A French deserter was captured and held at Fort Henry. He was taken to Weiser’s home, and put through the third degree. He proved to be quite clever and nothing of value was learned. He was a lad of seventeen and had been sent from Fort Machault, on the Allegheny River, on a marauding expedition in command of thirty-three Indians, when he accidentally got lost in the mountains and he approached the sentry at Fort Henry, as he had been seven days without food.
June 19, 1757, the Indians carried away the wife of John Frantz and three of their children, who lived only six miles from Fort Henry.
The actual history of Fort Henry, except for the incidents recorded here, was one of routine military work, but it remained a garrisoned fortification for some years, surely until the summer of 1763, for at that time Governor Hamilton wrote to Colonel John Armstrong about disposition of troops for Lancaster, Berks and Northampton Counties, and mentioned Fort Henry as one of the chain of forts then occupied by provincial troops.
James Trimble, First Deputy Secretary of the
Commonwealth, Public Servant Sixty-seven
Years, Died January 26, 1837
When James Trimble died at his home in Harrisburg, January 26, 1837, he closed a record of sixty-seven years service as an official of Pennsylvania, a record which none other has ever approached.
Another unusual feature of this record is the fact that Mr. Trimble was the first Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth, beginning his service as such March 6, 1777, and being the only occupant of that important office until his death, nearly sixty years afterwards.
James Trimble was born in Philadelphia, July 19, 1755. His father, Alexander Trimble, emigrated from the North of Ireland; was a Protestant, and soon became a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, then under the care of Reverend Gilbert Tennent, of whom it is believed he was a relative.
Alexander Trimble was married to Eleanor Rogers, of Abington, June 20, 1754. Alexander died about 1769.