They all set out the following morning for Harris’ Ferry, arrived at Barney Hughes’ hotel in time for dinner and reached Harris’ Ferry in the evening, when the soldiers were ordered to assemble for prayer and to meet their distinguished guests. Just as the assembly call sounded, a fire broke out in John Harris’ house and there were no prayers. He frequently lamented in his well-kept journal, that some trifling incident prevented officers or men, or both, from attending prayer. “Just as service began in the afternoon, had an alarm, but few, alas, seemed to regret the disappointment. Wickedness seems to increase in the camp, which gives me a great deal of uneasiness.” The following Sunday, “One of the bateaux which had on it a cannon was upset, which occasioned a great deal of labor, and what profane swearing there was. If I stay in the camp my ears are greeted with profane oaths, and if I go out to shun it, I am in danger of the enemy—what a dilemma is this? But my eyes would be toward the Lord.” In 1766 he was appointed, with the Rev. George Duffield, missionary to the frontier settlements in the new purchase and to the Indians of the Ohio River. He died August 12, 1772, at Barbados whither he had gone to collect money for the New Jersey College, which is now Princeton University. The Rev. Philip Fithian, who traveled through Central Pennsylvania in 1775, and who kept such an interesting journal of his experiences, was a son-in-law of the Rev. Charles Beatty.[1] Footnote 1: Reverend Charles Beatty had four sons, all officers in the Continental Army; John, who rose to the rank of colonel, and after the Revolution became a brigadier-general in the militia; Charles Clinton, a lieutenant, who was accidentally killed when another soldier of his command shot him while carelessly handling a pistol; Reading, a surgeon; and Eukuries, a lieutenant and paymaster, who continued long in the military service of his country after the Revolution, and was a major during the Indian campaign of 1788–1792. ------- Militia Organized at Provincial Council Meeting January 23, 1775 A Provincial Convention was held in Philadelphia, January 23, 1775, which lasted six days. At the organization of the convention, General Joseph Reed was chosen chairman.