While allegiance of the Indians was thus jeopardized, white men began to creep over the mountains and encroach upon land not yet sold by the aborigines. Red Stone settlement was thus made, at the risk of another war. Gage sent a detachment of Highlanders to this region to compel all whites west of the Alleghenies to return to their own provinces, but those who left soon went back again with others.
On June 4, 1765, Governor Penn declared trade with the Indians open from June 20 to all inhabitants of the Province who should apply for and obtain his license.
Andrew Lycans Killed in Attack by Indians
in Wiconisco Valley, March 7,1756
The Wiconisco or Lykens Valley includes that section of the “Upper End” of Dauphin County that is watered by the Wiconisco Creek and its branches, save where local names have been given to certain portions, such as Williams Valley, etc.
In 1732 Andrew Lycans settled on the Swartara Creek, where he took up 250 acres of land. In 1740 he removed to the west side of the Susquehanna, where he settled between Sherman’s Creek and the Juniata, in then Cumberland County.
This land had not been included in the last Indian purchase and the Shawnee Indians, who had a few scattered villages on the Juniata, complained of the encroachments of these settlers and demanded their removal. To pacify the Indians the provincial authorities sent, in 1748, the Sheriff of Lancaster County, with three magistrates, accompanied by Conrad Weiser, to warn the people to leave at once, but they remained, determined not to be driven away, at least by threats.
On May 22, 1750, a number of high dignitaries appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, held a conference at the house of George Croghan, in Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County. Subsequently, accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Work, of that county, they went to the place where Andrew Lycans and his neighbors lived, took them all into custody and burned their cabins.
Sheriff Work presented his account for the “removal of trespassers at Juniata,” in which he asked for ten days’ pay for his “attendance on the Secretary Magistrates of the County of Cumberland, by his Hon’s. the Governor’s command to remove sundry persons settled to the northward of the Kickitania Mountains.” This and the expenses of a messenger sent from Lancaster amounted to three pounds and seven shillings. Then he asked for “the Under-Sheriff’s attendance in taking down Andrew Lycan to prison to Lancaster; other expenses on the journey; two pounds ten shillings.”