Antes, miller and property
owner, personal friend of John Dickinson and other Provincial leaders,
Henry Antes was the top figure in civic, economic, military, and social
affairs along the West Branch. Influential within and without the Fair
Play territory, Henry Antes was truly the major leader in the valley.

The Antes family had long played a significant role in the history of
the Province of Pennsylvania. As MacMinn relates, Henry's father, Henry,
Sr., had been "associated with the most prominent men of his time in
movements for the public good."[5] A Moravian, the elder Antes had
assisted Count Zinzendorf in his missionary efforts, aided Whitefield in
his philanthropic endeavors, worked with Henry Muhlenberg in educating
the German town community, and served with a marked impartiality as a
justice of the peace.[6] From such stock came the necessary leadership
for the Fair Play settlers of the West Branch frontier.

Born near Pottstown in Montgomery County in 1736, young Henry may have
learned of frontier opportunity from visitors to his father's inn, such
as Zinzendorf and Spangenburg, who had traveled along the West Branch of
the Susquehanna. Consequently, joined by his brother William, he signed
an article of agreement on September 29, 1773, for the purchase of land
in the West Branch Valley.[7] When another brother, Frederick, obtained
property in the area later in that same decade, the Antes brothers,
particularly Henry and Frederick, became the dominant political,
economic, and social influence in the territory. Frederick, however, was
more of an absentee leader since he never actually resided in the Fair
Play territory.

Although the combined holdings of the Antes brothers constituted only a
little less than 700 acres, their gristmill, the first in the region,
became the meeting place for the area settlers, providing a forum for
the usual discussions of politics and prices.[8] From Lycoming Creek on
the east to Pine Creek and the Great Island on the west, the frontier
farmers brought their grain to the Antes mill, on the south side of the
Susquehanna River opposite present Jersey Shore. While the milling went
on, the men analyzed their common problems and debated the future of
this pioneer land. If there was a center for the dissemination of news
in the West Branch Valley, it was the Antes mill and fort, which was
soon constructed on the property. Located in almost the center of the
Fair Play territory (alth