The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784 Part 17

[8] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 217-218, 518-522.

[9] This pride was notably demonstrated in the insistence of the Fair Play settlers that a stand be made at Fort Augusta following the Great Runaway. Previous to this, they had pleaded for support for "our Common Cause" in the defense of this frontier. _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, III, 217.

[10] _Pennsylvania Archives_, Second Series, X, 27-31, 417, and Fifth Series, II, 29-35.

[11] Quoted in Clinton Rossiter, _The First American Revolution_ (New York, 1956), pp. 4-5.

[12] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 37.

[13] _Ibid._

[14] _See also_, George D. Wolf, "The Tiadaghton Question," _The Lock Haven Review_, Series I, No. 5 (1963), 61-71.

[15] Buck, _The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania_, pp.

431, 451.

[16] Anna Jackson Hamilton to Hon. George C. Whiting, Commissioner of Pensions, Dec. 16, 1858, Wagner Collection, Muncy Historical Society.

[17] _Colonial Records_, X, 634-635. The following resolution of Congress was entered in the minutes of the Council of Safety on July 5, 1776:

_Resolved_, That Copies of the Declaration be sent to the several a.s.semblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety, and to the several Commanding Officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the Head of the Army.

By order of Congress.

sign'd, JOHN HANc.o.c.k, Presid't.

Provision was also made for the reading in Philadelphia at 12 noon on July 8, and letters were sent to Bucks, Chester, Northampton, Lancaster, and Berks counties with copies of the Declaration to be posted on Monday the 8th where elections for delegates were to be held. For some reason, the frontier counties of Bedford, c.u.mberland, Westmoreland, York, and Northumberland, contiguous to the Fair Play territory, were omitted from these instructions.

[18] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 1, 18.

[19] _The Journal of William Colbert_ gives frequent testimony to this statement, as indicated in Chapter Five.

[20] _See_ the map in Chapter One for the geographic boundaries of the Fair Play territory. Note the location of the top leaders, Henry and Frederick Antes and Robert Fleming, in Chapter Six.

[21] The number of different office-holders runs to better than ten per cent of the population.

[22] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 333-334.

[23] _Ibid._, pp. 306-307.

[24] _Ibid._, p. 306.

[25] _Ibid._

[26] Meginness, _Otzinachson_ (1857), pp. 163-164.

[27] _See_ Chapter Seven for an evaluation of "Democracy on the Pennsylvania Frontier."

[28] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, p. 307.

[29] Richard Hofstadter, "The Myth of the Happy Yeoman," _American Heritage_, VII, No. 3 (April, 1956), 43-53.

[30] The term "the personality of the law" is Turner's and emphasizes the men who carried out the law, rather than its structure. The fact that the ruling tribunal of the West Branch Valley was referred to as the "Fair Play men" rather than the "tribunal" ill.u.s.trates this contention.

[31] Turner, _The Frontier in American History_, pp. 253-254.

[32] _See_ Chapter Three, n. 24.

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