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| The Conestoga region that was to become Strasburg was first inhabited by Susquehannock Indians. A French fur trader, Peter (Pierre) Bezallion, hunted in the woods around Strasburg. In the late 1600's, he took up trade with the Indians on a dirt path known as "Minqua's Path". In 1708, Peter is recorded as having received permission from Governor Gookin to operate a trading post here.
In 1710, the Conestoga Road was established entering present day Lancaster County at the town of Gap, passing through present day Strasburg, and ending in Indian Town, now a defunct town that was located a few miles north of Conestoga. Land warrants along the Conestoga Road were issued on October 10, 1710 and subsequent surveying of these tracts took place on November 3, 1710. For place names, we shall quote from the land warrant, "We have agreed with John Rudolph Bundley, Martin Kending, Jacob Miller, Hans Herr, Martin Oberholtz, Hans Funk, Michael Oberholtz and one Wendel Bowman, Swissers, lately arrived in this province, for ten thousand acres of land, situated on the northwesterly side of a hill, about twenty miles easterly from Conestoga, near the head of Pequea Creek, for which said land, they are to pay the sum of five hundred pounds." In 1711, the name Strasburg appeared in Chester County surveyed land tracts. (Editors Note: Lancaster County boundaries would not be established until 1729, and until that time, Lancaster County was grouped within Chester County boundaries). In 1712, the name Strasburg again appeared in records. William Penn's secretary, James Logan, signed a receipt "for twenty shillings sterling from Maria Warenbuer for one years quit-rent of two thousand acres of land, laid out to her at Strasburg, in this Province". Settlers in Strasburg during the early Colonial Period relied heavily on trade. To support a growing number of traders in the area, wagons were used to haul goods on the Conestoga Road between Philadelphia and the largest inland town of the time, Lancaster. An account book owned by John Logan states that during the year of 1716, "John Miller used his wagon to bring down furs for James Patterson, Ann LeTort, Peter Bezallion, and Martin Chartier and took back lead, gunpowder, blue duffels, rum, kettles, and salt to be traded for more furs". Records of additional wagons operated by Joseph Cloud and John Logan himself were recorded in service in the year of 1717. Logan's purchase of the wagon he used has the distinction of being the first wagon in American history to be described as a Conestoga wagon.
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