The famous Packer’s Path, used by pack horses, leads from Stony Batter across the mountains to Pittsburgh. Site of Fort McCord, near Yankee Gap, at North Mountain is where twenty-seven pioneer settlers were massacred or carried into captivity by Indians in 1756, and thirty-two provincial soldiers killed or wounded in their effort at rescue; marked by native stone monument 1914, erected by the Enoch Brown Association, and Pennsylvania Historical Commission. Northeast is the Enoch Brown Park, with monument sacred to the memory of Enoch Brown and eleven scholars massacred by Indians here in 1764, during the Pontiac War. Large collection of Indian curios found near here are owned by Benjamin Snively, Jr. South, is site of Fort Loudoun, marked.
Natives of Franklin County, in the World’s Honor Roll are, Samuel Adams, Senator from Mississippi; George Washington Buchanan, United States District Attorney for Dakota; James Buchanan, 1791-1868, schoolboy in Mercersburg, lawyer, member of the legislature and of congress, Minister to Russia, member of United States Senate, Secretary of State, Minister to Great Britain, fifteenth president of the United States; Edmund R. Calhoun, Rear Admiral, United States Navy; Hugh S. Campbell, United States District Attorney for Dakota; George Chambers, 1786-1866, Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; Matthew St. Clair Clark, Clerk of the United States House of Representatives; Colonel Thomas Hartley Crawford, Judge of the United States Court, District of Columbia, and Commissioner for Indian Affairs; George Eyster, Assistant United States Treasurer at Philadelphia; William Findlay, 1768-1846, State Treasurer, United States Senator, Governor, Assistant United States Treasurer at Philadelphia; Henry Harbaugh, 1817-67, theologian, poet, hymn-writer; Robert Johnston, Collector of Excise, appointed by President Washington; John Maclay, member of the convention at Carpenters’ Hall; Samuel Maclay, United States Senator; William Maclay, first United States Senator from Pennsylvania, died, 1825; Robert McClelland, United States Secretary of the Interior, Governor of Michigan; James McLane, Member of the Supreme Executive Council and of the Pennsylvania Council of Censors, member of the convention at Carpenters’ Hall; John Williamson Nevin, 1803-86, President of Franklin and Marshall College, theologian, author, preacher; William M. Nevin, 1806-92, poet, teacher; James Potter, Major General of the Continental Army; John Rowe, Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania; Thomas A. Scott, Assistant Secretary of War, President Pennsylvania Railroad; Frank Thomson, President Pennsylvania Railroad; Joseph Williams, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Iowa.
XV
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
FORMED September 10, 1784; named in honor of General Richard Montgomery; ranks third in state as to amount of money at interest paying state tax; notable for fine suburban residences and for Washington’s itinerary and Camp at Valley Forge, with 11,098 men. The Valley Forge Park Commission acquired, in 1893, 472 acres, partly in Chester County, to maintain and preserve forever the Revolutionary camp ground; American army here from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778; soldiers built their huts 16 × 14 feet by 6½ feet high, each to accommodate twelve men, and bore their sufferings from cold, starvation, and sickness like heroes; facts of interest are:
Baron von Steuben came from Germany with his secretary, Peter S. Du Ponceau, after having served as aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great; he was appointed inspector general of the American army, and gave them military training and discipline; Mrs. Washington came to Valley Forge February 27, 1778; on May 18, a detachment under Marquis de Lafayette moved to Barren Hill, but the British came in force against them, and they retreated over Matson’s ford, Conshohocken, on a bridge of rafts; on June 18, British evacuated Philadelphia, June 19, Washington and army left Valley Forge in pursuit.
A marker is placed where General Sullivan and soldiers built a bridge across the Schuylkill in 1778;
Montgomery County
redoubts and intrenchments have been restored; every point of interest has been marked with granite tablets by various historical societies, and by the states whose sons suffered here; bronze equestrian statue of General Anthony Wayne, sculptor, H. K. Bush-Brown, made, 1908, marks site of cantonment of his troops; near this is replica of a brigade hospital, a soldier’s hut; and the bronze statue of General Friederich Wilhelm von Steuben, granite pedestal with bronze relief; sculptor, J. Otto Schweizer, erected, 1915, by National German-American Alliance. National Memorial Arch, one of the most beautiful structures of its kind, granite, designed by Paul P. Cret, was erected by the United States Government in 1914, as a tribute to General Washington and his regiments.