Two hundred and fifty years ago, the land that is now Mercer County was nothing but forest. There were only a few small Indian villages connected by paths that were often only 12 to 18 inches wide.

One of the towns was on the banks of the Shenango River where West Middlesex is now. There used to be a Pennsylvania Historical Marker along Route 18 that read, "Shenango Town -- Wyandot and Delaware Indian town on nearby riverbanks about 1750-1785. Under control of Seneca Iroquois, of whom a few bands remained in this region until about 1812." A photo of the marker was published in the bicentennial edition of The Herald with this caption: "Indians who lived in Shenango Town near West Middlesex were the Mercer County citizens whose tribes were involved in the historic French and Indian War. This marker is all that remains of their village."

Now not even the marker remains. All that keeps Shenango Town from being forgotten are a few incidental references in old history books and an account written by a man named John McCullough.

In the 1750s, the hostilities were intense between the native population and the white settlers who were pushing westward. For every family member killed, the Indians would capture a white person, who was then accepted into the family in the place of the one they had lost. After being captured by the Delawares in Franklin County at age 8 in 1756, McCullough lived with a Delaware family in Shenango Town until 1758. His story, written after he was released in 1764, was first published in 1839.

"On the third or fourth night," McCullough wrote, "we arrived in Shenango, about an hour after dark. After the female friend who I was sent with had informed the family who I was, they set up a lamentable cry for some time.

"When their lamentation was over, they came to me one after another and shook me by the hand -- in token that they considered me to stand in the same relationship to them as the one in whose stead I was placed."

The town was a semi-circle of log cabins set around a bend in the Shenango River. Its residents lived a harsh life, feeding themselves by raising corn and hunting.

McCullough's "uncle," the Delaware with whom he lived, had a strange way of strengthening him for the rigors of life in the wilderness.

"In the beginning of winter, he used to raise me up by daylight every morning, and make me sit down in the creek up to my chin in the cold water, in order to make me hardy as he said, whilst he would sit on the bank smoking his pipe, until he thought I had been long enough in the water. He kept this up even after the river froze. He would then break the ice for me, and send me in as before."

In spite of this treatment, the boy preferred to live in his new environment. Twice his father came to rescue him, but he hid from him so that he could stay with his Delaware family.

The Delawares, who were dependent on the French for protection, abandoned Shenango Town in 1758, after troops under British General Forbes captured Fort Duquesne. McCullough's family moved first to a new town they were settling on the Mahoning River. According to other accounts, Shenango Town was not uninhabited for long, though McCullough's family did not return to live there again.

According to McCullough, the Indian population of this area at that time was very sparse. Their towns, located along the waterways, were few and far between. Nearest to the south were the Kuskuskies towns, described on a historical marker at the intersection of Routes 208 and 551 near Edinburg.

To the north, the nearest town was Pymatuning, near the Big Bend of the Shenango River, commemorated by a historical marker on Route 258, east of Clark.

McCullough wrote that the populations of Kuskuskie and Shenango Town were each about 100. Pymatuning may not have been established until several years after McCullough left Shenango Town with his Delaware family.