JOHN VAN ETTEN --
               CAPTAIN

There are wrinkles in every story, oddities that emerge that leave you scratching your head in wonder...

For example, have you ever wondered why Captain John Van Etten on 14 June 1757 was ordered by none other than the Governor of the Colony to abandon Fort Hyndshaw?   This act would see the residents of Upper Smithfield left absolutely defenseless against Indian predations.  When you pull out the militia, and relocate the fighting men elsewhere, all kinds of bad things can happen.  It strikes us as a veritable recipe for disaster.

So why was this decision made?  What triggered the removal of the militia from Fort Hyndshaw?

We note an event that transpired just a week earlier, an event that was written up in the Pennsylvania Gazette:

June 10.  Last Sunday Morning three Indians who were fed the Day before by a Person from Hyndshaw's Fort, fired upon 8 Men and 2 Women in a Scow, going over from our Fort at Walpack, to Hyndshaw's Fort:  They killed Stosel Demak, wounded his Wife thro' both Thighs near the Knee, tho't to be mortal, and her Sister thro' the side, grazed the Ribs.

Think about the situation.  The Governor had officially declared war against the Delaware Indians, and here was a person from Hyndshaw's fort engaged in feeding the Indians, Indians that had then perfidiously attacked a group in transit between two of the area forts.

 

Offering aid and comfort to the enemy in times of war would seem to accord with the very definition of treason.  And yes, it was likely an area Moravian that had fed the Indians (as such feeding activities comported with their gospel mission, and Walpack was home to one of their diaspora mission sites), but even so, some acts could not be allowed to stand unchallenged even in the land of William Penn's "Holy Experiment".  The Governor had to act, and Van Etten had no choice but to comply:

 

June 19.  About nine c'clock in the morning we all marched from Fort Hyndshaw with all the baggage, and all arrived safe at fort Hamilton, and met with no opposition; found all things in good order there.