William Trent III
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Major William Trent (1715 – c.1787), born in Western Pennsylvania, was a soldier and merchant who played an important role in the early stages of the French and Indian War. He was a key local figure in the westward expansion across the Appalachian Mountains in the 1700s. He started his pioneer life being a soldier-of-fortune during the various local Indian wars in Pennsylvania and present day Maryland and West Virginia, and the French and Indian War. He was the commander of the militia at Fort Pitt during Pontiac's Rebellion. During the siege of Fort Pitt, he recorded in his journal that smallpox infected blankets had been given to besieging Indians during a parley.
Some credit Trent with being among the founding fathers of Pittsburgh. In later life he became a land speculator in the western Pennsylvania region.
Trent was the grandson of William Trent I, founder of Trenton, New Jersey.
[edit] Further reading
- Slick, Sewell Elias. William Trent and the West. Harrisburg: Archives Pub. Co. of Pennsylvania, 1947.
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