Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/40

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES town o f Bloomsburg, on the Bloomsburg & Sullivan railroad, in Scott township, near the site of the Paper M ill. It w as built o f logs and surrounded by a stockade sufficiently large to accommodate the families of the neighbor­ hood. T hey had hardly completed the fort before the Indians arrived and attacked it, but the defenders soon put them to flight. V an Campcn made this fort his headquarters when not engaged in scouting. CMe of the attractions to him was the daughter o f Wheeler, for whose hand Van Campcn and Col. Tosqih Salmon, another scout, were rivals. Salmon finally married the girl. Van Campen's father also for a time lived near the fort. F o rt Wheeler w as the only one of the long line o f defenses in this section of the State that w as never abandoned or destroyed by hostile hands. Tim e alone did the work of disintcgratior,. Peter Mclick, one of the com­ mittee o f safety for W yoming township, lived near here. T he old graveyard where the soldiers were buried is still recognizable, and the spring that supplied the fort with w ater is still running. T he land is now owned by the CrcvcJing family. John Craw ford, gran dfather of Joseph C raw ford, an old citi­ zen o f Orangeville, was the second child bom in this section, his birth taking place inside the stockade of the fort soon after its com­ pletion. in 1778. No vestiges of the fort are now to be seen, but the site is known to most of the residents o f that section. PORT MCCLL'RK

A t the time of the destruction o f Fort Je n ­ kins there was a line o f forts reaching from the W est Branch to the North Branch of the Susquehanna, comprising Forts Muncy, Free­ land. Montgomery. Bosley's M ills, Wheeler

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and Jenkins. T he loss of the latter fo rt left the right flank exposed to the marauders, so on Van Campen’s return from captivity he stockaded the home o f M rs. Jam es M cClure, on Uie bank of the Susquehanna, one mile above the mouth o f Fishing creek, and on the later site of the house o f D ot^las Hughes, be­ low Bloomsburg. I'h is fortitication took Ute name o f F o rt M cClure, and became the head­ quarters for stores and expeditions as long as the defense of the frontier w as necessary. T h is fort was never seriously attacked, though the near residents often fled to it for security, it was never more than a stockade and further fortificatioiis were not bu ilt A residence now stands on the site. A m arker has been placed here by the Fort M cClure Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Bloomsburg. FORT BOSLEY

T his only fortified work in Montour county w as really the stockaded stone mill o f a M r. Bosley, in the forks of the Chillisquaque, at Washiiigtonville. D erry township. The mill w as built in 1773, stockaded in 1777. When the Indians became troublesome it w as gar­ risoned by about twenty men and became a place o f importance in the lines o f defense. Captain Kempkm was in command here in 1 7 ^, and assisted in repelling many attacks of the savages. The site of the old mill is easily re c c ^ iz a bic by the race and dam at the lower end of the town o f to-day. The headrace has been con­ tinued across the road, and the old dam site has been used as a location for the more mod­ em mill o f Snyder Brothers. The land on wnich the fort or mill stood was the property in past years o f Jacob Hartman and Jesse Umstead.

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