Penn's Creek
A small, sparse Quaker settlement in Central Pennsylvania, on the West bank of the Sesquahenna river – roughly in the area of modern-day Selinsgrove. It is a few miles upriver from the trading post owned by John Harris Jr., which would later be expanded to become the town of Harrisville.
Demographics
Most of its inhabitants are German and Swiss Quaker immigrants, although it is not uncommon to find visitors from all around: Lenape fur traders, British soldiers, colonial militia and frontiersmen are frequent patrons at the settlement's only tavern.
Defences
In line with Quaker beliefs, the town has little in the way of defences, other than whatever weapons the locals might own (or improvise in a pinch). Pennsylvania has no local militia as such, although some members of the colony's public life have pushed for the creation of a local security force, and even the creation of a network of forts along the river.
Industry & Trade
The settlement is mostly self-sufficient when it comes to its basic needs, and trades for everything else with the Harris post in the South. It exports crops, flour and furs to other population centres down the Susquehanna river.
Infrastructure
The settlement is sparsely populated, consisting mostly of scattered farms – although, by the river, a town centre of sorts holds a meeting house, a tavern, a general store and a small bath house. Grain is milled at a communal mill, and a small smokehouse processes the fish collected from a few nets and traps. A small public bathhouse allows some degree of comfort to the locals, as well as another place to discuss business or recent news.
Assets
The general store is reasonably well supplied by the trading post downstream and by the local fur traders, although trade with the Lenape tribe has become less common since the Walking Purchase of 1737 – in which the Penn family blatantly cheated the natives out of great swathes of their land and soured relationships irreparably. A customer may expect to find in it most adventuring essentials, from food and clothing to camping equipment and basic tools; alcohol, tobacco and weapons are however in limited supply due to lack of demand among the Quakers.
The single tavern, The Maria-Theresa, is owned by an Austrian catholic, Theo Lorenz, who takes the slightest chance to heatedly discuss religion and politics with the locals – particularly Swiss farmer Jean Jacques Le Roy. Lorenz is openly opposed to the Penn family's ownership of the land and to the pacifist Quaker notions of coexistence with the Lenape tribe – a stance that he considers hypocritical, especially in the Walking Purchase. Lorenz idolises Pennsylvania assemblyman Benjamin Franklin, and believes the colony would benefit from more of his enlightened reforms and bold proposals.
Population
300
Characters in Location
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