History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley / Embracing an Account of the Early Pioneers, and the Trials and Privations Incident to the Settlement of the Valley, Predatory Incursions, Massacres, and Abductions by the Indians During the French and Indian Wars, and the War of the Revolution, &c.

by U. J. Jones

Richard Peters.

July 2, 1750.

From this summary proceeding originated the name of the place called the Burnt Cabins, the locality of which is pointed out to the traveller to this day.

That these ejected tenants at will did not remain permanently ejected from the fertile valley of the Juniata is evident from the fact that their descendants, or many of them, of the third and fourth generations, are now occupying the very lands they were driven from.

In July, 1750, the government was thrown into alarm by the rumor that a Mr. Delany had, while speaking of the removal of the trespassers on the unpurchased lands northwest of the Kittochtinny Hills, said, "that if the people of the Great and Little Coves would apply to Maryland they might have warrants for their lands; and if those of the Tuscarora Path Valley would apply to Virginia, he did not doubt but they might obtain rights there."

Petitions were sent to the Council from the residents of the Coves, in which it was set forth that they did not wish to be either in the province of Maryland or Virginia, and prayed permission to remain, until the boundary of the provinces was determined, on the lands purchased from the Indians.

This proposition was not accepted, and was only followed up by proclamations imposing severe penalties upon trespassers. This was deemed absolutely necessary by Governor Hamilton, for the French were assuming a menacing attitude along the frontier, and it was necessary, at all hazards, to preserve the alliance of the Indians.

The Provincial Government was strong enough to drive the settlers out of the valley, but immeasurably too weak to keep them out. This brought about the treaty at Albany in 1754, to which we have previously alluded. Thomas and Richard Penn, seeing the government unable to remove the squatters permanently, in consequence of the feelings of the people being with the latter, bought from the sachems the very considerable slice of land in which was included the Valley of the Juniata, for the trifling consideration of £400. This was supposed to act as a healing balm for the trespasses upon their hunting-grounds, and at the same time the Penns undoubtedly entertained the idea that they could realize a handsome profit in re-selling the lands at an advanced price to those who occupied them, as well as to European emigrants constantly arriving and anxious to purchase.

The Indian chiefs and sachems who were not present at this treaty were highly indignant, and pronounced the whole transaction a gross fraud; and those who were present at the treaty declared they were outwitted by misrepresentations, and grossly defrauded. Conrad Weiser, the Indian interpreter, in his journal of a conference at Aughwick, stated that the dissatisfaction with the purchase of 1754 was general. The Indians said they did not understand the points of the compass, and if the line was so run as to include the west branch of Susquehanna, they would never agree to it. According to Smith's Laws, vol. xxi., p. 120, "the land where the Shawnee and Ohio Indians lived, and the hunting-grounds of the Delawares, the Nanticokes, and the Tutelos, were all included."

So decided and general was the dissatisfaction of the Indians, that, in order to keep what few remained from being alienated, the proprietors found it necessary to cede back to them, at a treaty held in Easton, in October, 1758, all the land lying north and west of the Alleghany Mountains within the province. The restoration, however, came too late to effect much good.