[39] Paul A. W. Wallace, Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation (New York, 1962) p. 3. This delightful book in the "Regions of America" series, edited by Carl Carmer, contains an excellent chapter on the significance of Pennsylvania's "Three Rivers."
[40] Gristmills—meeting places of the Fair Play tribunal—a school, and a church would all be found in this Pine Creek region. However, the church (Presbyterian) would not be built until the territory became an official part of the Commonwealth following the second Stanwix Treaty in 1784.
[41] Robert Frost, Complete Poems of Robert Frost (New York, 1949), p. 467. This poem somehow characterizes the experiences of the settlers of this frontier and many frontiers to come.
CHAPTER TWO
The Fair Play Settlers: Demographic Factors
James Logan, president of the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania, 1736-1738, once declared that "if the Scotch-Irish continue to come they will make themselves masters of the Province."[1] His prediction, which was to be generally proven in the Province during the French and Indian War, was to be demonstrated particularly in the West Branch Valley during the Revolutionary period. The Scotch-Irish were the dominant national or ethnic group in the Fair Play territory from 1769 to 1784. This dominance is demonstrated in Chart 1, which indicates the national origins of eighty families in the Fair Play territory.
Chart 1
National Origins of Fair Play Settlers[2]
Expressed in Numbers and Percentages