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EARLY FARMSTEADS

Program
Hometown Heritage™
Subject
Industry & Commerce, Site
Location
12997 Bain Rd, Mercersburg, PA 17236, USA
Lat/Long
39.747722, -77.873306
Grant Recipient
The Conococheague Institute
Historic Marker

EARLY FARMSTEADS

Inscription

EARLY FARMSTEADS
THIS PATH MARKS THE BORDER
BETWEEN LANDS GRANTED TO
JOHN DAVIES RICHARDS AND
PHILIP DAVIS IN 1736 BY THE
PENN PROPRIETORSHIP.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2024

Conococheague (pronounced locally as Konica-Jig) Settlement is a historic farmstead established in the early 18th century in southern Franklin County, Pennsylvania, near the village of Welsh Run. Rock Hill Farm was settled by Welsh, English, Scots-Irish and Pennsylvania German ethnic groups. When William Penn died in 1718, his descendants were not sure they had the authority to issue land patents or other deeds in the area west of the Susquehanna River as Penn did not have treaties with the Indigenous peoples living in that area. In the 1730s, the Penn Proprietorship gave Samuel Blunston authority to issue land deeds in the form of licenses, known as “Blunston licenses.” These functioned as promissory notes to issue a proper deed when the Penns were legally able to do so. In 1736, lands west of the Susquehanna River were opened to European colonists.

As of 2024, the Conococheague Institute operated a 30-acre site with log houses, gardens, a tavern, walking trails and a historic cemetery dating to the 1760s.


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