"Historical Collections of Pennsylvania:
A Copious Selection of the Most Interesting, Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches & Anecdotes"
by Sherman Day, Published 1843
Language and spelling is as it was written.
the courthouse is seen in the distance.
The census of 1840 enumerates for this county, 11 furnaces, making 6,912 tons of pig metal per year; 14 forges and rolling-mills, making 2,090 tons; men employed, 784; capital invested in iron works, $420, 500; 12 fulling-mills, 10 woollen manufactories, 1 cotton manufactory (near Lancaster City), 57 tanneries, 102 distilleries, 8 breweries, 9 printing offices, 128 flouring-mills, 135 grist-mills, 106 saw-mills and 2 oil-mills.
The population of the county is mainly of German descent; the German language, until within a few years past, was more generally spoken than the English. German thrift and persevering industry are evident in the broad, well-cultivated farms and substantial stone houses, and still more substantial and spacious store barns, which meet the eye of the traveller in all parts of the county. Lancaster County was first peopled by Indians, remnants of southern tribes driven out by the encroachments of European colonists in Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, a few years before, and about the time that Pennsylvania was founded. Six Nations were acknowledged as the sovereigns of the Susquehanna, and they regarded with jealousy, and permitted with reluctance, the settlement of other tribes upon its margin. The Cayuga chief told the Moravians of Wyalusing, in 1765, "that the place they had chosen was not proper, all that country having been stained with blood; therefore, he would take themup and place them in a better situation near the upper end of Cayuga lake."
Mr. Bancroft, in speaking of the Shawanees, says, "It was about the year 1698 that three or four score of their families, with the consent of the government of Pennsylvania, removed from Carolina and planted themselves on the Susquehanna. Sad, were the fruits of that hospitality. Others followed; and when, in 1732, the number of Indian fighting men in Pennsylvania was estimated to be 700, one half of them were Shawanee emigrants. So desolate was the wilderness that a vagabond tribe could wander undisturbed from Cumberland River to the Alabama, from the head-waters of the Santee to the Susquehanna." They were some years afterwards persuaded to remove to the lands on Conodoguinet, where a hunting-ground had been assigned them by the proprietary government. Ever restless and quarrelsome themselves and encroached upon by the whites, they retired from one hunting-ground to another, until they joined the French on the head waters of the Ohio, in 1755.
The village of the Conestogas is noted in the early colonial history as the scene of many important councils between the proprietary governors and the Indians of the Susquehanna and the Six Nations. William Penn is said to have visited them once. James Logan was here in 1705; Governor Evans in 1707; Governor Gookin in 1710 and 1711; and Governor Keith in 1721. They were often visited by preachers of various denominations, among whom was Thomas Chalkley in 1705, an eminent Quaker preacher.
It is a singular fact, that when the Germans entered their land, and afterwards applied for the privilege of naturalization, the proprietary ordered that their German names be translated into English; and thus many German families received English names, which they retain to this day. The Zimmerman family for instance, is now known by the name of Carpenter.
The Presbyterians from the north of Ireland came in at about the same time as the Germans, and occupied the townships of Donnegal and Paxton. Collisions afterwards occurring between them and the Germans concerning elections, bearing of arms, the treatment of Indians and the proprietaries instructed their agents, in 1755, that the Germans should be encouraged, and in a manner directed, to settle along the southern boundary of the province, in Lancaster and York counties, while the Irish were to be located nearer to the Kittatinny mountain, in the region now forming Dauphin and Cumberland counties. There was deeper policy in this than the mere separation of the two races. The Irish were a warlike peole and their services were needed in the defence of the frontier.
The Welsh and English Quakers from the head waters of the Brandywine, and the Great valley of Chester County, gradually spread themselves over into Sadsbury township. Robert Barber, Samuel Blunston and John Wright, three Quakers from Chester County, came out in the year 1728 to Columbia, where they had purchased large farms. The Lutherans came in at a later date, about the year 1740 to 1748 and are first heard of about Lancaster. The Moravians began their establishment in Warwick township, about the year 1749. Many redemptioners (people who were sold into temporary service to pay for their passage across the ocean) found their way into this county, where, after working themselves free, they obtaiined small tracts of land on easy terms and became eventually valuable citizens.
Lancaster County, thus settled on the principle of free toleration, by men of widely different races and religions, has continued to prosper, until it has become the most populous and wealthy inland county in the state.
in neighboring Chester County
This place well deserves the title of a city. There is nothing rural in its aspect. The streets, laid off at right angles, are paved and lighted; the houses, generally of brick, are compactly arranged, and those of modern date are lofty and well built; the courthouse, as in all the older proprietary towns, occupies the centre of a small square at the intersection of the two principal streets; the place is supplied with water by an artificial basin and "waterworks;" stores, taverns, and shops abound in every quarter; railroad cars, stages, canal-boats, and wagons, are constantly arriving or departing; and altogether there is that rattle and din that remind one of city life. A stranger is particularly struck with numerous tavern-signs that greet him by dozens along the principal streets. They form a sort of outdoor picture gallery and some are no mean specimens of art. Here may be seen half the kings of Europe, the king of Prussia, of Sweden, and the Prince of Orange; and then there are the warriors, Washington, Lafayette, Jackson, Napoleon, William Tell and a whole army of others; and of statesmen there are Jefferson, Franklin and others; and then comes the Red Lion of England, leading a long procession of lions, bears, stags, bulls, horses, eagles, swans, black, white, dun and red, not to mention the emblems, the globe, the cross-keys, the plough, the wheat-sheaf, the compass and square, and the hickory tree. These numerous inns tell of bygone days, before the railroad and canals were constructed, when the streets and yards were crowded every evening with long trains of Conestoga wagons, passing over the turnpike, by which nearly all the interior of the state ws supplied with merchandise. They tell, too, a sad tale of the ravages of that disease of good fellowship which has blighted the prospects of many a worthy family of the city and county. It is to be hoped that the temperance reformation will soon exterminate the disease, and that the young men of the growing generation will be spared to honor and usefulness.
The following lively sketch of the appearance of Lancaster in olden timeis extracted from a communication in the Lancaster Journal of 1838.
"When I was a boy, our good city of Lancaster was quite a different affair from what it is at present, with its Conestoga navigation, its railway and improvements of every kind. At the formerly quiet corner of North Aueen and Chestnut streets, where lived a few old-fashioned German families, making fortunes by untiring industry and the most minute economy, there is now nothing but bustle and confusion, arrivals and departurs of cars, stages, carriages, hacks, drays and wheelbarrows, with hundreds of people and thousands of tons of merchandise. I cannot help contrasting Orange Street's present appearance with what it was in my boyhood. At that time, it was little more than a wide lane, with half a dozen houses, nearly all of which are yet standing. The peaceable and retired looking mansion, with the willow trees in front, at present inhabited by the widow of Judge Franklin, I remember as a commission store, whwere trade was carried on with a few Indians still in the neighborhood and also with those from a greater distance, who exchanged their furs and peltries for beads, blankets, cutlery and rum, as is still done in many parts of the western country. The house in which the North American Hotel is kept, was occupied by the land commissioners a few years later.
Annually in those days a fair was held on the first Thursday and Friday in June. You could hardly see the street for the tables and booths, covered with merchandise and trinkets of every kind. There were silks, laces, and jewellery, calicoes, gingerbread, and sweetmeats, such as the ladies love; and that was the time they got plenty of them, too, for the young fellows used to hoard up their pocket-money for months together to spend at the fair; and no girl felt ashamed to be treated to a fairing, even by a lad she had never seen before. This was the first step towards expressing admiration, and she who got the most fairings was considered as the belle. Then the corners of the streets were taken up with mountebanks, roepdancers and all the latesty amusemetns. To see these, each young man took the girl that pleased him most; or, if he had a capacious heart, he sometimes took half a dozen."
Mountains of Pennsylvania
Columbia borough is situated on the left bank of the Susquehanna, 28 miles below Harrisburg and 11 miles west of Lancaster. A part of the town occupies the slope of a hill, which rises gently from the river and the business part of the town lies along the level bank of the river. The scenery from the hills in the vicinity is magnificent. The broad river, studded with numerous islands and rocks, crossed by a long and splended bridge and bounded on every side by lofty hills, presents one of the finest landscapes in Pennsylvania.
The public buildings here are Catholic, Presbyterian, two Methodist and Baptist churches, a Quaker meeting-house, a town hall, a lyceum hall and a bank. The main current of travellers which formerly passed through here has been diverted by the construction of the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad; but the emigrant travel still goes by way of Columbia.
Marietta is situated on the left bank of the Susquehanna, 3 miles above Columbia. It was incorporated as a borough in 1812, and the adjoining villages of Waterford and New Haven were included in the borough. It contains about 100 dwellings, a Presbyterian church, a Female Seminary and about 500 inhabitants. Anderson's ferry was originally the well-known name of this place.
Maytown, a small village two miles in the interior from Marietta and Elizabethtown, on the Harrisburg turnpike, were laid out many years before Marietta, and not long after the commencement of Lancaster. The township containing these villages is called Donnegal and was originally settled by Scotch-Irish. The venerable Presbyterian church of Donnegal, about 100 years old, is still standing about four miles north of Marietta. Rev. james Anderson, who emigrated from Scotland in 1709, after preaching for some years at New Castle and New York, was called to the church of "New Donnegal" in 1726. He died here in 1740. He is said to have been too rigidly Scotch in his Presbyterian notions for the people of New York who then inclined towards Congregationalism, or toward the lax Presbyterianism of South Britain. The presbytery of Donnegal was the parent of that of Carlisle and others west of it. All this region was famous in early times, especially during the revolution, for the convivial and sprightly spirit characteristic of the Irish.
Litiz is a beautiful village belonging to the Moravians, 8 miles north of Lancaster. It was laid out in 1756. The houses are principally of stone, arranged along one street with a public square in the centre. the square and streets are shaded with trees, and the village has the air of neatness and order characteristic of the sect. The population may be about 400. There is but one tavern in the place; and a stranger is much better accommodated there than in towns where it is thought, by politicians, "necessary for the public convenience" to license half a dozen. In the centre is the church, with a cupola. Adjoining the church, on the left, is the minister's dwelling. On the left of the view, at the end of the square, is the celebrated Female Seminary. On the right is the Academy for boys. In the rear of the church is the "dead house," to which persons are carried immediately after their death, previous to interment. The Moravians are celebrated for their musical taste; there is a fine organ in the church; and the villagers have a band who are always ready, on proper occasions, to entertain strangers who desire to hear them.
Manheim, a village 5 miles of Litiz, was laid out at an early day by Mr. Steigel, and was famous for its glass and iron works. It contains about sicty or eighty dwellings. Strasburg is an ancient village, 8 miles southeast of Lancaster, built along both sides of the road for a mile and a half. It was never regularly laid out as a town, but seems to have grown up by the attraction of cohesion among the earlier German emigrants. The ancient road from Lancaster to Philadelphia ran through it, and took its name of the Strasburg road from the place. It was first settled about the same time with Lancaster. The inhabitants were nearly all GermanThe father of Dr. Sample, who lives near Paradise, was the first and only Englishman in the place at the time of the revolution. The place was formerly known as Peddlehausie.
About 4 miles southeast of Strasburg, near the railroad, is the village of Paradise, famous for its pleasant name. It was first settled many years since by Mr. Abraham Witmer and his family, who built a mill there. When it was made a post-town in 1804, and needed a name, he remarked that to him it was a paradise, and it has been so called to this day. New Holland is a neat village, 12 miles northeast from Lancaster, in a rich limestone region. It is built on one long street, well shaded with trees, and is distinguished by an appearance of thrift and comfort. The place was settled long before the revolution by German emigrants. Mr. Primmer was one of the first settlers. The old Lutheran church bears the date of 1763, and is said to have been preceded by an older one of logs.
The other important villages of this county are Elizabethtown, Falmouth, Washington, Millerstown, Neffsville, Soudersburg, Intercourse, Reamstown, Adamstown, Hanstown, Warwick, Charleston, New Market, Petersburg, Fairfield, Little Britain, Ephrata, Safe Harbor, Hinkletown and Swopestown. Some of these are villages of considerable population; other are merely clusters of houses and stores at the intersection of roads.
History of "Scotch-Irish" in Old Virginia USGenWeb Site for Orange County, NC