Fort Penn played important role in local history
February 02 , 2013
In 1775, Jacob Stroud, a military veteran of the French and Indian War, was placed in charge of the Lower Smithfield Military Company. He began this post at the rank of captain and was ultimately promoted to colonel. One year later, Stroud was ordered by the executive council to build a stockade around his stone home. This fortified structure, which became part of Jacob Stroud’s command, was called Fort Penn. Read More...
Monroe County’s frontier forts: Fort Norris
December 12 , 2012
Fort Norris was located in the western reaches of what is now Monroe County, and was named for Isaac Norris, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker who served as speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and was later known as the man who commissioned the Liberty Bell. Read More...
Monroe County’s frontier forts: Fort Hyndshaw
November 11 , 2012
From December 1755 to January 1756, frontier forts were built in and around present-day Stroudsburg and Shawnee-on-Delaware, but there was a necessity to protect the settlers who lived in the northeastern-most corner of the area. Benjamin Franklin, who was staying in Bethlehem, recognized the need for another fortress and instructed Capt. James Van Etten to erect one. This outpost, known as Fort Hyndshaw, represented the farthest extent of the northeastern defensive line of Pennsylvania’s forts. Fort Hyndshaw was in present-day Middle Smithfield Township, just south of the present-day Monroe/Pike County border, near Bushkill Creek. The fort was named for James Hyndshaw, a European colonist who lived nearby. Read More...
Monroe County’s frontier forts: Fort DePue
October 10 , 2012
In 1755, an uneasy feeling between the native peoples and early settlers eventually made its way to the farm owned by the family of Nicholas DePue, one of the earliest white settlers of the Delaware Water Gap area. Samuel DePue, one of Nicholas’s son’s, had replaced the original log homestead with a large stone home. Because of its prime location near a reliable water source, one of Benjamin Franklin’s first acts in reaction to the growing hostilities between natives and settlers was to insist that the DePue homestead be occupied by a military force. Read More...
Benjamin Franklin and his tie to Monroe County’s frontier forts
September 09 , 2012
In 1755, the Pennsylvania Assembly put Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton in charge of creating a chain of forts along the Blue Mountains to protect citizens against attacks from native Americans. Franklin traveled to Bethlehem on December 18, 1755, to oversee the creation of these forts. The first to be built in the area now known as Monroe County was Fort Hamilton. Read More...