For centuries the land around the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania had been the exclusive province of the Susquehannok, Delaware, Shawnee, and Muncy  tribes as a hunting and trading route:  . By the 1700s that pattern began to change as settlers moved west from the established coastal areas in search of land. Large sections of the newly explored interior were held by powerful families -  in the case of the Susquehanna district it was  the Penn family who had received by royal land grants in the late 1600's. Limits to the westward expansion were set by a demarcation line set by the British to avoid treaty conflicts with the  Indian tribes. However the quest for land often caused this geographic line to be crossed and by the 1760s first German and then Scots-Irish began populating the area, backed by the establishment of Fort Augusta in 1756 in Northumberland.  The Penn family purchased additional land from the tribes in 1768 and with the conclusion of the Revolutionary War by 1783, the  limitations were essentially removed and settlement grew in earnest. An organized attempt to settle the land was made in 1762 by colonists arriving from Connecticut to establish a religious community in the nearby Wyoming Valley  but they encountered hostility and hardship, not the least of which were fierce Indian attacks. By 1774 that plan, mounted by the "Susquehanna Company" had met with dismal failure and the surviving colonists had scattered. At about the same time the Penn family began selling the lands held in the Loyalsock  area to investors primarily involved in land speculation. The first concerted effort to settle the immediate area began when Samuel Wallace of Muncy acquired warrants for several lots of land along the Loyalsock Creek.

In 1793  Joseph Jr., the eldest son of Dr, Priestley had departed for America from England followed by the youngest son, Henry. Along with some fellow travelers they came upon the frontier in Pennsylvania. There they hit upon the idea of purchasing land from Samuel Wallace and others.  The bulk of this land was sold  to Joseph Priestley Jr., Thomas Cooper and John Vaughn. The trio  formed a corporation to buy the land in Pennsylvania and then  to re-sell it to the English immigrants. Joseph Jr. used family money for his purchases while Cooper planned to return to England to raise more funding.  Inspired by, and undaunted by the failure of an earlier attempt to settle the same area by French settlers (under the rubric "Asylum") earlier, they pieced together a plan to promote a 300,000 acre political utopia which was to attract dispirited English worthies seeking political and religious freedom.  They  ignored the local wisdom that the area to the northwest of Northumberland was seen to be the limit of settlement and bore the name "The Endless Mountains".
 

.II. Unrest in England

Following the American and French Revolutions the political powers in England began clamping down on religious and political groups that supported these events or espoused major change. One of these groups, based in Birmingham England, was known as the Dissenters (or Nonconformists). The nominal leader of this Birmingham group was Dr. Joseph Priestley, a renowned  scientist (among his many accomplishments was the discovery of oxygen) who also was a minister. Arriving in Birmingham in 1780, he preached from a chapel, the New Meeting house and developed a series of beliefs that many years later would form part of the basis for the Unitarian movement. His theological treatises were of increasing concern to the government leading to the banning and burning of his 1785 work "History of the Corruptions of Christianity". Leaders of the Church of England and Parliament were convinced that the very foundations of the Church were in danger.  Later the  English government amended the Test and Corporation Act and  removed rights from people belong to the Dissenters and similar groups. Priestley was one of the leading critics of the legislation which led to the burning of his home and chapel by Birmingham royalist mobs in 1791.

Enticed by the vision of a new type of society inspired by  Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey description of "Pantisocracy," the idealized community for English lovers of liberty, Priestley looked for a place of refuge. Joseph Priestley Jr. and Thomas Cooper offered that hope to the Dissenters. His son Joseph Jr.  and  Thomas Cooper, sent home a glowing description of the Northumberland/Loyalsock area  Thomas Cooper returned to England in 1793 (incognito - he was wanted by authorities on charges of sedition) at the end of the year and convinced a number of Dissenters to move to the area, describing it as "an asylum for my Christian and Unitarian friends"  and a "rallying point for the English" .

III. The Move to America

By 1794 Dr. Priestley was convinced it was best for him to leave England and chose to go to join his sons in America. He began a campaign to get his fellow Dissenters to join him:

"At the time of my leaving England, my son, in conjunction with Mr.
Cooper and other English emigrants, had a scheme for a large settlement
for the friends of liberty in general near the head of the Susquehanna
in Pennsylvania. And taking it for granted that it would be carried into
effect, after landing at New York I went to Philadelphia, and thence to
Northumberland, a town the nearest to the proposed settlement, thinking
to reside there until some progress had been made in it.

IV The Susquehanna Settlement

In the summer of 1794, Dr. Priestley had finally arrived at Northumberland, at the end of a taxing five day overland ride from Philadelphia. In order to assess his son's investment of the family funds a detailed survey was undertaken hiring  local inhabitants  William Molyneux and Powell Bird as surveyors. Much to his dismay he learned that there was little usable land among the acres acquired by his son. Further, Dr. Priestly also noted " a certain lack of congenial society" among the settlers arriving in Northumberland ready to take up land. there. However, Philadelphia was no bargain either, a city he described as "only a place for business and to make money in". By September 1794 Dr. Priestly was writing back to England to report the failure of "Susquehanna  Settlement" and the plan was officially abandoned in March 1795 after a particularly harsh winter.

Mention was made of the 1795 populace as being "survivors of the projected settlement" in a later book describing the plan. Thomas Cooper himself, who originally  masterminded the plan wrote on July 4th that" so many unthinking and unreasonable people have come that I have nearly had enough of English Society and I rejoice that those who have been disappointed have not settled here". He also conceded  "The generality of the land in this Neighborhood is not rich"  in a letter to England. He was also having family problems, like many of the settlers: "(Mrs. Cooper) will not come into the woods until I get her a house built". In the fall of that year Cooper himself abandoned  the settlement, moved to Philadelphia, went into the law profession and endeavored to buy slaves for his wife as a conciliatory action. Thomas Cooper  was later appointed a judge in the state, but became the first judge in U.S. history to be impeached in 1811.

Dr. Priestly found himself trapped in Northumberland as other settlers melted away. Experiments were conducted with great difficulty in the Pennsylvania frontier, and the only local church (Presbyterian) had not allowed him to preach again after hearing his first sermon. He began to lose his teeth which made his lectures somewhat less coherent than before. He wished to return to Europe - in particular France, but had exhausted his funds in getting to Northumberland. He had purchased 11 acres of land and decided to build a house on that spot and make the best of  the situation. Sadly Harry, his favourite son died in 1795 and his wife in 1797. Priestley  died in 1804, still trying to get to France. His son Joseph stayed on still selling packages of land to keep the family financially afloat.

V The End Result

The abrupt failure of the Susquehanna Settlement caused many settlers to leave the area. Most headed further south and settled in the Shenandoah Valley where they found a better situation in terms of farming and living conditions. In part because of its heavy settlement from Pennsylvania, the Valley has been called "a world between," or the "third South," part of middle America, where  according to some historians there was less commitment to the Southern cause in the Civil War and even less to the institution of slavery. Historians point to the large influx of Pennsylvania religious dissenters and non-conformists who would not countenance slavery and to the distinctive agricultural practice of mixed crops they brought with them. For many of them and their descendants, carving out the religious freedom they had come for would require more work. Out of their efforts came a number of alternatives, the best known being the Unitarian Church.

For the Loyalsock area settlers the flurry of excitement subsided quickly. While a few families stayed on, mostly in Northumberland, those who had seen the best of the land along the Loyalsock purchased it from Joseph Priestley Jr. and began clearing the land and farming. These were the William Molyneux, Powell Bird, the Warren,  and Huckell families who began clearing the lands around Millview (current day Forksville) and Elklands (Hillsgrove). The fact that almost all of the surrounding lands still remain unpopulated is a testament to the difficulty faced by the original settlers in the area. Those families along the Loyalsock did survive however, and despite floods, droughts, endless winters and the occasional bear and cougar attacks. The small communities along the Loyalsock developed saw and woolen mills and floated timber down the creek. The names of the first settlers can be found throughout the family trees of each, as well as the names of later arrivals such as the Rogers and Littles. For many years the only way into the area was by the Pioneer Road from Muncy and part of this trail still exists and can be found in the aptly named Worlds End State Park.

The other families in the Loyalsock Valley also left Northumberland to take up Priestley owned land, and were actually Northumberland residents employed by the Priestleys in 1794 to do the surveying. William Molyneux and Powell Bird actually cleared land along the Loyalsock prior to buying the land. Whether this was done at Priestley's request or on their own in anticipation of buying specific land parcels is unknown. In Molyneux's case he left the Loyalsock to return to England to retrieve his family. During his absence Priestley Jr. sold land partially cleared by Molyneux to Thomas Huckell, and left it to the two men to sort out the compensation involved.

Joseph Priestley Sr. - a detailed account of his life
Map of the Loyalsock and Northumberland areas from 1797
Thomas Cooper -more on the life of one of the principles of the Settlement scheme
Some Information Concerning America - read Thomas Cooper's 1794 book written to entice immigrants to the Loyalsock
Deed of sale for land in the Loyalsock between Joseph Priestley Jr. and Thomas Huckell in May 1797 (land cleared by William Molyneux)
The Streby history of Sullivan County - the chapter on the Forks Township

Background notes on some of the above topics:

Dissenters
These were people who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England - they dissented. Sometimes these people are also called Nonconformists because they refused to conform (do as they were told) to the law saying that everyone was to be an Anglican. There is a great range of Dissenters, including Unitarians,  Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers .
 

The Test and Corporation and Toleration Acts
The Corporation Act of 1661 excluded from membership of town corporations all those who were not prepared to take the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England. The Test Act passed in 1673 imposed the same test upon holders of civil or military office. Roman Catholics, Protestant Dissenters and followers of the Jewish faith were therefore excluded from public office. Over the years the act was amended and enforced in varying degrees. Religious groups including Unitarians, Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists and the Society of Friends campaigned for a change in the law.. Roman Catholics were prevented from holding public office until the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. Jewish emancipation took longer and was not fully achieved until 1890. The Test and Corporation Act was finally repealed on May 9, 1828 under George IV.

The Toleration Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1689. This act permitted other religious denominations, such as
Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, Catholics, and Jews, to legally exist in England alongside the Church of England. However, these
non-Anglican denominations, referred to as dissenters or nonconformists, could only refer to their meeting houses as chapels.
The word "church" was reserved for the Church of England. Also, dissenters were not allowed to hold public office, serve in
the armed forces or attend the universities.