Note 4 — PART I

Harris is mistaken in his derivation of the term “Burnt Cabins.” Little Meadows is nearly a hundred miles west of this place. Burnt Cabins took its name from the dispossession of the settlers by the Pennsylvania authorities in 1750. About ten years previous, groups of Scotch-Irish had begun to push over the Susquehanna into the attractive basin of the Juniata, which was still unpurchased Indian territory. The aborigines were so incensed that a deputation went to Philadelphia to protest, and an Indian war appeared imminent. The government sent out a commission headed by Secretary Peters, and including George Croghan and Conrad Weiser as members, to drive off the intruders and burn their cabins. The official report is found in Pennsylvania Colonial Records, v, pp. 440-449. The settlers themselves aided in the work, and Peters remarked, “It may be proper to add, that the Cabbins or Log Houses which were burnt were of no considerable Value, being such as the Country People erect in a Day or two, and cost only the Charge of an Entertainment [i.e., a log-rolling].” An Indian war was thus averted. The locality has retained its name of Burnt Cabins to the present day.—​Ed.