The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 | Page 2

Executive Director, Dr. S.
K. Stevens, for making possible this publication; he would also like to
thank Mr. Donald H. Kent, Director of the Bureau of Archives and
History, and Mr. William A. Hunter, Chief of the Division of History,
who supervised publication; and members of the staff of the Division
of History: Mr. Harold L. Myers, Associate Historian and Chief of the
Editorial Section, who readied the manuscript for publication; Mrs.
Gail M. Gibson, Associate Historian, who prepared the index; and Mr.
George R. Beyer, Assistant Historian.
My sincerest thanks are also extended to Mrs. Mary B. Bower, who
typed the entire manuscript and offered useful suggestions with regard
to style.
Finally, for providing almost ideal conditions for carrying on this work
and for sustaining me throughout, my wife, Margaret, is deserving of a
gratitude which cannot be fully expressed.
GEORGE D. WOLF

Introduction
Between 1769 and 1784, in an area some twenty-five miles long and
about two miles wide, located on the north side of the West Branch of
the Susquehanna River and extending from Lycoming Creek (at the
present Williamsport) to the Great Island (just east of the present Lock
Haven), some 100 to 150 families settled. They established a

community and a political organization called the Fair Play system.
This study is about these people and their system.
The author of a recent case study of democracy in a frontier county
commented on the need for this kind of investigation.[1] Cognizant of
the fact that a number of valuable histories of American communities
have been written, he noted that few of them deal explicitly with the
actual relation of frontier experience to democracy:
No one seems to have studied microscopically a given area that
experienced transition from wilderness to settled community with the
purpose of determining how much democracy, in Turner's sense,
existed initially in the first phase of settlement, during the process itself,
and in the period that immediately followed.
This research encompasses the first two stages of that development and
includes tangential references to the third stage.
The geography of the Fair Play territory has been confused for almost
two centuries. The conclusions of this analysis will not prove too
satisfying to those who unquestioningly accept and revere the old local
legends. However, it will be noted that these conclusions are based
upon the accounts of journalists and diarists rather than hearsay. This
should put the controversial "question of the Tiadaghton" to rest.
A statistical analysis has been made as a significant part of the
demography of the Fair Play settlers. However, limitations in data may
raise some questions regarding the validity of the conclusions.
Nevertheless, the national and ethnic origins of these settlers, their
American sources of emigration, the periods of immigration, the
reasons for migration, and population stability and mobility have all
been investigated. The result offers some surprises when compared
with the trends of the time--in the Province and throughout the
colonies.
The politics of Fair Play is the principal concern of this entire
study--appropriately, it was from their political system that these
frontiersmen derived their unusual name. This was not the only group

to use the name, however. Another "fair play system" existed in
southwestern Pennsylvania during the same period, and perhaps a
similar study can be made of those pioneers and their life. As for the
Fair Play community of the West Branch, we know about its political
structure through the cases subsequently reviewed by established courts
of the Commonwealth. From these cases, we have reconstructed a
"code" of operation which demonstrates certain democratic tendencies.
In addition to studying the political system, an effort has been made to
validate the story of the locally-famed Pine Creek Declaration of
Independence. Although some evidence for such a declaration was
found, it seems inconclusive.
The West Branch Valley was part of what Turner called the second
frontier, the Allegheny, and so this agrarian frontier community has
been examined for evidence of the democratic traits which Turner
characterized as particularly American. This analysis is not meant to
portray a typical situation, but it does provide support for Turner's
evaluation. As this was a farmer's frontier, and as transportation and
communication facilities were extremely limited, a generally
self-sufficient and naturally self-reliant community developed as a
matter of survival. The characteristics which this frontier nurtured, and
the non-English--even anti-English--composition of its population
make understandable the sentiment in this region for independence
from Great Britain. This, of course, is supremely demonstrated in the
separate declaration of independence drawn, according to the report, by
the settlers of the Fair Play frontier.
Fair Play society is, perhaps, the second-most-important facet of this
ethnographic analysis. An understanding of it necessitated an inquiry
into the social relationships, the religious institutions, the educational
and cultural opportunities, and the values of this frontier