Jersey Shore was incorporated as a borough on March 15, 1826. The history of Jersey Shore begins about fifty years before it was incorporated and on the opposite bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River in what is now Nippenose Township. Colonel John Henry Antes arrived in 1772 and established a homestead along the banks of Antes Creek. Antes also built a gristmill and his fortified home, Fort Antes, provided a safe haven for the early settlers against raids conducted by Loyalist and Indian forces during the American Revolution. Settlers who had sought refuge at Fort Antes and had returned to the right bank of the West Branch to milk their cows were among the first killed when Fort Antes was attacked just prior to the Big Runaway. These pioneers on the north side of the river were counted among the Fair Play Men a group of squatters who lived outside the jurisdiction of the colonial and revolutionary governments of Pennsylvania. Many of the settlers did not return to the area until after Sullivan's Expedition had forced the Lenni Lenape and other Indians allied with the British further west.