The LeRoy Massacre, Penns Creek Pa

Historical Marker Located at 1350 Pennsylvania 104, Mifflinburg, PA 17844

On the morning of October 16 1755, George Leininger, about 18 years old, accompanied his mother to Gabrils Mill, near the mouth of  Penns Creek, to grind grain. Their neighbors, the , LeRoy's had a hired man, who about that time set out to fetch the cows.  And just then,  a  band of Indians began a three day massacre, beginning at the LeRoy home.

The Indians were "undoubtedly incited by the French and encouraged by Braddock’s defeat" "...at the same time coveted this whole valley as a favorite hunting and fishing country. Because of these reasons they were resolved to drive out all the white settlers.” 

 Eight natives came to the cabin of  John Jacob Leroy.  Jacob fought desperately but was overcome by the Natives. He was drug to the door of the cabin, two tomahawks sunk into his head, and the cabin was set on fire.

160th Anniversary, 1915, Selinsgrove Pa

A young son, John, daughter Marie and a 5 year old girl  who was staying with the family were all taken captive. 

"Thereupon the Natives plundered the homestead and set it on fire. Into the fire they laid the body of Leroy, with his feet inside the cabin door. His body half consumed, the upper torso remained with two Tomahawks imbedded in his skull."

The  Natives then started a campfire nearby. As they sat around the fire, a neighbor by the name of  Bastian, having seen the smoke and heard shooting, rode up on horseback.    He was immediately shot down and scalped.

Two of the braves then went to the nearby home of the Leininger family, where they demanded rum.There was no rum to be given, so they next demanded tobacco. Tobacco was given, and after a pipe was  smoked, they announced:“We are Allegheny Indians and your enemies. You must die.” They shot the father tom, ahawked the son, then they  took the sisters,  Barbara and Regina Leininger, captive.

When nearby settlers  arrived at the LeRoy cabin, they found thirteen dead, and 11 missing, assumed taken captive.  

"We found thirteen, who were men and elderly women, and one child, two weeks old; the rest being young women and children, we suppose to be carried away. The house (where we suppose they finished their murder,) we found burned up, the man of it, named Jacob King [John Jacob LeRoy], a Swisser, lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burned, and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead; one of them newly marked W. D. We have sent them to your Honor. "

This 1756 map by Shippen shows the area where the massacres occurred, including Gabriels Mill.

Marie LeRoy & Barbara Leininger spent the next three years being moved around together, as prisoners.  They made their escape with two Englishmen in 1758.   Regina Leininger was separated from them, and was held captive for nine years.  After the battle of Bushy Run, a prisoner release was negotiated, and many captives were taken to the Army barracks at Carlisle, where  Regina's mother couldn't identify her, so in desperation, she began to sing the hymns she had sung to her girls as children.  Regina, who had not at first recognized her mother, recognized the song, and began to sing along, and then ran to embrace her mother, realizing who she was. In 2014 a movie, Alone But Not Alone, was made, based on their story.

John Jacob LeRoy was killed by the Indians near this spot during the time of the Penns Creek Massacre, October 16, 1755.  This was the first act of hostility by the Indians of this province following the defeat of General Edward Braddock, July 9 1755,  A daughter of John Jacob LeRoy, Marie and Barbara Leninger were taken captive at this time and taken to muskingum in Ohio, from which they escaped several years later and returned to Philadelphia.

A Very Brief Account Of The LeRoy Massacre, From The Historical Marker Dedication

A party of Indians, incensed by the occupation of the Juniata lands [today this would be the counties of Union, Snyder, Juniata & Mifflin) began a massacre, known as the Penns Creek Massacre.   This murder spree lasted three days; October 14-16, 1755.  It began at Selinsgrove, and ended at the LeRoy Springs.

At LeRoy Spring, the Indians found the cabin of John Jacob LeRoy, a Swiss Huguenot, who had come to this continent  on November 22 1752.   The Indians killed the settler, burned his home to the ground, and took LeRoy's daughter Marie prisoner.

The historical marker was placed here in August of 1919 by the Union County Historical Society.  At the unveiling, an  address was given by Thomas Montgomery, State Librarian, including the following history:

 

"In 1754 however, an agreement was reached between the whites and the Indians ceding all of the ground from a point a mile north of Selinsgrove to Presque Isle (Erie).  The Indians had become discontented over the grasping characteristics displayed by the successors of Pen, who was responsible for a friendly intercourse lasting more than sixty years.  During this time, Penn acted quite as honestly as the Indians. This cannot be said of his successors, and the Walking Purchase furnished them with the first cause for disgruntlement.  

After the cessation of 1754, they pleaded that they did not know the exact use of a compass and that if the West Branch of the Susquehanna was included in the agreement they wished a re-hearing.  In the meantime, the Penns had issued grand for this debated territory extending from Selinsgrove to the Sinnemahoning. This angered the Indiana an,  encouraged by the defeat of Braddock, they determined to wipe out all the settlers in this debated territory.  On October 16, a number of them arrived at LeRoy Springs, killed John Jacob LeRoy, and made prisoners of his daughter Marie and his son. Barbara Leininger, the daughter of a neighbor, was also captured, and they were taken West to Clearfield where the LeRoy boy was left.  Afterwards they went to Punxsutawney and Kittanning. General Armstrong, angered by the death of his brother who was shot at Fort Granville, took a considerable force to Kitanning and burned down the town.  The Indians fearing him more than any of their other adversaries removed their prisoners' northward until the retirement of Armstrongs forces.  Soon after they took them to Fort Pitt, and finally to a place beyond the Munkingum in Ohio.  During their travels to this point the girls witnessed a great many atrocities.  

On one occasion a prisoner attempting his escape was forced to eat his own fingers, and prisoners were cut in half and given to the dogs.  

At Fort Pitt, the French wished the women to stay in the fort, but they preferred to stick to the Indians as they had more confidence in them than in the French, and they thought their chance of escape would be better outside of the fort.  

On reaching the Muskingum region, they were forced to gather roots and tan hides with the squaws as their preceptors, until in the absence of some of the braves, the girls determined to make their escape, with an Englishman and a man by the name of Breckenridge.

They found a raft which conveyed them over the Munkingum, and with many difficulties, they reached the Ohio.  There they made a new raft and got to the opposite shore.  The four almost starved to death before reaching Chartier's Creek, as the Englishman had lost the flint of his musket.  They were greatly delayed, having to go one at a time on the raft, after  of them nearly drowned, the raft proving too light for their combined weight. 

Nearly famished, they reached the Monogahela where they were fed and provided with necessities by the commandant, General Mercer, who forwarded them through Ligonier, Bedford, and Harris Ferry to Philadelphia, where they told their story to the authorities.  Marie LeRoy had kept a journal, which was particularly valuable in that she kept a record of all of the white prisoners she had seen in her three years of traveling as a prisoner.  Many a heart was lightened by the report of the safety of relatives and friends.  

Read Excerpts translated from her journal here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-journal-of-marie-leroy-held-captive.html

The terror inaugurated by this Penns Creek massacre so depressed the incoming settlers that this district was not occupied again until 1768. The story of Marie LeRoy is remarkable from several standpoints. She had to go through much torture in the treatment of those immediately around her. At one point, even Barbara Leininger was threatened with burning on account of an attempt to escape, and was only saved by pleading of one of the younger Indians.  The confidence that the women shoed in the Indians rather than in the French is but one of the many instances which prove the Indians never offered violence to the women, and that their chastity was always safe under their protection.

Selinsgrove had its marker.  Sunbury has its tribute to Tedyuscung and the Pennsylvania Historical Commission rightly thought that LeRoy Spring was a most important contribution to this preservation of important incidents of the past"

The LeRoy Spring

The LeRoy Massacre As Recounted By  Linn in the Annals Of The Buffalo Valley

In October, 1755, the Indians came down upon the settlers. Two men were murdered within five miles of George Gabriel's, and four women carried off. The following contemporary record tells the whole story. It is a petition, addressed to Robert Hunter Morris, then Governor under the Proprietaries:

"We, the subscribers, living near the mouth of Penn's creek, on the west side of the Susquehanna, humbly show that, on or about the 16th October, the enemy came down upon said creek, killed, scalped, and carried away all the men, women, and children, amounting to twenty-five in number, and wounded one man, who, fortunately, made his escape, and brought us the news. 

 Whereupon the subscribers went out and buried the dead. We found thirteen, who were men and elderly women, and one child, two weeks old; the rest being young women and children, we suppose to be carried away. The house (where we suppose they finished their murder,) we found burned up, the man of it, named Jacob King [John Jacob LeRoy], a Swisser, lying just by it. He lay on his back, barbarously burned, and two tomahawks sticking in his forehead; one of them newly marked W. D. We have sent them to your Honor. 

 The terror of which has drove away all the inhabitants except us. We are willing to stay, and defend the land, but need arms, ammunition, and assistance. Without them, we must flee, and leave the country to the mercy of the enemy.

     George Glidwell,     Jacob Simmons,
     George Auchmudy,     Conrad Craymer,
     John McCahan,        George Fry,
     Abraham Sowerkill,   George Schnable,
     Edmund Matthews,     George Aberhart,
     Mark Curry,          Daniel Braugh,
     William Doran,       George Linn,
     Dennis Mucklehenny,  Godfrey Fryer.
     John Young,
 

Jacob King, alias John Jacob LeRoy, was killed at the spring on the late Mr. Slenker's farm.
He came over, in the ship Phoenix, from Rotterdam, arriving at Philadelphia, November 22, 1752, in the same vessel which brought over John Thomas Beck, grandfather of Doctor S. L. Beck, of Lewisburg. 

Rupp's Collection, In the third volume of the Pennsylvania Archives, on page 633, will be found the "Examination of Barbara Liningaree and Mary Roy, 1759. They say they were both inhabitants of this Province, and lived on John Penn's creek, near George Gabriel's; that on the 16th October, 1755, a party of fourteen Indians fell upon the inhabitants at that creek by surprise, and killed fifteen, and took and carried off prisoners examinants and eight more, viz;

• Jacob Roy, brother of Mary Roy;
• Rachel Liningaree, sister of Barbara;
• Marian Wheeler;
• Hannah, wife of Jacob Breylinger, and two of her children, (one of which died at Kittanin' of hunger;)
• Peter Lick and two of his sons, named John and William.

"The names of the Indians were Kech Kinnyperlin, Joseph Compass and young James Compass, young Thomas Hickman, one Kalasquay, Souchy, Machynego, Katoochquay. 

These examinants were carried to the Indian town Kittanning, where they staid until September, 1756, and were in ye fort opposite thereto when Colonel Armstong burned it. 

Thence they were carried to Fort Duquesne, and many other women and children, they think an hundred, who were carried away from the several Provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. They staid two months, and were carried to Saucang, twenty-five miles below, at the mouth of Big Beaver creek.

 In the spring of 1757 they were carried to the Kuskusky, up Beaver creek twenty-five miles, where they staid until they heard the English were marching against Duquesne, and then the Indians quitted Kuskusky, and took these examinants with them to Muskingham, as they think, one hundred and fifty miles, 

On the 16th March made their escape, and got to Pittsburgh on the 31st." 

The date of this deposition is about May 6, 1759.

Regina Leininger, captured by Indians during the French and Indian War, is buried in the churchyard of Christ Lutheran in Stouchsburg, the town where she lived with her mother after they were reunited by a hymn.

Alone Yet Not Alone - How A Hymn Reunited Regina Leininger With Her Mother

On the morning of October 16th 1755, 18 year old George LeRoy accompanied his mother to Gabrils Mill, located near the mouth of Penns Creek, to grind some grain.  When George and his mother returned home, they found his father and brothers murdered, their cabin burnt to the ground, and George's sisters gone.

Sister Barbara & Regina Leinger were captured at the LeRoy Massacre. Their father, and several brothers, were killed, but their mother had not been home at the time of the raid. She returned to find her husband and sons killed, their home in ashes and the girls missing.

Years later, following the battle of Bushy Run in Westmoreland County, American settlers and British regulars defeated several Indian tribes. At the defeat, and arrangement was made to reunite captive children with their families. Children taken captive by Indians were brought to Army barracks at Carlisle for an exchange.

With a heavy heart, Mrs Leininger went to Carlisle on Dec. 31, 1764, hoping to find the daughter taken during the massacre 9 years earlier. Regina, after 9 years of captivity, had forgotten most of her previous life. And her mother did not know what her daughter would look like, after 9 years had passed. Recognizing none of the young women standing before her, in desperation, Mrs Leninger began to sing the hymns she had once shared with her children.

"Alone and yet not all alone am I, in solitude though drear."

Hearing the voice and the song, Regina sprang from the crowd and began to sing along with her mother. The two, reunited, went to Berks County to live out the rest of their lives.

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https://amzn.to/2IwJx6h

Barbara Leinger's story, and reunion with her sister 9 years later, was made into a movie in 2014.

"The Leininger family settled deep within America's new frontier in the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania. A sudden Indian raid changed their lives forever. This story retells the heroic and daring escape of Barbara Leininger, and the touching reunion with her sister, Regina, after nine years." 

It's also available as a book - 

https://amzn.to/345VWqq

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Find More Local Stories & History Here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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READ MORE

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The Albany Purchase Boundry Line - Penns Creek

This boundary, in 1754, was located at the  northern boundary of what is today Selinsgrove.

When the Pennsylvania Canal was built, it diverted Penns Creek.  It's important to remember that when using the creek as the reference for boundary lines.  

In 1754, "the mouth of Penns Creek was located between the northern end of the Isle Of Que and Nigger Island.  A small stream named Island Creek, a tributary of Penns Creek, ran between what is now Selins Grove and the Isle of Que"

(Note that when the Pennsylvania Railroad surveyed the lands in Monroe Twp around 1905, the old Albany Purchase line was retraced, and the state presented Snyder County with a a tablet to mark the beginning of the line.)

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The Captives

John B. Deans wrote for the Union County Heritage that the captives were Marie and young Jacob Leroy, Marian Wheeler, Barbara and Regina Leininger, Hanna Breylinger and her two children, and Peter Lick and his sons John and William. A count of eleven. 

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The Leroy Massacre 

From An Essay By Kim Adair Mattern

Most of this story is from the eyewitness of the Leroy and Leininger children, or oral history. There are many references to this case. All have similarities, though there are some discrepancies. I personally have some doubts on some issues. Some of the writings are misleading or incorrectly referenced, and add to the confusion. It will be up to the readers to draw their own conclusion. I will try to set the events as accurately as I can. An Amish man named Jean Jacques Leroy (his Swiss name), also called John Jacob King (in English), came from Canton Berne, Switzerland in 1752. With him came his wife, his son John James (some reference him as John Jacob) and daughter Anne Marie. Because of fear of the French, he used his Swiss name Leroy. He and his family settled along Lick Run (now known as Sweitzer’s Run) in what is now known as Union County, Limestone Township. There seems to be very little reference to the wife. According to documents the Leroy family were the first to settle in Buffalo Valley. Here they lived a meager existence clearing land, growing grain, and raising a few head of cattle. By 1755 some other homesteaders had settled the area also, the nearest about a half-mile to the east, the Sebastian Leininger family. This family of five lived a similar life style to the Leroys. On the morning of October the 16th 1755, while “the hired man was out to fetch the cows. He heard the Indians shooting six times.” It was referenced that “while these Indians were undoubtedly incited by the French and encouraged by Braddock’s defeat, they at the same time coveted this whole valley as a favorite hunting and fishing country. Because of these reasons they were resolved to drive out all the white settlers.” This band of Natives, either Allegheny, Delaware, or a mixture of braves from different clans, had swept in upon the first squatters they found as the Natives ventured east. Ironically Leroy, being the first inhabitant of this area, was also the first they encountered and killed on this rampage. Eight of them came to the house and killed Leroy with tomahawks. John fought desperately but was overcome by the Natives. John, Marie and a little girl 50 who was staying with the family were taken captive. Thereupon the Natives plundered the homestead and set it on fire. Into the fire they laid the body of Leroy, with his feet inside the cabin door. His body half consumed, the upper torso remained with two Tomahawks imbedded in his skull. After all was done the Natives started a campfire nearby. As they sat there the neighbor, Bastian, rode up on horseback. He had heard the shooting, seen the smoke, and came to see what was going on. He was immediately shot down and scalped. At this point two braves proceeded to the neighbors Leininger. There they demanded rum. There was no rum to be given. They demanded tobacco, and there filled a pipe and smoked, then announced, “We are Allegheny Indians and your enemies. You must die.” They then shot the father and tomahawked the son and captured Barbara and Regina Leininger. Mrs. Leininger was away at a mill and was spared death or capture. As the story goes on, these natives went on to kill, plunder and capture east of the Leroy homestead. The count of the captives is, one man Peter Lick and his two sons, one woman Hanna Breylinger (wife of Jacob Breylinger) and her two children, Anna Marie and Jacob (John) Leroy, Barbara and Rachel (Regina) Leininger. A total of ten.

Interpretation At this juncture I will continue with some of my own thoughts. More theory yes, but with good reasoning. It is referenced that they had killed Leroy with tomahawks. In The Story of Snyder County it says he was killed by the spring near his home. Assuming that this is true, they must have dragged his body to the cabin. If the hired hand heard six shots fired, and they still had to kill him with hatchets, then they must have been very poor marksmen. I believe that they had shot Leroy by the spring, and perhaps tomahawked him as well, then carried his body to the cabin, laid him in the doorway and then set the cabin on fire. I doubt that they would have tried to put him into the cabin after it was set on fire, as it seems to read. At some 51 point they stuck the tomahawks in his head. I assume they did this as a warning to others and to let others know that Indians did this deed. It says a little girl was staying with the Leroy family, yet there is no other mention of this girl, except the name Marian Wheeler as a captive. I assume the little girl was Marian. However Union County Heritage, vol. 15, p.7, names her as Villars, perhaps a misspelling of the name Wheeler, or the other way around. According to the Snyder County version the prisoner count was ten - one man, five girls, one woman and three boys. John B. Deans wrote for the Union County Heritage that the captives were Marie and young Jacob Leroy, Marian Wheeler, Barbara and Regina Leininger, Hanna Breylinger and her two children, and Peter Lick and his sons John and William. A count of eleven. As for the “hired hand,” all the stories agree that he was there and heard the shots, however that is all that’s mentioned about him. He had to have told others of the shots or it wouldn’t have held true through all the renditions. Now I suggest that he must have saved his own skin and run away from the site. Not that that was a bad thing to do; going back to help would have been very brave, but might have been his last act. I wondered how he knew that it was Indians who fired the six shots and not perhaps Jean or John Leroy. I pondered this awhile and realized he must have gone back, and gotten close enough to see what was happening, thereby realizing that these were Natives shooting, and he too would be killed if he were caught. I can only imagine the terror and great pain, fear, and agony this man must have had in witnessing all that was happening to his friends. It is written that a neighbor, Bastian, was shot and scalped at the Leroy home. Union County Heritage vol. 15, p.6 lists him as Bostian. I find no other reference to any neighbors with that name. Who he is and where he was from is a mystery. While the Leroy Massacre was only the beginning of many conflicts to occur in Pennsylvania between the Native population and the settlers, it would become harder for the Natives to live in this area from this point on. The Penn's Creek Massacres were to incite the settlers and the militias that were forming, 52 leading to more and more incidents that left the Natives with nowhere to go. Most departed to New York, some went south, others went to the West. Eventually all the Natives were killed or driven out of Pennsylvania. All of their land was taken despite the many treaties and land grants. Even today, they are no longer a part of this Commonwealth. A very proud and peaceful people was destroyed by greed, bigotry, and our inability to live in peace with our Red Brother. Their bones and their stone tools are all that remain. Their land has been transformed from what it once was. We have yet to give anything back to the people who lived here in Harmony and Peace with all. The Susquehannock were beaten by the Iroquois and assimilated into the Iroquois Confederacy. These people were spread far and wide. Very few Natives today can trace their ancestry back to the Susquehannock. The Delaware and the Lenape today are different tribes. Because of differences they had split into the Western and Eastern Delaware. The Western clans crossed over the Allegany Mountains. This explains the two different names listed in the Leroy incident. The Delaware became the Alleganys, who eventually ended up in Oklahoma living on a reservation that is not theirs. I feel very sorry for the Delaware who lived in much of eastern Pennsylvania, inhabiting a vast territory - today they have not a single acre of soil in Pennsylvania to call their home. All of the Native Americans that lived, hunted or traveled through our beautiful region were killed, driven out or died from European diseases such as small pox, German measles, even the common cold. As said not a single acre of land has ever been set aside in this Commonwealth for Native People to call home. Nothing is left of any of them except their bones, tools, and place names. There are native people living in Pennsylvania today, although few and from many different tribes - perhaps better not to say they are all gone. I personally think that this is an injustice. Our founding father William Penn created this Commonwealth so that all people of all races and religions could live together, side by side, in peace with one another. 

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In the 1750s, the French began construction of a line of forts, spanning from Preqsue Isle on Lake Erie, to Fort Duquense in Pittsburgh.

At this time, there were a variety of Indian tribes, Dutch, English, and French, all battling for control of the trade routes and expansion to the western lands of Ohio.

Fort Duquense was built in 1754, at the spot where the Allegheny & Monogahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio river.  This was a strategically important spot, for control of trade and expansion to Ohio.

In July of 1754, a group of Englishmen, and a group of Indian Tribes known as the Six Nations, met at Albany New York.  There the Six Nations sold "all the lands within the province of Pennsylvania that had not been acquired.  This compromised "All the territory lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of Penns Creek, and running northwest by west to the western boundary of the province."

Note - The Walking Purchase of 1737!

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In July of 1754, a group of Englishmen, and a group of Indian Tribes known as the Six Nations, met at Albany New York.  There the Six Nations sold "all the lands within the province of Pennsylvania that had not been acquired.  This compromised "All the territory lying southwest of a line beginning one mile above the mouth of Penns Creek, and running northwest by west to the western boundary of the province." [See Note under "Read More" For the changes the Canal Made to Penns Creek, affecting this border description]

The Indian tribes who inhabited this land had already been displaced once, in an early conflict between tribes. [Or in the Walking Purchase??  ]  And now they had the land they had been given sold right out from under them. Forced back to the west, many aligned themselves with the French forces who were building forts all along the western line of Pennsylvania, from Erie to Pittsburgh.  Braddock, an English general, attacked Fort Duquense  (at Pittsburgh)  in an attempt to gain control of trade and western settlement routes.  Braddock was defeated.  Many of the Indians who fought with the French against Braddock then returned to the east, to reclaim their lands.

This is an incredible oversimplification, there are so many other factors in play at this time. But it gives you a very brief look at the context for what is about to occur.

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The historical marker was placed here in August of 1919 by the Union County Historical Society.

The order of exercises at the unveiling were as follows:

Song - "America"

Invocation - Rev. Dr Clipman

Original Poem - John W. Shatham

Introductory Address - J. Walker

Addresses - Hon Thomas L. Montgomery PHD, Rev Geoerge P Donehue D.D.

Song - Star Spangled Banner

Bennediciton - Rev W.M. Rearick D.D.

During the last son, the marker was unveiled by Mrs W. C. barol of Lewisbur gna dMr John W. Chatham of McElhatten.

Over 300 people were in attendance at the unveiling.

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On April 17th 2015, The Midatlantic Chapter of SPOOM & The Union County Historical Society held a tour of historic mills in Union County PA.  In addition to touring mill sites, we also stopped here.  (There was at one time a mill near this site as well)

All of my pics from this tour can be found here 

   https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.357905781078509.1073741960.175207949348294&type=1

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John Moore was not at this site with us, he told us about Fort Titzell today instead, but I found this event from last year on facebook that gives more information - 

John L. Moore, author and living history interpreter, will tell the story of the Penns Creek massacre of 1755, on Sunday, May 18 at 2 PM at the Dale/Engle/Walker House, 1471 Strawbridge Road, Lewisburg.

Moore is a Northumberland writer who specializes in telling true stories about real people and actual events on the Pennsylvania Frontier. He will tell how a war party of Delaware Indians allied with French soldiers based in the Ohio River Valley followed a forest path that led them to the Penns Creek settlements west of New Berlin. The warriors murdered some settlers and took others away as captives to the Ohio River Valley where many were adopted into Indian families. The incident at Penns Creek occurred during the French and Indian War, before the Pennsylvania colonial government built Fort Augusta at present-day Sunbury. Two of the prisoners, Marie LeRoy and Barbara Leininger, eventually escaped from their captors. When the girls finally reached an English fort, the British soldiers they approached for help were suspicious since they looked like Indian women.

A retired newspaperman, Moore has participated in several archaeological excavations of Native American sites. These include the Village of Nain in Bethlehem, PA; the City Island project in Harrisburg, PA conducted by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; a Bloomsburg University dig in 1999 at a Native American site near Nescopeck, PA.; and a 1963 excavation of the New Jersey State Museum along the Delaware River north of Worthington State Forest. John Moore has written and self-published seven books about the Pennsylvania Frontier. His most recent book is “Bullets, Boats & Bears.”

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During the French and Indian War, the Delaware who raided Pennsylvania's frontier towns cited the Walking Purchase as one of their grievances. The Penn family's political opponents, led by Benjamin Franklin and Quaker merchant Israel Pemberton, used the Walking Purchase as ammunition in lobbying the British Crown to strip the Penns of their proprietary privileges. At a series of treaties convened in Easton between 1756 and 1762, the Delaware living in the Wyoming Valley used this uproar to push for the restoration of their lands, but the Iroquois once again sided with the Penn family, dashing the Delawares' hopes.

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A full narrative of Anne M. LeRoy and Barbara Leininger's adventures was published by Peter Miller, at Philadelphia, in 1759.