Fort Burd was erected in 1759, on site of “Redstone Old Fort,” an Indian earthwork, now Brownsville; this was called Nemacolin’s trail, and was the best course for the Ohio Company to reach the Ohio River. It was followed by Washington, with Christopher Gist, to the French forts in 1753, the first actual step here, in conflict with France. During the “French and Indian War” Fayette County was the scene of some of the most thrilling events in American history. In 1745 Washington’s expedition to gain possession of the Ohio Valley followed this trail to drive the French from “The Forks” (Pittsburgh); he advanced to Gist’s Plantation at Mount Braddock, then retreated to The Great Meadows, Fort Necessity, marked by tablet at Mount Washington, where he was defeated by the French under M. Coulon de Villers; previous to this, Washington had met a detachment of French soldiers under M. Coulon de Jumonville, in which Jumonville was killed, grave marked by tablet; first blood shed in French and Indian War. In 1755 Major General Edward Braddock’s expedition against Fort Duquesne followed Nemacolin’s trail to Mount Braddock, thence over Catawba trail, which enters Fayette County at mouth of Dunkards Creek; northward through Uniontown, crossing the Youghiogheny (Stewarts Crossing) at Connellsville, on through Mount Pleasant to Westmoreland County, Hunkers, Circleville, to McKeesport; crossing the Monongahela, then recrossing below at mouth of Turtle Creek. General Braddock, mortally wounded in the battle of the Monongahela, was carried back over the road he had opened to a point on the Cumberland Road, National Pike, where he died and was buried; Washington read the Episcopal burial service over him; grave marked by monument, erected by officers of his old regiment, the “Coldstream Guards of England.” Braddock’s Road became the main highway for settlers of Southwest Pennsylvania and Kentucky; the entire course is full of historic interest; sites of encampments, blockhouses and Indian forts; some are marked. UNIONTOWN, county seat, formed, 1776; population 15,692. Courthouse, Italian Renaissance; stone; architects, E. M. Butz and William Kauffman, Pittsburgh. Presbyterian Church has fine Tiffany windows. Mr. James Hadden, the historian of Fayette County, has a life-size bust of Washington, cut by himself from the wood of a wild cherry tree, which grew within the lines of Fort Necessity, in 1784. Washington owned the land on which the tree stood. Two miles south is Fort Gaddis, only frontier or settlers’ fort now standing in Fayette County, marked by tablet in 1908; there were sixteen such forts in this county, built of heavy logs, making durable houses for the frontiersmen, and safe retreat for neighboring settlers.