Because of its location where the north and west branches of the Susquehanna River met, trading at Shamokin (present-day Sunbury) between the Indians and frontiersmen and trappers was common. 

In an article published by the Bucknell University Environmental Center, “Sunbury:A History,” “The first Englishman to live at the confluence of the North and West branches and work as a trader was John Scull. Although a formal building was never built, ‘John Scull’s Store’ is pictured on the east bank of the main river on Isaac Taylor’s 1701 map of Pennsylvania.”

The article reported “there was also an Indian trading house established within Fort Augusta in 1757 in an attempt to facilitate fur trade with the Native Americans. However, in 1763, when active military operations suggested that the fort might be attacked, it was declared that no man, woman, or child was allowed on the ramparts and no soldiers were to have dealings with the Indians.”

It’s estimated that the main Pennsylvania-frontier trading period in the Susquehanna Valley was roughly 1701–1763.

Wilbert Nathan Savage wrote a more extensive review of the fur-trading industry in a March 1968 edition of the Pennsylvania Game News. 

“The early American fur trade symbolized a strange compound made up of honest men, scheming rogues, misfortunes, rich profits, fierce competition, incredible deception, Indian threats, bold risks and untold hardships. And Pennsylvania played a long-lasting key role in that stirring wilderness pageant of long ago.

“What colorful frontier times— when furbearers actually were so plentiful in Penn’s Woods that, over a span of decades before 1800, Pennsylvania’s raw fur exports were almost literally incredible. In fact, for the period indicated, the furs shipped out of Pennsylvania eclipsed the pelt cargoes of New York and Newfoundland combined!

“Even William Penn was well aware of the then unclaimed fortune in animal skins when, at an early date, he recorded the discovery of numerous beaver, deer, raccoon, panther, wildcat, bear, otter, wolf, fisher, fox, mink, muskrat and elk as large as a small ox.”

As with many businesses, fur traders were a mixed lot. “Fiery rivalry among fur traders was perhaps exceeded only by their uncounted acts of brazen rascality; bitter fights and resulting loss of life occurred regularly. The plenty of the land bred a peculiar kind of wicked greed and viciousness.

“Pennsylvanians aggressively competed with French fur traders. Through the years, the eager seekers of pelts worked their way up and down every major river in the state— from the Delaware to the Allegheny.”

The fur trade was not limited to those who did it professionally. “As fur traders made their way through the heavily forested wilds of Pennsylvania, they not only dealt with professional white trappers and the various tribes of Indians, but also with toiling settlers engaged in farming. For by reason of pressing need and willingness to meet stern responsibilities, practically every farmer was to some degree a trapper. Indeed, revenue from a winter’s catch of furs often surpassed the year’s value of all harvested crops— even if large mink pelts did happen to be going at only 30 cents each and deer skins at half a dollar. For this was a period when common labor could be had for 33 cents a day and a skilled workman for 50 cents!”

An added monetary incentive for the farmer of the Susquehanna Valley was a bounty on certain animals. “Bounty also was paid on various wild creatures for many decades, and it was not uncommon for a farmer to forsake his land to become a full-time bounty hunter. Naturally, in the prime season, he also received, in addition to the bounty, the going pelt rate for all those wild creatures carrying a man-fixed price on their heads. Here, too, was spirited competition. Professional hunters and trappers were always abroad in the wilderness, and the blacksmith, merchant, miller or other tradesman generally was able to arrange pursuit of the bounty possibilities.”

As we mentioned earlier, some traders were deceptive in their dealings with the Indians. “There was hardly a bartering trick ever invented that the early time wilderness fur trader did not have at ready command. According to his ballyhoo, he had for the Indians special merchandise laden with pure magic that was able to conquer all enemies and soothe the Great Spirit. Of course, he had special firewater too. That is why a special price usually had to be charged for the “special” commodities— like 20 beaver pelts for a gun worth but eight skins; as many as four to eight beaver hides for a bottle of rum worth as little as 40 cents, etc. Little wonder that a few traders prospered to the point of becoming “pelt barons,” owning up to 100 pack mules and employing 25 men!”

Some of the unscrupulous traders paid the price for their practices. “Of course, the steady practice of shameless deception by a treacherous trader sometimes got him into grim circumstances. For quite often the Indian, suspecting that he had been purposely cheated, trailed the trader through the wild countryside until the right moment came to lift his scalp and perhaps reclaim the ill-gotten furs.”

What about the Indians themselves and their dealings with the traders? “Certainly it seems obvious that the Indian possessed a more profound sense of honesty than most fur traders. In one instance, an Indian took a catch of furs to the headquarters of a trader who operated on a small scale. Finding no one at home and the place locked, the red man broke in, took the merchandise he needed, and left in exchange what he considered a fair amount of furs. The next year, he stopped to ask whether he had left sufficient furs for the items he had taken. He had enough extra to pay for the broken lock! This took place “… in the Susquehanna Country.”