First Magazine in America Published in
Philadelphia, February 13, 1741
There has been recent controversy, especially among New York newspapers, regarding the oldest magazine in America, one such newspaper concluding that the oldest such publication was Oliver Oldschool’s “Portfolio,” published by Bradford and Inskeep, of Philadelphia, and Inskeep and Bradford, in New York, 1809–1810.
That is not the fact and Pennsylvania cannot be denied the honor of being the home of the earliest magazine published on this continent.
On November 6, 1740, Andrew Bradford’s “Mercury,” published in Philadelphia, contained a two page editorial which must surely have caused some sensation, heralding as it did a genuine innovation.
“’Tis not in mortals to command success,” and if the innovator in this case failed, he was at least the first to make the attempt, not alone in Philadelphia, but throughout America.
The editorial plunged headlong into the business at hand as follows:
“The PLAN of an intended MAGAZINE.”
“The Success and Approbation which the Magazines, published in Great Britain, have met with for many years past among all Ranks and Degrees of People, Encouraged us to Attempt a Work of the like Nature in America. But the Plan on which we intend to proceed, being in many respects different from the British Models, it therefore becomes necessary, in the first Place, to lay before the Reader a general Prospect of the present Design.
“It is proposed to publish Monthly, ‘An Account of the Publick Affairs transacted in His Majesty’s Colonies, as well on the Continent of America, as well as in the West India Islands,’ and at the end of each session, ‘an Extract of the Laws therein passed, with the Reasons on which they were founded, the Grievances intended to be Remedied by them, and the Benefits expected from them.”
The prospectus then proceeds to apologize beforehand for “the mistakes which will probably be committed in handling so great a Variety of Matter.” It sketches the general lines of the future magazine in regard to “remarkable Trials as well Civil as Criminal,” also the “Course of Exchange, Party-Disputes, Free Inquiry into all sorts of Subjects, its views of the Liberty and Licentiousness of the Press, its contempt for the rude Clamours of envious Ignorance,’ and the ‘base suggestions of the Malevolence’,” and then terminates as follows:
“To conclude, the Reader is desired to consider the Undertaking as an attempt to Erect on Neutral Principles A PUBLIC THEATRE in the Center of the British Empire in America, on which the most remarkable Transactions of each Government may be impartially represented, and fairly exhibited to the View of all His Majesty’s Subjects, whether at Home or abroad, who are disposed to be Spectators.
“This is TRUE Liberty, when freeborn Men,
Having to advise the Publick, may speak free,
Which he who can, and will, deserves high Praise;
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his Peace;
What can be juster in a State than this?
“From Euripides, by Milton, for a motto to his Vindication of the Subject’s Right to the Liberty of the Press.”
The first number of this, The American Magazine, was to be published “in March next, if by that Time there are a Sufficient Number of Subscriptions.”
But something went wrong with the plans. The very week following this announcement, out came Benjamin Franklin with the charge that this scheme now put forth by John Webbe and Bradford was really his own, “Communicated in Confidence,” to the said Webbe, who was to be the editor of his magazine.
Webbe was not slow to indignantly repudiate the charge, and an unseemly controversy followed between the two rival printing houses, which, no doubt, interfered considerably with the ultimate result or their respective ventures.
Be that as it may, “The American Magazine, or a monthly view of the Political State of the British Colonies,” 8vo size, price eight pence sterling, made its appearance, not in March as advertised and expected, but on February 13, 1741.
Thus the first magazine in America made its initial bow to the public, and only three days later, Franklin’s press brought out “The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in America.”
Both of these periodicals were advertised as monthly publications, and the Mercury carried a small advertisement March 19, which announced the issuance of “The American Magazine” for February; but alas! that is the last we read of Andrew Bradford’s pioneer magazine publication.
Franklin’s “General Magazine” reached its sixth month of existence, after which it simply ceased, no explanation of its discontinuance, not a semblance of a valedictory appeared in “The Gazette,” where its monthly advent had been so well heralded and advertised.
The name of these original “magazines” naturally suggests to the present-day reader a very incorrect idea of their general appearance and contents, thanks to the luxurious works of art that American enterprise has put into publications now classed as magazines.
Franklin’s magazine, for example, had but one illustration, and a poor one at that, a representation of the Prince of Wales’ feathers and the motto “Ich dien” on its front page.
It was only a 12mo; yet under existing conditions the labor of filling seventy-six pages with small print month after month and the neat manner in which the work was performed reflect the highest credit upon the publisher and was deserving of more favorable circumstances. The contents of each number bear a favorable comparison with the best magazines of today.
Dr. William Smith, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, soon manifested a practical interest in intellectual affairs in the province in an effort to found a literary review called “The American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies.”
The first number appeared October, 1757, and was printed by William Bradford, presumably for “a society of gentlemen,” which in truth consisted of Dr. Smith and several of his pupils in the college. This periodical was principally devoted to political matters, literary discussions and poetry. It was discontinued November 14, 1758, and Pennsylvania had not yet had a successful magazine.
Between 1741 and the close of the century nearly fifty magazines were born in America, only deservedly to die. Philadelphia and Boston struggled for literary supremacy, yet the four magazines of today which may be called the veterans of the field are the North American Review, Harper’s, and Scribner’s, each published in New York, and the Atlantic, published in Boston.
But Philadelphia was long the home of three widely circulated magazines—Graham’s, Peterson’s and Godey’s Lady’s Book. The last named was perhaps the most famous, established in July, 1830, by Louis A. Godey, and it reached the enormous circulation of 150,000 a month in the heyday of its prosperity.
If the Saturday Evening Post is regarded as a magazine, Philadelphia is today the home of the oldest and largest in the world.
Christopher L. Sholes, Inventor of Typewriter,
Born in Mooresburg, February
14, 1819
More than a score of attempts, both in this country and abroad, were made to perfect a typewriter after the birth of the idea in the mind of Henry Mill, an English engineer, who obtained a patent from Queen Ann of England, January 1, 1714, but none was successful.
It remained for an humble country boy, a printer, by the name of Christopher Latham Sholes, who was born in the little village of Mooresburg, Montour County, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1819, to perfect a model in the winter of 1866–67, which, after later improvements, was the basis for the typewriting machines which are now so much a part of commercial life throughout the world.
The patent granted to Henry Mill by Queen Ann never availed the imaginative engineer anything, because he lacked the essential ability to perfect a model which might be manufactured on a commercial basis. It is true, nevertheless, that he had the idea for a “writing machine for the impressing or transcribing of letters singly or progressively one after the other,” but this was not sufficient to be practical in any sense of the term.
The same difficulty that beset Mill prevented others from attaining success, and it was a century and a half before the actual birth of a commercial typewriter.
This interesting event was enacted in a small machine shop in the outskirts of Milwaukee. An interesting history was published recently by the Herkimer County (New York) Historical Society in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the manufacture of the first typewriter for commercial use. According to this story the principals were Carlos Gliden, the son of a successful iron monger of Ohio, who was engaged in developing a mechanical plow; Samuel W. Soule and Christopher Latham Sholes, both printers, who were engaged in developing a machine for numbering serially the pages of blank books, etc.
Sholes was the central figure in the association subsequently formed among the three. Sholes began his active life as an apprentice in the office of the Danville, Pa., Intelligencer.
The Intelligencer was then the oldest paper in Montour County, founded in 1828 by Valentine Best. At the time of Sholes’ apprenticeship the newspaper was a leading Democratic organ. The Intelligencer office was an excellent school for a boy when Christopher Sholes became the “devil” and began the career which was to stamp him as one of the great inventors of the country.
Thomas Chalfant purchased the property July 15, 1861. He was a prominent Democratic politician, serving as member of the Legislature and as State Senator. He was a Civil War veteran and many years postmaster at Danville. Through all his various offices Chalfant devoted much time to his newspaper.
Sholes was diligent and progressed in his chosen profession, becoming in turn, editor of several newspapers and ultimately an owner. In 1866 he was collector of the port of Milwaukee and had held other public offices, including State Senator and Assemblyman.
Sholes’ subsequent invention of the typewriter is ascribed to inspiration he and Glidden obtained from a description of a machine invented by John Pratt, of Alabama, which, however, was very crude and impracticable.
The three friends engaged the services of skilled mechanics to help them in the construction of their typewriter, the first working model of which was completed in that small Milwaukee shop in the fall of 1866, but it was not until the following June that a patent was obtained for the invention.
This original machine had innumerable defects and was a crude and cumbersome affair, but it wrote accurately and rapidly, and after all that was their objective.
Sholes was the one of the trio who did most to produce this machine, and while he was not satisfied, he soon scored a notable triumph and made the machine its own best advertiser. A number of letters were written with it, among them one to James Densmore, then a resident of Meadville, Pa. Densmore was immediately interested. Like Sholes and Soule, he had been both printer and editor, and could realize the importance of such a machine.
The relationship between Sholes and Densmore was a strange meeting of opposites, the former was a dreamer and an idealist, the latter was bold, aggressive and arrogant and by some considered a plain “crank.”
Densmore was not impressed with the machine more than to regard the idea as feasible, but he determined to make an attempt at selling it to some firm with the facility and financial resources to manufacture it.
Densmore paid all the debts incurred by Sholes whereby he obtained an interest in the invention. He then engaged the services of a Mr. Yost, with whom he had been associated in a Pennsylvania oil business, and together they presented the proposition to the old firm of gun makers, E. Remington & Son, of Ilion, N. Y.
A tentative agreement was effected between the Remingtons and Sholes and his new partners, and the first contract signed for the manufacture of a typewriter for commercial use, the one built by Sholes was made in March, 1873.
The original contract was for the manufacture only, but in time the Remingtons acquired complete ownership.
Sholes, soon thereafter, sold out his royalty right to Densmore for $12,000, which was a goodly sum in those days, but was the only reward that he ever received for his priceless invention and the years of earnest labor and expense he had bestowed upon it.
Densmore did not part with his royalty rights and was subsequently enriched.
Further improvements were made on Sholes’ invention when the skilled mechanics of the Remington factory were brought into service, but the fact remains that the Montour County printer was the inventor of the almost universally used typewriter and Densmore, another Pennsylvanian, was the medium by which the invention was saved from the scrap heap and commercially developed to the almost perfect machine of today. Thus Pennsylvania has given to the world the typewriter.
German Christians Organized Harmony
Society in Butler, February 15, 1805
The Harmony Society, as it was organized by George Rapp in Wurtemberg and established in America, was an outgrowth of a Separatistic movement in Germany and an attempt to put into practice, under favorable circumstances, Separatistic principles.
The members of the society had constituted a congregation of Separatists, where they listened to the teachings of their pastor, George Rapp. According to his instructions, they left their homes in Wurtemberg and followed him to America. They settled at Harmony, Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Without election, by common consent George Rapp had maintained himself as their leader.
In order to put their society on a firm basis, and to prevent misunderstanding, articles of association were drawn up and signed by the members February 15, 1805. This was the date recognized as the birthday of the society, and in after years its anniversary was celebrated as the “Harmoniefest.”
The agreement contains five articles to which the subscribers pledged themselves:
(1) To give absolutely all their property to George Rapp and his associates.
(2) To obey the rules and regulations of the community and to work for its welfare.
(3) If they desired to withdraw from the society, not to demand any reward for labor or services.
In return, George Rapp and his associates pledged themselves:
(1) To supply the subscribers with all the necessities of life, both in health and sickness, and after death, to provide for their families.
(2) In case of withdrawal to return them the value of property contributed without interest and to give a donation in moneys to such as contributed nothing.
The original of this agreement was in German, which was the language used by the society.
George Rapp was born November 1, 1757, in Iptingen, Wurtemberg, the son of Adam Rapp, a peasant. He learned the trade of weaving. Like many of his neighbors he also engaged in wine growing.
Early in life he became deeply interested in religion. He identified himself with the Separatists of Wurtemberg, who believed that the true Christian must live a life of self-denial and that he must suffer ridicule and persecution on account of the purity of his life. They regarded the established clergy as hypocrites.
The Government interfered[interfered] with their plans for living in the manner of the early Christians with community of goods, and their religious meetings were prohibited at the instigation of the clergy. George Rapp decided to lead his congregation to America.
In this great undertaking, as in others of a similar nature in later years, he displayed rare judgment in making his plans and great ability in executing them. He did not underestimate the difficulties of such an enterprise.
He advised his people of the hardships to be expected. He directed those who were determined to follow him to sell their property and prepare themselves for the journey.
He came to America in 1803, with money of his own amounting to 2000 gulden, to choose a site for the proposed settlement. He left behind him in charge of his congregation a young man of high character, Frederick Reickert, who in Pennsylvania was adopted by him as his son and is known in the history of the society as Frederick Rapp.
George Rapp landed at Baltimore and early in September, 1803, was in Lancaster, Pa., considering offers of land for his settlement.
After inspecting several tracts of land, Rapp purchased 5000 acres in Butler County, on the Connoquenessing Creek, about twelve miles from the Ohio River at Beaver. He then sent for his people.
They came in several companies. The ship “Aurora” brought about 300 persons to Baltimore, July 4, 1804.
Another party of 260 persons, headed by Frederick Rapp, arrived on the ship “Atlantic” at Philadelphia in August.
The remainder of the people came in a third ship, the “Margaretta,” but these settled in Lycoming County, under the direction of Mr. Haller, who had assisted George Rapp in exploration for a site.
The settlers who went to the new settlement worked hard to build their town, Harmony. They were sustained in their labors by religious enthusiasm. After a few months they were joined by their friends and on February 15, 1805, the Harmony Society was formally organized.
During the first year fifty log houses were erected, nearly 200 acres cleared and a house of worship, grist mill, barn and shops were built. The following year 400 acres more were cleared, a saw mill, tannery, distillery and brick store house were erected and a vineyard planted.
They raised 600 bushels of wheat more than their requirements and had 3000 gallons of whisky to sell.
They soon made woolen cloth, spinning the yarn by hand. In 1809 they erected a woolen factory for manufacturing of broadcloth from the wool of merino sheep, which they were among the first to introduce in this country. They had their own mechanics and tradesmen.
The society was always a religious community and George Rapp, in temporal affairs was extremely practical, but he was an enthusiast only in religion. He would not allow his authority to be questioned.
While the settlers were prosperous, they were disappointed in their settlement in some respects. In Germany they had raised grapes and made wine, and had hoped to engage in that industry here, but the land was poorly adapted to the culture of the vine. As their manufactures increased their transportation troubles also increased, as they were twelve miles distant from the Ohio River.
They accordingly decided to move, and in 1814 George Rapp, John L. Baker and Lewis Shriver explored the Western country in search of a new site for settlement. They found a suitable place on the Wabash, in Posey County, Indiana, and in 1815 the whole society moved there.
They had lived in Harmony ten years, during which time 100 members had died. They were buried in a small plot, and, as was their custom, the graves were not marked, but only numbered.
This little graveyard, together with the substantial brick buildings of the village, is all the memorial the Harmonists have left of their first home in America.
The society again removed, in 1825, to Economy, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where they arrived May 17, 1825, making the trip by boat, their new home being located on the Ohio River twenty miles from the first home of the society, at Harmony, and eighteen miles from Pittsburgh.
George Rapp died August 7, 1847, aged ninety years. The society remained intact, although reduced in membership, until May 12, 1903, when there were but four members.
Johan Printz Arrives as Governor of New
Sweden, February 16, 1643
The Swedes followed the Dutch in settling along the Delaware River, which they called the Zuydt or South River. The Swedes formed several companies for the purpose of trade with the New World, as America was then called.
The first expedition came under Peter Minuit, a Hollander, in March, 1638, and settled on Christiana Creek, near the present Wilmington, Del. Here they built Fort Christiana and gave the country the name New Sweden. Two other expeditions came from Sweden and with them came colonists whose names are still borne by families in Pennsylvania.
In 1642, Johan Printz, who had been kept busy capturing delinquent Finns, who were committing all sorts of depredations in Sweden, and refusing to either desist or return to their own Finland, was knighted by the Swedish Government and appointed Governor of New Sweden.
He had been a lieutenant colonel of a regiment of cavalry in the Thirty Years’ War, and had been dismissed from the service because of what was held to be a too feeble defense of a city in which he had command.
Accompanied by his wife, daughter Armegot, and a minister, the Rev. John Campanius, and two vessels, the Fawn and the Swan, loaded with wine, malt, grain, peas, nets, muskets, shoes, stockings, wearing apparel, writing paper, sealing wax, oranges, lemons and hay, and having on board a number of poachers, deserters and culprit Finns, he arrived at Fort Christiana, February 16, 1643, after a stormy voyage of five months.
This was an unusual expedition in that it was the most important of all those sent out by Sweden and in the further fact that Printz was, next to Minuit, the most conspicuous figure connected with New Sweden.
In the instructions he received with his commission, he was to deal with the English at Varkens Kill, near the present Salem, New Jersey, and the Dutch at Fort Nassau; to treat with the Indians with humanity, protect them, and “civilize” them—especially to sell them goods at lower prices than the English or Dutch.
He was allowed to choose his residence at Cape Henlopen, Christiana, or Jacques Island; but he was ordered to see that his fort commanded the river, and that a good winter harbor for vessels was close at hand.
Printz lost no time in carrying out his instructions. Proceeding up the river from Christiana, he decided to make the seat of government at Jacques Island, the place called by the Indians Tenacong and since Tinicum. Here he built a fort of green logs, mounted on it four brass cannon, and called it Nye (New) Gottenburg.
Thus Printz made the first settlement by white men in what is now Pennsylvania which was destined to survive. Kling was sent to make a settlement on the Schuylkill, and he built a fort near its mouth, called New Korsholm.
Printz, however, was not content with the forts already erected, but a third was built, in 1643, on the east side of the river below Mill Creek, called Fort Elfborg, which was mounted with eight cannon and a mortar, and garrisoned with thirteen soldiers, under Swen Skute. The story is that later the men were driven out by mosquitoes. This fort was intended to shut up the river, a matter which greatly exasperated the Dutch, whose ships, when passing, had to lower their colors and were boarded by the Swedes.
In 1645 these Swedes started what was undoubtedly the first industrial plant in Pennsylvania. That was a small grist mill, which they built on the waters of Cobbs Creek, and when its wheels began to turn the industry of the greatest industrial State in the world began its production.
At Tinicum the Swedish settlements now centered. In three or four years following Printz’s arrival, Tinicum gradually assumed the character of a hamlet.
In 1645, he built a mansion on Tinicum Island, and it long bore the name of Printzhof.
A church was also built at this time, which the Reverend Mr. Campanius dedicated September 4, 1646. This was the first house of Christian worship within the present limits of Pennsylvania.
Indian troubles threatened during 1644. The shocking and unpardonable cruelties of Kieft, the Governor of Manhattan, in which hundreds of Indians, along the Hudson, were slain, caused the belief among the natives that the newcomers were cruel.
In the spring of 1644, two white soldiers and a laborer were killed on the Delaware, below Christiana, and later a Swedish woman and her English husband were killed between Tinicum and Upland. This event was the first tragedy in which white blood was shed in Pennsylvania by the Indians.
Printz assembled his people for defense at Upland, but the Indian chiefs of the region came in, disowned the act, and effected a treaty.
There was a long period during which no ships from Sweden came, and the colonists were destitute for necessities which they depended on receiving from the homeland. There was no vessel from March, 1644, until the “Golden Shark” arrived October 1, 1646.
The settlement of the country, however, proceeded very slowly under Swedish enterprise, while trade was pushed to an extent never before known upon the river. This greatly annoyed the Dutch, and in consequence of having lost this trade to the Swedes, the Dutch Governor, Kieft, sent Hudde to keep watch on the proceedings of Governor Printz and to resist his supposed innovation. These two soon got into angry controversy, but through the negotiation[negotiation] of the Reverend Mr. Campanius, an amicable arrangement was entered into regarding the trade of the Schuylkill.
But the real object of the Dutch was to plant a settlement on the western shore of the Delaware, and to this Governor Printz entered a sharp protest.
Governor Kieft was recalled about this time, and he was succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant, whose Administration commenced May 27, 1647, and continued until 1664, when the American interests of the Dutch passed into the hands of the English.
The disagreement between the Dutch and Swedes continued, giving rise to mutual hatred and jealousy. The Dutch “arms” were set up on the west bank and as promptly taken down by the Swedes.
Printz had requested to be relieved, but he was ordered to remain when new grants of land were made to him, and he remained at his post until October, 1653, when he transferred the charge of the Government to his son-in-law, John Papegoja, and sailed for Sweden.
Captain William Trent Leads First English
Armed Force to Forks of Ohio,
February 17, 1754
Previous to the French and Indian War, and in fact until the Revolution, Virginia held that the upper Ohio Valley, in what is now Pennsylvania, was a part of their Dominion.
Governor Dinwiddie feared the aggressions of the French in that region and commenced preparations for raising a force to be sent to the “Forks of the Ohio” (Pittsburgh), to occupy that strategic point, and build a defensive work that would enable him to resist the French.
This force, a company of Colonial Militiamen under command of Captain William Trent, marched from Virginia, in January, 1754, and reached the Forks February 17, following.
Work was begun, but proceeded slowly on account of the severity of the weather, and Captain Trent returning to Will’s Creek, left in charge a young commissioned officer, an ensign, named Edward Ward.
This was not, however, the first aggressive action on the part of Virginia.
Pennsylvania authorities believed that the limits of the State were about what they are today, but they had so many internal jealousies and quarrels on their hands at the time the French became active intruders along the French Creek, Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, that they delayed making any action against them.
While Virginia was experiencing almost similar difficulties as Pennsylvania, she did, in 1753, take steps to put a stop to the farther advance of the French.
Governor Dinwiddie dispatched Captain William Trent to ascertain the activities of the French, but he neglected his duty, and went no farther than Logstown. In a letter to the Lords of Trade, Dinwiddie said of them: “He reports the French were then one hundred and fifty miles up the river, and, I believe, was afraid to go to them.”
The home government advised Dinwiddie to obtain information and for this purpose to dispatch a messenger. Acting under these instructions, Dinwiddie sent a young man who was destined to become[become] finally the most illustrious figure in American history. This was George Washington.
Following out his instructions, young Washington proceeded to Logstown, and thence with Tanacharison or the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder, and Guyasutha or the Hunter, he set out November 30, and on December 11, reached Fort Le Boeuf, which was on the site of the present Waterford, Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Having accomplished the purpose of his mission, and obtained full information of the strength and plans of the French, and an answer to the letter which he had carried from Governor Dinwiddie to the French commandant, he returned with much hardship to Virginia, reaching Williamsburg, January 16, 1754, where he made his report to the Governor.
This information led at once to military measures for the defense of the Ohio, and the command of Captain Trent pushed forward.
The French were promptly warned of the arrival of Trent’s troops, and were not long idle.
On April 17, when the fort was still uncompleted, Ensign Ward suddenly found himself surrounded by a force of one thousand men, French and Indians, under the command of Captain Contrecoeur, with eighteen pieces of artillery.
By Chevalier Le Mercier, captain of the artillery of Canada, Contrecoeur sent a summons to the commanding officer of the English to surrender, informing him that he, Contrecoeur, “was come out into this place, charged with orders from his General to request him (the English commander) to retreat peaceably, with his troops from off the lands of the French king, and not to return, or else he would find himself obliged to fulfill his duty, and compel him to it.” “I hope,” continued Contrecoeur, in his summons, “that you will not defer one instant, and that you will not force me to the last extremity. In that case, sir, you may be persuaded that I will give orders that there shall be no damage done by my detachment.”
The friendly Half King, who was present, advised Ward to reply that he was not an officer of rank with power to answer the demand, and to request delay until he could send for his superior officer.
Contrecoeur refused to parley, and demanded immediate surrender.
Having less than forty men in a half finished stockade, Ward was unable to resist the force opposed to him, and therefore prudently yielded to the demand without further hesitation.
He was allowed to withdraw his men and take his tools with him, and on the morning of April 18, he left the position and started on his return to Virginia.
This affair was one of the initial events of the French and Indian War, an epoch-making struggle.
The French took possession of the half-finished fort and completed it, naming it Fort Duquesne, in honor of Marquis Du Quesne, then Governor General of Canada.
Captain William Trent who led the first English armed force into the Ohio Valley, February 17, 1754, was a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania. His name is given to Trenton, N. J.
In 1746, Governor Thomas appointed him captain of one of the four companies raised in Pennsylvania, for an intended expedition against Canada. In 1749, Governor Hamilton appointed him a justice for Cumberland County, where in the following year he formed a partnership with George Croghan to engage in the Indian trade, and he went to Logstown.
In 1753, the Governor of Virginia directed him to build a fort at the “Forks of the Ohio,” which seems to be the first time he recognized the authority of Virginia.
Captain Trent again entered the service of Pennsylvania, in 1755, as a member of the Council, but two years later he again entered the employ of Virginia.
In 1763, his large trading house near Fort Pitt was destroyed by the Indians.
During the Revolution Congress gave him a commission as major.