LANCASTER COTTNTY. 301 



Indians had massacred and scalped many of the inhabi- 

 tants, not more than forty miles above Harris's Ferry, 

 (Harrisbm-g). About forty-five persons from Paxton 

 immediately proceeded to the spot, where they found 

 fourteen bodies shockingly mangled, which they in- 

 terred." At Reading, October 22, 1755, says Conrad 

 Weiser, the people are in a great consternation, coming 

 down, leaving their plantations and corn behind them ; 

 twenty-five persons, men, women and children, killed, 

 scalped and carried away on the 16th October; thirteen 

 killed, who were men, and elderly women, and one 

 child; the rest being young women and children carried 

 away ; a house burnt up. Many had been alarmed 

 before. 



The defeat of Braddock's army, July 9, 1755, threw 

 the inhabitants into the utmost consternation. "All the 

 females and children of the settlements, at Wright's 

 Ferry, numbering about thirty, were removed to Phila- 

 delphia, where they spent the winter. They occupied a 

 house in Chestnut street, which has since been pulled 

 down to make room for the Arcade. The men only 

 remained."* 



Toward the close of the year, 1755, a large number 

 of French neutrals were transported from Nova Scotia 

 into the different English provinces of America; and 

 many of these unfortunate persons, men, women and 

 children, destitute of means to support themselves, were 

 thrown into Lancaster county, and became a public 

 charge to the inhabitants. 



While preparations were making on the part of Eng- 

 land to carry on the war against the French, in 1755, an 

 expedition was undertaken against Nova Scotia, under 

 the command of Colonel IVIonckton. The expedition, 



*D. Goheen. 



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