May 9, 1728: Usually Friendly Natives Attack Local Area

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

May 9, 1728: Instigated by the French in their attempt to stir up the Iroquois Nations against the English, 11 renegade natives, painted for war and armed with guns, pistols and swords, plundered the area around the Manatawny Iron Works in Douglas Township, committed several acts of hostility and took provisions by force. The natives fired upon about twenty colonists, all armed with guns and swords, and the colonists likewise fired back.

As soon as the colonial Governor, Patrick Gordon, heard about the incident, he and several men visited the scene and reported to the council in Philadelphia that he had met the inhabitants of both Colebrookdale and New Hanover and found the country "in very great disorder” but that there had actually been only one man injured in the melee.

Fearing another attack, several hundred men gathered from the surrounding countryside to defend themselves and their property against further ravages, but the natives had disappeared and have not been seen again. There were few reported instances of Pennsylvania colonists skirmishing with the natives, and generally they were considered to be on terms of friendship.

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