Construction and location Samuel Bigham (1717-1804) arrived in the area from Ireland around 1742 and applied for a 100-acre land grant in Juniata County in February, 1755. Another source refers to it as "a strong
block-house and small
stockade." As tension rose between the British, the French, and local Native American tribes, Bigham ordered "a quarter-cask of powder and seventy-five pounds of lead" which was delivered to him on 7 April 1756. French correspondence shows that
Ensign Pierre-Louis Boucher Niverville de Montizambert was ordered by
Governor-General Vaudreuil to attack
Fort Shirley, but when he arrived with seven French soldiers and 20 Indians, they decided that the fort was too well-defended, and chose to assault Fort Bigham instead. The report adds that they "returned with 18 prisoners and five scalps." There is no definitive account of the numbers of dead or of those captured.
The Pennsylvania Gazette of 12 June 1756 reported the following account of the fort's destruction: :"We have advice from
Carlisle that on Friday night last (June 11th) Capt. Bigham's fort in Tuscarora Valley was destroyed by the Indians. There is no particular account come to hand, only in general it is said that all that were in it are either killed or carried off; and that a woman, big with child, was found dead and scalped near the fort, mangled in a most shocking manner." On 24 June the
Gazette published the following list of those killed or captured: :"The following is a list of persons killed and missing at Bigham’s Fort, viz: George Woods, Nathaniel Bigham, Robert Taylor, his wife and two children, Francis Innis, his wife and two children, John McDowell, Hannah Gray, and one child missing. Some of those supposed to be burnt in the fort, as a number of bones were found there. Susan Giles was found dead and scalped in the neighborhood of the fort. Alexander McAllister and his wife, James Adams, Jane Cochran, and two children missed. McAllister’s house was burned and a number of cattle and horses driven off. The enemy was supposed to be numerous, as they did eat and carry off a great deal of beef they had killed." George Woods, (father-in-law of Pennsylvania senator
James Ross), was captured during the assault and taken with other captives to
Kittanning, the Lenape staging area for raids on English settlements. After
running the gauntlet, Woods was adopted into the tribe. He reportedly bargained with his captors to pay an annual fee of ten pounds of tobacco for life, in exchange for his freedom. Eventually Woods was taken to
Fort Pitt and released. They were reunited with two of their children (the youngest having drowned) Hannah Gray and her daughter Jane were taken to Canada and sold, but Hannah escaped and returned to Pennsylvania to find that her husband John had died. When Colonel Bouquet arranged for the release of captives in 1764, Hannah's daughter was not among them. Samuel Bigham sold his land in 1760, left Pennsylvania and died in North Carolina in 1804. == Rebuilding and destruction, 1760-1763 ==