The Killing that Named the Mountain

February 1744. Three Delaware Indians killed an Indian trader named Jack Armstrong and his two companions, James Smith and Woodworth Arnold, at the Narrows above Mount Union. That killing, and the man who died there, gave the place its name. Jack's Narrows, the narrow gorge where the Juniata River breaks through, is known to every traveler who has wended his way through. Jack's Spring, celebrated for its cool silvery water, carries the name forward. Every time you drive through the gap that shaped this town's story, you pass the place that remembers a violent frontier day in 1744.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

CHAPTER V. The Murder of John Armstrong, an Indian Trader, and his Companions, JOHN, familiarly called ** Jack," Armstrong, an Indian trader, and his two companions, James Smith and Woodworth Arnold, were murdered by three Delaware Indians at the Narrows, above the borough of Mount Union, about the middle of February, 1744. This event, which spread alarm and consternation among the frontier settlers and the traders, gave name to the narrow gorge through which the Juniata breaks its winding course. Jack's Narrows are known to every traveler who has wended his way through the narrow defile. ''Jack's Spring" is celebrated for its cool, silvery water. P The following deposition communicates the first authentic intelligence of the murders: "Paxton, April 19th, 1744, "The Deposition of the Subscribers Testifieth and Saith that the Subscribers having a Suspicion that Juhn Armstrong, Trader, Together with his Men, James Smith & Woodworth Arnold were Murther'd by ye Indians, They met at the IIouse of Joseph Chambers in Paxton, and there consulted to go to Shamokin, To Consult with the Delaware King & Secalima! & their Council, what they should do Concerning the Affaire.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 72,782 of the scanned text

Many persons believe that Jack's mountain and Jack's narrows derive their names from this peculiar individual, but John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, who was contemporary with Captain Jack, speaks of the narrows as "Jack Armstrong's narrows, so called from his being there murdered." The driving out of the squatters and the burning of their cabins in the spring of 1750 was, in the main, ineffectual, either in checking the immigration to the Indian lands or in bringing satisfaction and contentment to the savages. In fact, some of the first settlers had not been molested by Secretary Peters and his party, and this encouraged others to cross the mountains and establish themselves in the Indian country. James Patterson settled near the present town of Mexico, Juniata county, in 1751, only a year after the trespassers had been driven out, and cleared land on both sides of the river.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 97,259 of the scanned text

Just when that portion of Mifflin county south of the Juniata was taken into the township is not shown by the records, but when the assessment of 1768 was made the names of the settlers living in that territory were included, so it is probable the annexation was made soon after the township was organized. The assessment rolls for that year included the names of seventy landowners and over 25,000 acres taken up on land warrants. One of the earliest settlers on the Kishacoquillas creek, on the south side of Jack's moimtain, was Everhart Martin, whose first land warrant was dated April 2, 1755. Later he entered several other tracts, a large part of which became the property of the Freedom Iron Company and later of the Logan Iron and Steel Company. It is not certain, however, that he ever lived upon the lands thus entered in his name. His son Christopher built a saw-mill on the creek opposite Yeagertown at an early date.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 310,354 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-09-21 · Historic Mount Union collection

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