Forty of the invaders, as they may be called, put up a fort, which
was named on that account Forty Fort. This was in the winter of
1769, and two hundred more pioneers followed them in the spring.
The fort stood on the western bank of the river.
The Pennsylvanians, however, had prepared for them, and the trouble
began. During the few years following, the New Englanders were three
times driven out of the valley, and the men, women, and children
were obliged to tramp for two hundred miles through the unbroken
wilderness to their old homes. But they rallied and came back
again, and at last were strong enough to hold their ground. About
this time the mutterings of the American Revolution began to be
heard, and the Pennsylvanians and New Englanders forgot their enmity
and became brothers in their struggle for independence.
Among the pioneers from Connecticut who put up their old fashioned
log houses in Wyoming were George Ripley and his wife Ruth. They
were young, frugal, industrious, and worthy people. They had but
one child--a boy named Benjamin; but after awhile Alice was added
to the family, and at the date of which I am telling you she was
six years and her brother thirteen years old.
Mr. Ripley was absent with the continental army under General
Washington, fighting the battles of his country.
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