Fort Hyndshaw

Fort Hyndshaw
Route 209 in Middle Smithfield Township
Near East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania in US
Fort Hyndshaw is located in Pennsylvania
Fort Hyndshaw
Fort Hyndshaw
Location of the fort in northeast Pennsylvania
Coordinates41°05′10.3″N 75°00′27.2″W / 41.086194°N 75.007556°W / 41.086194; -75.007556
TypeFort
Height70 feet (21 m) (at time of occupation)
Site information
OwnerState of Pennsylvania
Open to
the public		Yes
ConditionDestroyed by nature
Site history
Built1756 (1756)
In use1757 (1757)
FateAbandoned
EventsFrench and Indian War
Garrison information
Past
commanders		Captain James Van Etten
DesignatedJanuary 7, 1949 (1949-01-07)

Fort Hyndshaw was a fort in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, built in 1755 and 1756. It was the northernmost of a line of Pennsylvania defenses erected during the French and Indian War.[1]: 300 

The need for fortifications

At the beginning of the French and Indian War, Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela left Pennsylvania without a professional military force.[2] Lenape chiefs Shingas and Captain Jacobs launched dozens of Shawnee and Delaware raids against British colonial settlements,[3] killing and capturing hundreds of colonists and destroying settlements across western and central Pennsylvania.[4] In late 1755, Colonel John Armstrong wrote to Governor Robert Hunter Morris: "I am of the opinion that no other means of defense than a chain of blockhouses along or near the south side of the Kittatinny Mountains from the Susquehanna to the temporary line, can secure the lives and property of the inhabitants of this country."[1]: 557  In response to these attacks, the Pennsylvania Legislature placed Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton in charge to erect a chain of forts along the Blue Mountain in the Minisink region.[5]

Franklin, via a letter dated January 12, 1756 to Captain James Van Etten, ordered him to "proceed immediately to raise a Company of Foot, consisting of 30 able Men, including two Serjeants, with which you are to protect the Inhabitants of Upper Smithfield assisting them while they thresh out and secure their Corn, and scouting from time to time as you judge necessary on the Outside of the Settlements."[6][1]: 300 

Origin of the name

The Fort was named after Lieutenant James Hyndshaw (1720-1770), who was born in Ulster County, New York and was married to Maria Dupui/DePuy, a niece of Nicholas DePuy, one of the earliest European settlers from Esopus, New York, in Northampton County (present-day Monroe County), whose home became Fort Depuy during the French and Indian War around the same time as Fort Hyndshaw.[7] Hyndshaw was second in command to Van Etten.

Structure and history

A 70-foot square blockade was built around Hyndshaw's home. The Fort was active for a little over a year, at which point it was apparently abandoned. Since the fort was made of wood, it deteriorated over time.

Memorialization

A historical marker was placed in East Stroudsburg by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1949.[8] In 2003, a replacement historical marker was erected in the same location.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Thomas Lynch Montgomery, ed. Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, vol 1, Harrisburg, PA: W.S. Ray, state printer, 1916
  2. ^ Samuel J. Newland, The Pennsylvania Militia: Defending the Commonwealth and the Nation, 1669–1870, Annville, PA, 2002
  3. ^ Matthew C. Ward, Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754–1765, Pittsburgh, 2003
  4. ^ William Albert Hunter, "Victory at Kittanning", Pennsylvania History, vol. 23, no. 3, July 1956; pp 376-407
  5. ^ Amy Leiser, "Benjamin Franklin and his tie to Monroe County’s frontier forts," Monroe County Historical Association, September 9, 2012
  6. ^ Amy Leiser, "Monroe County's frontier forts: Fort Hyndshaw," Monroe County Historical Association, November 11, 2012
  7. ^ Amy Leiser, "DePuy: The peaceful homestead that became a fort," Pocono Record, October 14, 2012
  8. ^ Don Morfe, "Fort Hyndshaw," Historical Marker Database, August 10, 2015
  9. ^ Candace McGreevy, "One of Monroe's 'forgotten' forts gets marked," Pocono Record, June 22, 2003