Historical records indicate that Fort Freeland was constructed between 1755 and 1785.
Archaeological Dig information from The Daily News newspaper, July 27, 1979
The haste with which the fort was burned is evidenced by the discovery of valuable household goods left behind. These artifacts, embedded in the earth for decades, provide a vivid window into the daily lives of the inhabitants. Starting on June 12, 1978, a federally funded archaeological project led by Dr. James W. Hatch of Penn State, graduate student John Mallory, and Warrior Run School District educator, James Bullock began a three-month excavation of the 65-acre site. Supported by 70 volunteers and a Federal Title 4C grant, the team uncovered sleeper floor logs from a two-story cabin with a stone foundation. A vast amount of pottery shards, and other colonial-era finds included a British Army bayonet, brass buttons, earthenware, and silverware, many recovered from a layer of scorched earth. These findings support the account that after the fort’s fall, women were released while men were taken prisoner and the site was looted and burned by the Torries and Indians.
A Fort Freeland battle article from Shore Lines paper, by Joseph Cox, September 1, 1968
The fight of Capt. Hawkins Boone at Fort Freeland on Warrior Run was such a famous one than an account of it appears in at least one York State history. It is a very vivid account, having been told by a participant, Benjamin Patterson.
”He and his younger brother fought in Captain Boone’s party and narrowly escaped,” says Meginness, who found the story in Judge McMaster’s History of Steuben County, N. Y. The fight took place outside the fort.
Boone’s party advanced cautiously and succeeded in concealing themselves in a cluster of bushes overlooking the camp of the enemy. Both Tories and Indians were engaged in cooking and eating, while a single sentinel, a fine tall savage, with a blanket drawn over his head, walked slowly too and fro.
Boone’s men commenced firing by platoons of six. The sentry sprang into the air with a whoop and fell dead. The enemy, yelling frightfully, ran to arms and opened a furious but random fire at their unseen foes. Their bullets rattled through the bushes where Boone’s men lay hid but did no mischief.
The time was midsummer 1779. Captain Boone and his men aimed. to free prisoners held in the fort.
The slaughter, Patterson says, of Indians and Tories was dreadful. The thirty-two rangers, firing rapidly and coolly by sixes, with the unerring aim of frontiersmen; shot down 150 before the enemy broke and fled. Boone’s men, with strange indiscretion, rushed from their covert in pursuit, and immediately exposed their weakness. ‘The Indians at once made a circuit and attacked Boone in the rear, while McDonald, the Tory commander, turned upon his front. They were surrounded. Seeing this, Boone tried to escape. His rangers broke and fled, and many escaped, but Boone was among the killed. Patterson was one who succeeded in escaping, but his story of 150 of the enemy being killed is very wide of the mark.
Meginness calls the whole story by Patterson a curious statement. On his own he says:
”The Fort Freeland prisoners were guarded by a portion of the British soldiers. Fifty-two women and children, and four old men, were permitted to depart for Sunbury. Great consternation prevailed in the country, after this battle, and the road· leading to Sunbury was filled with terrified women and children, flying for their lives. ”The next day after the capture of the fort McDonald deemed it best to retrace his steps as quickly as possible and he set his motley column in motion for the north. The prisoners were in charge of a detail or Indians and British and were treated fairly well! ”
Many mishaps befell on the way, however.
The first night they were confined in a dilapidated house near Muncy. One of them had attempted to escape during the day and he was placed on the second floor of the building for greater security. John Montour, on seeing him, pointed his gun at him as if to shoot him, but did not.
An old squaw, said to· have been a sister of Montour, threatened to scalp him, alleging that he had wounded her in a fight. She waved a tomahawk as if about to hurl it at him but finally desisted. The prisoner was frightened, and expected that he would be tortured, but his tormentors relented and left him.
* * *
Here is an episode worthy of retelling.
John Vincent was one of the men allowed to remain. His wife was a cripple and unable to walk. He carried her from the fort to the lower end of the meadow and laid her down, and there they remained until the: next morning, without shelter of any kind.
”It rained during the night, which made it very uncomfortable for them, In the morning he caught a horse which came to them, and making a bridle out of hickory bark, placed his wife on the back of the. animal and succeeded in getting her safely to Sunbury”.
Fort Augusta there was filled with troops.
”The enemy ravaged the country in ·the vicinity of Freeland Fort. and, burned and destroyed everything they could find. They advanced as far as Milton, where they burned the Marcus Hulings blacksmith shop and dwelling house. They did not venture much farther being afraid of meeting troops from Sunbury. After they had swept over the country it presented a sad scene of desolation, and it remained in this condition for several years, the settlers being afraid to reburn”.
Things are better now.
Lieutenant Hawkins Boone history from The Express Newspaper, September 9, 1968
Now we meet an old friend and Indian fighter.
“During the Revolutionary War, 1776, Second Lieutenant Hawkins Boone, a cousin of Daniel Boone, living at New Columbia and commanded a company of 67 privates. Boone was made a captain Oct. 4, 1776, and was killed by an Indian during an attack at Fort Freeland near Warrior Run Church, July 28, 1779.”
There is a full account of the fight elsewhere.
“By 1886 New Columbia consisted of 100 houses, a store, hotel, post office (built in 1826) and express office. It was served by the Catawissa and Williams• port Division, a branch of the Reading Railroad. The village now has several stores, ‘two active churches, and is headquarters for the White Deer Volunteer Township Fire Co. Ceco Corp. opened operations there this spring, and the National Gypsum Co. broke ground last month for a new plant outside New Columbia.”
Hitherto untold is a bit about Hawkins Boone.
“Thanks to Miss Odessa Schlotman, of the Jersey Shore Public Library, the following obscure but effecting Item In the life of Capt. Hawkins Boone has been discovered., It is from the Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, Saturday, Feb. 20, 1778. Printed in Vol. XI of the Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives, Page 704.
” ‘Petition of Captain Hawkins Boone, of the 6th Pennsylvania Battalion, a wounded Officer, praying to be allowed Cloathing out or the State Stores, was read; & in consideration of his peculiar situation, and of the Spirited intrepidity of his Conduct in a Campaign to the North and Westward, under Col. Hartley, when his situation might have justified his remaining at home.
” ‘Ordered, that Jacob S. Howell, State Clothier, do supply Capt. Hawkins Boone, a wounded Officer, with one suit of Cloatbes, two Shirts, and two pair or Stockings.’ ”
John T. Whiteman, once editor of the Jersey Shore Herald, is managing editor of the Milton Standard, which published the 32-page New Columbia Sesquicentennial supplement, is responsible for many or the first rate features which make It a success, if not for all of them.
The only mistake we could find, although we looked very hard, is Mrs. Catharine Smith, who made gun barrels for the Continental Army. Catharine is the traditional Pennsylvania spelling, but the supplement
spells it Catherine. But that is not as bad as calling stocks a stockade.