Talk:Fort Antes

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An entry from Fort Antes appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 29 April 2007.

[edit] Weiser's encouragement?

The article says that "John Henry Antes, with the encouragement of Conrad Weiser, settled along the West Branch Susquehanna River in 1772." Okay, but Weiser died 12 years earlier. Was Antes just slow in taking Weiser's advice? —Kevin Myers 11:52, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

• Thanks for pointing this out. It is puzzling. The information is in Buckalew (see ref in article): "The builder of this stockade, which played an important part during the Indian troubles preceding the Big Runaway, was one of the earliest pioneers to effect a permanent settlement here. It is believed that he was induced to locate lands and settle here by Conrad Weiser, and that he came as early as 1772." but Meginness makes no mention of Weiser's possible role (see Chapter 6 for his description of the fort). All that I have read about Weiser has him going through what became Lycoming County east of here (up the West Branch Susquehanna River then north along the Sheshequin Path). Do you even know if he was ever in the Nippenose valley? Did he go to the Great Island or Long Island? Ruhrfisch 12:32, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

  P.S. I like your articles on the Crawford Expedition and Lochry's Defeat (some do read them ;-) ). Maybe Big Runaway can be half as good someday... R

Thanks for reading those articles. ;-) I don't know enough about Weiser's movements to answer the above questions. As for the Antes/Weiser connection, I suppose we'll have to leave it at that unless somebody finds more info. Cheers! —Kevin Myers 13:59, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Col. Antes "was born near Pottsgrove, Montgomery county, October 8, 1736" (from Meginness, Ch. 6). Pottsgrove is very near the Berks County border and very roughly 35 miles from Womelsdorf. Antes would have been about 24 when Weiser died, so I suppose it is possible they knew each other. The land also wasn't open for settlement until 1769 (after the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix). It is not 100% clear when Antes arrived at what became the fort either. Do you think the statement should just be modified so it would read "John Henry Antes settled along the West Branch Susquehanna River by 1772"? Ruhrfisch 14:50, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It's probably not a big deal, but perhaps it should be reworded until you find additional information. I'd keep the sense of uncertainty about the date, as quoted in your source above, e.g. "... perhaps by 1772." Your sources are very old, of course; maybe something published at a later date filled in some of the blanks. Sipes's The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania might have more, though it too is dated. —Kevin Myers 14:57, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

User:Dincher actually wrote the article, so I will wait on his input, but this sounds good to me. Meginness is mind-numbingly detailed in places, but also dated. Unfortunately most of the more 'modern' sources I know are just rehashes of Meginness, but I will look into Sipes book. Thanks again, Ruhrfisch 15:28, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

I am not too concerned about moving Conrad Weiser out of the Fort Antes article. The possibility of he and Antes knowing each other is unclear. Maybe it could be said that Antes followed the path that was "blazed" by Conrad Weiser into this section of PA or something along those lines. I only ran across him in the Buckalew reference. I agree with Ruhrfisch many of the resources are very dated etc., I will remove the Weiser reference for now. Dincher 20:05, 4 May 2007 (UTC)