McDowell's Mill (Franklin County, near Markes, Pennsylvania)

Franklin County, near Markes · Pennsylvania · French and Indian War

Quick BriefLocated on the east bank of Conococheague Creek near present-day Markes in Franklin County, McDowell's Mill occupied a strategic location near a pass in the Kittatinny Mountains. Fortification began on November 3, 1755, when William Maxwell, a Braddock Expedition survivor, formed a militia company and began construction of a stockade. Even after being superseded by Fort Loudoun in 1756, McDowell's Mill remained garrisoned and served as an outpost until April 1757.

History & Significance

The one-and-a-half-story wooden mill was built before 1754 by John McDowell, who had established a homestead nearby in 1740. Plans to store supplies in the mill were discarded after Braddock's defeat in July 1755.

Following the attacks at Penn's Creek, Great Cove, and Gnadenhütten in late 1755, local settlers decided to fortify the mill themselves, with William Maxwell forming a militia company and beginning construction of the stockade on November 3, 1755. On February 29, 1756, a war party of eighty Lenape warriors led by Shingas and Captain Jacobs attacked the mill but were driven off by a party of forty-six men from Peters Township and a detachment of hundred men from Conrad Weiser's 1st Battalion under Captain John Potter.

The Kittanning Expedition in September 1756 destroyed the Lenape village of Kittanning, rescuing prisoners and killing Captain Jacobs. The mill and its stockade remained standing until 1840; a historical marker was erected in Peters Township in 1916 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Enoch Brown Association, and the Descendants of John McDowell.