northward. Half mile north of Longwood Meeting House is “Pierce’s Park,”
now owned by Pierre du Pont, Esq., contains wonderful trees, planted
over a century ago by Samuel and Joshua Pierce, who rode on horseback to
the Dismal Swamp for cypresses and brought them home in saddlebags. Mr.
du Pont has recently added an unusually beautiful flower garden and
conservatory; visitors admitted free on week days.
KENNETT SQUARE, Bayard Taylor Memorial Library, contains first editions
of his books, his paintings, and his drawings; also busts of Bayard
Taylor and John Welsh; sculptor, W. Marshall Swayne. In Advent
Protestant Episcopal Church, memorial window to Bayard Taylor. Ten miles
southwest, NEW LONDON Academy, founded, 1743, marked by bronze tablet;
here were educated three signers of the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas McKean, George Reed, and James Smith, and other men of
prominence.
Other places of interest, in north of county, are VALLEY FORGE, chiefly
in Montgomery County. PHŒNIXVILLE, population 10,484; farthest inland
point reached by British, September 21-22-23, 1777; marked by low
granite monument opposite Fountain Inn. St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal
Church, stone; stained glass windows by Meyer Bros., Munich, Germany;
Parish House interior designed by the late George Wattress, pure
English, dark oak, with tiled floors; early Iron Industry, Phœnix Iron
Company, marked, bronze tablet.
Ten miles northwest of Phœnixville is COVENTRYVILLE, old Coventry Forge,
1717, earliest in county, second in Pennsylvania; Mordecai Lincoln,
ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, worked here and was part owner in 1725.
WARWICK, Warwick Furnace, Potts and Rutter, proprietors, 1737; here was
cast the first Franklin stove, and others with quaint designs and
Biblical verses; cannon and cannon balls were made here for the
Revolutionary Army; marked. Seven miles west of Phœnixville, at CHESTER
SPRINGS, is summer art school of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, forty acres, with buildings for studios, and lodging houses for
the students; one of these buildings was used as a Revolutionary
Hospital, marked; former name, “Yellow Springs,” a watering resort in
colonial days.
Marking on all places has been by the Chester County Historical Society
unless otherwise stated.
IV
LANCASTER COUNTY
Formed May 10, 1729, by request of the proprietaries, on site of an
Indian village; it was named for Lancashire, England, derived from
Lan-Castra, the Camp at Lan, permanent camp of Roman occupation of
Britain two thousand years ago. Earliest settlers, Swiss Mennonites,
who, in 1710, had warrants for ten thousand acres of land on Pequea
Creek; leader, Bishop Hans Herr; his stone house, built by himself on
this tract, is still standing, with initials and date cut over front
door, “C. H. H. 1719.” A fine Mennonite meeting house, lately built, is
here; on the grounds is huge boulder, marked by the Lancaster County
Historical Society. This is the richest agricultural county in the
United States, of unexampled fertility; the tourist is impressed with
the mammoth barns of this region; luxuriant crops of tobacco are of
special note. The Conestoga River, with its affluents, drains an area of
315 square miles, it is crossed by many bridges. On the border of the
city limits is a nine arch stone bridge, built by Abraham Witmer in
1800, which leads the Lincoln Highway over the Conestoga. At Pequea is
St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church, according to a quaint old Vestry
Book “Built of wood in 1729, to perform Divine Adoration ... after ye
manner of ye Episcopal Church of England,” the itinerant missionaries of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel of England holding
service; cornerstone
[Illustration: LANCASTER COUNTY]
of present church building was laid by Bishop Onderdonk, the rector at
that time being Rev. Edward Young Buchanan, brother of President James
Buchanan; the parish possesses two vestry books of great historic value.
Most famous group of historic buildings are those erected by the Seventh
Day Baptists, founded by Conrad Beisel in 1722, at EPHRATA, on the
Cocalico; monastery still in original condition, with cells and rooms;
and the adjoining chapel little changed; the brothers and sisters lived,
each in their narrow cell, like monks of the Middle Ages; a printing
press was set up in 1743, on which were printed the largest books in
America prior to 1860; first Sunday schools in America were said to have
been started here in 1740; and Henry William Steigel introduced glass
making. Joining the Cloister Settlement is Clare Point Stock Farm, now
occupied by the Redemptorist Fathers, a Roman Catholic order, founded in
1732 by St. Alphonsus Maria Leguori, in Italy; of strict discipline and
singleness of purpose, designed to work among neglected country people;
this is their only mission in Pennsylvania.
County seat, LANCASTER, 418 feet above sea, population 53,150; laid out
by Governor Gordon in 1730; near by is the Conestoga River, named by
Conestoga Indians, a tribe of the Delawares; the Dutch who lived here
invented the wagon, with big covered tops, drawn by six horses, and
named it for the river. It is said that here was first given to
Washington the title “Des Landes Vater.” This is a square city, lines
run north and south, east and west, with outlying districts; one,
Rossmere, was named in honor of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence.
The Continental Congress arrived here from Philadelphia the very day Sir
William Howe entered that city; the next day they moved to York. This
was the Capital of the State from 1799-1812, and birthplace of Simon
Snyder, Governor of Pennsylvania 1808-1817. In center of Penn Square is
a monument to soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. One block away is
the court house, on East King Street, built about 1850; architect,
Samuel Sloan; Corinthian; contains portraits of Hon. Isaac E. Hiester by
Isaac Williams, and Hon. W. U. Hensel by Lazare Raditz, Philadelphia.
Jail, East King Street, Norman castellated, red sandstone, built, 1850,
architect, John Haviland. Fountain, East King Street, on reservoir
grounds, made, 1905, memorial to John Williamson Nevin; bronze lion,
sculptor, Blanche Nevin.
Michael Schlatter and Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, leaders of the Reformed
and Lutheran Germans, were in favor of higher education, and established
Franklin College in 1787, forming the beginning of Franklin and Marshall
College; built on an eminence west of city; main building Elizabethan,
brick, built, 1854-55, with beautiful entrance door, contains portraits.
In the Watts de Peyster Library are bronze busts of the father and
mother of General de Peyster. St. Stephen’s Chapel has memorial window
to Rev. John W. Nevin, D.D., LL.D., made by Armstrong, New York. On the
campus is bronze heroic statue of Abraham de Peyster, made in New York,
1895, replica of one facing New York Custom House. The
[Illustration: MAIN BUILDING FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, LANCASTER]
scientific building contains oil paintings, among them one by J. D.
Wiltkamp, “The Three Women of Grève-Coeur.” Buchanan Park, opened, 1905,
joins the college campus and grounds of the Reformed Theological
Seminary. “Wheatland,” residence of President James Buchanan, is near,
on Marietta Pike, colonial, brick, built prior to 1812. St. Joseph’s
Hospital and Roman Catholic Church are near college; hospital contains
portrait of Henry E. Muhlenberg, M.D., by Caroline Peart Brinton; the
church windows are from Munich and Innspruck.
Among Lancaster’s numerous churches are, the Moravian, West Orange
Street, rear part stone, built, 1750, oldest in the city, brick front
added, 1820. First Reformed, East Orange Street, brick; Romanesque;
built, 1852-54; two steeples, contains lectern and other pieces of
woodcarving by A. Lang of Oberammergau, nephew of Anton Lang, made,
1905; decorations by J. F. Lamb, New York; windows from Tiffany and
D’Ascenzo studios; bronze memorial tablet by Martha Hovenden. St. James
Protestant Episcopal, corner of East Orange and North Duke Streets,
Norman, brick; main walls built, 1820, added to 1870 and 1910; chancel
windows from England, others by Lamb and the Tiffany Studios, New York;
oil painting, “The Crucifixion,” artist, Jacob Eicholtz; pictorial tile
base at altar, by Dr. Henry Mercer; in parish house is fifteenth century
oil painting, Urbanean School. St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic, East Orange
Street, bronze altar and statues from Oux et Cie, Paris; frescoes by
Ludwig Reingruber are adaptations of old masters. Trinity Lutheran,
South Duke Street, brick; fine old Georgian style, compares with Christ
Church, Philadelphia; built, 1761; tower and spire added, 1794; wood
sculpture, four evangelists, at base of tower; original pipe organ
built, 1771, was utilized in new organ; memorial windows by the Tiffany
Company, and by Joseph Lauber, New York City.
Fulton Opera House, Prince Street between Orange and West King Streets,
on site of massacre of Conestoga Indians by Paxtang boys in 1763, over
entrance, life-size statue, carved wood, of Robert Fulton, made, 1852,
sculptor, Hugh Cannon: the Lancaster County Historical Society placed a
tablet on the wall of Robert Fulton’s birthplace, built, 1765; southern
part of Lancaster County, Fulton Township, A. Herr Smith, Memorial Free
Library, North Duke Street; Italian villa style; contains portraits of
notable men identified with Lancaster County. Post Office and Revenue
Building, North Duke Street, Italian Renaissance; Indiana limestone;
built by United States Government. Guaranty Trust Company, North Duke
Street, Ionic, marble, built, 1912. The Henry G. Long Asylum, corner of
Marietta and West End Avenues, contains two portraits by Jacob Eicholtz.
The Iris Club, founded by Miss Alice Nevin, has annual exhibition of
paintings.
In Woodward Hill Cemetery, southern part of city, on the Conestoga, is
tomb of President James Buchanan. Greenwood Cemetery, end of South Queen
Street, has stone entrance, made, 1895, by Rothenberger. Tomb of
Thaddeus Stevens, white and black marble and granite, is in Shreiner
burial ground. West Chestnut Street, corner of Shippen and Ross
Streets, is inclosure and small brick monument topped by stone sphere,
site of George Ross’s mansion. Bountiful markets held on the curbs, as
well as in the market houses, are a distinctive and picturesque feature
of the town; the presence of the Mennonite, Amish, and other sects lends
a peculiar aspect to the scene.
Near Rockford, south, is brick colonial mansion, built before 1775,
residence of the Revolutionary general, Edward Hand, marked with tablet
by local Historical Society. The birthplace of Dr. David Ramsey,
historian, built, 1749, is still standing. Williamson Park, end of South
Drake Street, on Conestoga River, acquired by gift in 1902, has wild
scenic beauty. Long’s Park on Harrisburg Pike, two miles from city,
acquired by gift, scenic, opened, 1903. Between Mount Joy and Maytown is
Donegal Presbyterian Church, built prior to the Revolution, a quaint
building with gambrel roof; interesting burial ground with the witness
tree; Cameron family bury here.
DONEGAL was an early Scotch-Irish settlement. Under the oak witness tree
the “Sons of Donegal” dedicated their lives to their country in the
Revolutionary War. Tablet records their names, among them James
Stephenson, 1770, whose granddaughter Sarah married David McKinley,
ancestor of President William McKinley.
LITITZ, settled by Moravians, 1748, has Moravian boarding school for
girls, “Linden Hall,” founded, 1749; in the town park are the famous
Lititz Springs; Lititz is also famous for pretzels, first made by
William Rauch in 1710.
MANHEIM, laid out by Henry William Steigel, 1762, was named for his
German home town; here he built a large glass factory, first in the
United States; skilled workmen from Europe were employed; a few rare
specimens of this glass, owned by collectors, show fineness of quality,
richness of color, and a peculiar bell-like ring, some specimens are in
the Danner Museum, open Tuesdays, free, to visitors, which outrivals
some, more noted, in the rarity and variety of its collections: in 1772
Steigel gave to the Lutherans at Manheim a piece of ground on which to
build a church; payment to be five shillings and an annual rental of one
red rose; on the second Sunday in June, crowds attend the Baron Steigel
Memorial Church, and at these services a descendant of the Steigels
receives the red rose; the chancel is often filled with red roses
dropped there individually as a tribute; in 1752 Steigel had married a
daughter of John Jacob Huber, who owned a small iron furnace near
Brickerville, he purchased land and became interested in several
furnaces, one he named for his wife, “Elizabeth”; the Elizabeth furnace,
in 1776, came into possession of Robert Coleman of Lebanon, in 1777 it
was overtaxed with large orders of shot and shell for the Continental
Army, and the government sent about two hundred Hessian prisoners, taken
at Trenton, to work there; many remained and became good citizens. Mr.
Coleman’s residence was at Elizabeth furnace, here he entertained
Washington as his guest, who, at his request, sat for a portrait to
Gilbert Stuart, which is now owned by B. Dawson Coleman, Esq.
Lancaster County furnaces in the Conestoga Valley, Caernarvon Township,
were owned by David Jones in 1736; old mines are still there that bear
his name; in 1743 David Branson built the Windsor forges, in the same
township; among his partners was Lynford Lardner, who married his
daughter Rebecca. On the banks of Furnace Run, near Colemanville, may be
seen an old cinder heap, which is all that remains of the Martic
Furnace, built 1751-52 on 3400 acres of land, with the usual houses and
shops; during the Revolution, round iron was drawn under the hammer at
the forge, and bored out for musket barrels; negro slaves were always
employed here; among the past owners of this furnace, from 1777-93, was
a Philadelphia merchant, Michael Hillegas, who became first Continental
treasurer in 1775; in 1777 he was appointed first treasurer of the
United States and continued in that office until 1789.
Near, just below Safe Harbor, in the Susquehanna River, is Indian Rock,
with a number of inscriptions on it, the writing may be seen when water
is low; same writing is found in Beaver County. The bridge over the
Susquehanna River from Columbia to Wrightsville has been replaced
several times, one was burned to stem the tide of the Confederates. At
Elizabethtown are the Masonic Homes of Pennsylvania, on 982 acres, with
Grand Lodge Hall, 437 feet long by 160 feet wide, seventeen dwelling
houses, and other buildings. Georgian architecture, designed by
Zantzinger, Borie and Medary.
[Illustration: YORK COUNTY]
V
YORK COUNTY
Formed August 9, 1749; named for the House of York, England. An
agricultural region of great fertility. First authorized settlements
were made in 1733. Before the white settlers came, the territory west of
the Susquehanna River was hunting ground for the Conestoga Indians, a
branch of the Mohawks, who migrated to New York State about 1750; also
for the Susquehannocks and Conewagos, who had their village at present
site of York Haven. When a treaty with the Indians at Albany, in 1736,
gave Penn’s heirs right to the territory from west of the Susquehanna to
the South Mountain, immigrants from Europe flocked into York County, in
vast numbers, and proved a strong and influential part of the
population. During the colonial period four companies of soldiers from
this county assisted in driving the French and Indians from the western
part of the province before 1758.
At beginning of the Revolutionary War it is said that the first military
company from Pennsylvania that arrived at Washington’s headquarters,
siege of Boston, in 1775, shortly after Battle of Bunker Hill, were from
York County; this company, and one commanded by Captain Morgan of
Virginia, were first American troops to use rifles; they became the
terror of the British regulars, who still used the old-time flint
musket. When the British attacked New York City and the Battle of Long
Island followed, Pennsylvania troops camped at Perth Amboy; here two
regiments from York County were formed out of the militia; and became a
part of the Flying Camp, a body of ten thousand men from Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and Maryland, which joined Washington before the Battle of
White Plains; they were also in the battles of Princeton and Trenton.
Colonel Thomas Hartley, a member of York County bar, commanded a brigade
under Washington at battles of Brandywine and Germantown; and after the
Revolution he represented York County in Congress for twelve years; he
was first member of the Pennsylvania bar to be admitted to the Supreme
Court of the United States. President Washington was entertained in his
house in 1791, site marked by tablet.
Shortly before the Battle of Brandywine, September 27, 1777, the
Continental Congress adjourned from Independence Hall to meet in
Lancaster; they were there one day, then crossed the Susquehanna and
made YORKTOWN the seat of government until June 27, 1778, when they
returned to Philadelphia. Twenty-five Congressmen came on horseback over
the old Monocacy Road, and took up quarters in the town and vicinity.
The personnel of Congress was constantly changing; no less than
sixty-four different members were present from first to last. The
mansion, corner of Center Square, where the Colonial Hotel now stands,
had been rented to General Roberdeau; quarters were found there for the
leading Congressmen, Adams, Lee, Harrison, Laurens, and others. John
Adams, in letters to his wife Abigail, complained of his straitened
quarters, and the Dutch cooking. James Smith, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence, gave his law office in Center Square to be
used by the Committee of Foreign Affairs; and the Board of War.
The noted chest of papers, belonging to Congress, which John Adams
declared “was worth more than Congress itself,” was kept by Thomas Paine
at the Cooke’s House, a house of entertainment, still standing, in the
bend of Codorus Creek, then away from town; here he wrote parts five and
six of “The Crisis.” On September 30, 1777, with John Hancock as
President of Congress, the first session was held in the brick court
house, built, 1756; site marked by Yorktown Chapter, Daughters of the
American Revolution; soon after Congress assembled here, news was
brought of the surrender of Burgoyne to General Gates, with six thousand
British and Hessian troops, at Saratoga. A motion, made by Richard Henry
Lee of Virginia, to set apart a day for Thanksgiving was unanimously
adopted; Thursday, December 18, 1777, was appointed, and a few days
later this historic document was written, and sent by post riders to the
governors of each of the thirteen original states; this was the first
national Thanksgiving proclamation in America, in the sense of its
observation, on the same date, by the thirteen states.
Soon after, General Lafayette arrived in Yorktown and was received in
open session by Congress; the victory of General Gates had made him the
hero of the hour; Washington had been defeated at Brandywine and
Germantown, and gone into winter quarters at Valley Forge; knowing that
a large number of the delegates in Congress at Yorktown favored a plan
to displace him from the head of the army, and promote General Gates to
that position, Washington never visited Congress here; he wrote a
private letter to Robert Morris, saying, “If Congress adjourns, _sine
die_, I wish it understood, I will oppose British invasion, in the
mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, rather than give up our cause
for Independence, promulgated July 4, 1776”; this historic letter was
read at an open meeting in Zion Reformed Church.
Congress called General Gates to York, and made him President of the
Board of War; he gave a banquet at his headquarters; among the guests
was Lafayette, twenty-one years of age; speeches were made favoring the
promotion of Gates to position of general in chief of the army, when
Lafayette arose and offered the following toast: “To General George
Washington, head of the American Army; may he continue to hold that
position until a Treaty of Peace is signed with England, acknowledging
the freedom of this country, in whose cause I am listed for its
defense.” It was this incident that caused the collapse of the Conway
Cabal, instigated by General Conway, opponent of Washington and friend
of Gates.
Lafayette visited York in 1825, then sixty-eight years old, and last
surviving Major General of the Revolution; he stopped overnight at
McGrath’s Hotel, on site of the Rupp Building, where a reception and
banquet were given him; among the toasts was, “Lafayette, we love him as
a man, hail him as a deliverer, revere him as a champion of freedom, and
welcome him as a guest”; to which he responded, “The Town of York, the
seat of our American Union in our most gloomy time; may her citizens
enjoy a proportionate share of American prosperity.”
At request of Washington, Baron Steuben came to Yorktown early in 1778,
and was immediately appointed to the rank of major-general; from here he
went to Valley Forge and began to drill and discipline the Army, in the
military tactics used by Frederick the Great. In May, 1778, a nephew of
General Putnam, who crossed the Atlantic in the Mercury, a fast flying
vessel of Congress, which landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, brought a
letter to Henry Laurens of South Carolina, President of Congress, from
Benjamin Franklin, saying, “The King of France has resolved to send
$600,000 in silver, an army and a fleet, to aid the Americans in their
struggle for Liberty.” The Articles of Confederation were formed here,
and adopted in Philadelphia the following June. Much Continental money
was ordered by Congress, which was printed in a house, at the corner of
Market and Beaver Streets, marked by tablet.
Penn Park has a soldiers’ monument, to men of York County in Civil War;
this has been the scene of many military gatherings; several
insubordinates of the Pennsylvania line were shot here, by order of
General Wayne, before the forces under him marched to Virginia; and
large hospitals were built here during the Civil War, when York County
was the high-water mark of the Southern Confederacy. On June 28, 1863,
General Jubal Early of Virginia, with 10,000 Confederate troops, took
possession of York. John B. Gordon, leading a brigade of Georgia troops,
was first to enter town; he marched on to Wrightsville with
twenty-eight hundred men, where a skirmish took place, and when the
bridge across the Susquehanna was burned by the Union forces on the
Lancaster County side; Early remained in York two days, with four
brigades, and received word to fall back immediately to Gettysburg. The
first engagement took place in the streets of HANOVER, between
Confederate cavalry under Stuart, who were defeated by Union cavalry
under Kilpatrick; they were prevented from reaching Gettysburg until
evening of second day of battle, which probably turned the tide in favor
of the Union; this event is commemorated in the Center Square by a
statue, that ranks with the best Art in Pennsylvania, a cavalryman,
bronze; sculptor, Cyrus E. Dallim, Boston.