June 10, 1778, has been referred to as the ‘bloodiest day,’ in the history of Lycoming County; a span of settlements along the west branch of the Susquehanna River of northcentral Pennsylvania. The Plum Tree Massacre was one of three separate attacks in one day on settlers by a war party of Iroquois and Loyalists. The raids occurred within five miles of each with a dozen killed and mutilated, including women and children. There were more possible victims as several bodies were never found nor heard of again. Some were taken captive with a report of torture; an African American was burned at the stake.
Many of these frontier communities infringed upon ‘Indian’ lands granted to Native Americans by British treaties prior to the war. The American Revolution reignited tensions which, by 1778, raged into a recurring battle of hit and run attacks on patriot settlements by Native American forces aligned with British Loyalists. Supported by the British Government in Quebec, small bands of raiders ambushed wilderness homesteaders in their fields as well as destroying their homes. These attacks later advanced into large scale planned raids on entire communities. With many of their men marching east to join Washington’s armies, leaving weakened local militias for protection, the settlers were ripe for attack.
After sanguinary days of isolated attacks against frontier farmsteads, the Plum Tree Massacre was but a precursor to the Wyoming Massacre, July 3-4, 1778. It would be the war’s deadliest attack on a western community with the largest loss of life. The devastating raid on Wyoming Valley, 50 miles east on the north branch of the Susquehanna River, resulted in the killing of just over 300 Continental troops and settlers. Over a hundred were taken prisoner; most spending years in captivity.
History of the Region: Treaty and Dispute on Boundaries
The Colony of Pennsylvania, under British rule, and the Iroquois Confederacy signed the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, New York, in 1768, resetting the border for colonial and Iroquois lands. Known as the ‘New Purchase,’ it opened a vast territory for settlement. By 1772, this region fifty miles west of the Wyoming Valley of northwest Pennsylvania and along the western branch of the Susquehanna River, became Northumberland County. Soon after, additional counties north and further west were formed – Union, Clinton, and Lycoming. The problem arose when settlers claimed land beyond what the Iroquois believed was their territory by treaty.
The Stanwix agreement stated that the New Purchase extended as far west as ‘Tiadaghton Creek.’ However, the identity of the creek was disputed. Whereas the Iroquois believed Tiadaghton was what the English called Lycoming Creek, the settlers claimed it was Pine Creek; some 25 miles further west. By the early 1770’s, pioneers were clearing farms throughout the disputed land. The British colonial government sided with the Iroquois, and notified homesteaders west of Lycoming Creek, that included a recently established community on the mouth of the creek, Jaysburg, that they were in violation of the treaty. However, with the advent of war brewing, the British Government had not the means nor manpower to evict the settlers.
Homesteaders were not about to give up their farms and even extended additional communities along the west branch of the Susquehanna River; 10 miles further to present day Lock Haven. When the British government informed these settlers that they would receive no protection, they formed their own self-rule government known as the Fair Play Men. They organized themselves into a loose confederation of influential men, setting up laws which were basically enforced by armed vigilantes. When the colonies rebelled against British rule in 1775, those of the Fair Play Men wholeheartedly supported the patriot faction. On July 4, 1776, the region declared a complete break from England and celebrated the Tiadaghton Declaration of Independence, separate from and without knowledge of the Continental Congress’ Declaration of Independence.
England Supports Partisan Frontier Warfare
British Major General “Johnny” Burgoyne failed invasion of the colonies from Canada during the summer and fall of 1777 forced England to seek other means to advance their interest along the colonial western frontier. Part of Burgoyne’s advance towards Albany, New York along Lake Champlain and the Hudson River, was a second-prong attack from the west. This force marched down the Mohawk Valley, using mostly provincial forces of Tory and Native American allies of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) and Lenape Nations. They defeated a hastily formed patriot force of local militias at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777. The British Partisan force continued their advance along the Mohawk River, but stalled and fell back to British Fort Niagara after Fort Stanwix held firm and the report of American General Benedict Arnold marching a large detached force to Stanwix’s aid. Burgoyne surrendered his entire army at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, ending any threat to the region from a regular British army.
Without British regulars to protract the war in the west, Quebec’s Governor Guy Carleton was ordered by England’s Secretary of State for the American Colonies, George Germain, to expand recruitment of Native Americans and Loyalist forces. During the winter of 1777-1778, while Washington’s army wintered at Valley Forge, Carlton encouraged and funded Colonel John Butler at Fort Niagara to recruit a Tory force called ‘Butler’s Rangers’, and Dartmouth educated Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) to unite the Iroquois Confederacy to fight alongside Butler’s Loyalists. The two leaders spent the winter growing their forces and developing tactics for a spring offense in New York and Pennsylvania. Besides the increased use of individual war parties that included both Native Americans and Loyalists, they also planned large scale attacks on patriot forts and entire regions. By May of 1778, the British partisan forces were ready to launch extended raids all along the frontier.
Attacks on Settlers Intensifies in the Spring of 1778
During the winter of 1777-1778, while Butler and Brant recruited their forces, tensions started to rise between Fair Play settlers on the west branch of the Susquehanna and local Iroquois. However, the region remained relatively calm with only a couple instances of violence. Two settlers had been killed in separate incidents and two Native Americans died in a skirmish with militia. By mid-May, 1778, that would all change.
In December, 1777, in a meeting among Iroquois chiefs that included Joseph Brant, Seneca leaders sought to target the Susquehanna River’s west branch. The region was in a territorial dispute and provided direct access to the Seneca Nation’s lands in western New York. In May, war parties of Seneca and Cayuga of the Iroquois Confederacy, along with Lenape warriors who had also aligned with England, moved into the upper Susquehanna Valley region that included both west and north branches of the river.
On May 16, 1778, three settlers planting corn were killed near the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek, among the furthest settlements to the west. Over the next four days, three men, seven women, and several children were taken captive by Native Americans in two attacks. In late May, three families on Loyalsock Creek were attacked; their cabins burned, two found dead and fourteen missing, assumed captured by Native Americans. A few days later, three families, amounting to sixteen persons, were attacked; only two bodies were found, assuming the rest were taken captive. In separate incidents, another family was taken prisoner near present day Linden while four men procuring boats to evacuate their families to Fort Horn at the mouth of Pine Creek were attacked. Robert Fleming, Robert Donaldson, and James McMichael were killed while John Hamilton made a miraculous escape.
Forts and Blockhouses
Having neither the funds to build nor manpower to garrison palisade type forts, primitive forts of smaller fortified structures and houses labeled blockhouses dotted the landscape and offered some protection in time of crisis. As settlers cleared land for farms, a string of these blockhouses appeared all along the west branch of the Susquehanna. With worsening conditions, settlers began to temporarily move their families to these small forts and fortified homes. They still had to return to their homes to tend to their crops and livestock and as such, were vulnerable to attack. In Lycoming, from east to west, these forts included:
- Fort Brady south of Muncy Creek; fortified Brady House
- Fort Muncy north of Muncy Creek; fortified Wallis House 2 miles north of Brady
- Fortified Harris House at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek, 8 miles further west
- Stockade and fortified house at mouth of Lycoming Creek, another 4 miles west (modern Williamsport)
- Fort Antes blockhouse, about 12 miles from Lycoming Creek and present-day Jersey Shore
- Fort Horn, blockhouse 4 miles further west at the mouth of Pine Creek
- Fort Reed, furthest west blockhouse 10 miles from Fort Horn on the Susquehanna River
- Four additional forts were constructed south of Lycoming County along the west branch of the Susquehanna River in Union and Northumberland Counties. These included from north to south:
- Fort Freeland – 10 miles from Fort Brady and near present-day Turbotville
- Fort Menninger – on the Susquehanna about 12 miles from Fort Brady
- Boone’s Fort – about 14 miles from Fort Brady
- Fort Augusta – at the junction of the west and north branches of the Susquehanna River and about 25 miles from Fort Brady
Single War Party Responsible
June 10th saw three separate attacks all within a five miles of each, along the Loyalsock and Lycoming Creeks. It was believed that the same war party was responsible for all three attacks and had descending Lycoming Creek by way of the Sheshequin Path. The passage linked the major Seneca village of Tioga, directly north on the north branch of the Susquehanna River, to the west branch of the Susquehanna at Lycoming; a distance of about 75 miles. After reports from survivors, it was later concluded that the party split up for the first and second attacks, coming together for the last and final attack at dusk.
First Attack: Capt. Berry, Newly Arrived from Fort Augusta Seeks Stolen Horses
A number of horses were stolen, owned by Peter Wychoff who had a farm on Mill Creek near the mouth of Loyalsock Creek on the Susquehanna. Captain Berry, newly arrived at Fort Muncy from Fort Augusta, the garrisoned fort at the juncture of the west and north branches of the Susquehanna, agreed to join a company of men who were determined to reclaim the animals. They set out from Fort Muncy to the Loyalsock Creek on the 10th, a distance of about 8 miles. Among them were Peter Wychoff, his son William and his two sons Cornelius and Joseph, cousins James and Thomas Covenhoven, along with other relatives. So too, a friendly Native American named ‘Captain Sharpshins,’ and an African American; the group numbering 12 in all.
Soon after the band set out, a messenger was sent to call them back. Colonel William Hepburn, militia officer and one of the original settlers of Jaysburg and what would become Williamsport, PA, commanded the fortified stone Samuel Willis House at Fort Muncy. He had received information of a possible war party descending the Loyalsock Creek. Robert Covenhoven was the messenger, brother to James and Thomas. He was an experienced scout and guide and had recently returned from duty as a Continental soldier in Washington’s army; his term of enlistment having expired. Barry, when told of Hepburn’s order, refused to accept the colonel’s authority, and carried on. With his brothers and so many other relatives in the party, Robert decided best to join them as a guide.
They eventually gave up on the horses and turned back toward Fort Muncy by way of their same route, against Covenhoven’s advice who feared an attack. When they reached what was called the narrows on the Loyalsock, the air was shattered by gunfire; the volley released from the Native Americans lying in ambush. Many of the party were cut down instantly with Robert and a few others escaping back to the fort. Though it was getting dark, Col. Hepburn sent out a rescue patrol. They found the bodies, including Robert’s brother James (shot in the back of his head) but not Robert’s other brother Thomas, nor Peter and his son Cornelius, and the African American. It would be two years before the captive others were released, reporting that the African American was burned at the stake before their eyes.
Second Attack: John Thomson Fatal Return to his Home to Bring off His Cattle
John Thomson was at Fort Muncy on the 10th, having temporarily located to the fort for safety. He regretted leaving his cattle behind and seeking to return to retrieve them; his settlement was nearby Loyalsock Creek. When he learned that Captain Berry and a group of men were heading out to the creek to look for stolen horse, he hoped to join them for protection. He found two other men to assist in driving his cattle back to the fort; Peter Shufelt, newly arrived from New Jersey, and William Wychoff, a boy of 16 and one of the extended Wychoff family. They mounted horses and accompanied Berry’s group to the Loyalsock Creek. When the party forded the creek, the three men turned away over the hills toward Thomson’s farm.
When Thomson got to his residence, all was as he and his wife Juda had left. By then it was past noon and they were hungry. Horses were tied near the entrance and they went inside to prepare dinner. Shortly after, as later reported by William Wychoff who survived, they heard the horses snort in alarm. A quick glance out over the yard and they spotted a group of Native Americans approaching from the barn. They grabbed their weapons and raced for the woods. As they ran, Peter Shufelt was mortally wounded. Thomson stopped to help his friend and returned fire. Another volley by the attackers and Thomson was hit, one bullet entering his powder horn and igniting it, severely burning his side as he lay in the agonies of death.
William Wychoff made it to the woods where he held off his attackers for threequarters of an hour before he was wounded and taken as prisoner. Shortly after Barry’s group with Thompson set out from Fort Muncy, so too did Colonel Hosterman with Captain Reynolds and a party of thirteen men, heading for Fort Antes, about 20 further west, to deliver ammunition. They had crossed the Loyalsock Creek when they heard gunfire. It took a while to decide it was coming from Thompson’s farm. By the time they got there, they could hear war cries in the distance. They found no bodies, but after an examination of the grounds, guessed the party was made up about fourteen, with a boot print indicating at least one Loyalist among them. A portion of the party continued on to Lycoming Creek, while the rest returned to Fort Muncy to report the attack. The next day, another party returned to the farm where Thompson’s and Shufelt’s bodies were found. Wychoff survived six months captivity with the Iroquois before he was exchanged. He would later marry the guide Robert Covenhoven’s daughter; living to a ripe old age before dying in 1847.
Third Attack: Plum Tree Massacre
This third and last attack on June 10th proved to be the deadliest. Of the sixteen within the party, 6 were discovered dead at the scene, brutally mutilated. Two were known to have escaped, two captured, while several were never found or heard from again; assumed killed. At a terrible cost, this attack also defined men’s courage to either stand and fight, or run to seek self-preservation at all costs. As to the husband and father of a wife and six children who were in the party, when the raiders attacked, he cowardly and inexcusable ran for his life, leaving behind his helpless family to be butchered.
The attack occurred just before sunset on the 10th, after the raids on Captain Berry’s group, and Thompson’s farm. Thought to be the same party responsible for all three attacks, this last one included around twenty warriors and Loyalists, indicating the raiders had come together by day’s end. And like the Berry attack, the party of settlers had been warned to turn back and seek safety, but failed to heed the advice and carried on to their fatal end.
The names of the party were noted by militia Colonel Hosterman of Fort Muncy. He stated this in a letter to Colonel William Winter at Fort Augusta. Listed were; Peter Smith and his wife and six children, Mrs. William King and her two children, three militiamen in Captain Reynolds’ company – Michael Smith, Michael Campbell, and David Chambers, and two other men who may also have been in Reynolds’ company identified only as Snodgrass and Hammond. The total number was six men, two women, and eight children.
Some of the party originated from Fort Augusta, at Northumberland at the mouth of the west branch of the Susquehanna River. Peter Smith had decided to move his family, his wife and six children, from Northumberland and further up the west branch of the Susquehanna River. He planned to resettle near Jaysburg, at the mouth of Lycoming Creek and present-day Williamsport, PA, about a 30-mile journey. He readied a wagon to transport his family along with their belongings.
So too at Northumberland was Mrs. Rachel King, age 29, and her two daughters, Sarah and Ruth, ages four and two. She had been instructed by her husband, Lt. William King, to remain at Fort Augusta until he came for them. He had gone ahead to Lycoming Creek and the Jaysburg region to finish building a new home on their farm. While there, he aided in the final construction of the blockhouse at the mouth of Lycoming Creek. Lt. King was an officer in the Pennsylvania state militia and had resided in the west branch region since 1774 when he and Rachel married. He fully realized the present danger of attacks on the extreme frontier settlements. When he finished construction of their new home, he promised to return to Fort Augusta and escort his family up the river.
It is believed that Rachel’s friend Peter Smith persuaded her to join him and his family, arguing that the trip by wagon was far more pleasant than ascending the river by canoe. Also, Rachel may have been encouraged to join the Smith family by circulating rumors of a pending attack on Fort Augusta by a large band of Iroquois and British traveling down the north branch of the Susquehanna.
When the wagon reached the Wallis House at Fort Muncy, they were joined by the five men from Captain Reynold’s company and set out for the last 12 miles of their trip to Jaysburg and Lycoming Creek. They reached the Harris Fortified House on Loyalsock Creek just as the sun was beginning to set. John Harris, son of ‘old Sam Harris’ for whom the house was named, told the party that he had heard firing up the creek earlier that afternoon (no doubt the attack on the Barry group). He warned them that it was too dangerous to proceed and either remain at the house, or return to the Wallis House at Fort Muncy. Harris later stated that Smith was determined to get to Jaysburg, about four miles up the road, and remarked that “firing would not stop them.” At that, the party continued on their way.
Just before dark, only a half-mile from their destination, the wagon and escort approached a wild plum orchard near the present-day 4th and Cemetery Streets in Williamsport. At the time the road was just a widened Indian path to accommodate wagons. Settlers had previously cut and piled branches from the plum trees by the side of the road. This proved to be a perfect spot to conceal oneself for an ambush. The party no sooner entered the grove when shots exploded from the brush.
Colonel Hosterman, among the militiamen who later came upon the scene, stated in his report that at the first fire, Snodgrass was shot through the temple and instantly killed. He wrote that at first, only two enemy guns had been fired. Three more shots exploded from the plum branches before the attackers leapt up and charged the wagon yelling fiercely. Seeing the charging warriors, four of the five remaining men left the wagon with women and children and took to the woods to return fire. As Hosterman stated, the attack by savages “occasioned our men to flee as fast as they could – all but Campbell [Michael Campbell of Capt. Robert’s militia], who was seen fighting at close quarters with his rifle, and the Indian’s gun was found broken to pieces.”
Campbell had remained with the women and children and gave his life defending them in brutal hand to hand combat before he was overwhelmed. Just before the attackers could surround the wagon, the four remaining men turned and ran for their lives, including Peter Smith, willfully leaving his family behind. Before they were out of sight of the wagon, the fleeing men “saw the Indians attacking the women and children with their tomahawks.”
At the beginning of the attack, two of the Smith children bolted for the woods, a boy and girl, and escaped through the underbrush. They made their way to Lycoming Creek where they were discovered by Captain Reynold’s company of thirteen men with Col. Hosterman accompanying them. Earlier that day these men had ridden to the aid of Berry’s group and came across the dead, sending a portion of their party back to Fort Muncy to report. They had remained in the Lycoming Creek region and heard the firing at dusk. Searching the immediate area, they found the children by the creek, confused and scared. They therefore thought it best to search the creek, thinking the children’s family had been attacked while in a canoe.
Meanwhile, a settler had reached Fort Muncy at dusk to report shots fired in the Lycoming area and the belief something serious had occurred there. Colonel William Hepburn organized a group of armed men and set off for the creek. They carried on the main road and eventually arrived at the plum orchard and scene of the attack. There they found two dead bodies, but it was by then too dark to search the area. They continued on to Lycoming Creek to camp where they met up with Capt. Reynold’s company and waited for daylight. When they returned the next morning, they discovered the bodies.
Casualties and Fate of the Plum Tree Massacre
Mrs. Smith was found shot, stabbed, scalped, and with a knife lying by her side. A little girl was found killed and scalped as was a small boy; both Smith children. Snodgrass had been shot through the head then mutilated; tomahawked, stabbed, and scalped. Campbell, who fought valiantly to save the women and children, was found shot in the back, tomahawked, stabbed, and scalped; a knife left sticking in his body. His rifle was missing. Interestingly, very little within the wagon had been taken.
After the five bodies were collected, it was reported that the boy who had escaped insisted that Mrs. King must be nearby. William King had heard of the attack and had arrived from the Lycoming blockhouse that morning. He was not aware that his wife and children were part of the party and joined in the search. The child said that as he hid, he heard her scream and say she would not be taken. When they tried to drag her away, she had fought desperately. A short time later, around nine that morning, they found Rachel King near a small stream where she had dragged herself during the night. She had been tomahawked, stabbed, and scalped, but was still alive.
Historian John Meginness in his history of Lycoming County wrote that Rachel had “rested with her hand under her head, with her brains oozing over her fingers.” He said that William took her in his arms and it is believed she recognized him before she died shortly thereafter, never having spoken another word. The six were buried in one location near where they had died. Meginness wrote that “Their internment was very likely the beginning of the cemetery which afterward served for many years as the place of burial for scores of the original settlers.”
Six dead were found at the site. Of the other ten: Two of the Smith children, a boy and a girl, had escaped and were found by the militia. The two King children were taken captive and discovered years later. Two other Smith children were missing, either killed or taken prisoner, their bodies were never found nor word of their captivity. Two men were never heard from again nor their bodies found – assumed to have been pursued and killed in the forest. Of the last two men, the father Peter Smith and Hammond, it appears one or both had survived. We know this as Colonel Hosterman was told details of the attack that only a witness and survivor could have related to him later. Unfortunately, history does not confirm who of the two men, Smith or Hammond, or both, later spoke with Hosterman.
William King would remarry during the war and, in 1783, five years after the attack and at the close of hostilities, he received news that his two children were captured by the Iroquois and had survived. He retrieved them at Fort Niagara in New York and returned with them to Northumberland. He learned that both had witnessed their mother tomahawked. They had been taken to Tioga whereas the younger Ruth was carried north to Canada by a Squaw and sold to an English woman. She was still with that family when William found and identified her. Sarah was adopted into an Iroquois family, but was eventually taken to Fort Niagara to reunite with her father.
As an adult, Ruth would relocate to New Jersey and live with her mother’s family where she met a sea captain, later moving to Genesee, New York where she lived out her life in financial comfort. Sarah stayed with her father William until his death in Jaysburg in 1802. William was buried nearby the graves of those slain and his first wife Rachael, which by then had become a cemetery. Sarah then lived with her half-brother on a farm close to the plum thicket where her mother was killed; dying in Williamsport in 1850.
What Happened to Peter Smith? Husband and Father Who Left His Family to be Butchered
As mentioned, two men may have survived the Plum Tree Massacre; Hammond and Peter Smith. Someone gave Colonel Hosterman the details of the attack and may have been one or both men. There is a strong indication that Peter Smith survived the attack and remained farming near Jaysburg, which his original destination when relocating his family from Northumberland. If he is the same Peter Smith who had lost his family, but for two of his children who had escaped, then he continued his pattern of self-preservation, chosing to run rather than defend family and friends.
In Franklin Ellis’ 1886 text “History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys…,” Ellis wrote of two occurrences in 1779, the year after the Plum Tree Massacre, whereas a Peter Smith who lived near Jaysburg was involved in two separate attacks by Native Americans. In both instances, when attacked, Peter Smith immediately ran to protect himself, leaving his friends to face their fate alone.
- First Instance: In early 1779, Capt. John Brady, of Fort Brady namesake, and his son James Brady, along with a company of six or seven men, formed to aid Peter Smith in cutting his oats from a field at Turkey run, about a mile below Jaysburg (site of Plumb Tree Massacre), and now present-day Williamsport. While the men were reaping Smith’s oats, a musket exploded, the bullet striking James Brady. A Native American ran up and while James was alive, scalped him. Peter Smith, nearby, instead of grabbing his gun and rushing to his friend’s aid, instantly ran for safety. Men would come back for James and find him still alive. They took him to his father’s fortified house where he died five days later.
- Second Instance: Tragedy struck the Brady family again. On April 11, 1779, Captain John Brady was returning to his fort after having procured some supplies. His wagon and guard were up ahead. As he rode, he came across Peter Smith who was traveling to the fort. As the two conversed, Brady and Smith decided to take a shortcut to the fort. Within a quarter mile of their destination, shots were fired in an ambush by Native Americans. Brady was hit and fell from his horse. As the horse raced by Smith, he grabbed hold and mounted it. Instead of riding back to try and protect his friend, Peter raced to the fort for safety. When armed men returned to Capt. Brady, it was too late – he had been tomahawked and scalped and left dead. At the fort, Brady’s wife recognized her husband’s horse. When Smith was asked about its owner he replied that “Captain Brady was in heaven or hell or on his way to Tioga [major village of the Seneca Nation].” Fortunately, in this writer’s opinion, Mr. Peter Smith made no more impressions on history and his legacy, if one could call it that, was forgotten.
- NOTE: Another Peter Smith had resided further south on White Deer Creek; however, he died by 1773 and his wife Catherine, known as Widow Smith, built a grist mill and a boring mill at the mouth of the river which was destroyed during the 1779 Little Runaway (so named after the 1778 Big Runaway)
Big Runaway, Wyoming, and Sullivan’s Expedition Against the Iroquois
Throughout 1778, Native American and Loyalist raids continued all along the Susquehanna and its tributaries, including the Mohawk Valley in New York. By July, one month after the Plum Tree Massacre, a large party of Iroquois and Loyalist called Butler’s Rangers, around 800 men, attacked the Wyoming Valley Community, about fifty miles to the east of Lycoming County on the Susquehanna River. In what has been called the Wyoming Massacre, just over 300 Continental Soldiers and Settlers were killed with over a hundred taken captive. With reports of a similar attack in their region, hundreds of settlers abandoned their homes all along the west branch of the Susquehanna River and in a mass exodus, traveled downstream to Fort Augusta in what has been called the Big Runaway. During late summer and fall of 1779, Major General John Sullivan commanded an expedition against the Iroquois Nation which has since been termed genocide. General Washington gave the general one quarter of his army, nearly three thousand men, organized in a two-prong attack which destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages and drove the inhabitants west where many died of starvation the following winter.
Memorial to the Plum Tree Massacre
If while in Williamsport, PA, and you go to Fourth and Cemetery Streets, you will no longer see a cemetery. Though there is a tribute to the massacre. A sandstone monument was erected in 1901 by the Daughters of the American Revolution at the site of the plum orchard and where the six dead were buried. Some years after the massacre, the Calvary Methodist Church was constructed at the plum tree grove. The church has since be converted into apartments; however, leaning alongside the foundation and near the monument, are two gravestones. One is of Sgt. Arad Sutton, of the 3rd Pennsylvania Continental Line. But the other; it bears the name of Lt. William King, husband of Rachel, who requested to be buried near her.
A simple memorial is engraved on a plaque: “This memorial marks the site of a massacre of white settlers by the Indians, June 10th 1778.”
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE FRONTIER WAR DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, CHECK OUT THESE FREE PREVIEWS ON AMAZON
OF SIMILAR INTEREST ON REVOLUTIONARY WAR JOURNAL
Resource
“Ambush of innocents: The Plum Tree Massacre.” Williamsport Sun Gazette May 28, 2016. Staff Writer
Baird, Tank. “The Plum Tree Massacre and the Iroquois War on Colonial Expansion.” Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.
Barr, Daniel P. Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. 2006: PraegerPublishers, Westport, CT.
Day, Sherman. Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania. 1843: George W. Gorton Publisher, Philadelphia, PA.
Ellis, Franklin. History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys, Embraced in the Counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder In The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Vol. 1. 1886: Everts, Peck & Richards, Philadelphia, PA.
Meginness, John F. History of Lycoming County. 1892: Brown, Runk and Co., Chicago, IL.
Mintz, Max. Seeds of Empire: The American Revolutionary Conquest of the Iroquois. 1999: New York University Press, New York, NY.
Myers, Paul W. Frontier Rangers from Northumberland County, PA, 1778-1783 1988: Closson Press, Apollo, PA.
“The Plum Tree Massacre” Staff Writer. The Pennsylvania Rambler. Jan. 22, 2020:
Truckenmiller, Heather. April 29, 2012 Heather Genealogy Blog. “Robert Covenhoven.”