[4] In late 1755, Colonel John Armstrong wrote to Governor Robert Hunter Morris: "I am of the opinion that no other means of defense than a chain of blockhouses along or near the south side of the Kittatinny Mountains from the Susquehanna to the temporary line, can secure the lives and property of the inhabitants of this country.

[7] On November 3, 1756, the garrison received word that a war party had kidnapped a child from a nearby farm, and the fort's commander, Lieutenant Samuel Humphreys, took some soldiers and went in search of them.

The fort's commander, along with seven soldiers and seventeen of the farmers, found twenty Native American warriors attacking a local farm.

[9] Captain Morgan wrote to Deputy Governor William Denny, stating: "Mr. Humphreys behaved in a most laudable manner, and manifested that calm courage and presence of mind which will ever gain an advantage over superior numbers.

On August 17 Colonel Conrad Weiser arrived with the news that he had decided to rebuild the fort at another site nearby, and ordered that the land be cleared.

Records also show that Frederick Degler and his family took refuge in the fort in September, and were still there at the time of the Bloody Springs massacre on October 1.

Forty soldiers and two lieutenants from the Royal American Regiment were sent from Reading to protect the other farms, which would not have been necessary had there been a garrison at Fort Northkill.

On March 15, 1758, the residents in and around Bern petitioned the governor for "soldiers to be stationed for their defense in some of the most exposed farm houses," because "the blockhouse at Northkill is destroyed and no garrison kept in those parts.