Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
It was mentiond in your Committee that the Cannon shoud be Dd. at Willing & Morriss’s wharf below the Draw Bridge but no person mentiond to provide the Gallises & Takles to unload & Receive them also the Ball. I1 intend sending Ball this week but no guns till I hear by the Return waggons that Everything is ready for the unloading the Guns. There is a Danl. Robinson near Morrisses Warf that sells my Caboosis. If you Imploy him I make no Doubt will Give Satisfaction. I beg you will have these things setled Amediately that the waggoners may not be Detaind. & you’l Greatly Oblige Your Humble Servant,
Mark Bird inherited from his father, William Bird, the Hay Creek forge and Berkshire Furnace which the latter built in 1740 and 1760 respectively. Mark Bird expanded these properties and became one the most prominent landowners and businessmen in Berks County. He was a member of the local committee of correspondence, represented the county at the Provincial Convention in January 1775, and chaired the county’s standing committee. In addition Bird was lieutenant colonel of the Second Battalion of the county militia and later as colonel of a regiment that he enrolled at his own expence in August 1776, as well as one of the assistant quartermasters general. After the war his businesses failed and about 1788 he moved to North Carolina (Forges and Furnaces in the Province of Pennsylvania [Philadelphia, 1914], 76–78; Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 14, 1774, Jan. 2, 1775; Pennsylvania Packet, Sept. 24, 1779).