e preachers while to stop here."[14] This may have been due to
the fact that they were mainly Presbyterians. Colbert's reception was
apparently fair for he makes a point of saying, "I know not that there
is a prejudiced person among them."[15] No regular church was
established in this region until 1792, so it appears that the settlers
generally participated in group religious activities regardless of the
denominational affiliation of the preacher conducting the services.
However, as we will point out later, this is not to suggest that there
was no friction between denominations.

The political activities of the Fair Play settlers demonstrate the mass
participation, at least of the adult males, in this type of voluntary
association. The annual elections of the Fair Play men were conducted
without discrimination against any of the settlers by reason of
religion, national origin, or property. In addition, the decisions of
the tribunal were carried out, as Smith reports, "by the whole body, who
started up in mass, at the mandate of the court."[16] Special occasions,
such as the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence, were also marked by
the participation _en masse_ of these West Branch pioneers. Mrs.
Hamilton, in her widow's pension application, speaks of "seeing such
numbers flocking there" (along the banks of Pine Creek in July of
1776).[17] Apparently, as Mrs. Hamilton says, most of the settlers "had
a knolege of what was doing," particularly with regard to political
affairs.[18]

These evidences of group participation in religious and political
activities should not mislead one into thinking that conflict, legal or
otherwise, was alien to the West Branch frontiersmen. The cases brought
before the Fair Play "court" and the friction between Methodists and
Presbyterians affirm this strife. The first settler in the territory,
Cleary Campbell, was an almost constant litigant, both as plaintiff and
defendant, in the Northumberland County Court from the time of his
arrival in 1769.[19] His name, along with the names of other Fair Play
settlers, appeared regularly on the Appearance Dockets of the
Northumberland and Lycoming County courts. The cases usually involved
land titles and personal obligations or debts.

The religious conflict is clearly seen in the journal of the Reverend
William Colbert. An incident which occurred about twenty miles south of
the West Branch illustrates this friction:

This is a town [present-d