a
Regiment.[27] Deprived of his commission after the Germantown campaign,
Major Crawford returned home and was elected county sheriff, an office
which he held until succeeded by Henry Antes.[28]

Of the other local leaders, Horn and Reed held only lesser township
offices, overseer and supervisor, respectively, in addition to operating
frontier forts.[29] Cookson Long, mentioned as a Fair Play man in 1775
in Eleanor Coldren's deposition, later commanded Fort Reed, for a time,
as a captain of Associators.[30] The final two local leaders, John
Walker and Thomas Hughes, both took turns as Fair Play men and as
members of the local Committee of Safety.[31]

In analyzing the local leadership roles which these various settlers
filled, additional and pertinent conclusions become apparent. In the
first place, the Fair Play men were obviously not the top leaders of the
community. Henry Antes may have served as their spokesman in 1775, and
it is quite possible that Robert Fleming was a member of the tribunal,
but both were more important as county leaders. Secondly, Fair Play men
were members of the Committee of Safety, a fact which suggests that
their efforts may have been coordinated. Finally, returning to the
question of national origin, six of these eight local leaders were
either Scots, Scotch-Irish, or Irish. The other two were Germans. No
Englishman was a leader, either regional or local, in the Fair Play
territory between 1769 and 1784. Perhaps, as Carl Becker suggests, this
was due to the fact that neither the German nor the Scotch-Irish
immigrant held in his breast any sentiment of loyalty to King George, or
much sympathy with the traditions or the leaders of English society.[32]

What were the particular problems of this frontier and how effective
were these leaders in meeting them? The question of defense, including
the daily task of survival in the wilderness, the right of pre-emption,
and the efforts to obtain frontier representation in the assembly: these
were the main problems in this pioneer land along the West Branch of the
Susquehanna. All were not solved during the period under analysis, but
the attempts to solve these and other problems afford us the opportunity
to evaluate the leadership in the Fair Play territory.

Doubtless, the most pressing public need on this frontier was protection
from the marauding Indians who plagued these pioneers throughout the
fifteen years encompassed by this study. Aroused by