The greater part of this township lies in what is known as Path Valley, in olden times called "Tuscarora Path."  Originally the township included what is now Metal Township.  Here, as in other parts of the county, came settlers prior to the time of the extinguishment of the Indian title to the land.  The three valleys - Path, Amberson's and Horse by their beauty and fertility attracted immigrants who, with the consent of the Indians, with

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whom they maintained the most friendly relations for some time, located and commenced their great life work.  But in a short time, so strong was the stream of immigration, the Indians became alarmed for their possessions, and in 1744 they notified the colonial authorities that they objected to have their lands taken by the whites, especially where they were acting in violation of express stipulations formerly entered into.  The Government called upon the authorities - the magistrates of Cumberland County - to expel the intruders.  In May, 1750, Richard Peters, secretary of the governor, attended by Benjamin Chambers, William Maxwell, William Allison, John Findlay, and other magistrates, went over to Path Valley, where they found the settlers, Abraham Slack, James Blair, Moses Moore, Arthur Dunlop, Alex. McCartie, David Lewis, Adam McCartie, Felix Doyle, Reynold Alexander, Samuel Patterson, John Armstrong, John Potts, Andrew Dunlop, Robert Wilson, Jacob Pyatt, Wm. Ramage, and others, and brought them before the magistrate's court, tried and convicted each, and put them under bonds to remove at once with their families out of the valley, "taking servants and effects" and to appear in Carlisle and answer such charges as might be made against them.  Their houses and other improvements were burned, by order of the court.  When the land was purchased of the Indians, Oct. 23, 1758, some of these settlers returned and became permanent residents of the valley.
     The township was named after a place in County Donegal, Ireland, a promonotory called "*Fannett Point."  This name was suggested by the shape of the new township a long, narrow point.
     Richard and John Coulter purchased a large body of land in the upper and of the township in 1756, and Francis Amberson made an improvement in Amberson's Valley in 1763.  Then came Barnabas Clark, from whom "Clark's Knob" receives its name, and John Ward and Cromwell McVitty.  These were the early and most prominent settlers of the valley.

EARLY LAND ENTRIES

     In the early land entries we find the following names and dates:
     Samuel Bechtel, Jan. 24, 1737.  (No neighbors)
     John Blair, June 3, 1762.  Neighbors:  Thomas Steel and R. Alexander
     Charles Baxter, Apr. 29, 1763.  Neighbors:  Phil Hutchison, Alexander McCormick, John Elder.
     Alexander Blair, June 5, 1762.  Neighbors:  Wm. Elder, William Wallace, Robert Anderson.
     Thomas Blair, June 3, 1762.  Neighbors:  Thomas Askey, John McMichaels, Randall Alexander, William Ramage, David Campbell.
     John Coulter, Dec. 30, 1762.  Neighbors:  Richard Coulter, James How, James Ross.
     Thomas Doyle, Nov. 29, 1737.  (Vacant on all sides)
     Felix Doyle, June 14, 1762.  Neighbors:  John Elder, David Elder, Jr., John Parker, James Elder, Robert Little.
     William Elliott, June 17, 1763.  Neighbors:   James Gibson, Samuel Coulter, John Elliott, Benjamin Elliott.  (This land is between Round Top Mountain and Tuscarora Creek.)
     David Elder, Apr. 16, 1763.  Neighbors: James Irvin, Robert Baker, Samuel Gamble, James Moore.
     John Elder, Mar. 13, 1767.  Neighbors:  Samuel Moore, James Urich, Felix Doyle.
     James Elder, Apr. 16, 1763.  Neighbors:  Felilx Doyle, Samuel Baker, Hugh Harron, Robert Little.
---------------
     * The best authorites, however, give the spelling as "Fanod Head."

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     James Long and James Galbraith, June 8, 1762.  Neighbors:  William Campbell, David Elder, Samuel and Mathew Coulter, John Holliday.
     William McClellan, June 3, 1762.  Neighbors:  Wm. Ramage, Randall Alexander, H. J. Moore, David Campbell.

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VILLAGES.

     Concord, situated in the upper end of Fannett Township, was laid out by James Widney, and lots offered for sale about 1791.  It took its name from Concord, Mass., the scene of the first engagement in the Revolutionary war.  The first settlers in the region were the Widneys, the Erwins, the Kyles, McMullins, Linns, McIlhenies, Doyles, Hockenberrys and others.  The village has a public school, and three churches:  Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant and United Presbyterian, and the usual line of business.  Population, 150.
     Episcopal Methodism was introduced into Path Valley, in or about the year 1790, by James Widney, a native of the County Armagh, Ireland, who immigrated to the United States soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, and settled in the northern part of Path Valley, at what is now known as Concord.  Mr. Widney's father was educated in the mother country for the ministry of the Established Church, but refused to take orders, and his son James espoused the cause of the Methodists in the mother country, and threw his lot in with and identified himself with the Wesleyan Methodists.  On arriving at their new home in the Western wilds of the New World, they were very destitute of the Word of God.  This state of affairs reached the ears of Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he started out to hunt up the few families of Methodists living in the upper end of Path Valley.  This was the first Methodist preaching ever held in this part of the country.  After this they were, at great intervals, visited by Revs. Jonathan Forest and Nelson Read.  In the year 1800 Mr. Widney persuaded Rev. Alexander McCaine to make an appointment at Concord for preaching, and, this being done and filled, after the sermon McCaine read the general rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at the same time gave a brief account of its ecclesiastical polity and its distinguishing features.  At this meeting the formation of a society was proposed, and eleven persons present united together as a society, and Widney was appointed as their leader.  This was, at that time, on Huntingdon Circuit, which embraced considerable portions of Huntingdon, Franklin, Fulton, Perry and Cumberland Counties.
     The first Methodist Church was built on the land of Mr. Widney, in what is now the Methodist cemetery, lying south of Concord, on the road to Doylesburg.  The present edifice in the town of Concord was erected on the land of Robert Maclay, and was built in the year 1845.  The parsonage was built in 1850, Mr. Mcclay giving the land and $100 toward the erection of the church and parsonage.  In the days of the Maclays, Concord Circuit took in in its bounds what is now known as Newport, New Bloomfield, Blain, Thompsontown, Port Royal, Mifflin, Lewistown, Shirleysburg, Orbisonia, Burnt Cabins and Fort Littleton Circuits.  The salary at that time was only a few hundred dollars, and now the salaries of the ministers serving the various charges that are the outgrowth of the then Concord charge amount, in round figures, to $8,000.  The most prominent missionary in the Methodist Church to-day, Rev. Robert Samuel Mcclay, D. D., for forty years missionary to China, Japan and Corea, was born in the town of Concord, opposite the parsonage, licensed to preach and sent out to preach by the Concord Quarterly Conference.  There were two other Maclay brothers that were sent out, to preach, by the charge, viz.:  William James Maclay, who went as missionary to California, and Charles Maclay, also of California, who perpetuated his name by the generous gift of $150,000 and land for the erection and endowment of a college.
     The following is a correct list of the ministers serving the charge from the year 1819, there being no trace of the appointment of ministers for the period previous to the year 1819:
Gideon Lansing and Jacob Larkin, Bazil Barry and Robert Cadden, Robert Cadden and William C. Pool, Thomas McGee and Nathan B. Mills and Jacob Sheperd, Thomas McGee and John Bowen, Robert Minshall and John A. Gere, Jacob Sheperd and William C. Pool, Jacob Sheperd and Jonathan Munroe, John Smith and Oliver Ege, John Smith and Jonathan Forest, Jonathan Munroe and Henry Tarring, Edward E. Allen and Alem Britton, Thomas Taneyhill and Zacharia Jordan, Jacob McEnally and J. Houswort, Wesley Howe and Henry Ferndon and John Hedges, Jesse Stansberry and Joseph S. Morris, George Berkstresser and Joseph McKeehan, Joseph S. Lee and Franklin Dyson, David Shoff and Joseph Parker, John M. Green, James Brads and John Morehead, Elisha Butler and John N. Ewing, A. D. Barlow, George Deems and David Wolf and D. W. F. Crawford, George Stevenson and Alexander Maclay, Joseph Spangler and John H. C. Dosh and David Shoaff, Robert Beers and Jacob Hartman and Joseph J. Largant, Cambridge Graham and John P. Sipes and Matthias Dean, Amos Smith and William H. Keith and Job A. Price, Nathan S. Buckingham and Abraham S. Creighton and Jeremiah C. Hagey, Frederick E. Crever and William G. Ferguson and James T. Wilson, Reuben E. Kelley and John W. Cleaver, James M. Clarke and William H. Maxwell and Alexander R. Miller, Joseph R. King and Walter R. Whitney, Andrew E. Taylor and William Schreiber and Levi G. Heck, Seth A. Creveling and William W. Dunmire, George A. Singer and William H. Bowden, Joseph A. Ross and Oliver H. Huston, Edmund White and John H. S. Clarke, Andrew W. Decker and James Eberhart and Samuel Ham, Charles T. Dunning and John W. Cline, Levi S. Crone and Samuel E. Meminger.  The present pastors of the charge are John L. Leilich and Fletcher W. Biddle.

     United Presbyterian Church. - Just when this congregation had its origin is not shown by the records accessible.  In his history of Big Spring Presbytery, Rev. J. B. Scouler speaks of Rev. Matthew Lind being installed pastor of the united congregations of Greencastle, Chambersburg, West Conococheague and the Great Cove in 1783.  How much territory was embraced in West Conococheague is not revealed, but probably a large extent.  Subsequent to that date traces of preaching occur.  On the 26th of December, 1828, Rev. Alexander McCahan was installed pastor of Chambersburg and Concord, giving one-third of his time to the latter congregation.  In this relation he continued till Oct. 6, 1830, when he resigned and removed to another field.  On the third of August, 1837, Rev. Robert Gracey was installed over the same two congregations, but on the 18th of October, 1843, he was released from the Concord church, and took charge of a congregation in Gettysburg for half of his time till October, 1849, when he relinquished Gettysburg and continued to give three-fourths of his time to Chambersburg and one-fourth to Concord till October, 1852.  At this time he removed to Pittsburgh.  Following this date Rev. Dargo B. Jones supplied the congregation for a time, his labors ceasing April 11, 1860.  On the 10th of September, 1861, Rev. Joseph McKee began to give it one-fourth of his time, which oversight continued till the spring of 1864, when he ceased.  On the 20th of April, 1865, Rev. John A. McGill was installed pastor, and his labors have been signally blessed.

     Spring Run, six miles north of Fannettsburg, on the principal road along Path Valley, is a sprightly little village.  It does a fair mercantile business, and has two churches - Presbyterian and United Brethren.  The Presbyterian Church was organized in 1767.

     Dry Run. - The earliest settlers in and about this place were James Stark, James Ferguson, Thompson, Thomas Wilson, Daniel Johnson, Davison Filson.

END OF FANNETT TOWNSHIP.

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