Murdering Town (or Murthering Town) was a

Lenni Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Del ...

community that comprised several smaller villages along the

Connoquenessing Creek Connoquenessing Creek is a tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. Course Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the ...

and

Breakneck Creek Breakneck Creek is a tributary of Connoquenessing Creek that flows in a northwardly direction in Western Pennsylvania. It forms in the village of Bakerstown in Allegheny County then flows northwest through the borough of Valencia in Butler Cou ...

near present-day

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

, and Evans City,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The village was located along the

Venango Path Venango Path was a Native American trail between the Forks of the Ohio (present day Pittsburgh) and Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The latter was located at Lake Erie. The trail, a portage between these important water rou ...

which ran through what was then the

Ohio Country The Ohio Country (Ohio Territory, Ohio Valley) was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie. Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed i ...

during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

. Today, the area is part of

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the Unite ...

History

In 1753,

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

passed through Murdering Town while on a mission to

Fort Le Boeuf Fort Le Bœuf (often referred to as Fort de la Rivière au Bœuf) was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek (in the drainage area of the River Ohio), in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort ...

about six months before the French and Indian War began. On December 27, Washington, and his guide

Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...

, were shot at by a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

allied Native just a few miles from the village. A stone marker was placed along PA 68 near Evans City, PA, describing the encounter with the native.Journals of Washington and Gist, pp. 54. The exact location of the shooting is unknown but is thought to be somewhere east of Evans City in Forward Township.

References

Sources

*Novak, Michael, and Jana Novak, ''Washington's God'', Basic Books, 2006, . *''The Journals of George Washington and Christopher Gist: Mission to Fort Le Boeuf 1753-1754'', Slippery Rock University, 2003. French and Indian War Lenape Former Native American populated places in Pennsylvania Geography of Butler County, Pennsylvania {{US-hist-stub