The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 | Page 5

between
Lycoming Creek and the Great Island on the north side of the West
Branch of the Susquehanna River, and to those who interacted with
them, during the period 1769-1784, when that area was outside of the
Provincial limits. The appellation stems from the annual designation by
the settlers of "Fair Play Men," a tribunal of three with quasi-executive,
legislative, and judicial authority over the residents.
The relevance of the first Stanwix Treaty to the geographic area of this
study is a matter of the utmost importance. The western boundary of
that treaty in the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna has been a
source of some confusion because of the employment of the name
"Tiadaghton" in the treaty to designate that boundary. The question,
quite simply, is whether Pine Creek or Lycoming is the Tiadaghton. If
Pine Creek is the Tiadaghton, an extra-legal political organization
would have been unnecessary, for the so-called Fair Play settlers of this
book would have been under Provincial jurisdiction.[7] The
designation of Lycoming Creek as the Tiadaghton tends to give
geographic corroboration for the Fair Play system.
First and foremost among the Pine Creek supporters is John Meginness,

the nineteenth-century historian of the West Branch Valley. His work is
undoubtedly the most often quoted source of information on the West
Branch Valley of the Susquehanna, and rightfully so. Although he
wrote when standards of documentation were lax and relied to an extent
upon local legendry as related by aged residents, Meginness' views
have a general validity. However, there is some question regarding his
judgment concerning the boundary issue.
Quoting directly from the journal of Moravian Bishop Augustus
Spangenburg, who visited the West Branch Valley in 1745 in the
company of Conrad Weiser, David Zeisberger, and John Schebosh,
Meginness describes the Bishop's travel from Montoursville, or
Ostonwaken as the Indians called it, to the "Limping Messenger," or
"Diadachton Creek," where the party camped for the night.[8] It is
interesting to note that the Moravian journalist refers here to Lycoming
Creek as the Tiadaghton, some twenty-three years prior to the purchase
at Fort Stanwix, which made the question a local issue. Yet Meginness,
in a footnote written better than a hundred years later, says that "It
afterwards turned out that the true Diadachton or Tiadachton, was what
is now known as Pine Creek."[9]
Perhaps Meginness was influenced by the aged sources of some of his
accounts. It may be, however, that he was merely repeating the
judgment of an earlier generation which had sought to legalize its
settlement made prior to the second Stanwix Treaty. The Indian
description of the boundary line in the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768
may also have had some impact upon Meginness. Regardless, a
comparison of data, pro and con, will demonstrate that the Tiadaghton
is Lycoming Creek.
John Blair Linn, of Bellefonte, stood second to Meginness in popular
repute as historian of the West Branch Valley. However, he too calls
Pine Creek the Tiadaghton, though the reliability of his sources is
questionable. Unlike Meginness, whose judgment derived somewhat
from interviews with contemporaries of the period, Linn based his
contention upon the statements made by the Indians at the second
Stanwix Treaty meeting in 1784.[10]

At those sessions on October 22 and 23, 1784, the Pennsylvania
commissioners twice questioned the deputies of the Six Nations about
the location of the Tiadaghton, and were told twice that it was Pine
Creek.[11] In the first instance, Samuel J. Atlee, speaking for the other
Pennsylvania commissioners, called attention to the last deed made at
Fort Stanwix in 1768 and asked the question about the Tiadaghton:
This last deed, brothers, with the map annexed, are descriptive of the
purchase made sixteen years ago at this place; one of the boundary
lines calls for a creek by the name of Tyadoghton, we wish our brothers
the Six Nations to explain to us clearly which you call the Tyadoghton,
as there are two creeks issuing from the Burnet's Hills, Pine and
Lycoming.[12]
Captain Aaron Hill, a Mohawk chief, responded for the Indians:
With regard to the creek called Tyadoghton, mentioned in your deed of
1768, we have already answered you, and again repeat it, it is the same
you call Pine Creek, being the largest emptying into the west branch of
the Susquehannah.[13]
This, of course, was the "more positive answer" which the Indians had
promised after the previous day's interrogation.[14] It substantiated the
description given in the discussions preceding the Fort Stanwix Treaty
of 1768.[15] However, the map illustrating the treaty line, although
tending to support this view, is subject to interpretation.[16] Regardless,
this record of the treaty sessions provides the strongest evidence to
sustain the Pine Creek view.
There is little doubt that Meginness and Linn were influenced by the
record. This is certainly true of D.