SPEDDY TIMELINE

January 9, 2008

Michael W. Taylor

1739 and 1749: The Longueuil and Celoron expeditions of the French in 1739 and 1749 traversed this region, and French traders competed with Pennsylvanians for Indian trade.

1747: Nathaniel Wilson is born.

1750s: Exceptionally prosperous farming area had developed in southeastern Pennsylvania. Wheat and corn were the leading crops, though rye, hemp, and flax were also important. (TL)

1753: Washington fails to persuade the French to leave. (TL)

1754: *The Juniata Valley region was purchased from the Indians July 6, 1754…The Land Office for the sale of warrants did not open until Feb. 3, 1755: but the number of settlers who had already “squatted’ in the new purchase may be inferred by the fact that in three months after the purchase, at the request of said inhabitants, four townships were formed out of the new territory…(LT, p1)

1754-1763 - The French efforts in 1753 and 1754 to establish control over the upper Ohio Valley led to the last and conclusive colonial war, the French and Indian War (1754-1763). (Considerable Indian violence in Speddy/Speedy areas.) (TL)

1755: Mary Speddy is born in middle of the French and Indian War.

Gen. Braddock's British and colonial army was slaughtered on the Monongahela

An academy that held its first classes in 1740 became the College of Philadelphia in 1755, and ultimately grew into the University of Pennsylvania. (TL)

1758: Gen. John Forbes recaptured the site of Pittsburgh in 1758. (TL)

1760: Defeat of the French and Indian war alliance (TL)

1762-1769: King Charles II of England created a situation which resulted in years of suffering and bloodshed when he granted the same land to the colonies of both Connecticut and Pennsylvania.The settlers of Connecticut had received glowing reports from explorers and missionaries of a beautiful and fertile valley in Pennsylvania. Although the claim was granted to Connecticut in 1662, it was not until 1769 that Connecticut through the Susquehanna Company, sent forty men to the valley. They were told to hold the land against the Indians and the Pennsylvanians. (History of Forty Fort)

1763: Pontiac's Rebellion was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British policies in the Great Lakes region after the British victory in the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War (1754–1763). Warriors from numerous tribes joined the uprising in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region. The war is named after the Ottawa leader Pontiac, the most prominent of many native leaders in the conflict.

The war began in May 1763 when American Indians, alarmed by policies imposed by British General Jeffrey Amherst, attacked a number of British forts and settlements. Eight forts were destroyed, and hundreds of colonists were killed or captured, with many more fleeing the region. Hostilities came to an end after British Army expeditions in 1764 led to peace negotiations over the next two years. The Indians were unable to drive away the British, but the uprising prompted the British government to modify the policies that had provoked the conflict. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Captain Lazarus Stewart (July 4, 1734 – July 3, 1778) was an 18th century Pennsylvanian frontiersman and leader of the Paxton Boys. (William Speddy was identified by Dr. Paul Moyer as a prominent follower of Lazarus Stewart (the infamous leader of the Paxton Boys) and one of the "Paxton Settlers" He achieved notoriety by leading the massacre of the Susquehannocks in 1763, and was a prominent military commander — on the Yankee side — in the Pennamite Wars. He met his death in battle with the Loyalists and Iroquois at the Wyoming Massacre, in an attack precipitated by his own rashness. Stewart was born in Derry Township, then in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was well-educated for the time and place, and was raised as a farmer.[1]

In December 1763, Matthew Smith, one of the Paxton Boys, took a small scouting party to Conestoga Town to investigate reports of a hostile Indian being sheltered there. The party returned with tales of dozens of strange Indians occupying the town, and began to assemble a more substantial force. Col. Elder heard of the expedition, and sent a written message dissuading it, to no effect. On the morning of December 14, 1763, just before dawn, fifty armed and mounted Paxton Boys descended upon Conestoga Town, killed the six Indians they found there, and burned the town. While the Susquehannocks were probably in communication with hostile Indians on the frontier, the results of the Rangers' attack are hardly consonant with their supposed justification of harboring numerous hostile Indians.[2]

Fourteen of the Susquehannocks had been elsewhere when the massacre occurred, and were removed to the workhouse in Lancaster for protection. Lazarus Stewart and Smith, asserting that one of those fourteen was known as a murderer, assembled the Paxton Boys again. Ignoring Col. Elder, who now remonstrated with them in person, they descended upon Lancaster on December 27, 1763 and broke into the workhouse. Matthew Smith later claimed that the intent of the raid had been to carry off the single murderous Indian, but the Paxton Boys, in short order, butchered the fourteen unfortunate Susquehannocks. These incidents became known as the Conestoga Massacre.[2] (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

1765: The American Revolution had urban origins, and Philadelphia was a center of ferment. Philadelphia was a center of resistance to the Stamp Act (1765) (TL)

APR 2, 1767: Three Hundred and ten acres is ascribed to Agnes Wilson at a site on the river (presumably the Juniata River WE NEED TO CHECK THIS) above the tract of William Speddy who is cited four months before Speddy’s warrant is granted. Also in this citation above Agnes Wilson’s property is the 187 acre plot of John Wilson whose sons are Nathaniel and William.(Mary Speddy is about 12 years old.) (MT 1, p. 7)

1767 Speddy is shown as paying taxes in 1767 in Lack Twp. rootsweb.com//pajuniatataxes63.htm

AUG 4, 1767: Two hundred, eighteen acres is warranted to Speedy, in Milford Twp. PA. (Now in Juniata County Near Port Royal, PA) He later moved to Wyoming Valley, PA. (Date and specific area not clear.) No reason for move is given. (Speddy precedes wave of CT settlers by about two years (op. cit.)

1768: Although William Penn was granted all the land in Pennsylvania by the King, he and his heirs chose not to grant or settle any part of it without first buying the claims of Indians who lived there. In this manner, all of Pennsylvania except the northwestern third was purchased by 1768. (TL)

JAN 1770: Lazarus Stewart had no love for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in January 1770, he led thirty-nine militiamen from Lancaster County to the Wyoming Valley. At the time, settlers from Connecticut were contesting the possession of the area with the Pennsylvanians, in a struggle that became the first of the Pennamite Wars. Captain Zebulon Butler was able to recruit Stewart and his men for the Connecticut, or Yankee, side, encouraging them with the promise of land in Hanover Township. Stewart's band, reinforced by ten Yankees, recaptured Fort Durkee from the Pennamites on 12 February 1770. One of his soldiers, Baltzer Stage or Stagard, was the first man to be killed in the conflict, when the Pennamites under Captain Ogden unsuccessfully attempted to retake the fort in March.[3]

On 24 September 1770, a surprise assault by the Pennamites retook Fort Durkee, but Stewart escaped and fled southward. He was arrested two weeks later in York, Pennsylvania, but escaped at night. He returned to Lancaster County and assembled twenty-five of the Paxton Boys, who retook Fort Durkee by ambush on 18 December 1770. On 21 January 1771, a Pennamite force led by Ogden returned to construct Fort Wyoming and besiege Fort Durkee, but their demand that Fort Durkee be surrendered was met with gunfire. There was one casualty, Ogden's brother Nathaniel. Fearing arrest for murder, and outnumbered by the Pennamites, Stewart and his troops slipped away in the night and fled to Connecticut. The victorious Pennamites destroyed Fort Durkee and took possession of the area.[3] (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Our accounts show Speddy was arrested, sent to Philadelphia. See below:

JAN 1771: Capt. Nathan Ogden, Speddy’s Pennsylvania counterpart in the Pennemite/Yankee conflict is killed. Speddy is charged with murder. Is jailed in Philadelphia for about eight months. Is later found not guilty. (AOBV, pp. 45-48)

In July 1771, one hundred men under Captains Butler and Stewart returned to the Wyoming Valley to lay siege to Fort Wyoming. Captain Ogden slipped through the lines at night to raise a relief column in Philadelphia. The relief force was ambushed by the Yankees and lost their baggage and supplies. After a month-long siege, Fort Wyoming capitulated on August 15, 1771, and there would be peace in the Wyoming Valley for the next four years, in which Stewart and his militiamen could enjoy the cultivation of the lands granted them for their military services.[3] He and his wife, Martha Espy raised a family of seven children here. [3] (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

1772: Speddy lays claim to Northern portion of Buffalo Twp. as agent for Connecticut. (Now in Union County.)

1773: Deputy or lieutenant governors (addressed as "governor") resided in Pennsylvania and represented the Penn family proprietors who themselves remained in England until 1773. After 1763, these governors were members of the Penn family. From 1773 until independence, John Penn was both a proprietor and the governor. (TL)

1773: There were eleven counties. Westmoreland, the last new county created before the Revolution, was the first county located entirely west of the Allegheny Mountains. (TL)

1774: Support for Boston in opposition to the Intolerable Acts (TL)

1775: August: Pennsylvania troops took part in almost all the campaigns of the Revolution. A rifle battalion joined in the siege of Boston in August 1775. (TL)

1776:

Stagecoach lines reached from Philadelphia into the southcentral region.

Province's imports and exports were worth several million dollars.

Province of Pennsylvania had become the third largest English colony in America, though next to the last to be founded, Philadelphia had become the largest English-speaking city in the world next to London. There were originally only three counties: Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks.

1776: Pennsylvania troops fought bravely in the ill-fated Canadian campaign of 1776 and in the New York and New Jersey campaigns. (TL)

1776: June - Extralegal committees gradually took over the reins of government, and in June 1776 these committees called a state convention to meet on July 15,1776.

AUG 13, 1776: Speddy and a Martin Traester are chosen to represent Culbertson. Buffalo Twp. on Committee for Northumberland County for six year term. (Now in Union County.)

1776: September 28 - The convention superseded the old government completely, established a Council of Safety to rule in the interim, and drew up the first state constitution, adopted on September 28, 1776. This provided an assembly of one house and a supreme executive council instead of a governor. The Declaration of Rights section has been copied in subsequent constitutions without significant change. Many patriot leaders were bitterly opposed to the new Pennsylvania constitution. Led by such men as John Dickinson, James Wilson, Robert Morris, and Frederick Muhlenberg, they carried on a long fight with the Constitutional party, a radical group. Joseph Reed, George Bryan, William Findley, and other radicals governed Pennsylvania until 1790.

DEC 1776: Speddy volunteers for Capt. John Clarke’s Company of Northumberland County. Fights in Battles of Trenton and Princeton. This could be Wm. Speddy, Jr.. (AOBV, pp. 45-48) We have two different Military Records for 2 DIFFERENT Wm. Speedys.See website:

http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveItems&ArchiveID=13&FL=S&FID=578073&LID=578172

DEC 24, 1776: William Taylor is born in Ballymena, Ireland

DEC 26, 1776: Speddy is presumably at Battle of Trenton.This could be

Wm. Speddy, Jr.

Jan 2, 1777: Speddy is presumably at Battle of Princeton.

This could be Wm. Speddy, Jr. Check pension records.

1777 to June 1778: Following these battles, Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778.

October 1777 - June 1778: While Congress was sitting in York ( it approved the Articles of Confederation, the first step toward a national government. After the war, the capital was moved to New York, 1790 until the opening of the District of Columbia in 1800, Philadelphia was again the capital. (TL)

1778: Spring: News of the French alliance, which Benjamin Franklin had helped to negotiate, and the adoption of new strategy caused the British to leave Philadelphia in the spring. (TL)

Jul 3, 1778: Wyoming Massacre. Speddy’s whereabouts unknown.

1779: Frontier Pennsylvania suffered heavily from British and Indian raids until they were answered i by John Sullivan's and Daniel Brodhead's expeditions against the Six Nations Indians. (TL)

1779: Act which took over the public lands owned by the Penn family (but allowed them some compensation in recognition of the services of the founder). The conservatives gradually gained more strength, helped by the Constitutionalists' poor financial administration. (TL)

1780: The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 was the first emancipation statute in the United States. (TL)

1780: The state had contributed more than $6 million to the Congress and, when the American states had reached financial exhaustion, ninety Philadelphians subscribed a loan of £300,000 to supply the army. (TL)

1780: Ann Wilson is born November 23, 1780.

1782: Speddy is one of the assessors of Buffalo Twp. (Now in Union County.) (AOBV, pp. 45-48)

1782-1787: Speddy’s son William, Jr. is on the Tax lists of Milford Twp. Another son, Alexander whose name was pronounced “Speedy” was known as a speedy tailor Alexander was the father of Editor John W. Speedy of Port Royal. (Now in Juniata County (AOBV, pp. 45-48)

1784 and 1789: The Commonwealth bought the Six Nations' claims to the remainder of the land in 1784 and 1789 (TL)

1785: The Commonwealth bought the claims of the Delawares and Wyandots (TL)

1786: Speddy disappears from the assessments of Northumberland County but reappears in Fermanagh Twp. (Now in Union County.) (AOBV, pp. 45-48)

1787: The U.S. Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia. (TL)

1787: The Pennsylvania Assembly sent eight delegates to the Federal Convention. Four of these had been signers of the Declaration of Independence. The delegation included the venerable Benjamin Franklin, whose counsels of moderation on several occasions kept the convention from dissolving; the brilliant Gouverneur Morris, who spoke more often than any other member; and the able lawyer James Wilson, who, next to Madison of Virginia, was the principal architect of the Constitution. Pennsylvania's delegation supported every move to strengthen the national government and signed the finished Constitution on September 17. The conservatives in the Pennsylvania Assembly took swift action to call a ratifying convention, which met in Philadelphia on November 21. The Federalists, favoring ratification, elected a majority of delegates and, led by Wilson, made Pennsylvania the second state to ratify, on December 12,1787. (TL)

1790 to 1800: Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. While Washington was president, the state supported the Federalist Party, but grew gradually suspicious of its aristocratic goals. From the beginning, Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania was an outspoken critic of the party. When Thomas Jefferson organized the Democrat-Republican Party, he had many supporters in Pennsylvania. Thomas Mifflin, Pennsylvania's first governor under the Constitution of 1790, was a moderate who avoided commitment to any party but leaned toward the Jeffersonians. (TL)

1790: The census of 1790 showed that the number of African-Americans had increased to about 10,000, of whom about 6,300 had received their freedom. (TL)

1790: Large areas of the northern and western parts of the state were undistributed or undeveloped, and many other sections were thinly populated. (TL)

1791: Records of Speddy continue in Fermanagh Twp. . He lived at a place called Speddy’s Gap, near Mc Alisterville where he died. (Now in Union Twp(AOBV, pp. 45-48)

1794: The Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania in 1794 hastened the reaction against the Federalists and provided a test of national unity. The insurrection was suppressed by an army assembled at Carlisle and Fort Cumberland and headed by President Washington. Partly as a result, Jefferson drew more votes than Adams in Pennsylvania in the presidential election in 1796. It was a foreboding sign for the Federalists, who were defeated in the national election of 1800. (TL)

1799 - Mifflin was succeeded by Thomas McKean, a conservative Jeffersonian Democrat-Republican, who governed until 1808. (TL)

1876: The Port Royal Times, the only newspaper published in the west end of the county was started by John W. Speddy (Wm. Speddy’s grandson).

Citations: TL--Pennsylvania History Timeline, AOB--Annals of the Buffalo Valley,

MT--Milford Twp. “History of the Susqueanna and Juniata Valleys, LT--Lack Township, History of the Susqueanna and Juniata Valleys, p1 Others as indicated in body of text.