December 1755 — The Month That Changed Everything

Two hundred and seventy years ago this month, the land that would become Stroudsburg was gripped by fear.

Settlers huddled in farmhouses. Families abandoned homesteads they had spent years building. And urgent letters flew between the Pennsylvania frontier and Philadelphia, begging for help that seemed like it would never arrive.

December 1755 marked a turning point for what is now Monroe County—a month of terror, desperation, and ultimately, the decision that would plant the seeds of Stroudsburg’s founding.

A Frontier Under Siege

The French and Indian War had reached northeastern Pennsylvania.

In the months prior, Lenape chiefs Shingas and Captain Jacobs had launched devastating raids across the colony. Hundreds of settlers had been killed or captured. Entire communities had been burned to the ground.

By early December, the violence had arrived at the doorstep of what would become Monroe County.

On December 10, 1755, a war party of approximately 200 Native American warriors attacked the Hoeth family farm east of present-day Stroudsburg. Frederick Hoeth, his wife, and seven of their eight children were killed.

The massacre sent shockwaves through the scattered settlements along the creeks.

Within days, panic had taken hold. Families packed what they could carry and fled south toward safer ground. Farms that had taken years to clear from wilderness were abandoned overnight.

By Christmas Day, provincial commissioners reported a grim assessment: the country for 50 miles had been “mostly evacuated and ruined.”

“We Shall Be Obliged to Leave”

On December 15, 1755, William Parsons—a surveyor and local leader in Easton—sent a desperate letter to James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia.

His words painted a picture of a community on the edge of collapse.

The settlers, he wrote, had “quite expended their little substance” and were “wearied out with watching.” They had held out hope that the government would provide relief. But now, seeing themselves neglected, they were “moving away as fast as they can.”

Parsons delivered an ultimatum: if help did not arrive within days, “we shall every one of us be obliged to leave the Town and all we have in it to the Fury of the Enemy, who there is no reason to doubt are lurking about within sight of us.”

The letter reached Philadelphia. And Benjamin Franklin—then a 50-year-old retired printer and influential member of the Pennsylvania Assembly—prepared to act.

Franklin’s Response

On December 18, 1755, Franklin set out from Philadelphia with James Hamilton and Joseph Fox.

They arrived in Easton two days later to find, in Franklin’s words, “the greatest consternation.” The terrified inhabitants refused to even enlist to garrison forts for their own defense.

The commissioners spent ten days organizing what defenses they could, distributing arms, and planning a chain of fortifications that would protect the frontier.

On December 17—even before Franklin arrived—he had dispatched Captain John Trump and Captain George Ashton to begin construction on three forts north of the Blue Mountains: Fort Depuy, Fort Norris, and Fort Hamilton.

Fort Hamilton would rise on land that is now downtown Stroudsburg, near the present-day intersection of Main and 9th Streets—just steps from where the Stroud Mansion stands today.

Building Fort Hamilton

Construction proved difficult.

January 1756 brought harsh weather. Tools were in short supply. Captain Ashton irritated local farmers by sending his men to strip boards from their barns since no nearby sawmill existed.

Franklin, documenting the challenges in letters to Governor Morris, sent axes of good quality along with wagons “loaded with bread” to keep the effort moving forward.

By late January 1756, the work was complete.

Fort Hamilton was a modest structure—a blockhouse surrounded by a stockade roughly 80 feet in diameter, with half-bastions at each corner. Captain William Craig arrived to garrison it with 41 men from his “company of Ulster-Scotch” infantry.

The fort never saw military action. By 1757, it had been abandoned, replaced by Fort Penn—a stockade that Captain Jacob Stroud built around his own homestead a few years later.

But Fort Hamilton’s brief existence marked the beginning of organized settlement in the area. The protection it offered, however imperfect, allowed farmers to return to their land.

The Legacy

Jacob Stroud—the man who would give Stroudsburg its name—was a veteran of the French and Indian War who understood the frontier’s dangers firsthand.

In 1760, five years after that terrifying December, Stroud settled on land along the three creeks that converge in what is now downtown Stroudsburg. He built mills. He expanded his holdings to 4,000 acres.

And in 1776, when new conflicts threatened the region, he stockaded his stone home to create Fort Penn—continuing the tradition of frontier defense that Franklin had begun two decades earlier.

Stroud laid out the town that bears his name in 1799. His son Daniel continued the work after his death in 1806, naming streets for family members: Ann, Elizabeth, Sarah, Franklin, Jacob, and William.

Stroudsburg was incorporated in 1815.

Remembering December 1755

Today, a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker stands at Main and 9th Streets in Stroudsburg, commemorating Fort Hamilton’s location.

The Stroud Mansion—headquarters of the Monroe County Historical Association—sits nearby, built in 1795 for Jacob Stroud’s son Daniel on land that colonists once fortified against attack.

In 2019, an archaeological dig at the mansion uncovered over 50,000 artifacts, including pieces dating back centuries—physical reminders of the layers of history beneath Stroudsburg’s streets.

December 1755 lives on in these traces.

It was a month when the future of the region hung in the balance—when terrified settlers fled and desperate letters begged for help. When Benjamin Franklin rode north to organize a defense. When workers raised a stockade on frozen ground.

And when the foundation was laid, quite literally, for the community that would become Stroudsburg.

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Sources: Monroe County Historical Association, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Founders Online (National Archives)