MDDM Ch. 52

[jbor]

499.1 "Conococheague, with its dismal history"

That the valley rapidly increased in population is evident, for in 1746 a
number of whites went there in violation, as the Indians claimed, of the
treaty rights and privileges, in which position they were sustained by the
civil authorities of the province at a meeting of the provincial council,
held in Philadelphia, on May 25th, 1750, when Governor Hamilton informed the
House of the violation of the treaty, and that he had directed Mr. Peters,
the secretary, and Mr. Weiser, the Indian interpreter, to proceed to
Cumberland county, which had just been stricken from Lancaster, and take
proper measures to remove the settlers who had presumed to stay,
notwithstanding his proclamation prohibiting such action. Subsequently on
July 2d, 1750, Mr. Peters reported to the Governor the result of the visit.
After having met the representatives of the Indians and the justices of
Cumberland county at Mr. Crogan's, it was decided to evict the settlers from
the territory beyond the Kittatinny until such time as the Six Nations would
agree to make sale of the land, the magistrates announcing that the
inhabitants would submit. Mr. Peters says: "The magistrates and company
proceeded over the Kittatinny Mountains and entered the Tuscarora Path or
Path Valley, though which the road to Allegheny lies. Many settlers were
found in this valley and all the people were sent for. The following
appeared: Abraham Slack, James Blair, Moses Moore, Arthur Dunlap, Alexander
McArtie, Felix Dole, Andrew Dunlap, Robert Wilson, Jacob Pyatt, William
Ramage, Reynolds Alexander, Samuel Patterson, Robert Baker, John Armstrong
and John Potts. These men did not offer resistance but submitted to be bound
in recognizance of one hundred pounds each to appear and answer for trespass
on the first day of the next county court of Cumberland to be held at
Shippensburg. They gave bond to the proprietaries to remove with all their
families, servants, cattle and effects, and having give up possession of
their log houses, to the number of eleven, these were burned to the grounds,
the trespassers cheerfully carrying away their goods. This was the first and
only eviction in this section of the province.

This action was taken by Gov. Hamilton in conformity with a treaty entered
into with the Indians in 1748, whereby the latter surrendered two millions
of acres on the eastern side of the Susquehanna, for which a certain sum of
money was paid. This territory was for the white settlers with the distinct
understanding that no encroachments were to be made upon the Indians west of
the Susquehanna river.

After the eviction no settlers ventured into Path Valley until 1754, when
the land was purchased from the Indians, under a treaty made at Albany,
N.Y., on July 6th, of that year. This treaty was agreed to with great
reluctance by the Indians, as they objected to conveying any lands west of
the Alleghenies, and considered the amount of purchase money as altogether
inadequate. This treaty was finally ratified, but the Indians dispersed with
manifestations of displeasure. The French, who were watching every
opportunity to produce unfriendly feelings between the English and the
Indians, found this a timely period to influence the savage mind against the
provincial government, and their successful efforts were soon apparent in
the coalition of the Indian tribes and French against Braddock, and in the
murderous raids which followed upon the helpless citizens of the frontier.

[ ... ]

On the first of November, 1755, the first serious attack by the Indians was
made on the settlers of the Big Cove and they laid it waste, butchering the
inhabitants and burning their building. Two-thirds of the settlers fled and
found refuge at McDowell's fort. The records state that upwards of one
hundred women and children found succor there, and no idea of the distressed
and distracted condition of the people could be formed. The inhabitants of
Path Valley were greatly alarmed at this time for their own safety, and the
same authority tells how they fled to forts for protection. These forts were
evidently those located in the valley, as Loudon and McDowell's were not
built until the year following. They were of singular construction. A ditch
was dug in the ground about four feet deep, in which oak logs were set
upright about seventeen feet in height. Each log was about one foot in
diameter. In the interior were platforms made of clap boards. These were
elevated to a distance of five feet and upon them the men stood when
discharging their guns, through apertures made for the purpose. A swivel gun
was placed in each corner and fired as occasion required to advise the
Indians that guns of such a character were within.

In December, 1755, the Governor sent out officers to locate and build
stockades and block houses, and by the first of February, 1756, several were
completed and occupied. These were erected in consequence of the alarm
occasioned in the Conococheague settlement by the numerous massacres
occurring to the westward, notably that in the Big Cove. The result was the
erection of a chain of forts along the eastern base of the Kittatinny
Mountain. They seem to have had a salutary effect in checking the operations
of the Indians, as there is no record of any outrages having been committed
in their immediate vicinity during the first half of 1756, but that prowling
bands penetrated into Cumberland Valley and committed outrages and murders,
is evidenced by the letter written to Governor Morris, by John Armstrong,
from Carlisle, on July 23rd, 1756, in which he refers to "seven persons
having been killed on this side of the Kittatinny hills and many missing
within the county." He says, further, that the enemy did not attack any of
the people over the hills but passed them by, because of finding them well
guarded and disposed of.

Two of these forts were erected in Path Valley. They were among the first
and probably the first, as Elliott's was built in 1754 or 1755, while
Chambers', Loudon's, McDowell's, Steele's and others were not built until
1755 and 1756. Elliott's stood about a mile north of Fannettsburg, at the
place now know as Springtown. At this place are half a dozen limestone
springs, one of which was enclosed by the fort. On the night of March 22d,
1763, when the barn of James and Samuel Walker, one mile south of
Fannettsburg, was burned, the neighbors collected and scouts were sent by a
by-path to give the alarm at the fort, so that it must have been still
occupied by British soldiers.

[ ... ]

http://tuscaroras.com/pages/history/path_valley_1.html

http://www.cob-net.org/docs/brethrenlife_migrations.htm

http://www.fultoncountypa.com/towns.html

http://www.herald-mail.com/news/2001/08/06/tristate/Conococheague_Institute.
html

In this chapter Pynchon continues the juxtaposition of colonial and British
history (cf. also Ch. 31 at 309-314) which was augured by one of the patrons
at 'The Rabbi of Prague' back in Chapter 50 (490), comparing the British
troops who defended Fort Loudon against the French and Indians at the time
of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) with James Wolfe's Regiment (the "Black
Watch Plaid" 490) which had quelled the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland in
1745 and which, apparently, had marched down into England and quashed
weavers' riots in Stroud in about 1755 or 1756. The "Black Boys" (490.10),
then, would be the Native Americans who were allied with the French?

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~flhs/

http://www.innernet.net/longhunter/fortloudoun/

501.14  "crossing the road upon which Braddock and his forces had met their
unhappy end"

http://www.nationalcenter.org/Braddock%27sDefeat.html

501.16 "Wolfe"

http://www.digitalhistory.org/general_james_wolfe.htm

http://www.louisbourg.ca/fort/hero.htm

http://www.wolfeboroonline.com/towninfo/history/genwolfe.html

503.6 "*ceteris paribus*"  other things being equal

505.21 "the Shotton Dobby"

http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/sos/shotton.html

505.21 "the Old Hell-Cat of Raby ... Lady Barnard"

http://www.afallon.com/castles/raby.htm

507.10-11 "*pari passu*"  at an equal pace or rate

509.26  "Monteith"

http://freespace.virgin.net/a.data/bowls.htm

Peach brandy, whiskey and milk: an unusual "punch" indeed.

510.1 "a Length of contraband Osnabrigs"

http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/slavery/osnabrig.html

NB another instance of defenestration mentioned at 503.17-8

NB also Dixon's acute agoraphobia, and his fascination with, as Emerson puts
it, "Gothickal Clap-trap" (504-7)

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