On August 16, 1758, Major Joseph Shippen wrote from the camp at Raystown: “We have a good stockade fort here, with several convenient and large store houses. Our camps are all secured with good breast works and a small ditch on the outside, and everything goes well.” The “Old Fort House,” which is still standing, was a large and commodious building for the period in which it was erected. It was used as the officers’ quarters, and was designated as the “King’s House.” Fort Bedford was the center of much activity during the latter part of the French and Indian and the Pontiac Wars. At times more than a thousand troops were quartered there. There are accounts of mutiny among the troops and other exciting incidents. In 1763, Fort Bedford was the principal depot for military stores between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, and in order to further strengthen it, the small stockades at Juniata Crossing and Stony Creek were abandoned and the force concentrated at Fort Bedford. Indians never made an attack upon the fort, but killed, scalped, or took prisoner, eighteen persons, in that immediate neighborhood. The town of Bedford was laid out by Surveyor-General John Lukens, in 1766. Following the Pontiac War Colonel James Smith, and his celebrated band of “Black Boys,” were conspicuous for several years and kept the Indians in check and administered a lasting rebuke to the Proprietary Government when it attempted to furnish food and clothing to the Indians on the western frontier. The history of Fort Bedford was celebrated by the visitations of such celebrities as Generals Forbes and Washington, Colonels Armstrong, Bouquet, Burd and others. The first white child born at Raystown was William Fraser. The county buildings, court house and prison, were arranged for in the act which erected the county. The first session of court was held April 16, 1771, before “William Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George Wilson, William Lochrey, and William McConnell, Esquires, justices of our Lord the King.” William Proctor was the first sheriff, and Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotary, recorder, and clerk of the court. The first attorney to be sworn was Robert Magraw. The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers were Margaret Fraser, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton. Bedford County became an active unit in the State and when the Revolution broke out she sent her best men into the State Conventions and during all that long struggle for independence performed her full duty to Pennsylvania and the colonies.