Penn's Creek massacre

The Penn's Creek massacre was a massacre and Indian raid on October 16, 1755 near Penn's Creek where it flows through Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, US. The Indians killed all but one of the 25 settlers; a man who managed to escape and notify local authorities.^[1] The Indians responsible for the raid were Delaware Indians.^[2] They were dressed in war paint and war costumes during the attack. The area near where the massacre took place was also later rumored to be haunted.^[3]

Background

Indian raids and violence were fairly common in Pennsylvania during the autumn of 1755.^[2] The Penn's Creek massacre was encouraged by the French army.^[3] The Delaware Indians who committed the raid were relatively harmless to European settlers until shortly before the massacre.^[4]

In 1754, the land near where the Penn's Creek massacre took place was bought, and by the summer of 1755, there were 25 families living there. Meanwhile, on July 9, 1755, a combined force of American and British soldiers led by General Edward Braddock was decisively defeated while attempting to capture Fort Duquesne. Excited by their victory, a group of Indians began a raid. This raid started in Buffalo Valley and went on to Penn's Creek.^[4] Raids also occurred on much of the frontier. This was primarily due to the failure of Philadelphia's Provincial Government to intervene after the French Army won the battle on July 9. Settlers in the area that the Indians were attacking, which ranged from the Juniata River to Sunbury, requested that the Provincial Government send aid, but it did not.^[5] In early October 1755, Indians set out for confluence of West Branch Susquehanna River and Susquehanna River. They passed through Clearfield County and Centre County before climbing over Paddy Run and proceeding to attack settlements along Penn's Creek.^[6]

The attack

Early in the morning of October 16, 1755, a small group of Delaware Indians attacked the settlement of Penn's Creek on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. After firing several shots,^[7] eight Indians armed with tomahawks first attacked the farmer Jean Jacques Le Roy. The Indians then captured Le Roy's son and daughter, along with another girl who was living in the house (Mary Ann Villars), before plundering and burning down the house.^[2] When a neighbor of Le Roy's, named Bastian, heard the conflict and saw the smoke of Le Roy's house burning, he arrived on horseback, and was killed.^[8] Two of the Indians then travelled to the Leininger household, approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) away. There, they demanded rum, but were given tobacco instead.^[9] After they smoked a pipe, the Indians stated "We are Allegany Indians, and your enemies. You must all die!". They then proceeded to kill the men in the household and take two more prisoners.^[2][10] They killed a total of 14 people in the settlement of Penn's Creek.^[11]

After the attack, in the evening, a group of the Indians returned to the top of a hill near the two plantations they had attacked. Later, the rest of the group of Indians returned with six scalps, stating that "they had a good hunt that day".^[7]

Aftermath

The scalped bodies left behind from the Penn's Creek massacre were discovered on the evening of October 17, 1755.^[8] Once news of the event spread to the Thirteen Colonies, many people throughout them became panicked.^[6] A few days after the massacre, John Harris created a posse of approximately 40 men^[6] and traveled up from Harrisburg to investigate. They discovered the remains of the people killed in the massacre and continued up to Sunbury to gather information from friendly Indians who were in that area.^[4] The posse was attacked on the return trip at the isle of Que, where some of Harris's men and some of the Indians were killed.^[6]

Some of the Indians who were responsible for the massacre itself traveled eastward in small groups after the event, away from the Susquehanna River and up Swatara Creek.^[4] Others traveled westwards towards Kittaning, a community on the Allegheny River the morning after the event.^[8] The Indians who traveled up Swatara Creek attacked several more people in Berks County and Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.^[4][12] The event also caused Conrad Weiser to be placed in charge of a group of troops near Tulpehocken.^[13] Fort Augusta was built in 1756 due to the massacre.^[4] In early 1756, the Augusta Regiment was formed to defend frontier settlers.^[6] The area near where the massacre took place was near the frontier. As time passed, the frontier moved westward, and few of the people who re-settled the area were familiar with the savage events along the old frontier.^[4] Some of the prisoners saw Christian Frederick Post in 1758 when he was negotiating for peace between the Delaware and the Pennsylvania government.^[9] The prisoners Marie Le Roy and Barbara Leininger escaped in 1759.^[8] The British also realized the military strength of the French west of the Allegheny Mountains for the first time.^[6] Some confusion concerns the fate and identity of Regina Leininger, also called Regina Hartmann.^[14]

The Pennsylvania Historical Commission and the Snyder County Historical Society jointly erected a memorial devoted to the Penn's Creek massacre. It was dedicated on October 15, 1915 and erected on October 16, 1915. The memorial took the form of a plaque and is located on South End Old Trail north of Selinsgrove.^[15] The event is also memorialized on a second Pennsylvania state historic marker.^[16]

A stream is situated near the spot where Jean Jacques Le Roy died. It was historically known as LeRoy's spring, but its name was later changed to Sweitzer's Run.^[8][17]

As of 1915, there were Penn's Creek massacre anniversary committees.^[6]

See also

• List of events named massacres
• Sugarloaf massacre

References