Scotch-Irish-L Archives

Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2004-08 > 1091802602


From: "Linda Merle" <>
Subject: Re: [Sc-Ir] State of Emergency Declared in Harrisburg
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 07:30:21 -0700


Hi Connie,

That's what I thought too (Scratch Wagon road, write in "wind"!

Apparently the Wagon Road when right through Lancaster and
York -- which is east of the Susquehanna (massively huge
and currently close to flooding river). West of it in
land purchased later on from the Indians, is what is
now Cumberland and Franklin Co's. However our ancestors
squatted on Indian land before it was legal to settle there.
The colony of PA actually burned out some settlers to
protect the Indians in the 1750s. These people of course
left no legal records since they were not there legally
and had every reason to avoid the government.

This area is VERY close to Maryland and Virginia. I was
in Chambersburg, which I think is close to Hagerstown,
MD, than to Carlisle. Maryland is very thin. Beyond it
is VA. What this means is that if your ancsetors were in
southern Cumberland area in the 1750s and so, check for
them in the Maryland records as well as VA. It wasn't
even clear where colony boundaries were till Mason and
Dixon. So they may have considered themselves Marylanders
and yet lived in PA. Maryland has much better early
church records and they are published. I have found some
of the people in PA in Maryland records.

VA is right beyond MD and I am fairly certain that some of
Morgan's Men in the French and Indian War were Pennsylvania
boys.

The area on the border with Maryland -- southern Franklin
Co today, near Mercersburg, from what I read this week,
was naturally a large meadow. Many Indian Trails crossed
here, so the area was certainly full of Indians itinerating
north, south, and west through the French and Indian Wars.
Apparently in the early 1700s the Shawnees moved north
through this area after being displaced by the Carlinians.
In any case I suspect you carried a gun when you went to
plow the field because while it was and is rural, you
could never know who would appear in your field as it was
a highway in the wilderness for colonial Europeans as well
as native Americans.

Linda Merle

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Connie" <>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 21:12:37 -0700

>Darn! I thought it was The Great Wagon Road. Gonna have to go back and do
>some erasing.
>
>Connie
>
> Now I know there's another
>> way all our ancestors got to South Carolina! They BLEW there
>> in a big storm.
>>
>> Linda Merle
>>
>
>
>





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