County of Bedford Formed from a Part of Cumberland, March 9, 1771

The county of Bedford was erected March 9, 1771, by an act of the General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania.

The entire territory for the new county was cut from Cumberland County.

The commissioners appointed to “run, mark out, and distinguish the boundary lines between the said counties of Cumberland and Bedford,” were Robert McCrea, William Miller, and Robert Moore.

The boundaries of the new county embraced the entire southwestern portion of the State, from the Tuscarora Mountains westward to the Ohio and Virginia line.

March 21, 1772, at the time Northumberland County was erected, the limits of Bedford County were more definitely explained. Northumberland County was given a part of the original territory of Bedford.

The limits of Bedford were afterward reduced by the erection of Westmoreland in 1773, Huntingdon in 1787, Somerset in 1795, Cambria in 1804, Blair in 1846, and Fulton in 1850. The territory now wholly or in part of twenty of the present counties of Pennsylvania was in the original Bedford County.

The name was taken from the county town, which was selected when the county was erected. The town was so called from the fort of that name, which had been given to it by Governor John Penn, when, by his order the fort at Raystown was built. This was in honor of one of the dukes of the house of Bedford, in England, during the latter part of the reign of King George II.

The exact date of the building of Fort Bedford is not certain, but there is no doubt that the place of defense was celebrated during the French and Indian Wars. It was one of the earliest settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains. Mr. Jones in his History of the Juniata Valley claims that the earliest settlement on the Raystown Branch of the Juniata was made by a man named Ray in 1751, who built three cabins near where Bedford now stands. He further says: “In 1755 the province agreed to open a wagon road from Fort Loudon, in Cumberland County, to the forks of the Youghiogheny River. For this purpose three hundred men were sent up, but for some cause or other the project was abandoned.”

This road was completed in 1758, when the allied forces of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania marched against Fort Duquesne, under General John Forbes.

178A fort was built at this same time at Raystown, and called Fort Bedford.

Mr. Charles N. Hickok, of Bedford, who has written much of the history of that county, claims that Rae, as he spells the name, defended his settlement as early as 1751, almost a decade before the soldiers of Forbes’ exposition arrived there. The settlement was known as “Camp at Raystown” before General Forbes was encamped there, and his first official papers were so dated.

Early in April, 1757, Governor Denny ordered Colonel John Armstrong and his battalion to encamp at Raystown, “a well chosen situation on this side of the Allegheny Hills between two Indian roads.”

In June following Captain Hance Hamilton led a scouting party from the “Fort at Carlisle to Raystown, but encountered no Indians.”

On August 16, 1758, Major Joseph Shippen wrote from the camp at Raystown: “We have a good stockade fort here, with several convenient and large store houses. Our camps are all secured with good breast works and a small ditch on the outside, and everything goes well.”

The “Old Fort House,” which is still standing, was a large and commodious building for the period in which it was erected. It was used as the officers’ quarters, and was designated as the “King’s House.”

Fort Bedford was the center of much activity during the latter part of the French and Indian and the Pontiac Wars. At times more than a thousand troops were quartered there. There are accounts of mutiny among the troops and other exciting incidents.

In 1763, Fort Bedford was the principal depot for military stores between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, and in order to further strengthen it, the small stockades at Juniata Crossing and Stony Creek were abandoned and the force concentrated at Fort Bedford.

Indians never made an attack upon the fort, but killed, scalped, or took prisoner, eighteen persons, in that immediate neighborhood.

The town of Bedford was laid out by Surveyor-General John Lukens, in 1766.

Following the Pontiac War Colonel James Smith, and his celebrated band of “Black Boys,” were conspicuous for several years and kept the Indians in check and administered a lasting rebuke to the Proprietary Government when it attempted to furnish food and clothing to the Indians on the western frontier.

The history of Fort Bedford was celebrated by the visitations of such celebrities as Generals Forbes and Washington, Colonels Armstrong, Bouquet, Burd and others.

The first white child born at Raystown was William Fraser.

The county buildings, court house and prison, were arranged for in the act which erected the county. The first session of court was held April 16, 1771, before “William Proctor, Jr., Robert Cluggage, Robert Hanna, George Wilson, William Lochrey, and William McConnell, 179Esquires, justices of our Lord the King.” William Proctor was the first sheriff, and Arthur St. Clair was appointed first prothonotary, recorder, and clerk of the court.

The first attorney to be sworn was Robert Magraw.

The names recommended to the Governor for license as tavern-keepers were Margaret Fraser, Jean Woods, Frederic Naugel, George Funk, John Campbell, Joseph Irwin, John Miller, and Samuel Paxton.

Bedford County became an active unit in the State and when the Revolution broke out she sent her best men into the State Conventions and during all that long struggle for independence performed her full duty to Pennsylvania and the colonies.

Bedford County has had some illustrious sons among whom were Hon. Thomas Smith, Hon. Jonathan Walker, Hon. Charles Huston, Hon. John Tod, Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, all members of the Supreme Court, and other high offices; United States Senator Hon. William Wilkins, and Hon. John S. Carlisle, who served as United States Senator from West Virginia, and others

The medicinal springs at Bedford are widely and justly celebrated, and the town is one of the most attractive resorts in all this country.