Bedford, Pennsylvania: From Raystown to Fort to Borough
Pennsylvania
A Scottish trader named John Wray built a post here around seventeen fifty and called it Raystown, trading with local tribes at the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. During the French and Indian War, British General John Forbes ordered a star-shaped log fortress built on the site in seventeen fifty-eight, naming it Fort Bedford after the English duke who backed the campaign. The fort served as a supply base on Forbes Road, the route Forbes cut through Pennsylvania's mountains toward French Fort Duquesne.
After Pontiac's Rebellion collapsed, the military left and the town stayed. By seventeen sixty-six the streets around the fort were platted. Bedford Borough incorporated in seventeen ninety-five.
George Washington later passed through here in seventeen ninety-four to review troops during the Whiskey Rebellion, making it one of the few places the first president ever personally led soldiers into the field.
