TEXT OF MARKER ERECTED ON JUNE 28, 1997
MEXICO, JUNIATA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
First White Settlement in the Juniata Valley
Several years in advance of other European settlers, Frederick Staring (Starns) led a small band of fellow countrymen from German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley of NY in 1741 to boldly locate themselves in the valley of the Juniata.
"About the year 1740 or 1741, one Frederick Star (Starns), a German, with two or three more of his countrymen, made some settlements at the above place,... on Big Juniata, situate at the distance of twenty-five miles from the mouth thereof, and about
ten miles north of the Blue Hills, a place much esteemed by the Indians for some of their best hunting grounds ...."
The settlers were discovered by the Delawares at Shamokin who complained, in 1742 to Governor Thomas in Philadelphia, via the Six Nation Council deputies, alleging that this was a breach of
the 1682 treaty with William Penn and subsequent confirming treaties. Richard Peters, Secretary to the proprietors, under a proclamation from the governor and at the directions of the proprietors, caused the Germans to be driven out in June 1743.
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First White Settlement in the Juniata Valley
After his eviction here, Frederick Starns, with his wife, daughter and five of his six sons, arrived in Southwest VA and took up land on the New River in the spring of 1744. He became the progenitor of all the large, old Southern Family Starns/Starnes of German descent.
Valentine Staring (Starns), eldest son of Frederick, stayed in Pennsylvania with his wife Jean's kin, the Conynghams, and later claimed his father's settlement land, surveyed as 535 acres. He died here Feb 15, 1761, naming his father Frederick, brothers Frederick and Leonard in his will. To his nephew John, he left "one hundred acres of my land: upon Juniate."
John Starns of Mecklenburg County, NC, on June 19, 1776 sold this one hundred acres to Thomas Rankin of Cumberland County, PA for one hundred and eighty pounds. Capt. John Starns, Mecklenburg County, NC Militia was killed Aug. 16, 1780 in the Revolutionary War Battle of Camden, SC.
Jean Conyngham Starns, Valentine's widow, sold one hundred acres of land "situated in Fermanagh Township in the County of Mifflin" to John Rankin of Mifflin County, Oct. 5, 1796
