Montgomery House Marker; Montour County
gathered what they could carry and locked themselves inside the incomplete fort. The Natives burned many local houses, but only a few made any attempt to attack the fort and they were easily turned back. The fort’s defenses were sound, even without the fort being entirely finished; these defenses were described as be- ing barricades “made with brush and stakes, the ends sharpened and locked into each other so that it was difficult to remove them and almost impossible for one to get through.” Not much seems to have been recorded about the appearance of Fort Wheeler, save that it was a stockaded fort on the banks of Fishing Creek. It had a spring on the property which provided fresh water, and there’s a mention of a cemetery for fallen sol- diers. As I said, the stockade was built around the house belong- ing to the Wheeler family; but while a lot of the old forts survive in the form of hand-drawn maps or even at least have a mention of the shape of the garrison, there seems to be no such record for Fort Wheeler. A little more is known of its leader, Moses; he was born in New Jersey in 1757, and was living in what is now Columbia Coun- ty when the Declaration of Independence was read. He joined the Pennsylvania militia and rose through the ranks. After Fort Wheeler was completed, it remained his base of operations for quite some time, and whenever Moses wasn’t involved in a scouting party, he used the fort as his headquarters. Local apoc- rypha states that one of the reasons for this is that Isaiah Wheel- er, on whose farm the fort was established, had an exceptionally pretty daughter, and Moses was in a love triangle for a little while with her and one of his scouts. Alas for Moses, she married the other guy. I’ll admit I have no idea if that story is true or not, but it’s kind of fun to picture. Less fun is the reason why Moses left Fort Wheeler. He remained stationed there until 1780, at which point he went with his fa- ther, who had also been staying at Fort Wheeler for a time, back to the family home, where they tried to rebuild what had been destroyed in attacks. But on the morning of March 29th, they were taken by surprise; Moses was taken prisoner, and his father and brother were murdered. He escaped a few days later, leading his fellow captives in a daring flight, and returned to service in the Pennsylvania militia. He later married Margaret McClure, on whose family farm he built another fort, so I’ll continue his story when I talk about Fort McClure. As for Fort Wheeler, it does have an unusual distinction among the colonial forts in Pennsylvania, in that it was never abandoned. When it wasn’t actively garrisoned by soldiers, the locals manned it themselves. It was also never captured or destroyed by enemy forces. The only reason it’s not still standing is because it even- tually fell victim to the ravages of time, and ultimately collapsed. As late as 1896, the fireplace was still standing, if nothing else. In 1915, the Moses Van Campen chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a stone monument commemorat- ing its location; it was relocated in 2015 to Lightstreet Park, which is why I didn’t happen to see it. I’ll try to get a photo next time I get up to Bloomsburg. Nothing remains of the fort today except for the spring which provided it with water, and - possibly - that cemetery. But where exactly the cemetery might be, or have been, I can’t seem to find any indication. So if you know the answer, please reach out and let me know!
Meanwhile, let’s take our first shot at Montour County! This little county has only a handful of markers at present, and I was able to grab roughly half of them while we were on our way to Altoona last month. It’s a lovely green landscape with many attractive his- toric buildings, and Kevin and I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Sadly, because we were there on a week- day, the building in today’s post was not open for tours; but I’m sure it’s as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. At the time that the house was built, in 1792, Montour County didn’t exist yet; the land on which the house sits was still part of Northumberland County. The man who built the house was Gen- eral William Montgomery, a distinguished veteran of the American
Revolution. He was born in Chester County on August 3, 1736, to Alexander and Mary (McCullough) Mont- gomery. He was the sec- ond of their four (or five, sources vary) children, but he and his siblings lost their parents to unknown causes when they were all still quite young. It fell to various relatives and family friends to raise them, and they saw to it that William was educated in a number of professions, including milling, surveying, and trade. As a young man, he earned his title serving
General William Montgomery
in the Revolution as the commander of Chester County Militia’s Fourth Battalion. He fought on Long Island in New York and also in New Jersey. William was a busy gentleman. He had also served as a dele- gate to Pennsylvania’s provincial conventions and, after moving to Northumberland County following the war, he served several terms in the State Assembly. In 1784 he was elected to the Con- tinental Congress; the following year he was named Judge of Northumberland and Luzerne Counties. Through the remainder of his life, he held a number of other offices, including a seat in State House of Representatives (where he was serving at the time the house was built), and was named Major General of the Pennsylvania Militia. Somehow, while doing all of this, he found the time to have ten children with two wives; his first wife was Margaret Nevin, the daughter of his father’s business partner, and a few years after her death he married Isabella Evans. William and Margaret had maintained a very successful wheat farm in Chester County, but after her death he began buying land in Northumberland County. The land was positioned along the Susquehanna River and the Mahoning Creek, so it was originally known as Montgomery’s Landing. William brought his family to live there after the Battle of Wyoming, and along with building them an elegant home, he established the town’s first grist mill, sawmill, and trading post, and served as its postmaster. His adult son Daniel plotted out the portion of town which today serves as its historic center, between Mill Street and Church Street. Daniel was the principal merchant of the community, under his father’s
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