In 1767 the German Lutherans erected a church of logs, which served its purpose for sixty years.
Like many places, Stumpstown had a big fire which destroyed nearly one-fourth of the village. That was in 1827, and was caused by a boy shooting at a crow perched on the thatched roof of a stable. His old flint-rock was wadded with tow, which being inflammable, set fire to the straw thatch, and soon the barn was in flames, and fanned by a strong northwest breeze, a total of twenty buildings including a tannery, sheds, dwelling of owner, blacksmith shop, the only school house, and other houses were consumed.
Frederick Stump, the founder, was a notorious character. He was born in 1735 in the neighborhood of Stumpstown, and in 1768 was living near the mouth of Middle Creek in what is now Snyder County.
On Sunday morning, January 10, 1768, six Indians went to the house of Frederick Stump. They were White Mingo, Cornelius, John Campbell, Jones and two squaws. They were in a drunken condition and behaved in a suspicious manner. Stump endeavored to get them to leave, but without success. Fearing injury to himself, he and his servant, John Ironcutter, killed them all, dragging their bodies to the creek, where they cut a hole in the ice and pushed their bodies into the stream.
Fearing the news might be carried to the other Indians, Stump went the next day to their cabins, fourteen miles up the creek, where he found one squaw, two girls and one child. These he killed and threw their bodies in the cabin and burned it.
The details of these murders were told by Stump to William Blythe, who found the charred remains of the four in the cabin ruins. Blythe testified to these acts before the Provincial authorities in Philadelphia, January 19, 1768.
One of the bodies which Stump pushed through the hole in the ice floated down the Susquehanna until it finally lodged against the shore on the Cumberland County side, opposite Harrisburg, below the site of the present bridge at Market Street.
The Indian had been killed by being struck on the forehead with some blunt instrument, which crushed in his skull. His entire scalp, including his ears, was torn from his head. An inquest was held February 28, 1768, at the spot where his body was found.
John Blair Linn, in his “Annals of Buffalo Valley,” places the scene of this crime on the run that enters the creek at Middleburgh, known by the name of Stump’s Run to this day.
This crime caused the greatest consternation throughout the Province, as the authorities had just cause to fear a repetition of the Indian outrages unless Stump was apprehended and punished for his crime.