Traders First, 1754

Did you know the first white men through this valley were not farmers? They were traders, and they were here for skins.

In June 1747, years before any settlement was legal here, Conrad Weiser sat down with Shikellamy and other Indians at Chambers' Mill and heard a complaint against two traders, James Dunning and John Powel. Dunning was accused of stealing forty-seven deer-skins and three horses “upon the heads of Joniady River” — the Juniata, here. That is what the business was, and that is how early it was running.

They came along the old Indian path. Lytle's county history traces it: eastward through the Tuscarora Valley, Shade Gap, Black Log, Aughwick, Woodcock Valley, Hartslog Valley, Water Street, Frankstown, Hollidaysburg, and over the Alleghenies at Kittanning Point. “It was this trail,” he writes, “that gave Huntingdon county its early importance. It was the great highway between the east and the west.” Some of our roads still run on it.

Then the French and Indian War came through and emptied this frontier for years.

One correction, because we have seen it repeated: the Great Cove massacre of 1755 did not happen here. Great Cove is present-day McConnellsburg, in what is now Fulton County, about forty miles south of us. It belongs to the same war and the same terror that emptied this frontier, and it is not a Huntingdon County event.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

Armagh township was created and organized by the authorities of Cumberland county in January, 1770, nearly twenty years before the erection of Mifflin county. About the close of the French and Indian war a number of settlers came into Derry township, Cumberland county, which township then included all of the present county of Mifflin, and located in the valley north of Jack's mountain. The elections were held, and in fact all the township business was transacted south of the mountain, and as there were no roads yet opened the people on the north side of the mountain were placed at a disadvantage. By the latter part of 1769 the population of the valley had increased until the settlers felt justified in asking for the formation of a new township. A petition was accordingly presented to the Cumberland county court, which in January, 1770, took action upon the question as follows: "Upon reading the petition of several of the inhabitants of Kishachoquillas Great Valley, setting forth that they labour under the Burthen of being in one township with Derry, and as Jack's Mountain lies bene 117 tween the Great Valley and the rest of the township, which cuts away all conmiunication only at the Narrows.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 293,376 of the scanned text

Immediately following the cession of 1754 there was a rush of settlers to the "New Purchase." In August, only a little more than a month after the treaty was concluded at Albany, petitions were made to the Cumberland county court by the settlers in Sherman's, Tuscarora and Path valleys and along the Buffalo creek, asking for the establishments of new townships "to facilitate the improvement and good government of the new settlements." In accordance with the request of the petitioners, four new townships were erected, one of which was described as follows: "And we do further errect the settlement called the Tuskerora Valey 95 into a sepparate Township and nominate the same the Township of LAC, and we appoint John Johnston to act therein as Constable for the remaining part of the current year." This township included all of the present county of Juniata lying west of the Juniata river. Some time after it was erected the letter "k" was added to the name, and what remains of the original township now forms the western township of Juniata county. In 1762 the township of Fermanagh was erected. It embraced the territory lying north and east of the Juniata and included all the unorganized portion of the lands purchased from the Indians in 1854.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 239,413 of the scanned text

Several years later Cowen took up a tract of 294 acres, on which the western part of New Bloomfield is now located. Settlement was seriously retarded by the French and Indian war and for several years few people had the temerity to venture far out on the frontier in search of homes. In June, 1762, John Darlington warranted 345 acres and some of his family still reside in the county. On April 2, 1763, William Power took up 125 acres and later became the largest landowner in the county. Late in the year 1766 James McConaghy was granted a tract of 300 acres in the northern part of the township and south of his land James McCoughly took up 107 acres. McConaghy's land later came into the possession of William Power and upon it the old Juniata furnace was built in 1808. Robert Hamilton took up 330 acres in 1767 and the same year the names of Joseph and Michael Marshall appear on the assessment rolls of Cumberland county, the former 199 holding 100 acres and the latter 200, though they did not obtain title to their lands until May, 1769. In 1767 Thomas Barnett, a native of Germany, was assessed on fifty acres of land at what is known as "The Cove," in the present township of Penn. In 1785 he took out a warrant for 400 acres at the Cove and also one for 480 acres where the present borough of New Bloonifield now stands.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 493,438 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-09-09 · County history, independently fact checked

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