The Hochstetler Massacre - Fort Northkill

Fort Northkill
Fort Northkill was erected in February, 1756, about two miles from Strausstown, to the north and east of that place, and about four miles from Shartlesville. This fort lay about midway between Fort Henry on the west and Fort Lebanon on the east, each about eleven miles away. The daily record of the officer in charge of this fort has been printed, and covers the period between June 14th, 1757, and August 31, of the same year.[footnote]9 Under date of October 4, 1757, Col. Weiser speaks of enclosing the Journal for the last month of his ensign at Forth Northkill.[footnote]10

The author of the Frontier Forts assumes that this was the Journal which ends with August 31, and which has been preserved. If such a Journal was kept for the month of September, 1757, it would doubtless mention the attack on the family of our ancestor. But if such a Journal was kept, its whereabouts and contents are unknown. The author of the Frontier Forts believes that the troops were withdrawn from Fort Northkill some time in September, because early in October two lieutenants and forty soldiers were sent from Reading for the relief and protection of the settlers on the Northkill, which would not have been necessary had there been soldiers at the fort. At the same time Conrad Weiser urged strongly the return of his troops who had been taken from him to protect Fort Augusta, as the population had now left the country about that Fort.[footnote]11

The account we have of the daily task of the soldiers of the Fort, is mainly the story of a constant scouting of soldiers through the woods between the forts and finding or seeing nothing of the enemy. The Indians often saw the soldiers doubtless and carefully kept out of sight. During August the farmers had requested the services of the soldiers for help in their harvest fields and this help was given. The officers at the other forts were in constant need of more men and it may be that the Northkill force was taken to these other forts, and it may be that the military authorities were disposed to use their fighting forces to aid those who were ready to help themselves, as the Amish in the vicinity of Fort Northkill of course would not join in any fighting. A careful reading of the Northkill Journal shows that the presence of the soldiers may have been a check to the depredations of the Indians, but did not entirely hinder their attacking the settlers living even within a short distance of the forts.

[footnote] 9: In Pa. Arch., Vol. 2, pages 159-166; also Brunner’s History of the Indians in Berks County, and in Frontier Forts in Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, pages 107-116. In the Frontier Forts the accounts of the forts of the Blue Mountains including the Northkill, were prepared by so excellent an authority as Mr. H.M.M. Richards, of Lebanon, Pa. As printed in the Pa. Arch. the date of this document is given as 1754, a date which misled Brunner, as well as the Editor of the appendix of the Archives, who uses this date as the basis for a discussion of the Frontier Forts. Mr. Richards, author of the Frontier Forts, points out that this document must belong to 1757, and gives various reasons for his belief. He does not mention that the document itself furnishes evidence that it belongs to 1757 when it states that August 7 and 14 were Sundays, which was true of 1757. It is not known that this evidence has been heretofore pointed out.
[footnote] 10. Pa. Archives, Vol. 3, p. 283.
[footnote] 11. Pa. Archives, Vol. 3, p. 277.

Taken from pp. 28, 29 of Descendants of Jacob Hochstetler, by Rev. Harvey Hostetler, D.D., 1912. This portion was prepared by William F. Hochstetler.