186 HISTORY OF 



sylvania Indians, while on their return from the south, 

 when they had committed several robberies and out- 

 rages, stopped at Conoytown, May 20 , 1,719, and while 

 there, the Indians sent for John Cartledge, Esq. — On his 

 arrival, they sat doim before him in a gi^and council of 

 war, produced fifteen prisoners, bade him discourse with 

 two of them that spoke English. Cartledge found they 

 were natives of Virginia; he interceded for their lives 

 and liberties ; but the Indians turned a deaf ear to his 

 entreaties, and gave him to understand, that they 

 intended to continue in their dire perpetrations of out- 

 rages upon the Virginians, declaring, they had made a 

 clear path tp pass and repass, to and from the southward, 

 having removed all obstacles out of the way, and that 

 they expected to have free recourse for their people 

 amongst the English plantations, whilst they were 

 making war."* The apprehension of insecurity may 

 have influenced Harris to abandon this place, and locate 

 at Paxton. 



John Harris, the first vv^hite settler at Paxton, the 

 present site of Harrisburg, ^^experienced much difficulty 

 at his first settlement, as his supplies had to be trans- 

 ported on horses, a great distance. He was an extensive 

 Indian trader; and he was also the first person who 

 introduced the plough on the Susquehanna, within the 

 present limits of Dauphin county. 



His son John, the founder of Hamsburg, is said to 

 have been born at the present site of Harrisburg or im- 

 mediately below it, in 1726 ; and he is also said to have 

 been the first white child born in Pennsylvania, west 

 of the Conewago Hills. He died in 1791, aged 65 

 y«ars." 



*Col. Rec.III. 79. 



