The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784: A Study of Frontier EthnographyWolf, George D.
History
The Fair Play Settlers of the West Branch Valley, 1769-1784: A Study of Frontier Ethnography
Wolf, George D.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Pennsylvania; Lycoming County (Pa.) -- History
At those sessions on October 22 and 23, 1784, the Pennsylvania
commissioners twice questioned the deputies of the Six Nations about the
location of the Tiadaghton, and were told twice that it was Pine
Creek.[11] In the first instance, Samuel J. Atlee, speaking for the
other Pennsylvania commissioners, called attention to the last deed made
at Fort Stanwix in 1768 and asked the question about the Tiadaghton:
This last deed, brothers, with the map annexed, are descriptive of
the purchase made sixteen years ago at this place; one of the
boundary lines calls for a creek by the name of _Tyadoghton_, we
wish our brothers the Six Nations to explain to us clearly which you
call the _Tyadoghton_, as there are two creeks issuing from the
_Burnet's Hills_, _Pine_ and _Lycoming_.[12]
Captain Aaron Hill, a Mohawk chief, responded for the Indians:
With regard to the creek called _Tyadoghton_, mentioned in your deed
of 1768, we have already answered you, and again repeat it, it is
the same you call _Pine Creek_, being the largest emptying into the
west branch of the _Susquehannah_.[13]
This, of course, was the "more positive answer" which the Indians had
promised after the previous day's interrogation.[14] It substantiated
the description given in the discussions preceding the Fort Stanwix
Treaty of 1768.[15] However, the map illustrating the treaty line,
although tending to support this view, is subject to interpretation.[16]
Regardless, this record of the treaty sessions provides the strongest
evidence to sustain the Pine Creek view.
There is little doubt that Meginness and Linn were influenced by the
record. This is certainly true of D. S. Maynard, a lesser
nineteenth-century historian, whose work is obviously based upon the
research of Meginness. Maynard repeated the evidence of his predecessor
from the account of Thomas Sergeant by describing the Stanwix Treaty
line of 1768 as coming "across to the headwaters of Pine Creek."
Maynard's utter dependence upon Meginness suggests that his evidence is
more repetitive than substantive.[17]
A more recent student of local history, Eugene P. Bertin, of Muncy,
gives Pine Creek his undocumented support, which appears to be nothing
more than an elaboration of the accounts of Meginness and Linn.[18] Dr.
Bertin's account appears to be better folklore than history.[19]
Another twentieth-century writer, Elsie Singmaster, offers more
objective support for Pine Creek, although her argument appears to be
better semantics than geography.[20]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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