I don't get asked questions often enough to have anything like a Frequently Asked Questions list. But one of the few that I have been asked more than once is "What do you do if a marker is missing when you go to collect it?"
This does happen from time to time. Markers become damaged when struck by a vehicle or a very large animal and need to be replaced, or they get removed for refurbishment and then put back later. On very rare occasions they can even be stolen, although how (or why) anyone would steal a marker is beyond my comprehension. Those things are pretty big and not exactly easy to carry around.
Usually the PHMC is aware of the situation, since they of course are the ones who repair or replace the markers in question. But if you ever notice that one is missing, you can make sure that they know about it. Just follow the steps outlined on this page to first confirm that they don't already know and then, if needed, to bring it to their attention. They'll appreciate the help!
But to answer the actual question, what do I do when a marker is missing? Apart from what I've just stated here, I take pictures of whatever is available in the area, if it's related to the marker subject. You know, all the things that I would normally photograph for a post anyway. Usually, I will then wait and hope that the marker returns soon. I absolutely will not take a picture from another source, unless the photographer gives me explicit permission. But I thought it would be funny to do something a little different, so we're going to visit a missing marker this week.
 |
The marker is supposed to be at the
intersection of Fort Henry Road and
Lancaster Avenue (PA 501). |
I hope you all enjoy the meme. When the marker gets replaced and I have a photo, I'll put it where it belongs.
Fort Henry was yet another of the colonial forts, built to protect European settlers during the French and Indian War. As I mentioned in my post about Gnadenhuetten in Carbon County, the Battle of Monongahela left our colonial province without any kind of real organized military force to defend the inhabitants. Col. John Armstrong wrote to the then-governor, Robert Morris, and recommended the construction of a "chain" of forts across the frontier, staffed with militiamen and dedicated to the protection of the people. Morris agreed, especially after the various attacks on settlements, including the 1755 massacre of Moravians at the aforementioned Gnadenhuetten.
It took the governor a little while to get the funding for these forts, which unfortunately meant that there was time for more attacks and massacres to take place. Finally, in November 1755, the Provincial Assembly agreed to grant sixty thousand pounds for the purpose of building the forts, stocking them, and training the troops who would garrison them. Among these were Fort Lebanon, Fort Swatara, and what Morris described as "the most considerable of them... at an important pass through the [Kittatinny] Hills." Morris was the one who dubbed the outpost Fort Henry, but there's no record indicating why. Most of the colonial forts were either named for their location, for a specific person, or for the family whose home was blockaded to create the fort. Fort Henry was definitely not named for its location, and it wasn't on anyone's family farm, so presumably it was named after an individual - we just don't have any clue as to who that might have been. (The only theory I've found anywhere suggests that it might have been after Prince William Henry, one of the younger brothers of King George III, but to me this seems unlikely at best.)
Not only do we not know who was honored with the naming of Fort Henry, we don't know very much about what it looked like. No one ever wrote a detailed description of it, unlike many of the others. However, we do have one source, which is a letter written to Governor Morris by Major William Parsons. That name rang a clear bell in my head, and it's because, although he doesn't have a marker of his own, he was the original owner of what's known today as the Parsons-Taylor House in Easton. The house has a marker, so Parsons shows up in my post about
George Taylor. It's because of him that we know anything about the appearance of Fort Henry, which he visited on May 29, 1756. He wrote to the governor that the fort was "very well built, the Pallisades are Spiked together at the Top, the Houses within are all covered with Tyle and the whole is kept clean and in very good order." Using tile on a frontier fort was very unusual, since they were rarely made with anything other than wood and stone. It's possible that the tile was meant to make it difficult to set the buildings on fire.
Parsons also wrote that the leaders of Fort Henry at that time were Captain Christian Busse, Lieutenant Samuel Weiser (son of Conrad Weiser, the great Native interpreter), and Ensign (later Lieutenant) Jacob Kern. Jacob, I've confirmed, was part of the
Kern family which founded the community of Kernsville in what was then northern Northampton County. Today we know it as Slatington in northern Lehigh County. I'm also descended from that Kern family, as my longtime readers might remember, although the name Jacob got reused a lot in the fuzzy records so I'm not sure exactly how I'm related to him. Still, it amuses me that once again I've found my own family history entwined with that of a PHMC marker.
Anyway, one thing we actually do know about Fort Henry is where it was situated. Thomas Lynch Montgomery, who is responsible for so much of our modern knowledge about the frontier forts of the commonwealth, drew a map which you can see here. (Click on it for a larger view.) It shows where Fort Henry stood in relation to the nearby farms, and though the fort was long gone by the time the roads became paved, this map no doubt allowed the PHMC to be certain that they placed the marker roughly a mile south of where it once stood.
Fort Henry had an ongoing problem with maintaining a sufficient garrison. On the orders of Conrad Weiser, a sergeant and nine soldiers were to remain in the fort at all times, and other soldiers would be sent as needed to serve temporary duty in other places, such as guarding the farmers while they gathered their harvests. But as the war continued, these men were frequently sent to bolster the garrisons of other forts, leaving Fort Henry with such a small force that they couldn't provide an adequate patrol between the neighboring forts in the 'chain'. Both Conrad Weiser and Captain Busse complained, which led to local men being allowed to enlist for three months rather than the previously required three years, and this helped for a little while. But then, when their three months were up, these temporary militia would leave and go back to their farms, and the fort was once again left without enough men. Luckily, the fort was never attacked outright, although Samuel Weiser informed his father that the Fort Henry troops were involved in a skirmish with a Native war party. This ended in the deaths of twelve soldiers and six Native warriors. Conrad Weiser sent his report about the matter to Governor Morris in July of 1756, so we know the battle took place prior to that; but exactly when or where it happened, no one apparently bothered to record.
Fort Henry has just two other mentions in the annals of history. The first was in October of 1757, when a teenage French officer showed up and surrendered to the forces there. After some interrogation, he was confirmed to be Michel Joseph Maray de La Chauvignerie (please do not ask me how to pronounce that). His father was the commander of Fort Machault, in what today is Venango County. Michel explained that he had gone out several days earlier with a raiding party, but had become separated from them and gotten lost in the forest, and had wandered until he found Fort Henry. The young man was treated well and later sent to Philadelphia, where he remained in captivity until he was released as part of a prisoner exchange in 1759. Meanwhile, war parties continued to raid local farms, and sometimes took children as hostages after killing some of the adults. A year after Michel's surrender, Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette printed a report from Fort Henry saying that a local farm along the Swatara Creek had been attacked. One man was killed and three others were missing; two children had been taken, though they were later found tied to a tree and rescued.
Following the resignation of Captain Busse in May of 1759, Fort Henry was abandoned. It did see a brief return to service as a patrol station during Pontiac's War, from 1763 to 1764, but after that it was never used again. Over the next century, the local farmers helped themselves to wood and stone to supplement their own buildings, although parts of the fort were still visible as late as 1882. The building I've photographed here, though of relatively modern construction, is believed by those in the area to have been built using stone taken from Fort Henry. The stone monument beside it was placed in 1915 by the Historical Society of Berks County, and indicates that the fort stood roughly 25 yards north of the spot. A somewhat small farm pond occupies the portion of land which is thought to have been the actual site of the fort.
Sources and Further Reading:
Tucker, Spencer. The Encyclopedia of North American Colonia Conflicts to 1775: A Political, Social, and Military History. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008.
Montgomery, Thomas Lynch. Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1. Published 1916; transcribed for the USGenWeb Archives by Georgette Ochs.
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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