LANCASTER COUNTY. 355 



neighbors, having asked in vain* for protection from 

 Government, were bent upon making an assault that 

 would infuse terror into all called Indian ; if not put a 

 stop to Bill and George Soc's going abroad, and their 

 dances at Conestos^a.t 



And the conviction having become general, aroused 

 feelings, which war naturally engenders, in the bosoms 

 of the citizens, in the Paxton and Donegal inhabitants, to 

 extirpate the Conestogoes, the remains of a tribe of the 



♦Indians had been traced by scouts to the wigwams at Con- 

 estoga. Suspicion was awakened, the questions, " Are these 

 christian Indians treacherous ] Arc their wigwams the harbors- 

 of our deadly foe] Do they conceal the nightly prowling 

 assassin of the forest f These and the like surmises were en- 

 tertained by the people. The rangers were active in endeav- 

 oring to discover the perpetrators of those acts of violence. — 

 The people declared openly they no longer confided in the 

 professions of the governor; numbers of volunteers joined the 

 rangers of Northampton, Berks, Lancaster, and Cumberland, 

 who were engaged in tracing the midnight assassins. Such 

 was the state of irritable feeling of these frontier counties, yet 

 government was supine.'* 



•\Jacoh Bachman, Esq. of West Strasburg, says, he frequently 

 heard his mother relate, that when she was a girl of sixteen 

 Soc frequented their house ; but she never liked his counte- 

 nance — guilt played upon it. She also related, that a few days 

 previous to the fatal day of the Conestogoes, one of their old 

 women came , to their house, and enquired, " Have you heard 

 the bad news ;" when interrogated what bad news, she evasive- 

 ly replied " the snow, the snow." It was then remarked by 

 Mr. Rohrer, the father of Mrs. Bachman, "I guess. Bill and 

 George have been again doing mischief; they will be caught 

 sometime or other." 



In company with Dr. J. K. Neff, we called on Mr. John 

 Newcomer, August 10th, 1843, who told us, he distinctly remem- 

 bers Bill Soc, coming to his father's house seUing baskets, 

 brooms and wooden ladles. 



