Fort McCord
Pennsylvania
In the spring of seventeen fifty-six, the frontier of Pennsylvania was a war zone. The French and Indian War had turned the backcountry into a corridor of raids, and Fort McCord, standing a short distance from this spot, offered little protection. On April first, seventeen fifty-six, a party of raiders struck.
Twenty-seven settlers, men, women, and children, were killed or taken captive. Among them were Mary McCord, two members of the Thorn family including a newborn, and a young woman described on the original plaque as expecting a child. Provincial soldiers who pursued the attackers were ambushed at Sideling Hill, suffering additional killed and wounded.
The fort never recovered. Its fall deepened the crisis along Pennsylvania's western frontier and accelerated colonial demands for a stronger military response from the Penn proprietors.
