If you live in Pennsylvania, you know that last week we had a lot of severe weather all over the state for a few days in a row, including several tornado watches and warnings. As I mentioned in the past, my body reacts badly to severe weather, so I was in pretty bad shape and missed last week's update. My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to it!
It seems that the last time I mentioned my problems with the weather was in my post about the Hanover Resolves. Today's post has two things in common with that one, and this is the first. The second is that, like in that post, I only have one photograph for today - the picture of the historical marker itself. After attending the latest meeting of the White Rose Irregulars of York, my companions and I made a brief detour in Lebanon County to collect a few markers there, and here is the first post from that county.
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| The marker stands in the front yard at 10463 Jonestown Road, Annville |
US 22, as locals know, is a long stretch of highway which cuts through several counties. There's regular route 22 and then there's "old" route 22, so named because of the realignment of the highway some years ago; old route 22 starts in Allentown and runs through Lehigh, Berks, and Lebanon Counties, crossing several other highways on its way. It has a variety of names at different points, including the Hex Highway (because it passes through Pennsylvania Dutch Country). In Annville, in East Hanover Township, old route 22 intersects with PA 934, and there's a small handful of markers in the vicinity. Several of these are for Fort Indiantown Gap, which lies a little way north of this intersection and which requires some further work on my part than I've been able to do just yet.
At the intersection in question sits a restaurant called Harper's Tavern, where old 22 is called Jonestown Road. We didn't have the opportunity to visit this, but since we borrowed their parking lot while I took pictures I thought it was only fair to give them a shout-out. Across Jonestown Road, maybe a tenth of a mile to the west, sits a beautiful large house on a hill, and the marker for Blue Mountain Forts stands in the front yard. I don't know if anyone who lives there saw me taking the picture, but I tried not to linger, just in case. This building is not one of the forts - it is, in fact, the Swatara Creek Inn.
So then what were the Blue Mountain Forts? Well, as the marker indicates, there were six of these, originally log cabins, in what is today Lebanon and Dauphin Counties. Their purpose was to defend settlers from Native American attacks, which were not uncommon in 1763. That was the first year of an event called Pontiac's Rebellion, an uprising of some of the tribes west of Pennsylvania; while it wasn't actually happening here, it had an influence on the way people viewed the Natives in general.
It wasn't a very pretty time in American history, especially viewed through a modern lens. I try to keep my blog posts light; but for subjects like this, that can be really difficult.
Anyway, I've had some trouble understanding all the details about the Blue Mountain Forts, because to be perfectly honest, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information readily available to me. Most of what I can tell you comes from the Historical Marker Database, which is an absolute treasure trove of information about all kinds of historic places. The official marker I have pictured up there says that there are, or rather were, six forts, but the HMDB only confirms the existence of five - Fort Hunter, Fort Manada, Barnett's Fort, Patton's Fort, and Fort Swatara. They recommend reading about them in that order to best understand their relationship with each other. None of these forts are still standing, and they all have PHMC markers of their own, so I'll be telling you more about them in detail down the road. Together, they provided protection for a 23-mile region between the Susquehanna River and the Swatara Creek, which flows near where today's marker is situated.
The thing they all have in common is that they were outposts of the Paxton Rangers. This is a name I've read in a few places, including on a few PHMC markers, and my understanding of just who they were is imperfect at best. At their outset, they were a volunteer regiment of militia based out of Paxton Township whose duty was to protect settlers from attacks. One of their leaders was the "Fighting Parson," the Col. Rev. John Elder, who was known for keeping a loaded shotgun in his pulpit when he preached.
I'm not clear on how separate the Paxton Rangers were from the Paxton Boys, but not as separate as they might have wished to be. The Paxton Boys were a vigilante group, of similar origin and quite likely consisting of at least some of the same men, who essentially went on the offensive to slaughter Native Americans (and also Moravians, who befriended the Natives and were therefore likewise seen as a threat). One of the suspected Paxton Boys was Lazarus Stewart; he was a Paxton Ranger, so if the rumors about him were true then there was definite overlap between the two groups. The most notorious incident involved the murder of twenty members of the Susquehannock tribe, twelve adults and eight children, in a particularly brutal manner. Benjamin Franklin decried them as savage murderers, and even Rev. Elder denounced the act. A generous reward was offered by Pennsylvania's governor for the arrest of the Paxton Boys, but they were never caught. Part of the event took place at the Old Jail in Lancaster, and it was uncommonly horrifying.
It wasn't a very pretty time in American history, especially viewed through a modern lens. I try to keep my blog posts light; but for subjects like this, that can be really difficult.
Anyway, I've had some trouble understanding all the details about the Blue Mountain Forts, because to be perfectly honest, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information readily available to me. Most of what I can tell you comes from the Historical Marker Database, which is an absolute treasure trove of information about all kinds of historic places. The official marker I have pictured up there says that there are, or rather were, six forts, but the HMDB only confirms the existence of five - Fort Hunter, Fort Manada, Barnett's Fort, Patton's Fort, and Fort Swatara. They recommend reading about them in that order to best understand their relationship with each other. None of these forts are still standing, and they all have PHMC markers of their own, so I'll be telling you more about them in detail down the road. Together, they provided protection for a 23-mile region between the Susquehanna River and the Swatara Creek, which flows near where today's marker is situated.
The thing they all have in common is that they were outposts of the Paxton Rangers. This is a name I've read in a few places, including on a few PHMC markers, and my understanding of just who they were is imperfect at best. At their outset, they were a volunteer regiment of militia based out of Paxton Township whose duty was to protect settlers from attacks. One of their leaders was the "Fighting Parson," the Col. Rev. John Elder, who was known for keeping a loaded shotgun in his pulpit when he preached.
I'm not clear on how separate the Paxton Rangers were from the Paxton Boys, but not as separate as they might have wished to be. The Paxton Boys were a vigilante group, of similar origin and quite likely consisting of at least some of the same men, who essentially went on the offensive to slaughter Native Americans (and also Moravians, who befriended the Natives and were therefore likewise seen as a threat). One of the suspected Paxton Boys was Lazarus Stewart; he was a Paxton Ranger, so if the rumors about him were true then there was definite overlap between the two groups. The most notorious incident involved the murder of twenty members of the Susquehannock tribe, twelve adults and eight children, in a particularly brutal manner. Benjamin Franklin decried them as savage murderers, and even Rev. Elder denounced the act. A generous reward was offered by Pennsylvania's governor for the arrest of the Paxton Boys, but they were never caught. Part of the event took place at the Old Jail in Lancaster, and it was uncommonly horrifying.
It's clear that I'm going to need to do some more homework on this subject. I'm going to be taking a break for the rest of June - my husband and I are going away for a few weeks, and I won't have access to my computer or my books. But we'll pick things back up in July, and hopefully you're as curious to learn more about the Blue Mountain Forts and the Paxton Rangers as I am, because I hate leaving questions unanswered. So stay tuned!
Sources and Further Reading:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania. Clarence M. Busch, State Printer of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, 1896.
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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