The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 | Page 9

proved valuable to more than speculators, whose case Volwiler documents so well, as West Branch settlements after 1768 will attest.
[7] The extension of Provincial authority to Pine Creek would have taken in three-fourths of what we have labeled Fair Play territory.
[8] John F. Meginness, Otzinachson: A History of the West Branch Valley of the Susquehanna (Williamsport, 1889), p. 106. The full passage from the Bethlehem Diary (now in the Moravian Archives) was translated by the late Dr. William N. Schwarze for Dr. Paul A. W. Wallace, historian of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, as follows: "In the afternoon [June 8, New Style] our brethren left that place [beyond Montoursville] and came in the evening to the Limping Messenger on the Tiadachton Creek, where they spent the night." In the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, II (1878), 432 (hereafter cited as PMHB), Zeisberger's account is translated in this manner: "In the afternoon we proceeded on our journey, and at dusk came to the 'Limping Messenger,' or Diadachton Creek [a note identifies this as Lycoming], and encamped for the night." Here the error is in identifying the Limping Messenger with the stream. Meginness, of course, repeated the error in his Otzinachson (1889), p. 106. Referring the passage to Vernon H. Nelson of the Moravian Archives, through Dr. Wallace, resulted in a clarification of the translation and the affirmation of the "Limping Messenger" as a camp on the stream. In the Bethlehem Diary, under June 8, 1754, the sentence appears as follows: "des Nachm. reissten unsre Brr Wieder von da weg u kamen Abends zum hinckenden Boten an der Tiatachton Creek, u lagen da uber Nacht." In the original travel journal the passage reads: "des Nachm. reissten wir wieder von da weg, u kamen Abends zum hinckenden Boten an der Tiatachton Crick u lagen da uber Nacht." De Schweinitz in his Zeisberger further confused the issue in his description of the journey. He takes the adventurers (Zeisberger, Spangenburg, Conrad Weiser, Shickellamy, and Andrew Montour) through the valley of the Tiadaghton Creek on the Sheshequin Path to Onondaga (Syracuse). There was an Indian path up Pine Creek, but it led to Niagara, not Onondaga.
[9] Meginness, Otzinachson (1889), p. 106. This is an added note of Meginness' commentary upon the citation noted above.
[10] John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1883), p. 468. Linn also deals with the Tiadaghton question in his "Indian Land and Its Fair Play Settlers," PMHB, VII (1883), 420-425. Here he simply defines Fair Play territory as "Indian Land" encompassing the Lycoming-Pine Creek region.
[11] Minutes of the First Session of the Ninth General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ... (Philadelphia, 1784), Appendix, Proceedings of the Treaties held at Forts Stanwix and McIntosh, pp. 314-322.
[12] Ibid., Oct. 23, p. 319.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid., Oct. 22, p. 316.
[15] E. B. O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, VIII (Albany, 1857), 125. In the discussions preceding the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768, the Indians' description of the boundary line could be interpreted as favoring Pine Creek: "... to the Head of the West Branch of Susquehanna thence down the same to Bald Eagle Creek thence across the River at Tiadaghta Creek below the great Island, thence by a straight Line to Burnett's Hills and along the same...." The juxtaposition of Bald Eagle Creek, the Great Island, and "Tiadaghta" Creek makes this conclusion plausible.
[16] See also ibid., Guy Johnson's map illustrating the treaty line, opposite p. 136.
[17] D. S. Maynard, Historical View of Clinton County, From Its Earliest Settlement To The Present Time (Lock Haven, 1875), p. 8. The line is given by Maynard as follows: "... and took in the lands lying east of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, beginning at Owego, down to Towanda, thence up the same and across to the headwaters of Pine Creek; thence down the same to Kittanning...."
[18] Eugene P. Bertin, "Primary Streams of Lycoming County," Now and Then, VIII (1947), 258-259.
[19] Dr. Bertin, former associate secretary of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, adds nothing to the Meginness and Linn accounts, his probable sources. He speaks of settlements as early as 1772, whereas it is a matter of record that Cleary Campbell squatted in what is now north Lock Haven sometime shortly after 1769. He refers to the establishment of homes, properly, but then goes on to add churches and schools. The source for his "Children and elders met together periodically to recite catechism to the preacher, who was a travelling missionary, one being Phillip Fithian," was J. B. Linn. But Fithian, an extremely accurate diarist, fails to mention the occasion during his one-week visit to this area in the summer of 1775. However, the real value of this article is the editorial note by T.