THE JUNIATA VALLEY***


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[Illustration: JUNCTION OF FRANKSTOWN AND LUCKAHOE BRANCHES OF THE
JUNIATA BELOW ALEXANDRIA.]


HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY:

Embracing an Account of the Early Pioneers,
and the Trials and Privations Incident to the
Settlement of the Valley,

Predatory Incursions, Massacres, and Abductions by the
Indians During the French and Indian Wars, and the War
of the Revolution, &c.

by

U. J. JONES.







Philadelphia:
Published by Henry B. Ashmead,
George St., Above Eleventh.
1856.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
U. J. JONES, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Stereotyped by L. Johnson and Co.
Philadelphia.




Dedication.


TO MAJOR B. F. BELL,

BELL'S MILLS, BLAIR COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


DEAR SIR:--I hope your well-known modesty will not be shocked when your
eyes encounter this notice. In dedicating to you the fruits of my first
historical labors in the field of literature, allow me to say that I am
governed by reasons that will justify me. In the first place, I may
cite your well-known and often-expressed veneration and esteem for the
memory of the brave old Pioneers of our Valley, their heroic deeds, and
their indomitable energy and perseverance, under the most discouraging
circumstances, in turning the unbroken wilderness into "a land flowing
with milk and honey." Secondly, you are the son of one of those
self-same old pioneers, (now in his grave,) who, if not a direct actor
in some of the scenes portrayed in the pages following, lived while
they were enacted, and trod upon the ground where many of them
occurred, while the actors in them were his friends and his neighbors.
Manifold, indeed, were the changes he witnessed during a long and
useful career; but the common lot of humanity was his, and he now
"sleeps the sleep that knows no waking," where once the lordly savage
roamed, and made the dim old woods echo with his whoop, many, many
years ago.

Lastly, it was through your encouragement that I undertook the task;
and it was through your kind and liberal spirit that I was enabled to
make it any thing more than an _unpublished_ history, unless I chose to
let others reap the benefit of my labors. These things, sir, you may
look upon as _private_, but I cannot refrain from giving them
publicity, since I acknowledge that your liberality has entailed upon
me a deeper debt of gratitude than I can repay by merely dedicating my
work to you.

Allow me, therefore, to dedicate to you, as a small token of my esteem
for you, the "History of the Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley."
If there is any thing in it to interest the present generation and
enlighten posterity, I am willing to divide the honor and glory of its
paternity with you, for I am neither afraid nor ashamed to confess
that, although I _wrote_ the _history_, it was through your generosity
that I was enabled to _publish_ the _book_.

A careful perusal of the work will, no doubt, convince you that I have
labored studiously to make it interesting, not only to the resident of
the Valley, but to the general reader, who must admit that, if I have
failed, it has not been for lack of the best exertions on my part.

In conclusion, should the book prove a failure, and not come up to the
expectations of my friends, you can console yourself with the
reflection that you made a mistake by inciting the wrong man to an
undertaking for which he was unqualified. A pleasant reflection! I
have said, that, as you were the _originator_ of the book, you should
share all the _honor_ that might arise from it. I will be more
magnanimous still; if the History proves a mere catchpenny swindle,
let the odium and execrations of a humbugged public fall upon

THE AUTHOR.

HOLLIDAYSBURG, PA