results in that the right of
pre-emption for the West Branch squatters was recognized by the
Commonwealth long before the national government endorsed the principle.
Furthermore, the validation of these claims beyond the purchase line of
the Stanwix Treaty of 1768 provided the first legal recognition of
pre-emption in the State of Pennsylvania.

Unsuccessful in maintaining their homes against the incursive Indians,
but successful in regaining them by right of pre-emption, the Fair Play
settlers were also vitally concerned with representative democracy.
Locally, on the county level, and in the Province and State, these
frontiersmen sought to make their wishes known, both to and through
their political leaders. How well they achieved these goals was
influenced by the number of persons whom they elected to both legal and
extra-legal offices at the various political levels.

The Fair Play settlers managed to send two of their associates to the
General Assembly in the decade after Lexington and Concord.[38] These
two, Robert Fleming and Frederick Antes, constituted a disproportionate
representation, when one considers the limited population of the Fair
Play community and the general under-representation of the frontier
counties at this period. In fact, a few hundred families in and around
the West Branch were surprisingly fortunate to have one of their number,
Robert Fleming, in the General Assembly when, following a petition from
the frontier counties in 1776, a new apportionment created an assembly
in which fifty-eight legislators represented Pennsylvania's 300,000
people.[39] However, the elections of both Fleming and Antes came after
the new constitution of 1776, in which each county was given six
representatives.[40] It can hardly be said that the West Branch Valley
lacked adequate representation in the councils of the State.

Furthermore, Frederick Antes was a delegate to that State Constitutional
Convention. This not only emphasizes the leadership role of Antes, but
also points up the good fortune of the Fair Play settlers in having one
of their community participate in the framing of the new State
government. Although the Fair Play settlers lived beyond the legal
limits of settlement, they were very much involved in its political
affairs.

Aside from the General Assembly and the Constitutional Convention, these
pioneers of the Northumberland County frontier placed three men on the
county bench, one of whom was p