John Gossett of Cumberland PA -- Historical/Geographical Context

© 2022    by James William Gossett

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A clear record of John Gossett, dated June 13, 1735, is the Blunston License issued to him for 300 acres of land "where he is already settled on a southeast branch Conegochege (sic)" which can be found in the Pennsylvania State Archives (click here for image of original document). 

Is it a reasonable assumption that John (oldest son of John & Jane of New Castle County) could have made his way west from New Castle some 150 miles to settle in the Cumberland Valley before 1735? During the 1720s, a major westward migration to the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania had already begun. To encourage colonization of inland Pennsylvania, construction of roads was authorized to inland settlements such as Lancaster, located about 70 miles inland from Philadelphia (but less than that from New Castle). These roads followed existing native-American paths which were undoubtedly used by colonists who migrated west prior to formal completion of improved roads.  The Lancaster settlement was laid out in 1729. The Lancaster Road and Turnpike, which connected the settlement at Lancaster to Philadelphia, was built during the 1730s, and by the middle of the 1740s, the population of Lancaster had grown to 1,500 people. Lancaster was about the halfway point between Philadelphia and where John Gossett lived on Conococheague Creek in 1735. By the time John Gossett was known to be in the Cumberland Valley, Lancaster was already a thriving town. And the page of Blunston Licenses on which John’s name appears shows many others in that same, Conococheague Creek area.

Lancaster’s proximity to the Susquehanna River made crossing the river vital to access the way west.  Crossing the river north of Lancaster was essential to gain access to the Cumberland valley without having to cross the mountains on the west side of the river. At least three river ferry operations were in service across the Susquehanna in the period 1730 - 1735. This abundance of early ferries across the river in the approximately 40 miles of river between Lancaster and Harrisburg is an indication of the heavy demand for crossing the river as well as the abundance of roads on the west side.  The population migration to the west in Pennsylvania had begun in earnest well before 1735, and John Gossett was a part of it.

Franklin County, Pennsylvania consists of a very small portion of the Cumberland Valley, with the town of Chambersburg at its center.  It lies in the very center of Pennsylvania’s southern border with Maryland.  It is wedged shaped, about 40 miles north to south, with an average width of only about 25 miles.  Antrim Township, which lies south of Chambersburg has its western boundary along the East Fork of Conococheague Creek. Because the East Fork of Conococheague Creek has its source well northeast of Chambersburg, this could reasonably be called the ‘South East Branch of Conococheague’ — the home of John Gossett in 1735 as defined on his Blunston Warrant.

According to The History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, published in 1887, (pages 142 to149), "From 1730 to 1740 the influx (to what is now Franklin County) was great.  Settlements were commenced in Cumberland (then Lancaster) County in 1730 and 1731…producing fresh exasperation among the Indians (followed by) outrages and massacres.  (These attacks) … were not the direct result of these encroachments, but a retaliatory protest (by the Indians) against the unjust manner in which their lands and hunting grounds had been taken from them by so-called purchases and treaties with the government… The first settlement, in what is now Franklin County, was made in 1730 at Falling Springs (now Chambersburg) — the confluence of the two streams, Falling Spring and Conococheague.”

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