wife
+or included as a dowry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+_Leadership and the Problems of the Frontier_
+
+
+Any analysis of democracy in the Fair Play territory must consider the
+question of leadership and the particular problems of that frontier. The
+number of leaders and their roles, the marks of leadership, and the
+circumstances which brought certain men to the fore must all be
+considered. Was there some correlation between property-holdings, or
+national origin, and leadership? Were there certain offices conducive to
+the exercise of leadership? The subject of leadership entails inquiry
+into each of these areas.
+
+Unfortunately, only one biographical study of any Fair Play leader has
+ever been attempted, that of Henry Antes.[1] As a result, the patterns
+of leadership must be gleaned from court records, tax lists, lists of
+public officials, and petitions from the settlers of this frontier.
+Consequently, what follows gives us some general understanding of the
+nature of leadership but offers little in the way of insight into the
+personalities of the leaders.
+
+Using the Curti study as an example, certain objective criteria have
+been set up in analyzing leadership in the West Branch Valley.[2]
+Obviously, some leaders were more important than others. Their influence
+extended beyond the limits of the Fair Play territory. These leaders,
+provided that they stood out in respect to at least three of the four
+criteria established, have been categorized as regional leaders. These
+four criteria have been used in this study to determine regional
+leadership: (1) the holding of political office, (2) the ownership of
+better-than-average property holdings, (3) the operation of frontier
+forts, and (4) the holding of military rank of some significance.[3]
+
+Of these criteria, office holding appears to be the most important.
+Thus, regional leaders were generally re-elected to public office, or
+held more than one such office. Furthermore, it will be noted that these
+offices tended to be with the established governments of the State and
+county. Since some leaders never held any political office, another
+classification seemed necessary. Consequently, the role of local
+leadership was also classified.
+
+The influence of some men seems to have been strictly confined to the
+Fair Play territory, either by virtue of their election to some local
+office or by their prominence in some other phase of community life. As
+a result, local leaders have been considered as (1) those who held at
+least two local offices, or (2) those who exercised identifiable
+community leadership in a non-political context.
+
+After an extensive examination of the lists of public officials for
+Northumberland County, the tax lists for the same period, the records of
+the Fair Play men and the Committee of Safety, the accounts of the
+frontier forts in the region, and the military records of these
+settlers, it becomes evident that only three men can be considered as
+regional leaders and not more than seven or eight as local leaders.[4]
+Henry Antes, Robert Fleming, and Frederick Antes are the regional
+leaders; and Alexander Hamilton, John Fleming, James Crawford, John
+Walker, Thomas Hughes, Cookson Long, William Reed, and Samuel Horn are
+the local leaders. Obviously, the listings are too limited to offer any
+valid quantitative analysis.
+
+Henry Antes is undoubtedly the single most outstanding leader in the
+entire Fair Play country. Judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions,
+sheriff, justice of the peace, Fair Play spokesman, captain (later
+colonel) of Associators and commander of Fort Antes, miller and property
+owner, personal friend of John Dickinson and other Provincial leaders,
+Henry Antes was the top figure in civic, economic, military, and social
+affairs along the West Branch. Influential within and without the Fair
+Play territory, Henry Antes was truly the major leader in the valley.
+
+The Antes family had long played a significant role in the history of
+the Province of Pennsylvania. As MacMinn relates, Henry's father, Henry,
+Sr., had been "associated with the most prominent men of his time in
+movements for the public good."[5] A Moravian, the elder Antes had
+assisted Count Zinzendorf in his missionary efforts, aided Whitefield in
+his philanthropic endeavors, worked with Henry Muhlenberg in educating
+the German town community, and served with a marked impartiality as a
+justice of the peace.[6] From such stock came the necessary leadership
+for the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch frontier.
+
+Born near Pottstown in Montgomery County in 1736, young Henry may have
+learned of frontier opportunity from visitors to his father's inn, such
+as Zinzendorf and Spangenburg, who had traveled along the West Branch of
+the Susquehanna. Consequently, joined by his brother William, he signed
+an article of agreement on September 29, 1773, for the purchase of land
+in the West Branch Valley.[7] When another brother, Frederick, obtained
+property in the area later in that same decade, the Antes brothers,
+particularly Henry and Frederick, became the dominant political,
+economic, and social influence in the territory. Frederick, however, was
+more of an absentee leader since he never actually resided in the Fair
+Play territory.
+
+Although the combined holdings of the Antes brothers constituted only a
+little less than 700 acres, their gristmill, the first in the region,
+became the meeting place for the area settlers, providing a forum for
+the usual discussions of politics and prices.[8] From Lycoming Creek on
+the east to Pine Creek and the Great Island on the west, the frontier
+farmers brought their grain to the Antes mill, on the south side of the
+Susquehanna River opposite present Jersey Shore. While the milling went
+on, the men analyzed their common problems and debated the future of
+this pioneer land. If there was a center for the dissemination of news
+in the West Branch Valley, it was the Antes mill and fort, which was
+soon constructed on the property. Located in almost the center of the
+Fair Play territory (although actually across the river from it), where
+men met of necessity, and having had a father who had exerted influence
+and exercised leadership in Philadelphia County, the Antes brothers were
+well prepared to lead the West Branch pioneers.
+
+With their gristmill giving Henry and Frederick a decided economic edge,
+they soon became involved in the politics of the Fair Play territory,
+Northumberland County, and the Province of Pennsylvania. Henry became
+primarily a local and county leader, while his brother concentrated on
+county and Provincial and, later, State affairs. Both served as county
+judges--Henry, appointed in 1775, and Frederick, elected in 1784--which
+suggests judicial responsibility as the key to assuming major
+leadership, since Robert Fleming took Frederick's judicial post when he
+resigned to take a seat in the General Assembly.[9]
+
+By the summer of 1775, when Philip Vickers Fithian first included the
+West Branch in his itinerary--the valley by then supported some 100
+families--Henry Antes had already distinguished himself as a public
+servant. He, along with five others, had been commissioned by the county
+court to lay out a road from Fort Augusta to the mouth of Bald Eagle
+Creek;[10] he had served as a spokesman for the Fair Play men in a land
+title dispute;[11] he had been made a justice of the peace;[12] and he
+had been appointed as a judge of the Court of Quarter Sessions.[13] This
+was to be only the beginning, for in 1775, when the Associators were
+organized, Henry Antes was made captain of company eight, embodying the
+Nippenose and Pine Creek settlers.[14] But even this is not the complete
+picture, for when the settlers returned to the region in the eighties,
+following the Great Runaway of 1778, Antes became sheriff, the chief law
+enforcement officer of Northumberland County.[15] The popular miller had
+become the popular leader, a popularity enhanced by his interpretation
+of the sheriff's role, an interpretation which occasionally brought him
+into conflict with the State's leaders.[16]
+
+The leadership of the Antes brothers is further accentuated by the
+activities of Frederick Antes. Between 1776 and 1784 he was a delegate
+to the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, justice of the peace,
+president judge of the county courts, county treasurer, commissioner of
+purchase for Northumberland County, a representative in the General
+Assembly, and a colonel of militia.[17] With Henry on the West Branch
+and Frederick frequently in Philadelphia, the Antes family had a
+constant finger on the pulse of Pennsylvania politics. Official duties,
+plus the strategic location of the Antes fort and mill, made Frederick
+and Henry Antes the most influential persons in the West Branch Valley
+during the operation of the Fair Play system. Eminently qualified by
+numerous public responsibilities, the Antes brothers were major leaders
+of the Fair Play settlers.
+
+Robert Fleming, the third regional leader in the territory, also served
+as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county, although that
+service began in March, 1785, after the Fair Play territory was acquired
+by the State of Pennsylvania in the second Stanwix Treaty of 1784.[18]
+He became a justice of the peace at the same time.[19] Prior to his
+judicial obligations, Fleming had been a member of the county Committee
+of Safety, a township overseer, a representative in the General
+Assembly, a second lieutenant of Associators, and possibly a Fair Play
+man.[20] During the Revolution, he was primarily concerned with the area
+around the Great Island, serving at Reed's Fort (present Lock Haven) and
+on the Fleming estate, which some referred to as Fort Fleming. Robert
+had a brother, John, with whom Fithian stayed during his brief sojourn
+in the territory. Their combined holdings, the largest in the vicinity,
+ran to almost 3,000 acres, of which 1,250 acres were Robert's.[21]
+
+Certain conclusions can be drawn from these data regarding the regional
+leaders of the Fair Play territory. Better than average property
+holdings, extensive in the case of Robert Fleming; judicial
+responsibility, which was true of all three men; primary authority in
+frontier forts (the Antes brothers owned and commanded Antes Fort, and
+the Flemings operated their own stockade and commanded Fort Reed); and
+military rank ranging from lieutenant of Associators to colonel of
+militia: these characteristics signified major leadership in the West
+Branch Valley among the Fair Play settlers. Coincidentally, it can be
+noted that two of the three regional leaders, having served in the State
+legislature, had influence which reached to the State House in
+Philadelphia. Obviously, these men were known outside of the limited
+environs of the Fair Play territory. In fact, both Henry and Frederick
+Antes enjoyed a more than passing acquaintance with Benjamin Franklin
+and John Dickinson, two of the giants of this period of Pennsylvania's
+history.[22]
+
+A further observation which can be made concerning leadership relates to
+the question of national origin. Although the Fair Play territory has
+often been referred to as "Scotch-Irish country," the German Antes
+brothers performed the outstanding leadership roles on this frontier.
+Also, the specific geographic location of our regional leaders provides
+a final note of interest. All three of them, Henry and Frederick Antes,
+and Robert Fleming, actually resided outside the limits of the Fair Play
+territory. They were on the geographic fringe but at the leadership
+core. Their close proximity to the Fair Play territory, separated from
+it only by the Susquehanna River, in addition to their contacts with and
+positions in established government, gave these men an obvious political
+eminence. The forts located in both places and the Anteses' gristmill
+gave both the Flemings and the Anteses opportunity for leadership.
+
+Local leaders generally lived within the Fair Play territory, had
+average property holdings, and served on either the Fair Play tribunal
+or the township Committee of Safety. There are, of course, exceptions to
+each of these generalizations. The fort operators, Samuel Horn, William
+Reed, and John Fleming, resided on the Provincial or State side of the
+Susquehanna River. Furthermore, John Fleming was the largest property
+owner in the area with some 1,640 acres.[23] And one man, James
+Crawford, held the highly respected county office of sheriff.[24]
+
+Three of the local leaders, John Fleming, Alexander Hamilton, and James
+Crawford, stand out from the rest, although for different reasons. John
+Fleming undoubtedly would have become a major leader had he lived
+longer--he died in 1777. His extensive property made his home the usual
+stop for itinerant pastors and other travelers in the valley, as
+Fithian's _Journal_ attests.[25] It also made him a figure of central
+significance in economic affairs. Alexander Hamilton was probably "the"
+local leader. A member of the Committee of Safety and presumably a Fair
+Play man, he was also the captain of Horn's Fort.[26] He is also the
+reputed author of the Pine Creek declaration. James Crawford was more
+noted for military exploits than for civic duties. Prior to his military
+service, Crawford had represented Northumberland County in the
+Constitutional Convention of 1776, which framed the State constitution
+and, later, commissioned him as a major in the Twelfth Pennsylvania
+Regiment.[27] Deprived of his commission after the Germantown campaign,
+Major Crawford returned home and was elected county sheriff, an office
+which he held until succeeded by Henry Antes.[28]
+
+Of the other local leaders, Horn and Reed held only lesser township
+offices, overseer and supervisor, respectively, in addition to operating
+frontier forts.[29] Cookson Long, mentioned as a Fair Play man in 1775
+in Eleanor Coldren's deposition, later commanded Fort Reed, for a time,
+as a captain of Associators.[30] The final two local leaders, John
+Walker and Thomas Hughes, both took turns as Fair Play men and as
+members of the local Committee of Safety.[31]
+
+In analyzing the local leadership roles which these various settlers
+filled, additional and pertinent conclusions become apparent. In the
+first place, the Fair Play men were obviously not the top leaders of the
+community. Henry Antes may have served as their spokesman in 1775, and
+it is quite possible that Robert Fleming was a member of the tribunal,
+but both were more important as county leaders. Secondly, Fair Play men
+were members of the Committee of Safety, a fact which suggests that
+their efforts may have been coordinated. Finally, returning to the
+question of national origin, six of these eight local leaders were
+either Scots, Scotch-Irish, or Irish. The other two were Germans. No
+Englishman was a leader, either regional or local, in the Fair Play
+territory between 1769 and 1784. Perhaps, as Carl Becker suggests, this
+was due to the fact that neither the German nor the Scotch-Irish
+immigrant held in his breast any sentiment of loyalty to King George, or
+much sympathy with the traditions or the leaders of English society.[32]
+
+What were the particular problems of this frontier and how effective
+were these leaders in meeting them? The question of defense, including
+the daily task of survival in the wilderness, the right of pre-emption,
+and the efforts to obtain frontier representation in the assembly: these
+were the main problems in this pioneer land along the West Branch of the
+Susquehanna. All were not solved during the period under analysis, but
+the attempts to solve these and other problems afford us the opportunity
+to evaluate the leadership in the Fair Play territory.
+
+Doubtless, the most pressing public need on this frontier was protection
+from the marauding Indians who plagued these pioneers throughout the
+fifteen years encompassed by this study. Aroused by the British during
+the Revolution, the Indians of the Six Nations descended from New York
+into the West Branch Valley to harass and, finally, to drive the Fair
+Play settlers from their homes. Driven from their homes, the frontiersmen
+of the West Branch first gathered in the hastily-constructed and
+poorly-manned forts conveniently scattered along the Susquehanna from
+Jersey Shore to Lock Haven, but, ultimately, these too had to be
+evacuated in the Great Runaway in 1778.
+
+The severity of these attacks is evident from this petition from the
+settlers gathered at Fort Horn, above present McElhattan, pleading for
+military support in their perilous position:
+
+    _To the Honourable the Supreame Executive Councill of the
+    Commonwealth of Pennsyllvania, in Lancaster;_
+
+    Wee, your humble petitioners, the Inhabitance of Bald Eagle
+    Township, on the West Branch of Susquehannah, Northumberland County,
+    &c., &c., humbly Sheweth: that, Wherease, wee are Driven By the
+    Indians from our habitations and obblidged to assemble ourselves
+    together for our Common Defence, have thought mete to acquaint you
+    with our Deplorable situation. Wee have for a month by past,
+    endeavoured to maintain our ground, with the loss of nearly fifty
+    murdered and made Captives, still Expecting relief from Coll.
+    Hunter; but wee are pursuaded that the Gentleman has done for us as
+    mutch as has layd in his power; we are at len[g]th surrounded with
+    great numbers on every side, and unless Our Honourable Councill Does
+    grant us some Assistance wee will Be obblidged to evaquete [_sic_]
+    this frontier; which will be great encouragement to the enemy, and
+    Bee very injurious to our Common Cause. We, therefore, humbly
+    request that you would grant us as many men as you may Judge
+    suficient to Defend four small Garrisons, and some amunition, and as
+    we are wery ill prowided with arms, we Beg that you would afford us
+    some of them; for particulars we refer to the Bearer, Robert
+    Fleming, Esq'r, and Begs leave to Conclude. Your humble petitioners,
+    as in Duty Bound, shall ever pray.
+
+                                        Sined by us:[33]
+
+This petition was signed by some forty-seven settlers, including John
+and Robert Fleming, Alexander Hamilton, and Samuel Horn. Unfortunately,
+the much-needed assistance was not forthcoming, and Colonel Hunter soon
+sent instructions from Fort Augusta for the evacuation of the valley.
+This evacuation is, of course, the Great Runaway.[34] It is interesting
+to note, however, that the bearer of this petition was Robert Fleming,
+one of the regional leaders of the territory.
+
+Although forced to leave the West Branch Valley, the Fair Play settlers
+responded to Colonel Hunter's fervent plea to stay at Fort Augusta to
+help in the defense of this last frontier. Their gallant stand on the
+West Branch and their earnestly successful support of Fort Augusta, the
+last frontier outpost in central Pennsylvania, protected the interior,
+enabled the Continental Congress "to function in safety at a period when
+its collapse would have meant total disaster to the American cause," and
+provided a vivid demonstration of what a later president of the United
+States would call "that last full measure of devotion."[35]
+
+In the fall of 1778, following the earlier alliance with France, the
+tide of the Revolution began to flow in favor of independence,
+notwithstanding the fact that the Fair Play territory was now deserted.
+But for two years previous, when the issue of independence had been in
+grave doubt, the courageous pioneers of the West Branch stood their
+ground in tiny garrisons at Fort Antes, Fort Horn, and Fort Reed,
+resisting the attacking Indians at the insistence of their leaders, that
+freedom might be preserved. Perhaps it is a little-known story, but the
+fate of independence was in good hands with the Fair Play settlers of
+the West Branch Valley, who fought to preserve it.
+
+Towards the end of the Revolution the Fair Play settlers returned to the
+territory, and a new problem arose, that of title claims or, more
+particularly, the right of pre-emption. Still outside the bounds of the
+Commonwealth and organized government, these frontier squatters
+petitioned the Supreme Council for validation of their land claims.[36]
+Two petitions, one in August, 1781, and the other in March, 1784, were
+sent. Their claims were recognized by an act of the General Assembly
+passed in May, 1785.[37] By this time, the land in question had been
+opened for settlement by virtue of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784.
+Needless to say, their petitions had been prompted in part by fear of
+land speculators who were attempting to buy up their lands through the
+Land Office in Philadelphia. The prominence of local leaders, such as
+Alexander Hamilton and John Walker, is once again noted in these
+petitions. These petitions achieved notable results in that the right of
+pre-emption for the West Branch squatters was recognized by the
+Commonwealth long before the national government endorsed the principle.
+Furthermore, the validation of these claims beyond the purchase line of
+the Stanwix Treaty of 1768 provided the first legal recognition of
+pre-emption in the State of Pennsylvania.
+
+Unsuccessful in maintaining their homes against the incursive Indians,
+but successful in regaining them by right of pre-emption, the Fair Play
+settlers were also vitally concerned with representative democracy.
+Locally, on the county level, and in the Province and State, these
+frontiersmen sought to make their wishes known, both to and through
+their political leaders. How well they achieved these goals was
+influenced by the number of persons whom they elected to both legal and
+extra-legal offices at the various political levels.
+
+The Fair Play settlers managed to send two of their associates to the
+General Assembly in the decade after Lexington and Concord.[38] These
+two, Robert Fleming and Frederick Antes, constituted a disproportionate
+representation, when one considers the limited population of the Fair
+Play community and the general under-representation of the frontier
+counties at this period. In fact, a few hundred families in and around
+the West Branch were surprisingly fortunate to have one of their number,
+Robert Fleming, in the General Assembly when, following a petition from
+the frontier counties in 1776, a new apportionment created an assembly
+in which fifty-eight legislators represented Pennsylvania's 300,000
+people.[39] However, the elections of both Fleming and Antes came after
+the new constitution of 1776, in which each county was given six
+representatives.[40] It can hardly be said that the West Branch Valley
+lacked adequate representation in the councils of the State.
+
+Furthermore, Frederick Antes was a delegate to that State Constitutional
+Convention. This not only emphasizes the leadership role of Antes, but
+also points up the good fortune of the Fair Play settlers in having one
+of their community participate in the framing of the new State
+government. Although the Fair Play settlers lived beyond the legal
+limits of settlement, they were very much involved in its political
+affairs.
+
+Aside from the General Assembly and the Constitutional Convention, these
+pioneers of the Northumberland County frontier placed three men on the
+county bench, one of whom was presiding judge.[41] Fair Play men became
+justices of fair play in the county courts.
+
+Concerning other county offices, the key position of sheriff was held
+continuously from 1779 to 1785 by members of the Fair Play
+community.[42] Here again, it appears that the proper administration of
+justice could be expected from Fair Play men.
+
+Locally, the rotational system of the Fair Play tribunal and the
+frequent changes in the composition of the Committee of Safety give rise
+to the conclusion that political democracy, in the sense of active
+participation in public office, was truly a characteristic of the Fair
+Play territory. Nine different men served on the three-man Committee of
+Safety from February of 1776 to February of 1777, three new members
+being elected semi-annually. Except for the two or three years following
+the Great Runaway, the three members of the Fair Play tribunal were
+elected annually.
+
+In conclusion, then, what can be said regarding the leadership of the
+Fair Play settlers? Except for the dangers from Indian hostility, which
+were compounded by the settlers' limited manpower, the leadership was
+more than adequate, one might say eminently successful, in meeting the
+needs of the frontier. It enacted law, interpreted it, and saw to it
+that the law was carried out on every political level with which the
+West Branch pioneers had contact. In short, it gave them a government
+of, by, and for themselves. This was _real_ representation by spokesmen
+of a small community, very different from _virtual_ representation in a
+distant Parliament, from which their independence had now been
+declared.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Edwin MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_ (Camden, N. J.,
+1900). This book is a mosaic of primary and secondary sources dealing
+with the entire area, rather than a standard biographical treatment of
+its particular subject.
+
+[2] Merle Curti, _The Making of an American Community: A Case Study of
+Democracy in a Frontier County_ (Stanford, 1959), pp. 417-441. This
+entire fifteenth chapter is devoted to both a quantitative and
+qualitative analysis of "leadership."
+
+[3] Wealth, i.e., liquid assets, was not necessarily a criterion on this
+agrarian frontier, where a man's assets were not easily convertible into
+cash. Hence, property was the main economic source of value.
+
+[4] The records of the first State and county officers are found in the
+_Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 768-772, and John Blair
+Linn, _Annals of Buffalo Valley_ (Harrisburg, 1877), pp. 558-563. Some
+data are also available in Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton
+Counties_.
+
+The tax listings were located in the _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third
+Series, XIX, 437, 468, 557, and 618-622. Mrs. Russell also collected a
+listing for the years 1774 to 1800 for Northumberland County. Court
+records, pension claims, Meginness' _Otzinachson_ (1889) and _Frontier
+Forts of Pennsylvania_ provided the remaining data.
+
+[5] MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, p. 19.
+
+[6] _Ibid._, pp. 20-21. MacMinn also calls the senior Antes the father
+of the Unity Conferences of Christian Endeavor and presents a copy of a
+letter written on Dec. 17, 1741, calling for a New Year's Day meeting of
+Christians in Germantown in 1742 in support of this statement. Of his
+minor judicial role, MacMinn offers this account published in
+Christopher Saur's _Pensylvanische Berichte_ for May 16, 1756: "Were
+such magistrates more numerous, the poor would not have cause to
+complain and to weep over gross injustices which they have to suffer
+because persons are respected."
+
+[7] _Ibid._, p. 248.
+
+[8] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 484. _See also_, MacMinn, _On
+the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, p. 324.
+
+[9] MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, pp. 316, 413; and
+_Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, p. 769.
+
+[10] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 472.
+
+[11] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," pp. 220-222.
+
+[12] Linn, _Annals of the Buffalo Valley_, p. 95; and Meginness,
+_Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 473.
+
+[13] MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, p. 316.
+
+[14] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 473.
+
+[15] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 770.
+
+[16] MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, pp. 416-420. See
+also Alex. Patterson to John Dickinson (October 28, 1783) in the Zebulon
+Butler Papers, Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, Wilkes-Barre,
+Pa. Patterson, speaking of Antes' failure to arrest Zebulon Butler, said
+of Antes: "The Sheriff has not done his duty nor do I believe he intends
+it being. A party man among which I am sorry to see so little principels
+of humanity or honnor, Men who wish for popularity at the Expense of the
+Propperty and perhaps blood of their fellow Citizens...."
+
+[17] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 768-772, and MacMinn,
+_On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, pp. 330, 395, and 413.
+
+[18] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 769.
+
+[19] _Ibid._, p. 771.
+
+[20] _Ibid._, pp. 769, 771; Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton
+Counties_, pp. 473-474; and _Colonial Records_, XI, 367.
+
+[21] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 618.
+
+[22] MacMinn, _On the Frontier with Colonel Antes_, pp. 12 and 420.
+
+[23] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Third Series, XIX, 437.
+
+[24] _Colonial Records_, XII. 137.
+
+[25] _Fithian: Journal_, p. 81.
+
+[26] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 473. The full
+account of Hamilton's military service is given in the Hamilton Pension
+Papers in the Wagner Collection, Muncy Historical Society. Hamilton had
+also been a member of the group commissioned to lay out a road from Bald
+Eagle Creek to Fort Augusta. Linn, _History_, p. 472.
+
+[27] _Ibid._, p. 474, and Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1889), p. 474.
+
+[28] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 770.
+
+[29] Linn, _History of Centre and Clinton Counties_, p. 472.
+
+[30] _Ibid._, p. 473.
+
+[31] _Ibid._; Yeates, _Pennsylvania Reports_, I, 498; and Russell,
+"Signers of the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence," p. 4.
+
+[32] Becker, _Beginnings of the American People_, p. 180.
+
+[33] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, pp. 217-218. The
+petition was dated June 21, 1778. The situation had been further
+complicated by the enlistment the previous summer of many of the
+able-bodied men to aid Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These
+men, "early in the service of their Country from the unpurchased land on
+the West Branch of the River Susquehanna," deprived the valley of its
+available manpower.
+
+[34] _See_ Chapter Two for a fuller description of the Great Runaway.
+
+[35] Helen Herritt Russell, "The Great Runaway of 1778," _The Journal of
+the Lycoming Historical Society_, II, No. 4 (1961), 3-10. This article
+contains a few additions to an article by the same name by Mrs. Russell
+published in _The Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings
+and Addresses_, XXIII (1960), 1-16.
+
+[36] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 518-522.
+
+[37] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[38] Robert Fleming and Frederick Antes, as previously noted, had been
+elected in 1777 and 1784, respectively.
+
+[39] Dunaway, _History of Pennsylvania_, pp. 176, 196. Of these
+fifty-eight, twenty-eight came from the frontier counties of York,
+Berks, Bedford, Cumberland, and Northumberland.
+
+[40] Wallace, _Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation_, pp. 105-106.
+
+[41] As previously noted, Henry Antes had been appointed judge of the
+Court of Quarter Sessions in 1775, and Frederick Antes and Fleming had
+been elected in 1780 and 1785, respectively. Frederick Antes was
+president judge.
+
+[42] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 770.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+_Democracy on the Pennsylvania Frontier_
+
+
+One of the most often used and least understood words in the American
+lexicon is the term "democracy." In the colonial period, it was seldom
+used, except in denunciation. However, properly defined, it can help us
+to evaluate the Fair Play settlers in some understandable context.
+Etymologically stemming from two Greek words, _demos_, meaning "the
+people," and _kratos_, meaning "authority," democracy means "authority
+in the people" or, we can say, "self-determination." By
+self-determination is meant the right of the people to decide their own
+political, economic, and social institutions.
+
+Self-determination in its basic, or political, context can best be
+explained through James Bryce's definition of a democracy. Lord Bryce
+said:
+
+    The word Democracy has been used ever since the time of Herodotus to
+    denote that form of government in which the ruling power of a State
+    is legally vested, not in any particular class or classes, but in
+    the members of the community as a whole.[1]
+
+Analyzing the key phrases in Bryce's statement, we can best clarify the
+meaning of political self-determination.
+
+(1) "The ruling power of a State." Self-determination, as it is employed
+here, concerns the right of the people of Fair Play society to determine
+their own political institutions. Fair Play society did not constitute a
+state, but it was a political community, and in that sense Bryce's
+definition applies. Living outside the legal limit of settlement of
+Province and Commonwealth, these people could not obtain legal authority
+for their own rule, so, following the prevalent theory of the social
+compact, they formed their own government. The result was the annual
+election, by the people, of the Fair Play tribunal, the source of final
+authority in the Fair Play territory.
+
+(2) "Is legally vested." Fair Play society was actually illegal; that is
+to say, the settlements were made in violation of the laws of the
+Province. However, the extra-legal government which was formed was
+created by, and responsive to, the popular will. Since the actual
+authority for rule was vested in the people, it can be considered as
+legal for the Fair Play community.
+
+(3) "In the members of the community." The members of the Fair Play
+community, as previously noted, were not strictly resident within the
+geographic confines of the Fair Play territory. Communities, it has been
+said, are total ways of life, complexes Of behavior composed of all the
+institutions necessary to carry on a complete life, formed into a
+working whole.[2] Self-determination, as it is used here, suggests that
+the community as a whole participates in the decision-making process.
+
+(4) "Not in any particular class or classes, but in the members of the
+community as a whole." Bryce's definition here extends the
+interpretation of "the members of the community." Obviously, if any
+particular class or classes were vested with the final political
+authority, then the people as a whole, that is, the Fair Play community,
+would not exercise self-determination.
+
+The concept of self-determination, carried to an economic context,
+suggests that the people of the Fair Play community had the right to
+determine their own economic institutions. This means that they had the
+right to choose their own portion of land, subject, of course, to the
+will of the existing community, and to utilize it according to their own
+needs and interests. This meant that no undemocratic and feudalistic
+practices, such as primogeniture and entail, could exist. Granted that
+this is self-determination rather broadly interpreted in an economic
+context, the question is whether or not these people had the right to
+choose their own plot of ground and work it as they saw fit, unhampered
+by any preordained system of discrimination or restriction.
+
+Socially, the idea of self-determination is applied to evaluate the
+religious institutions, the class structure, and the value system. The
+application concerns, once again, the authority of the people to
+determine their own social patterns. It questions whether or not any
+Fair Play settler could worship according to the dictates of his own
+conscience. It evaluates the class structure to ascertain whether or not
+a superimposed caste system ordered the class structure of Fair Play
+society, rather than a community-determined system in which choice and
+opportunity provided flexibility and mobility. And finally, it considers
+whether or not the values of the Fair Play settlers were inculcated by
+some internal clique or external force, rather than being developed by
+the members of the community themselves.
+
+Did democracy exist on this Pennsylvania frontier? Was the Fair Play
+system marked by real representation and popular control? These
+questions must be answered before any judgment can be made concerning
+political democracy in the West Branch Valley.
+
+Was there equality of economic opportunity on this farmers' frontier?
+Was land available to all who sought it, and on equal terms? These
+problems need to be considered before we can attach the label
+"democratic" on the economic life of the Fair Play settlers.
+
+If democracy prizes diversity, as some claim, were the diverse elements
+of Fair Play society equally recognized?[3] Was the class structure open
+or closed, mobile or fixed? Did the mixed national stocks enjoy
+religious freedom? One needs to inquire into each of these areas prior
+to a final evaluation of Fair Play society.
+
+A useful tool for evaluating political democracy can be found in Ranney
+and Kendall's _Democracy and the American Party System_.[4] It suggests
+the use of popular sovereignty, political equality, popular
+consultation, and majority rule as criteria for democracy. Accepting
+these criteria as basic principles of democracy, we can begin to analyze
+the democratic character of the Fair Play system.
+
+A political system based upon popular sovereignty is one in which the
+final authority to rule is vested in the people. The question of who the
+people are is still before us today. In the fullest sense, popular
+sovereignty means rule by all the people, but in colonial America the
+"people" was a much more qualified term. It generally signified white,
+Protestant, adult males who were property owners. In the Fair Play
+territory, the ruling "people" were "the whole body" of adult male
+settlers who annually elected their governing tribunal and participated
+in the decisions of its "court."[5] Lacking an established church, or
+any church for that matter, and possessing property lying beyond legal
+limits of settlement, the Fair Play settlers could not have enforced
+religious or property qualifications for voting, even if they had so
+desired, and there is no evidence to indicate that they did.
+Furthermore, the frequency of elections, which were held annually, and
+the principle of rotating the offices among the settlers tended to
+emphasize the sovereignty of the people in this part of the West Branch
+Valley. The right of suffrage, it is true, had not been extended to
+women, but this was the rule throughout colonial America. Popular
+sovereignty, in its qualified eighteenth-century sense, was a basic
+characteristic of the political democracy which existed on this
+frontier.
+
+Political equality, that is "one man, one vote," was practiced by the
+pioneers of the West Branch. There was no additional vote given to the
+large property owners; in fact, as the tax lists indicate, there were no
+large property owners within the geographic limits of the Fair Play
+territory. Thus, each man, rather than a small ruling oligarchy, had the
+opportunity to participate in the decision-making process of the Fair
+Play community.
+
+In a democratic society, the people must be consulted by the policy
+makers prior to their exercise of the power of decision. Among the Fair
+Play settlers this basically democratic principle was vividly
+demonstrated in the case of disputed land titles, the primary concern of
+the Fair Play men. In both Eleanor Coldren's deposition in behalf of her
+deceased husband and in the Huff-Latcha case, it was established that
+the unanimous consent of the prospective neighbors had to be obtained
+before a favorable decision was rendered in behalf of the land
+claimants.[6] The frequency of elections, combined with the ease and
+regularity of assembly, provided the settlers with the opportunity to
+become acquainted with the circumstances of their problems. Here again,
+the paucity of specific data prompts us to some speculation regarding
+the nature and location of these meetings. However, it must be added,
+the Hamilton pension papers and the petitions to the Supreme Council in
+Philadelphia refer specifically to meetings at Fort Horn and Fort
+Antes.[7] Direct representation based upon popular consultation was a
+distinct trait of the political democracy in the Fair Play territory.
+
+The fourth principle of political democracy, majority rule, is probably
+the most controversial and confusing element of the combination.
+Absolute majority rule, its critics tell us, means majority "tyranny"
+and minority acquiescence, despite the fact that this fear is not
+empirically demonstrable.[8] The majority ruled absolutely in the Fair
+Play territory just as it did in the New England town meeting, and with
+similar results. However, it never restricted suffrage or public office
+to particular religious or nationality groups. Scotch-Irish, English,
+and German settlers participated equally in the political process.
+However, as we pointed out in the last chapter, the English did not
+enjoy leadership roles in the community.[9] Whether this was by accident
+or by design is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps it was just a further
+demonstration of the absolute rule of the majority with the Scotch-Irish
+and the Germans combining to form that majority.
+
+The nature of community implies shared interests and the prevailing
+interest in this frontier community was survival. Necessity undoubtedly
+caused the English minority to accept the Scotch-Irish and German
+leadership, because forbearance meant survival. Conversely, the
+Scotch-Irish and Germans could, and did, support the English in
+positions of responsibility on the basis of their mutual needs and their
+desire to maintain the community.[10] Not only physical survival but
+also economic survival were mutually desirable to Fair Play community
+members, and the decisions of the court were rendered on the basis of
+equal justice.[11]
+
+As long as minority feelings are given free expression in an atmosphere
+of mutual concern, there is little danger of misinterpretation by the
+majority. Such a climate prevailed in the meetings of the Fair Play
+settlers and the sessions of the Fair Play men; at least, there is no
+available evidence to the contrary.
+
+The nature and role of consensus in the Fair Play territory hinged upon
+what was best for the community. Fundamental agreement was reached,
+based upon mutual need apparent from open discussion. In the event of
+conflict, forbearance, which was in the best interest of the community,
+could be expected.[12] An examination of the appearance dockets of the
+county courts for Northumberland and Lycoming counties suggests,
+however, that this consensus did not extend to questions of land titles.
+Nevertheless, the all-inclusiveness of signatures on petitions to the
+Supreme Executive Council for protection from the Indians and for the
+recognition of the right of pre-emption, and the general response of the
+Fair Play settlers to calls for troops for the Continental Army indicate
+to some degree the nature and extent of that consensus.[13]
+
+Democracy, that is self-determination, did exist among the Fair Play
+settlers of this Pennsylvania frontier. There was no outside authority
+which legislated the affairs of the pioneers of the West Branch. They
+selected their own representatives, the Fair Play men, and maintained
+their control over them, a control which was assured both by annual
+elections and the full participation of the settlers in the
+decision-making process. The will of the majority prevailed, and that
+will was expressed through a community consensus reached by the full
+participation of political equals. It was neither radical nor
+revolutionary, but it was typical of the American colonial experience.
+The Fair Play settlers had not "jumped the gun" on independence,
+although they participated in the movement. They did not rebel against a
+ruling aristocracy. They simply governed themselves.
+
+Self-determination, as we have already stated, includes the right of the
+people to decide upon their own economic institutions. This right was
+asserted on the farmers' frontier of the West Branch. With free land
+available to those who worked it, provided the neighbors and the Fair
+Play men approved, economic opportunity was shared by the Scotch-Irish,
+English, German, Scots, Irish, Welsh, and French settlers.[14] This
+sharing, in itself, was a demonstration of economic democracy.
+
+The labor system, too, was an affirmation of the democratic ideal.
+Because free land was available in the Fair Play territory, neither
+slavery nor involuntary servitude existed in this region, although it
+was found in immediately adjacent areas.[15] Free labor, family labor to
+be more exact, was the system employed in this portion of the West
+Branch Valley. Noticeable, too, was the spirit of cooperation in such
+enterprises as cabin-raisings, barn-raisings, harvesting, cornhuskings
+and the like. This mutual helpfulness was characteristic of the frontier
+and obviated the necessity of any enforced labor system.
+
+Tenancy was occasionally practiced in the Fair Play territory, although
+it appears that the tenant farmer suffered no feelings of inferiority,
+if the following case is any example:
+
+    ... Peter Dewitt ... leased the land in question to William
+    McIlhatton as a Cropper, who took possession of it after Huggins
+    left it: That the Terms of the Lease were that McIlhatton should
+    possess the Land about two or three Years, rendering hold of the
+    Crops to be raised unto Peter Dewitt, who was to find him a Team and
+    farming Utensils: That the Lease was in Writing and Lodged with a
+    certain Daniel Cruger who lived in the Neighborhood at that
+    Time.[16]
+
+Sometime later, McElhattan obtained the lease from Cruger and sold "his
+right" to William Dunn, claiming that Dewitt had failed to fill his end
+of the bargain, despite the fact that Eleanor Coldren gave evidence to
+the contrary. When challenged for selling Dewitt's land, McElhattan
+responded in a fashion which demonstrates the independent spirit of this
+lessee. He said "that he only sold his Right to Dunn and if Dunn would
+be such a fool as to give him forty or fifty pounds for Nothing He
+McIlhatton would be a greater fool for not taking it--for that Dunn knew
+what Right he (McIlhatton) had."[17] Obviously, if this case is
+indicative, and there were others, share-cropping did not induce
+attitudes of subservience.
+
+Religious freedom, in which Pennsylvania ranked second only to Rhode
+Island in colonial America, was enjoyed by the frontiersmen of the West
+Branch. It might, however, be better described as a freedom from
+religion rather than a freedom of religion. With no system of local
+taxation and no regular church, there was no establishment of religion.
+Nevertheless, this is not to suggest that religious qualifications were
+not applied to prospective landowners, potential voters, or members of
+the Fair Play community. Religious liberty had been guaranteed to
+Pennsylvanians in the Charter of Privileges of 1701, and no religious
+test was required for suffrage in the new State constitution in 1776.
+Belief in one God and in the inspiration of the Scriptures was required
+for members of the assembly, but bona fide Fair Play settlers were
+disqualified on geographic grounds anyhow.[18]
+
+There is no record of religious discrimination among the Fair Play
+settlers. In addition to the absence of a regular church, this was
+probably due, in part, to the religious composition of the population.
+The pioneers of the West Branch were Protestant Christians, and if
+denominational in their approach, either Presbyterian or Methodist. The
+friction between Methodists and Presbyterians appears to have been
+doctrinal rather than political or social.[19]
+
+The comparative economic equality in an area of free land had a
+democratizing influence on the social class structure. This three-class
+stratification, composed of property owners distinguished by their
+morality, other property owners, and tenants, was an open-class system
+marked by a noticeable degree of mobility. Fair Play settlers who began
+as tenants could, and did, become property owners.
+
+Since no one in the Fair Play territory could claim more than 300 acres
+under the Pre-Emption Act of 1785, there was little chance for the
+development of an aristocratic class.[20] It was a society of
+achievement in which the race was open to anyone who could acquire land,
+with the approval of his neighbors and the Fair Play men, and "improve"
+it. There is no evidence to indicate that the availability of land was
+restricted because of national origin, religious affiliation, or a
+previous condition of servitude. This is not to say that the judgments
+of neighbors may not have been based upon these criteria, but, at least,
+there is no record of such discrimination. The Fair Play settlers were
+eighteenth-century souls and romantic egalitarianism was not a
+characteristic of such persons. The frontier, however, broke "the cake
+of custom" and the necessities of that experience contributed to the
+development of democracy as we have defined it.
+
+A recent writer, analyzing the "democracy" of the Scotch-Irish, made his
+evaluation on the basis of the contemporary French definition of
+liberty, equality, and fraternity.[21] On this basis, the Scotch-Irish
+fail; but if we equate democracy with self-determination, the
+Scotch-Irish and the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch Valley can be
+seen as thoroughgoing democrats.
+
+The value system of the pioneers on the West Branch of the Susquehanna
+reflected, at least in part, the democracy of the frontier. The spirit
+of cooperation and mutual helpfulness was a prime characteristic of this
+frontier, as it was of others. Cabin-raisings, barn-raisings, and the
+cooperative enterprises at harvesttime enhanced the spirit of community
+and brought the settlers together in common efforts, which demonstrated
+their equality. Individualism could be harnessed for the common good,
+and such was the case among the Fair Play settlers in the struggle for
+economic survival.
+
+Faith, patriotism, and temperance were not necessarily democratic, but
+they also were part of the value system of the Fair Play settlers. In
+matters of faith, there was a certain "live and let live" philosophy,
+which had democratic implications. Despite the conflict between
+Methodists and Presbyterians, the members of the Presbyterian majority
+made their homes available to Methodist preachers.[22] This demonstrated
+a willingness at least to hear "the other side." Such an atmosphere is
+conducive to democracy, if not to conversion. There is little doubt,
+however, that this receptivity was due in part to the absence of any
+"regular" church or preacher. Here again, the necessities of the
+frontier made "democrats" of its occupants.
+
+The most intense patriots are often ethnocentric and chauvinistic. The
+Fair Play settlers were such patriots, according to one journalist.[23]
+However, the patriotism of the eighteenth century had not reached the
+level of concern for all mankind which finds expression today. The
+pioneers of the West Branch were democrats in an age not yet conditioned
+to democracy.
+
+Temperance, particularly with regard to the use of spirited beverages,
+usually implies abstinence, which is certainly not democratic if it is
+applied in a formally imposed prohibition without any local option.
+Abstinence by choice, however, is purely a matter of self-determination.
+But in an area where drinking was a commonly accepted practice, such as
+the frontier, the term signifies moderation. In the Fair Play territory
+drinking, but not drunkenness, was condoned. The spirit of the frontier,
+or the use of it, was not incompatible with democracy.
+
+Frontier values, for the most part then, were democratic in tendency.
+Noteworthy for their attitude of community cooperation and mutual
+helpfulness, supported by a faith which could not afford to be
+exclusive, temperate in their personal habits, particularly in the use
+of alcohol, the patriots of the Fair Play territory looked to a future
+filled with promise and opportunity for all the diverse elements of
+their society. This is the democracy which the frontier nurtured. It
+flourished in the West Branch Valley.
+
+In summary then, was self-determination the central theme in the Fair
+Play territory? Did the Fair Play settlers truly determine their own
+political, economic, and social institutions? The available data suggest
+that they did.
+
+The democracy of the Fair Play settlers encompassed popular sovereignty,
+political equality, popular consultation, majority rule, religious
+freedom, an open class structure, free land, free labor, and a value
+system whose dominating feature was mutual helpfulness. The democracy of
+Fair Play was basically the fair play of democracy.
+
+Observable in this atmosphere were the traits of a developing American
+character, traits which the frontier historian, Frederick Jackson
+Turner, defined as democratic.[24] These included the composite
+nationality of a population of mixed national origins; the self-reliance
+which the new experience of the frontier developed; the independence,
+both of action and in spirit, which the relative isolation of the
+environment promoted; a rationalistic, or pragmatic, approach to
+problems necessitated by circumstances lacking in precedents for
+solution; and perhaps a growing nationalism, marked by an identification
+with something larger than the mere Provincial assembly, something
+existing, but not yet realized, the American nation.
+
+These traits, in conjunction with Turner's thesis, are a major concern
+of the final chapter. That chapter will provide an evaluation of
+frontier ethnography as a technique for testing the validity of this
+interpretation of Turner's thesis on the Fair Play frontier of the West
+Branch Valley.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Quoted in Austin Ranney and Willmoore Kendall, _Democracy and the
+American Party System_ (New York, 1956), pp. 23-24.
+
+[2] Don Martindale, _American Society_ (New York, 1960), p. 105.
+
+[3] National Education Association, Educational Policies Commission,
+_The Education of Free Men in American Democracy_ (Washington, 1941),
+pp. 25-26.
+
+[4] Pp. 18-39.
+
+[5] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[6] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," pp. 220-222; Lycoming County Docket
+No. 2, Commencing 1797, No. 32; _see also_, Chapter Two, _passim_.
+
+[7] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 217; and the Muncy
+Historical Society, Wagner Collection, Hamilton Papers.
+
+[8] Ranney and Kendall, _Democracy and the American Party System_, p.
+47. The authors argue here that the history of town meetings in America
+and the Parliamentary system in Great Britain shows hundreds of years
+without majority tyranny or civil war.
+
+[9] Chapter Six, pp. 78, 84.
+
+[10] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 770. For example, John
+Chatham, an English miller, was elected coroner in 1782, a minor role to
+be sure, but he was supported.
+
+[11] Smith, _Laws_, II, 196-197. In _Sweeney_ vs. _Toner_, an
+Englishman, Toner's property right was upheld because his absence was
+for military service, despite the fact that Sweeney, a Scotch-Irishman,
+was a majority representative.
+
+[12] Linn, "Indian Land and Its Fair Play Settlers," p. 424. The case
+cited here, _Huff_ vs. _Satcha_, saw the use of militia to drive off a
+landholder whose title had been denied by the Fair Play men.
+
+[13] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 217-218, 417-418, and
+518-522. On page 417, fifty-three officers and soldiers are described as
+"early in the service from the unpurchased land." Thirty-nine
+petitioners (p. 520) sought pre-emption, a claim repeated over two years
+later by some fifty-three settlers. The petition to the Supreme Council
+(p. 217) for protection from the Indians in 1778 prior to the Great
+Runaway bore forty-seven names.
+
+[14] _See_ Chapter Two for a demographic analysis of the Fair Play
+settlers.
+
+[15] Clark, "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," p. 28.
+
+[16] "Eleanor Coldren's Deposition," p. 222.
+
+[17] _Ibid._
+
+[18] _See_ Chapter One for the geographic bounds of the Fair Play
+territory. The Fair Play territory did not come under State jurisdiction
+until the second Stanwix Treaty in 1784. Regardless, it must be
+remembered that settlers on the south bank of the Susquehanna actually
+participated in the political, economic, and social life of the
+community. The fact that these participants were often community leaders
+was pointed out in Chapter Six.
+
+[19] _See_ the footnotes in Chapter Five referring to _The Journal of
+William Colbert_.
+
+[20] Smith, _Laws_, II, 195.
+
+[21] Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, pp. 311-314.
+
+[22] _The Journal of William Colbert._ Colbert had been received at
+Annanias McFaddon's (Aug. 20, 1792, Sept. 4, 1793) and John Hamilton's
+(July 23, 1792, Aug. 20, 1793), where he both preached and lodged. Both
+were Presbyterians, and, as noted earlier, Colbert expressed grave
+doubts concerning his efforts there.
+
+[23] "Diary of the Unknown Traveler," p. 307.
+
+[24] Turner, _Frontier and Section_, p. 5.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+_Frontier Ethnography and the Turner Thesis_
+
+
+In the first chapter of his recent study, _The Making of an American
+Community_, Merle Curti suggests that "less is to be gained by further
+analysis of Turner's brilliant and far-ranging but often ambiguous
+presentations than by patient and careful study of particular frontier
+areas in the light of the investigator's interpretation of Turner's
+theory."[1] This study was undertaken with just such a purpose in mind.
+In addition, it is hoped that this investigation will give some insight
+into the value of ethnography and its usefulness as an analytic
+technique in studying the frontier.
+
+By definition, ethnography is "the scientific description of nations or
+races of men, their customs, habits, and differences."[2] Frontier
+ethnography is the scientific description of the full institutional
+pattern of a particular group of people, located specifically on a
+certain frontier, within a certain period of time. That institutional
+pattern is described from the analysis of data concerning the political
+and economic systems, and the social structure, including religion, the
+family, the value system, social classes, art, music, recreation,
+mythology, and folklore. Also, as noted in the first two chapters of
+this study, geographic and demographic data have been analyzed in an
+attempt to picture the area under observation and the people who
+inhabited that region. It is believed that these various data present a
+fuller view of the "way of life" of these people than the earlier
+politico-military accounts of nineteenth-century historians.
+
+Of course, there are certain limitations in this particular analysis.
+This study is not meant to be typical of the frontier experience or
+necessarily representative of frontier communities. However, it would
+have broader implications if a similar study were made for Greene County
+in western Pennsylvania, where a group composed mainly of Scotch-Irish
+Presbyterians also set up a "Fair Play system."[3] Furthermore, it is my
+interpretation of Turner's thesis which is being tested, not the
+validity of the thesis.
+
+Despite the fact that the Fair Play settlers and their "system" have
+been referred to by both Pennsylvania and frontier historians in the
+twentieth century, neither the settlers nor their system has been
+studied in depth.[4] Meginness and Linn, the foremost historians of the
+West Branch, were both nineteenth-century writers, and, unfortunately,
+twentieth-century scholars have not considered the Fair Play settlers
+worthy of their study. Biographical studies are limited to the work of
+Edwin MacMinn on Colonel Antes, completed in 1900. As a result, there
+has been a definite need for an investigation collating the researches
+of these earlier historians and based upon the available primary data.
+This study is an attempt to fill the void.
+
+The seeming paucity of primary source materials is a further
+complication to the student of Fair Play history. However, letters,
+journals, diaries, probate records, tax lists, pension claims, and court
+records offer adequate data to the inquiring historian, although the
+extra-legal character of the settlement seriously reduced the public
+record. Nevertheless, the broad scope of ethnography provides the kind
+of study for which the data supply a rather full picture of life on this
+frontier. Political, economic, and social patterns are discernible,
+although no day-by-day account for any extended period has been
+uncovered.
+
+This ethnographic analysis demonstrates the merits of the "civilization
+approach" to history. Examining every aspect of a society, it provides
+more than a mere "battles and leaders" account. The result gives insight
+into a "style of life" rather than a chronology of highlights. This
+study has investigated the full institutional structure of the Fair Play
+frontier, evaluating that structure in terms of a developing democracy,
+or, at least, of democratic tendencies.
+
+American civilization was a frontier civilization from the outset, and
+that frontier experience was significant in the development of American
+democracy. Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, which has
+probably inspired more historical scholarship than any other American
+thesis, stated that "the existence of an area of free land, its
+continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward,
+explain American development."[5] That development took place on
+successive frontiers stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast
+over a period of almost three centuries. Turner's second frontier, the
+Allegheny Mountains, marked the farmers' frontier of the Fair Play
+settlers of the West Branch Valley.
+
+It was on the frontier, according to Turner, that the "true" traits of
+American character emerged; its composite nationality, its self-reliant
+spirit, its independence of thought and action, its nationalism, and its
+rationalistic approach to the problems of a pioneer existence. The Fair
+Play settlers, American frontiersmen, suggested some of these traits in
+their character. Recognizing the data limitations of this study, the
+evidence indicates some validation of this test of Turner's model.
+However, it would be presumptuous indeed to conclude that this analysis
+offers a complete demonstration of the impact of the frontier in the
+development of traits of character which Turner classified as American.
+
+The composite nationality of the Fair Play settlers is particularly
+evident from the demographic analysis offered at the beginning of this
+study.[6] Seven different national stock groups appeared on this
+frontier: Scotch-Irish, English, German, Scots, Irish, Welsh, and
+French. Here, indeed, was "the crucible of the frontier," in which
+settlers were "Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed race."[7]
+
+The legendary self-reliance of the frontiersman is not without some
+basis in fact. The nature of the frontier experience itself was
+conducive to its development. Its appearance among the Fair Play
+settlers is implied in various contexts. Politically, it is suggested in
+the creation of the Fair Play men, the annual governing tribunal, an
+extra-legal political agency in this extra-Provincial territory.
+Economically, it is intimated in the image of the frontier farmer
+tackling the wilderness with rifle and plow and the unbounded
+determination to make a better life for himself and his family.
+Socially, the self-reliance of these doughty pioneers is indicated in
+the continuation of their religious practices and worship, despite the
+absence of any organized church. Their self reliance is indicated, as
+well, in the flexibility of a social structure whose main criterion was
+achievement, a society in which "what" you were was more important than
+"who" you were. These examples are, of course, only brief glimpses of
+the elusive trait of self-reliance which Turner considered typical of
+the frontier.
+
+Independence, or the ability to act independently, was a characteristic
+frontier trait, according to Turner. The Fair Play settlers presented
+some contradictions. It is true that they organized their own system of
+government and the code under which it operated. However, their key
+leaders lived on the periphery; and the settlers petitioned the
+Commonwealth government for assistance in the vital questions of defense
+and pre-emption rights.[8] The Fair Play settlers were generally
+independent, a condition promoted by the necessities of frontier life;
+but, obviously, they were not isolated.
+
+It is difficult to assess the nationalizing influence of this particular
+frontier. In the first place, aside from the Second Continental
+Congress, there was no national government during most of the Fair Play
+period. The Articles of Confederation were not ratified until 1781, and
+Fair Play territory was opened to settlement after the Treaty of Fort
+Stanwix in 1784. Furthermore, the patriotism of the Fair Play settlers
+seems to reflect an ethnocentric pride in their own territory and an
+exaggerated interpretation of its significance to the developing
+nation.[9] Their patriotism was apparently for an ideal, liberty, to
+which they were devoted, having already enjoyed it in a nation only
+recently declared, but yet to be recognized. And, for its support, there
+had been a rush to the colors by these settlers "beyond the purchase
+line."[10] The "real American Revolution," as John Adams described it,
+was "in the minds and hearts of the people," and it was "effected before
+the war Commenced."[11] That revolution had already occurred in the
+Fair Play territory prior to the firing of "the shot heard round the
+world" on Lexington green.
+
+The frontier experience had a profound influence on the development of
+the American philosophy of pragmatism. Turner claimed that it was "to
+the frontier" that "the American intellect owe[d] its striking
+characteristics."[12] And the Fair Play settlers showed that
+
+    ... coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and
+    inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to
+    find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in
+    the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless,
+    nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and
+    for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with
+    freedom....[13]
+
+The frontiersman of the West Branch was a free spirit in a free land, a
+doer rather than a thinker, more concerned with the "hows" than the
+"whys" of survival. This practical approach to problems can be seen in
+the homes he built, the tools he made, the clothes he wore, the
+political and social systems under which he operated, and the set of
+values by which he was motivated. The development of these
+characteristic American traits owed much to the frontier and the new
+experiences which it offered.
+
+This ethnographic analysis of the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch
+Valley has attempted to present a clearer picture of the "style of life"
+on this particular frontier and, in so doing, to suggest a further
+technique for the frontier historian. There are, no doubt, certain
+defects in this specific study, but the fault lies with the limitations
+of the data rather than the technique. The scope of this investigation
+has carried into questions of geography, demography, politics,
+economics, social systems, and leadership. Unfortunately, the frontier
+had not yet provided the leisure essential to artistic and aesthetic
+pursuits. Consequently, these areas were given a limited treatment.
+Furthermore, the mythology and folklore of this valley offered little of
+record. However, the breadth of this analysis has furnished evidence of
+the existence of democracy on this frontier and, thus, support for
+Turner's thesis, or at least for this interpretation of it.
+
+The geographic analysis has clarified the question of the Tiadaghton,
+demonstrating that Lycoming Creek, rather than Pine Creek, was the true
+eastern boundary of the Fair Play territory. The substantial destruction
+of an erroneous legend has been the main contribution of the geographic
+part of this study.[14] It is now clear that the Fair Play territory
+extended from Lycoming Creek, on the north side of the West Branch of
+the Susquehanna River, to the Great Island, just east of Lock Haven.
+This frontier region was beyond the legal limit of settlement of the
+Province and the Commonwealth from 1769 to 1784. Hence, within its
+limits was formed the extra-legal political system known as Fair Play.
+
+The demographic portion of this study has added to the undermining of
+the frontier myth of the Scotch-Irish. The evidence presented here
+indicates that it was the frontier, rather than national origin, which
+affected the behavior of the pioneers of the West Branch Valley. The
+Fair Play settlers, a mixed population of seven national stock groups,
+reacted similarly to the common problems of the frontier experience. In
+one important exception, the Fair Play system itself, there is, however,
+an apparent contradiction. Since no account of any "fair play system"
+has turned up in the annals of the Cumberland Valley, the American
+reservoir of the Scotch-Irish, it seems quite probable that the "system"
+originated in either Northern Ireland or Scotland, or else on the
+frontier itself. This probability offers good ground for further study,
+particularly when the existence of a similar "system" in Greene County,
+which was found in conjunction with this investigation, is
+considered.[15] If the Fair Play system originated on the frontier, why
+did not it also appear on the Virginia and Carolina frontiers where the
+Scotch-Irish predominated? Regardless, the lack of data corroborating
+the American origin of the Fair Play system leads to the conclusion that
+the germ of this political organization was brought to this country by
+the Scotch-Irish from their cultural heritage, and that those elements
+were found usable under the frontier conditions of both central and
+southwestern Pennsylvania. If so, the politics of "fair play" will add
+to, rather than detract from, the myth of the Scotch-Irish.
+
+This study has also brought forward the first complete account of court
+records validating the activities of the Fair Play men. Mainly concerned
+with the adjudication of land questions, this frontier tribunal
+developed an unwritten code which encompassed the problems of
+settlement, tenure, and ejectment. Subsequently reviewed in the regular
+courts of the counties of which the Fair Play territory became a part,
+these cases provide substantial evidence of the existence of a "system"
+as well as insight into the manner of its operation. The fairness of the
+Fair Play system is marked by the fact that none of the decisions of its
+tribunal was later reversed in the established county courts.
+Supplemented by the Committee of Safety for Northumberland County and
+augmented by peripheral leaders, who gave them a voice in the higher
+councils of the State, the Fair Play men and their government proved
+adequate to the needs of the settlers, until all were driven off in the
+Great Runaway of 1778.
+
+Some corroboration for the legendary tale of a "Fair Play Declaration of
+Independence" was found in the course of this study. Although
+consisting, in the main, of accounts culled from the records of
+Revolutionary War pension claimants made some eighty years after the
+event, the evidence is that of a contemporary.[16] However, the most
+common objection to this conclusion, that the Fair Play declaration was
+merely the reading of a copy of Jefferson's Declaration, is
+unsubstantiated by the archival descriptions.[17] Perhaps the Fair Play
+declaration is apocryphal, but, lacking valid disclaimers, the Hamilton
+data offer some basis for a judgment. It is the tentative conclusion of
+this writer that there was such a declaration on the banks of Pine Creek
+in July of 1776.
+
+The Fair Play territory was truly "an area of free land" in which a "new
+order of Americanism" emerged.[18] Individualistic and self-reliant of
+necessity, the pioneers of this farmers' frontier rationally developed
+their solution to the problem of survival in the wilderness, a
+democratic squatter sovereignty. With land readily available and a free
+labor system to work it, provided that the family was large enough to
+assure sufficient "hands," these agrarian frontiersmen not only
+cultivated the soil but also a free society. And their cooperative
+spirit, despite their mixed national origins, was markedly noticeable at
+harvesttime. From such spirit are communities formed, and from such
+communities a democratic society emerges.
+
+This analysis has not only described the geography and demography, the
+politics and economics of the Fair Play settlers; it has also examined
+the basis and structure of this society, including the value system
+which undergirded it. The results have pictured the religious liberty
+extant in a frontier society isolated from any regular or established
+church, a liberty of conscience which left each man free to worship
+according to the dictates of his own faith. This freedom, this right to
+choose for himself, made the Fair Play settler surprisingly receptive to
+other groups and their practices, practices which he was free to reject,
+and often did.[19] This analysis has also pointed up the class structure
+and its significance in promoting order in a frontier community. And
+finally, an examination of the value system of these Pennsylvania
+pioneers has provided an understanding of why they behaved as they did.
+
+The last major aspect of this investigation concerned the nature of
+leadership. Determined by the people, and thus essentially democratic,
+it had certain peculiar characteristics. In the first place, the top
+leaders tended to come from the Fair Play community in its broadest
+social sense, but not from the Fair Play territory in its narrow
+geographic sense.[20] Secondly, the political participation of the Fair
+Play settlers, if office-holding is any criterion, emphasizes the high
+degree of involvement in terms of the total population.[21] And last,
+this leadership appeared to be overextended when faced with the problem
+of defending its own frontier and the new nation which was striving so
+desperately for independence. Consequently, it was forced to turn to
+established government for support. This may have been the embryonic
+beginning of the nationalism which the frontier fostered in later
+generations.
+
+What then, is the meaning of this particular study, an ethnographic
+interpretation of Turner's thesis? Turner himself, gave the best
+argument for ethnography. He said that
+
+    ... the economist, the political scientist, the psychologist, the
+    sociologist, the geographer, the student of literature, of art, of
+    religion--all the allied laborers in the study of society--have
+    contributions to make to the equipment of the historian. These
+    contributions are partly of material, partly of tools, partly of new
+    points of view, new hypotheses, new suggestions of relations,
+    causes, and emphasis. Each of these special students is in some
+    danger of bias by his particular point of view, by his exposure to
+    see simply the thing in which he is primarily interested, and also
+    by his effort to deduce the universal laws of his separate science.
+    The historian, on the other hand, is exposed to the danger of
+    dealing with the complex and interacting social forces of a period
+    or of a country from some single point of view to which his special
+    training or interest inclines him. If the truth is to be made known,
+    the historian must so far familiarize himself with the work, and
+    equip himself with the training of his sister-subjects that he can
+    at least avail himself of their results and in some reasonable
+    degree master the essential tools of their trade.[22]
+
+Frontier ethnography is just such an effort.
+
+The frontier ethnographer then, because of his interdisciplinary
+approach, can capture the spirit of pioneer life. And if, as Turner
+suggested, the frontier explains American development, then frontier
+ethnography presents an understanding of the American ethos with its
+ideals of discovery, democracy, and individualism.[23] These ideals
+characterize "the American spirit and the meaning of America in world
+history."[24]
+
+The ideal of discovery, "the courageous determination to break new
+paths," as Turner called it, was abundantly evident in the Fair Play
+territory of the West Branch Valley.[25] This innovating spirit can be
+seen in the piercing of the Provincial boundary, despite the restrictive
+legislation to the contrary, and the establishment of homes in Indian
+territory.[26] It was also demonstrated in a marvelous adaptability in
+solving the new problems of the frontier, problems for which the old
+dogmas were no longer applicable. The new world of the Susquehanna
+frontier made new men, Americans.
+
+Self-determination, the ideal of democracy as we have defined it, was
+the cornerstone of Fair Play society. Its particular contribution was
+the Fair Play "system" with its popularly elected tribunal of Fair Play
+men. Perhaps this was the proper antecedent of the commission form of
+local government which came into vogue on the progressive wave of the
+late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Regardless, the
+geographic limitations of the Fair Play territory, the frequency of
+elections, and the open conduct of meetings tend to substantiate the
+democratic evaluation which has been made of the politics of this
+frontier community. Furthermore, as was pointed out in the last chapter,
+this self-determination was the key characteristic of the economic and
+social life of these people.[27]
+
+The pioneer ideal of creative and competitive individualism, which
+Turner considered America's best contribution to history and to
+progress, was an essential of the frontier experience which became an
+integral part of the American mythology.[28] The "myth of the happy
+yeoman," as one historian called it, is still revered in American
+folklore and respected in American politics, whether it is outmoded or
+not.[29] The primitive nature of frontier life developed this
+characteristically American trait and the family, the basic
+organization of social control, promoted it. It was this promotion, with
+its antipathy to any outside control, which stimulated the Revolution,
+creating an American nation from an already existing American character.
+
+The individualism of the West Branch frontier is also apparent in the
+administration of justice. The Fair Play system emphasized the
+personality of law, by its very title, rather than the organized
+machinery of justice.[30] Frontier law was personal and direct,
+resulting in the unchecked development of the individual, a circumstance
+which Turner considered the significant product of this frontier
+democracy.[31] Being personal, though, it had meaning for those affected
+by it, as an anecdote noted earlier indicated.[32]
+
+Individualism has become somewhat of an anachronism in a mass society,
+but its obsolescence today is part of the current American tragedy. The
+buoyant self-confidence which it inspired has made much of the American
+dream a reality. Legislation, it is true, has taken the place of free
+lands as the means of preserving democracy, but it will be a hollow
+triumph if that legislation suppresses this essential trait of the
+American character, its individualism. No intelligent person today would
+recommend a return to the laissez-faire individualism of the Social
+Darwinists of the late nineteenth century, but it must be admitted that
+a society emphasizing the worth of the individual and dedicated to
+principles of justice and fair play, the banner under which the
+frontiersmen of the West Branch operated, has genuine merit.
+
+Whether the historian is analyzing old frontiers or charting new ones,
+the timeless question remains: does man have the intelligence adequate
+to secure his own survival? The old frontiers, such as the Fair Play
+territory of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, were free lands of
+opportunity for a better life, and the history of the westward movement
+of the American people gives ample proof of their conquest. But the new
+frontiers are not so clearly marked or so easily conquered. Perhaps a
+re-examination of the history of the old frontiers can give increased
+meaning to the problems of the new. This investigation was attempted, in
+part, to serve such a purpose.
+
+The intelligent solution to the problem of survival for the pioneers of
+the West Branch Valley was fair play. The ethnography of the Fair Play
+settlers is the record of the democratic development of an American
+community under the impact of the new experience of the frontier.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] P. 2.
+
+[2] _The Oxford Universal Dictionary_ (Oxford, 1955), p. 637.
+
+[3] Solon and Elizabeth Buck, _The Planting of Civilization in Western
+Pennsylvania_ (Pittsburgh, 1939), pp. 431 and 451.
+
+[4] _See_, for example, Dunaway, _A History of Pennsylvania_, p. 146,
+and _The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania_, pp. 159-160; _also_,
+Leyburn, _The Scotch-Irish_, p. 306.
+
+[5] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 1.
+
+[6] _See_ Chapter Two.
+
+[7] Quoted by Ray Allen Billington in his introduction to Turner,
+_Frontier and Section_, p. 5.
+
+[8] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 217-218, 518-522.
+
+[9] This pride was notably demonstrated in the insistence of the Fair
+Play settlers that a stand be made at Fort Augusta following the Great
+Runaway. Previous to this, they had pleaded for support for "our Common
+Cause" in the defense of this frontier. _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second
+Series, III, 217.
+
+[10] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, X, 27-31, 417, and Fifth
+Series, II, 29-35.
+
+[11] Quoted in Clinton Rossiter, _The First American Revolution_ (New
+York, 1956), pp. 4-5.
+
+[12] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 37.
+
+[13] _Ibid._
+
+[14] _See also_, George D. Wolf, "The Tiadaghton Question," _The Lock
+Haven Review_, Series I, No. 5 (1963), 61-71.
+
+[15] Buck, _The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania_, pp.
+431, 451.
+
+[16] Anna Jackson Hamilton to Hon. George C. Whiting, Commissioner of
+Pensions, Dec. 16, 1858, Wagner Collection, Muncy Historical Society.
+
+[17] _Colonial Records_, X, 634-635. The following resolution of
+Congress was entered in the minutes of the Council of Safety on July 5,
+1776:
+
+    _Resolved_, That Copies of the Declaration be sent to the several
+    Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety, and to the several
+    Commanding Officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed
+    in each of the United States, and at the Head of the Army.
+
+                                    By order of Congress.
+                                        sign'd, JOHN HANCOCK, Presid't.
+
+Provision was also made for the reading in Philadelphia at 12 noon on
+July 8, and letters were sent to Bucks, Chester, Northampton, Lancaster,
+and Berks counties with copies of the Declaration to be posted on Monday
+the 8th where elections for delegates were to be held. For some reason,
+the frontier counties of Bedford, Cumberland, Westmoreland, York, and
+Northumberland, contiguous to the Fair Play territory, were omitted from
+these instructions.
+
+[18] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 1, 18.
+
+[19] _The Journal of William Colbert_ gives frequent testimony to this
+statement, as indicated in Chapter Five.
+
+[20] _See_ the map in Chapter One for the geographic boundaries of the
+Fair Play territory. Note the location of the top leaders, Henry and
+Frederick Antes and Robert Fleming, in Chapter Six.
+
+[21] The number of different office-holders runs to better than ten per
+cent of the population.
+
+[22] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 333-334.
+
+[23] _Ibid._, pp. 306-307.
+
+[24] _Ibid._, p. 306.
+
+[25] _Ibid._
+
+[26] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1857), pp. 163-164.
+
+[27] _See_ Chapter Seven for an evaluation of "Democracy on the
+Pennsylvania Frontier."
+
+[28] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 307.
+
+[29] Richard Hofstadter, "The Myth of the Happy Yeoman," _American
+Heritage_, VII, No. 3 (April, 1956), 43-53.
+
+[30] The term "the personality of the law" is Turner's and emphasizes
+the men who carried out the law, rather than its structure. The fact
+that the ruling tribunal of the West Branch Valley was referred to as
+the "Fair Play men" rather than the "tribunal" illustrates this
+contention.
+
+[31] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 253-254.
+
+[32] _See_ Chapter Three, n. 24.
+
+
+
+
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+Singmaster, Elsie. _Pennsylvania's Susquehanna._ Harrisburg, 1950.
+
+Smith, Charles. _Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania_, II.
+Philadelphia, 1810.
+
+Stevens, Benjamin F. _Catalogue Index of Manuscripts in the Archives of
+England, France, Holland, and Spain relating to America, 1763-1783._
+London, 1870-1902. (In manuscript in the Library of Congress.)
+
+Stevens, Joseph. _History of the Presbytery of Northumberland._
+Williamsport, 1881.
+
+Sullivan, James (ed.). _The Papers of Sir William Johnson_, I-III.
+Albany, 1921.
+
+Taylor, George R. _The Turner Thesis Concerning the Role of the Frontier
+in American History_ ("Problems in American Civilization."). Boston,
+1956.
+
+Theiss, Lewis E. "Early Agriculture," _Susquehanna Tales_ (Sunbury,
+1955), 88-89.
+
+Tome, Philip. _Pioneer Life; or Thirty Years a Hunter._ Harrisburg,
+1928.
+
+Trinterud, Leonard J. _The Forming of an American Tradition: A
+Re-Examination of Colonial Presbyterianism._ Philadelphia, 1949.
+
+Turner, Frederick Jackson. _Frontier and Section: Selected Essays of
+Frederick Jackson Turner._ Intro. by Ray Allen Billington. Englewood,
+Cliffs, N. J., 1961.
+
+----. _The Frontier in American History._ New York, 1963.
+
+Volwiler, Albert T. _George Croghan and the Westward Movement
+1741-1783._ Cleveland, 1926.
+
+Wallace, Paul A. W. _Conrad Weiser._ Philadelphia, 1945.
+
+----. _Indians in Pennsylvania._ Harrisburg, 1961.
+
+----. _Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation._ New York, 1962.
+
+Webb, Walter Prescott. _The Great Plains._ New York, 1931.
+
+Wertenbaker, Thomas J. _The First Americans 1607-1690._ New York, 1962.
+
+----. _The Founding of American Civilization: The Middle Colonies._ New
+York, 1949.
+
+Wittke, Carl. _We Who Built America._ 1963.
+
+Wright, J. E., and Doris S. Corbett. _Pioneer Life In Western
+Pennsylvania._ Pittsburgh, 1940.
+
+Wright, Louis B. _Culture on the Moving Frontier._ Bloomington, Ind.,
+1955.
+
+----. _The Atlantic Frontier._ New York, 1947.
+
+----. _The Cultural Life of the American Colonies, 1607-1763._ New York,
+1957.
+
+Yeates, Jasper. _Pennsylvania Reports_, I. Philadelphia and St. Louis,
+1871.
+
+
+PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
+
+_Appearance Docket Commencing 1797_, No. 2. Lycoming County, Office of
+the Prothonotor, Williamsport.
+
+_Colonial Records_, IX. Harrisburg, 1852.
+
+_Colonial Records_, X. Harrisburg, 1852.
+
+_Colonial Records_, XI. Harrisburg, 1852.
+
+_Colonial Records_, XII. Harrisburg, 1852.
+
+_Colonial Records_, XX. Harrisburg, 1852.
+
+_Pennsylvania Archives_, [First Series], XI. Philadelphia, 1855.
+
+----, [First Series], XII. Philadelphia, 1856.
+
+----, Second Series, II. Harrisburg, 1876.
+
+----, Second Series, III. Harrisburg, 1875.
+
+----, Second Series, XVII. Harrisburg, 1890.
+
+----, Third Series, XI-XXII. Harrisburg, 1897.
+
+_New Purchase Applications, Nos. 1823 and 2611_, April 3, 1769. Bureau
+of Land Records, Harrisburg.
+
+_Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of
+Pennsylvania._ Harrisburg, 1916.
+
+
+ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
+
+Baelyn, Bernard. "Political Experiences and Enlightenment Ideas in
+Eighteenth-Century America," _American Historical Review_, LXVII
+(January, 1962), 339-351.
+
+Beck, Herbert H. "Martin Meylin, A Progenitor of the Pennsylvania
+Rifle," _Papers Read Before the Lancaster County Historical Society_,
+LIII (1949), 33-61.
+
+Berger, Robert. "The Story of Baptist Beginnings in Lycoming County,"
+_Now and Then_, XII (July, 1960), 274-280.
+
+Bertin, Eugene P. "Primary Streams of Lycoming County," _Now and Then_,
+VIII (October, 1947), 258-259.
+
+Carter, John H. "The Committee of Safety of Northumberland County," _The
+Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings and Addresses_,
+XVIII (1950), 33-54.
+
+Champagne, Roger. "Family Politics Versus Constitutional Principles: The
+New York Assembly Elections of 1768 and 1769," _William and Mary
+Quarterly_, Third Series, XX (January, 1963), 57-79.
+
+Clark, Chester. "Pioneer Life in the New Purchase," _Northumberland
+County Historical Society Proceedings and Addresses_, VII (1935), 16-44.
+
+Deans, John Bacon. "The Migration of the Connecticut Yankees to the West
+Branch of the Susquehanna River," _Proceedings of the Northumberland
+County Historical Society_ (1954), 34-55.
+
+"Diary of the Unknown Traveler," _Now and Then_, X (January, 1954),
+307-313.
+
+"Eleanor Coldren's Depositions," _Now and Then_, XII (October, 1959),
+220-222.
+
+Everett, F. B. "Early Presbyterianism along the West Branch of the
+Susquehanna River," _Journal Presbyterian Historical Society_, XII
+(October, 1927), 481-485.
+
+Garrison, Hazel Shields. "Cartography of Pennsylvania Before 1800,"
+_Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, LIX (July, 1935),
+255-283.
+
+Gross, Rebecca F. "Postscript to the Week," Lock Haven _Express_ (August
+3, 1963), 4.
+
+Hofstadter, Richard. "The Myth of the Happy Yeoman," _American
+Heritage_, VII (April, 1956), 43-53.
+
+Johns, John O. "July 4, 1776--Rediscovered." _Commonwealth: The Magazine
+for Pennsylvania_, II (July, 1948), 2-16.
+
+Jordan, John W. (contributor), "Spangenberg's Notes of Travel to
+Onondaga in 1745," _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, II
+(No. 4, 1878), 424-432.
+
+Klett, Guy S. "Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Pioneering Along The
+Susquehanna River," _Pennsylvania History_, XX (April, 1953), 165-179.
+
+Linn, John Blair. "Indian Land and Its Fair Play Settlers, 1773-1785,"
+_The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, VII (No. 4, 1883),
+420-425.
+
+"Map Drawn by John Adlum, District Surveyor, 1792, Found Among the
+Bingham Papers," _Now & Then_, X. (July, 1952), 148-150.
+
+Meginness, John F. "The Scotch-Irish of the Upper Susquehanna Valley,"
+_Scotch-Irish Society of America Proceedings and Addresses_, VIII
+(1897), 159-169.
+
+Neal, Don. "Freedom Outpost," _Pennsylvania Game News_, XXXI (July,
+1960), 6-10.
+
+Russell, Helen Herritt. "The Documented Story of the Fair Play Men and
+Their Government," _Proceedings of the Northumberland County Historical
+Society_, XXII (1958), 16-43.
+
+----. "The Great Runaway of 1778," _The Journal of the Lycoming
+Historical Society_, II (No. 4, 1961), 3-10.
+
+----. "The Great Runaway of 1778," _The Northumberland County Historical
+Society Proceedings and Addresses_, XXIII (1960), 1-16.
+
+----. "Signers of the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence,"
+_Proceedings of the Northumberland County Historical Society_, XXII
+(1958), 1-15.
+
+Silver, James W. (ed.). "An Autobiographical Sketch of Chauncey
+Brockway," _Pennsylvania History_, XXV (April, 1958), 137-161.
+
+Stille, C. J. "Pennsylvania and the Declaration of Independence,"
+_Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, XIII (No. 4, 1889),
+385-429.
+
+Wallace, Paul A. W., Excerpt from letter, Sept. 2, 1952, _Now and Then_,
+X (October, 1952), 184.
+
+Wilkinson, Norman B. (ed.). "Mr. Davy's Diary," _Now and Then_, X
+(April, 1954), 336-343.
+
+Williams, E. Melvin. "The Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania," _Americana_
+XVII (1923), 374-387.
+
+Williams, Richmond D. "Col. Thomas Hartley's Expedition of 1778," _Now
+and Then_, XII (April, 1960), 258-259.
+
+Wolf, George D. "The Tiadaghton Question," _The Lock Haven Review_,
+Series I, No. 5 (1963), 61-71.
+
+Wood, T. Kenneth (ed.). "Journal of an English Emigrant Farmer,"
+_Lycoming Historical Society Proceedings and Papers_, No. 6 (1928).
+
+----. _Now and Then_, X (July, 1952), 148-150.
+
+---- (ed.). "Observations Made By John Bartram In His Travels From
+Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego and the Lake Ontario in 1743," _Now and
+Then_, V (1936), 90.
+
+
+UNPUBLISHED STUDIES
+
+Turner, Morris K. "The Commercial Relations of the Susquehanna Valley
+During the Colonial Period." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University
+of Pennsylvania, 1916.
+
+
+_MANUSCRIPTS_
+
+MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS
+
+Zebulon Butler Papers, Wyoming Historical and Geological Society,
+Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
+
+Rev. John Cuthbertson's Diary, 1716-1791 (microfilm, 2 reels). The
+Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg.
+
+Journal of William Colbert (typescript). Property of the Rev. Charles F.
+Berkheimer of Williamsport, Pa. Original (1792-1794) at the Garrett
+Biblical Seminary, Chicago. (Copy also at Lycoming College,
+Williamsport.)
+
+Revolutionary War Pension Claims (typescript). Wagner Collection, Muncy
+Historical Society and Museum of History, Muncy, Pa.
+
+
+PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE
+
+Mrs. Solon J. Buck, Washington, D. C, June 22, 1963, to the author.
+
+Alfred P. James, Pittsburgh, July 16, 1963, to the author.
+
+Peter Marshall, Berkeley, Calif., May 19, 1962, to the author.
+
+Mrs. Phyllis V. Parsons, Collegeville, Pa., October 21, 1962, to the
+author.
+
+Paul A. W. Wallace, Harrisburg, February 16, 1961, July 30, August 24,
+and December 17, 1962, to the author.
+
+
+
+
+_Index_
+
+
+ Adlum, John, 9, 10, 13
+
+ Alexander, James, 26
+
+ Allegheny Mountains, 1, 2, 47, 102
+
+ Allison, Rev. Francis, 67
+
+ American Revolution, 23, 33, 34, 44, 49, 54, 68, 71, 84, 86, 103, 104, 110
+
+ Antes, Frederick, 77-82, 87
+
+ Antes, Henry, Jr., 40, 42, 76-83, 101
+
+ Antes, Henry, Sr., 78
+
+ Antes, Joseph, 42
+
+ Antes, Philip, 42
+
+ Antes, William, 78
+
+ Antes Mill, 79, 80, 82
+
+ Art, 70
+
+ Arthur, Robert, 41
+
+ Atlee, Samuel J., 5
+
+
+ Bald Eagle Creek, 22, 48, 67, 79
+
+ Bald Eagle Mountains, 14
+
+ Bald Eagle Township, 45, 46, 84
+
+ Bald Eagle's Nest, 48
+
+ Baptists, 68
+
+ Barn-raisings, 60, 95, 97
+
+ Bartram, John, 9-11, 13
+
+ Bertin, Eugene P., 7
+
+ "Beulah Land," 71
+
+ Bingham, William, 11
+
+ Blackwell, 71
+
+ Bonner, Barnabas, 40
+
+ Books, 69, 70
+
+ Brainerd, Rev. David, 67
+
+ Bryce, James, 89, 90
+
+ Bucks County, 19
+
+ Burnet's Hills, 6
+
+
+ "Cabin right," 37
+
+ Cabin-raisings, 48, 51, 60, 74, 95, 97
+
+ Caldwell, Bratton, 40, 41
+
+ Calhoune, George, 26
+
+ Cammal, 71
+
+ Campbell, Cleary, 26, 62
+
+ Campbell, William, Jr., 26
+
+ Carlisle Presbytery, 67
+
+ Charter of Privileges, 96
+
+ Chester County, 19, 20
+
+ Children, 55
+
+ Clark, Francis, 42
+
+ Clark, John, 26
+
+ Colbert, William, 61-63, 65, 70
+
+ Coldren, Eleanor, 40, 83, 92, 96
+
+ Commerce, 56
+
+ Committee of Safety, 34, 44, 45, 48, 54, 77, 81-83, 88, 106
+
+ Connecticut, 20, 21, 23, 31
+
+ Constitutional Convention, Pennsylvania (1776), 80, 83, 87
+
+ Continental Congress, 85, 103
+
+ Cooke, William, 26
+
+ "Corn right," 37
+
+ Council of Safety, 34, 44
+
+ Covenhoven, Robert, 22
+
+ Crawford, James, 77, 82, 83
+
+ Cruger, Daniel, 96
+
+ Culbertson, Mr., 67
+
+ Cumberland County, 19, 20
+
+ Cumberland Valley, 47, 105
+
+ Curti, Merle, 76, 100
+
+
+ Dauphin County, 19, 20
+
+ Davy, Mr., 56, 63
+
+ Declaration of Independence, 42, 43, 71, 74, 106
+
+ "Declaration of Independence" of Fair Play Settlers, 42-44, 61, 62, 71,
+       74, 83, 106, 107
+
+ Defense, 84, 103, 108
+
+ Demography, 16-29, 100, 104-107
+
+ DeSchweinitz, Edmund A., 8, 10
+
+ Dewitt, Abraham, 40
+
+ Dewitt, Peter, 95, 96
+
+ Dickinson, John, 43, 78, 81
+
+ Donegal Presbytery, 67
+
+ Dougherty, Samuel, 40
+
+ Drinking, 71, 72, 74, 75, 98
+
+ Duncan, Mr., 38
+
+ Dunn, William, 96
+
+
+ Economic institutions, 89-91, 97, 99-102, 104, 107, 109;
+   _see also_ Farming
+
+ Education, 17, 58, 65, 69
+
+ Ejectment, 35-39, 41, 106
+
+ English, 16-20, 24-26, 28, 54, 57, 58, 83, 84, 93, 95, 102
+
+ Ettwein, Bishop John, 9, 10, 13
+
+ Evans, Lewis, 9-11, 13
+
+
+ Fair Play men, 3, 31, 35-36, 38, 40, 41, 45, 73, 77, 81-83, 92, 94, 95,
+       97, 102, 109;
+   _see also_ Tribunal, Fair Play
+
+ Faith, 17, 68, 73, 75, 98, 99
+
+ Family life, 17, 58, 64, 65, 68, 100, 110
+
+ Ferguson, Thomas, 40
+
+ Fithian, Philip Vickers, 9, 10, 13, 43, 53, 61, 66, 67, 69, 79, 82
+
+ Fleming, Betsey, 53
+
+ Fleming, John, 43, 66, 67, 69, 77, 81, 82, 85
+
+ Fleming, Robert, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87
+
+ Forster, Thomas, 26
+
+ Fort Antes, 34, 78, 80, 81, 86, 93
+
+ Fort Augusta, 22, 71, 79, 85
+
+ Fort Fleming, 81
+
+ Fort Horn, 34, 82-84, 86, 93
+
+ Fort Muncy, 34
+
+ Fort Reed, 34, 81, 83, 86
+
+ Fort Stanwix, Treaties of, 2, 3, 5-9, 12, 13, 21, 25, 29, 33, 34, 36,
+       67, 81, 86, 103
+
+ Forts, 64, 77, 81-83
+
+ Franklin, Benjamin, 52, 81
+
+ French, 2, 16-18, 58, 86, 95, 102
+
+ French and Indian War, 2, 16, 21
+
+
+ Galbreath, Robert, 9, 11
+
+ General Assembly, 9, 11, 79, 80, 81, 84, 86, 87, 96
+
+ George III, 84
+
+ Germans, 16-20, 24-26, 28, 54, 57, 58, 82-84, 93, 95, 102
+
+ Germantown, 78, 83
+
+ Great Island, 3, 12, 14, 34, 35, 40, 48, 67, 79, 81, 105
+
+ Great Runaway 21-23, 29, 33, 34, 71, 80, 84, 85, 88, 106
+
+ Great Shamokin Path, 47, 48
+
+ Greene County, 100, 101, 105
+
+ Grier, Rev. Isaac, 67
+
+ Grier, James, 40, 41
+
+ _Grier_ vs. _Tharpe_, 40
+
+ Gristmills, 54, 64
+
+
+ Haines, Joseph, 40
+
+ Hamilton, Alexander, 43, 77, 82, 85, 86
+
+ Hamilton, Anna Jackson, 43, 44, 62, 66, 71, 107
+
+ Hamilton, John, 44
+
+ Hartley, Col. Thomas, 22, 23
+
+ Harvest, 53, 74, 95, 98, 107
+
+ Hill, Aaron, 6
+
+ Homes, 51, 52, 59, 104
+
+ Horn, Samuel, 77, 82, 83, 85
+
+ Hospitality, 60, 73
+
+ Huff, Edmund, 40, 41
+
+ Huff-Latcha (Satcha) case, 40, 41, 92
+
+ Huggins, Mr., 95
+
+ Hughes, James, 38, 39
+
+ Hughes, Thomas, 38, 39, 77, 83
+
+ _Hughes_ vs. _Dougherty_, 36-40
+
+ Hunter, Col. Samuel, 21, 22, 84, 85
+
+
+ Immigration, 19-21, 24, 25, 28, 29
+
+ "Improvements," 37-39, 41, 58, 64, 72, 97
+
+ Indentured servitude, 64, 95
+
+ Independence, 68, 95, 103;
+   _see also_ Declaration of Independence
+
+ Indians, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 21-24, 29, 41, 42, 63, 67, 84, 86, 88,
+       94, 109
+
+ Individualism, 17, 72, 74, 98, 104, 107, 109, 110
+
+ Industry, 54, 55
+
+ Intermarriage, 58, 60
+
+ Irish, 16-18, 58, 83, 95, 102
+
+ Irwin (Irvin), James, 26, 40
+
+
+ Jamison, John, 26
+
+ Jersey Shore, 15, 19, 34, 42, 79, 84
+
+ Johnson, Sir William, 2, 21
+
+ Jones, Isaiah, 26
+
+ Juniata Valley, 20, 48
+
+
+ Kemplen, Thomas, 40, 41
+
+ Kendall, Willmoore, 91
+
+ Kincaid, Mr., 42
+
+ King, Robert, 26
+
+ King, William, 40, 41
+
+
+ Labor, 95, 99, 107
+
+ Lancaster, 70
+
+ Lancaster County, 19, 20, 38
+
+ Land claims, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38-40, 45, 62, 73, 80, 86, 92-94, 106
+
+ Land Office, 12, 21, 24, 86
+
+ Larrys Creek, 14, 15
+
+ Latcha, Jacob, 40
+
+ Law, unwritten, 37-39
+
+ Leadership, 36, 76-88, 104, 107, 108
+
+ Lewisburg, 67
+
+ Leyburn, James G., 37, 53
+
+ "Limping Messenger," 4, 8, 10
+
+ Linn, John Blair, 5-7, 20, 101
+
+ Lock Haven, 2, 14, 15, 34, 61, 81, 84, 105
+
+ Locke, John, 31
+
+ Logan, James, 16
+
+ Long, Cookson, 40, 77, 83
+
+ Love, Robert, 67
+
+ Lycoming Church, 67
+
+ Lycoming County courts, 33, 35, 36, 62, 65, 72, 94
+
+ Lycoming Creek 2-6, 9-15, 21, 24, 30, 35, 48, 67, 79, 105
+
+ Lycoming _Gazette_, 49
+
+ Lycoming Township, 28
+
+ Lydius, John Henry, 23
+
+
+ McElhattan, Pa., 84
+
+ McElhattan, William, 95, 96
+
+ McKean, Thomas, 22, 36, 37
+
+ McMeans, William, 40
+
+ MacMinn, Edwin, 78, 101
+
+ Manning, Richard, 70
+
+ Marshall, Peter, 12
+
+ Martin, John, 41
+
+ Maynard, D. S., 6, 7
+
+ Medical practices, 70, 71
+
+ Meginness, John, 4-7, 10, 20, 41, 42, 101
+
+ Methodists, 61, 62, 65, 66, 68, 97, 98
+
+ Milesburg, 48
+
+ Military service, 38-41, 45, 77, 78, 80, 81, 83, 94
+
+ Milton, 62
+
+ Ministers, itinerant, 66, 69, 71, 73
+
+ Missionaries, 67
+
+ Montgomery County, 78
+
+ Montour, Andrew, 10
+
+ Montoursville; _see_ Ostonwaken
+
+ Moravians, 78
+
+ Muhlenberg, Henry, 78
+
+ Muhlenberg, Hiester H., 9
+
+ Muncy, 14, 20, 34, 64
+
+ Muncy Creek, 20
+
+ Muncy Hills, 50
+
+ Music, 70, 100
+
+
+ National origins, 16-18, 26, 33, 36, 57, 58, 61, 64, 73, 76, 82, 83,
+       91, 93, 97, 99, 102, 105, 107
+
+ Nationalism, 99, 102, 103, 108
+
+ New Hampshire, 31
+
+ New Jersey, 19, 20
+
+ "New Purchase," 8, 11, 12, 20, 21, 24, 29, 64
+
+ New York, 19, 20, 84
+
+ Newspapers, 49
+
+ Niagara, N. Y., 8
+
+ Nippenose Valley, 42, 80
+
+ Nittany Valley, 48
+
+ Northumberland County, 24-26, 35, 38, 56, 77, 79, 80, 83, 84, 87, 106
+
+ Northumberland County courts, 33, 36, 39, 41, 48, 62, 65, 72, 94
+
+ Northumberland _Gazette_, 49
+
+ Northumberland Presbytery, 67
+
+
+ Office holding, 76, 77, 79, 87, 88, 92, 108
+
+ "Old Purchase," 11
+
+ Onondaga (Syracuse), N. Y., 8, 9
+
+ Orange County, N. Y., 20
+
+ Ostonwaken (Montoursville), 4, 8
+
+
+ Paine, Thomas, 43
+
+ Parr, James, 40
+
+ Patriotism, 71, 73-75, 98, 99, 103
+
+ Paul, William, 41
+
+ Pennamite Wars, 20
+
+ Petitions, 28, 33, 76, 86, 87, 93, 94, 103
+
+ Philadelphia, 52, 80, 81
+
+ Philadelphia County, 19, 79
+
+ Pine Creek, 2-15, 19, 30, 35, 43, 44, 48, 62, 67, 71, 79, 80, 105, 107
+
+ Pine Creek Church, 67
+
+ Pine Creek Township, 24, 28
+
+ Plymouth Colony, 31
+
+ Political equality, 17, 69, 73, 75, 91, 92, 95, 99
+
+ Pottstown, 78
+
+ Pragmatism, 99, 102, 104
+
+ "Praying societies," 66
+
+ Pre-emption, 27-29, 33, 38, 39, 58, 84, 86, 94, 97, 103
+
+ Presbyterianism, 17, 29, 33, 61-63, 65-69, 74, 97, 98, 101
+
+ Price, John, 26
+
+ Proclamation of 1763, 2, 3, 21
+
+ Property right, 35, 72
+
+
+ Quilting, 49, 60, 70, 74
+
+
+ Ranney, Austin, 91
+
+ Read, Mr., 38
+
+ Recreation, 71, 100
+
+ Reed, William, 45, 77, 82, 83
+
+ Religion, 33, 58, 61, 62, 65, 66, 68, 73, 74, 91-93, 96, 97, 99, 100,
+       103, 107
+
+ Revolution; _see_ American Revolution
+
+ Rhode Island, 31, 96
+
+ Roads, 48
+
+ Rodey, Peter, 36, 37
+
+
+ Schebosh, John, 4
+
+ Scotch-Irish, 16-21, 24, 25, 28-30, 33, 36, 37, 47, 53, 54, 57-60,
+       63-65, 70-72, 74, 82-84, 93, 95, 97, 101, 102, 105, 106
+
+ Scots, 16-18, 28, 58, 83, 95, 102
+
+ Self-determination, 89-91, 94, 97-99, 109
+
+ Self-reliance, 102, 103, 107
+
+ Self-sufficiency, 54, 56-58
+
+ Sergeant, Thomas, 6
+
+ Settlement, 35-37, 39, 72, 73, 90, 106
+
+ Sheshequin Path, 8-10, 48
+
+ Shickellamy, 9, 10
+
+ Shippen, Justice Edward, 39
+
+ Singmaster, Elsie, 8
+
+ Slavery, 64, 95
+
+ Smith, Charles, 38
+
+ Smith, Daniel, 38
+
+ Social compact, 31, 90
+
+ Social structure, 53, 58, 59, 64, 73, 75, 91, 97, 99-101, 103, 104,
+       107, 109
+
+ Sour's ferry, 69
+
+ Spangenburg, Bishop Augustus, 4, 8-10, 13, 78
+
+ Squatters' rights, 24, 72, 107
+
+ Stover, Martin, 9, 11
+
+ Suffrage, 33, 34, 92, 93, 96
+
+ Sunbury, 22, 47-49
+
+ Supreme Court, Pennsylvania, 36, 39
+
+ Supreme Executive Council, 44, 45, 86, 93, 94
+
+ Sweeney, Morgan, 41
+
+ Syracuse, N. Y.; _see_ Onondaga, N. Y.
+
+
+ Tax lists, 25-27, 34, 56, 59, 76, 77, 101
+
+ Temperance, 73-75, 98, 99
+
+ Tenancy, 64, 95-97
+
+ Tenure, land, 37-40, 106
+
+ Tiadaghton Creek, 2-14, 24, 105
+
+ "Tiadaghton Elm," 13, 14, 43, 71
+
+ Tilghman, James, 12
+
+ "Tomahawk right," 37
+
+ Toner, John, 41
+
+ Tools, 49, 50, 52, 53, 70, 104
+
+ Tribunal, Fair Play, 32-36, 42, 48, 50, 58, 61, 72, 73, 82, 83, 88, 90,
+       92, 94, 102, 106, 109;
+   _see also_ Fair Play men
+
+ Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1, 19, 99-102, 104, 108, 109
+
+
+ Values, 58, 65, 68, 72, 91, 97-100, 104, 107
+
+ Virginia, 72, 105
+
+ Voluntary associations, 58, 60-62
+
+
+ Walker, John, 77, 83, 86
+
+ Wallace, Paul A. W., 13, 23
+
+ Weiser, Conrad, 4, 9-11, 13
+
+ Welsh, 16-18, 26, 28, 58, 95, 102
+
+ Whitefield, George, 78
+
+ Williamsport, 2, 49
+
+ Wills, 65, 69, 72, 73, 75, 101
+
+ Winters Massacre, 23
+
+ Women, 55, 59, 60, 65
+
+ Wyoming Massacre, 21-23
+
+ Wyoming Valley, 20
+
+
+ York County, 19
+
+
+ Zeisberger, David, 4, 8, 10
+
+ Zinzendorf, Nicholas von, 78
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Endnotes
+
+    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+
+    Archaic spellings in quoted material have been retained.
+
+    The following discrepancies have been noted and corrected where
+    possible:
+
+      Page 26, Chart 4. The data in column headed '1774' does not tally
+      with the total below. With no obvious solution, the table remains
+      as originally published.
+
+      Footnote 18, Chapter 3. 'See nn. 6 and 7, p. 4.' Corrected to _See
+      nn. 6 and 7, p. 33._
+
+      Footnote 20, Chapter 3. 'Supra, p. 4.' Corrected to _Supra, p. 33._
+
+      Index entry 'Economic institutions'. There is no index entry for
+      '_Farming_', however the main references to farming can found in
+      Chapter Four.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fair Play Settlers of the West
+Branch Valley, 1769-1784, by George D. Wolf
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIR PLAY SETTLERS ***
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