The liberated captives scalped the Indians, picked up their plunder and hastily constructed a raft, and, after a series of adventures, reached Wyoming, April 4, 1780, where Pike and young Rogers left the party. Peter Pence and the Van Campens reached Fort Jenkins on the morning of April 6, where they found Colonel John Kelly, with 100 frontiersmen who had hurried there from the West Branch. The following day Pence and Van Campen reached Fort Augusta, where they were received in a regular frontier triumph.
The next exploit in which we find Pence engaged[engaged] is in the year 1781, when one of the most atrocious murders was committed near Selinsgrove.
Three brothers by the name of Stock were at work in the field when a party of about thirty Indians appeared. They did not attack the boys, but passed on to the house, which they entered. On the way they found another son plowing, whom they killed. Mrs. Stock and a daughter-in-law were found in the house. The mother defended herself with a canoe pole, as she retreated toward the field where her husband was working. She was tomahawked, however, the house plundered and the young woman carried into the woods nearby and killed and scalped. When Stock returned and found his wife, son and daughter-in-law inhumanly butchered he gave an alarm.
Three experienced Indian fighters, Michael Grove, John Stroh and Peter Pence went in pursuit of the enemy. They found them encamped on the North Branch, on the side of a hill covered with fern. Grove crept close enough to discover that their rifles were stacked around a tree and that all but three were asleep.
One of the Indians was narrating in high glee how Mrs. Stock defended herself with the pole. Grove lay quiet until all the Indians fell asleep. He then returned to his companions, Stroh and Pence. They decided to attack, and crept up close to the camp, when they dashed among the sleeping savages. Grove plied his deadly tomahawk, while Stroh and Pence seized the rifles and fired among the sleepers. Several Indians were killed; the others, believing they were attacked by a large party fled to the woods.
A captive white boy was liberated and the three brave men brought home a number of scalps and the best rifles.
March 10, 1810, the Legislature passed an act granting an annuity to Peter Pence, in consideration of his services, of $40 per annum. He died in the Nippenose Valley, in 1812. He left several sons and daughters. Robert Hamilton, of Pine Creek Township, Clinton County, was the executor of his estate. He left a will which is recorded in Lycoming County.
John Bartram, First Great American Botanist
and Founder of Bartram Gardens, Born
at Darby, March 23, 1699
