Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. , Esq., editor
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Press of York Daily
Number of Pages: 612

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German heavy scythe and the sickle gave way to the English scythe and the grain cradle and they in turn were supplanted by mower, and the Hussey and McCormick reapers in 1853. The flail was succeeded by the horse power threshing machine and it has been largely displaced by the steam thresher. The hand rake gave way in 1838 to the turning rake, which was succeeded by the modern sulky rake in 1860. Hand- sowing of wheat, oats and rye continued up to 1838, when the grain drill was intro- duced. Lime as a fertilizer was experi- mented with in 1817, and generally intro- duced in 1830, when the rotation of crops began. Sorghum was introduced about 1862, and the soil of the county is well adapted to the production of the sugar beet.

The most important event in the agri- cultural history of York county is the in- troduction of an improved tobacco culture into its townships, in 1837 by Benjamin Thomas. In place of the old "shoe-string" Kentucky seed Mr. Thomas brought in Havana seed and thus really commenced the better seed-leaf tobacco raising in Penn- sylvania. His small Havana leaf changed into the larger Pennsylvania leaf and until 1853 he handled all the tobacco raised in the county. In the year last named P. A. and S. Small joined Mr. Thomas and his son in handling tobacco and introduced the Connecticut seed leaf, which is now exten- sively planted. As early as 1840, York county produced 162,748 pounds of to- bacco, and in 1880 from 4,667 acres raised 5,753,766 pounds. In speaking of the present products of tobacco in York county George W. Heiges, Esq., says "The Ninth Internal Revenue district of Pennsylvania of which York county forms a part, re- turned a greater income to the Government the last fiscal year, from the sale of revenue stamps for cigars, than any other in the United States, and the sub-office at York

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.

ranks high among the few of the first class in the whole country, in the annual sale of stamps, the revenue to the Government last year, from this source realized at the York sub-office exceeding three quarters of a Each of the three county agricultural so- cieties of the district elects a member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Agricul- ture, and in 1880, the district contained 13,- 924 farms aggregating nearly 900,000 acres of improved land on which were nearly 6,000,000 dollars worth of live stock. These farming lands were then valued at over 65,000,000 dollars, and on them had been lizers. million dollars. In the 925 square miles of territory in York county including the city of York, there are more than 1,500 cigar factories in which are manufactured all grades of cigars from the cheapest to those sold at $90 per thousand. In some of the York city factories there are employed 300 to 400 hands, in many from 50 to 100. There were sold last year at the York office . expended in 1879 nearly $700,000 in ferti- stamps for exceeding 250,000,000 cigars. Now, flourishing hamlets of no inconsider- able size have, within recent years, sprung up in all parts of the county, the result of generous incomes from tobacco culture and the consequent extensive cigar industry."

York county has not been behind the ad- joining counties in organized effort for the improvement of her agricultural classes. The York County Agricultural Society was founded in 1852, and the Hanover Agri- cultural Society in 1885. Each society owns a valuable tract of land, holds a fair, and the York society was formed "to foster and improve agriculture, horticulture and the domestic and household arts." John Evans was the first president of the York society, and served as such for twenty-five years during which he was a large and suc- cessful exhibitor, but never accepted any of the numerous premiums awarded him. The first president of the Hanover Society was Stephen Keefer, and a specialty of its early fairs were the purchase and sale of large numbers of fine horses.

In summing up the results of agricultural growth in York we can express them best by quoting George R. Prowell, who says: "the typical York county farmer of to-day, is conservative, industrious and in general, prosperous. He labors hard from sun-up

to sun-down, during the summer months; strives to constantly improve his land and make his farm and farm buildings more attractive every year."

Farm life in the Nineteenth District will compare favorably with farm life in any section of the Union, and in speaking of the present character of such life Dr. W. S. Roland, of York, most truthfully says:

"Poets have sung, orators declaimed. editors written in eulogy of agricultural life; its usefulness, its independence, its no- bility, its happiness, and the prosperous suc- cess which usually attends its people in their various enterprises, pursuits and occu- pations-as to convince the most skeptical that there is a charm surrounding home life on the farm, pleasant and beautiful to con- template; and yet in these latter years, both observation and experience show a grow- ing reluctance among our young men and maidens-born and brought up on the farm -to engage in agricultural pursuits. Time was when the farmer's son found his high- est ambition gratified in the possession and management of a farm equal to his father's; when the daughter sought no better and happier lot than her mother's to preside over a neat dairy, or well- appointed and managed farm house, amid the charms of country life. All that has strangely changed. The country boy will not endure the idea of farm life, but flies off to town at the moment of emancipation from parental

NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.

control, and engages often in harder labor, and at less remuneration, than would have been his lot on the farm. 4 The daughter engages in school teaching or sewing, or some other more exacting labor in prefer- ence to the household avocations of a farm- er's wife and daughter; and yet it is a strange paradox that the town tradesman, whose life has been spent amid the cares and worries and turmoil of city life, earnest- ly longs for, and strives for a country home and rural surroundings for his old days re- tirement and his children's education. Now why do the country boy and girl turn with aversion amounting to disgust from the paternal home and employment? It is un- doubtedly due partly to the prevailing idea that other avocations and employments merely afford a surer and speedier road to the acquisition of wealth and distinction. This is surely a great mistake. The spirit of improvement in agriculture has advanced so rapidly that education has become a pressing necessity. That to keep up with the times brains are just as essential as muscle, and agricultural societies, State boards of agriculture, farmers' institutes and home agricultural publications, are all busy sowing the seeds of social culture and intellectual training. These associations, opportunities and advantages are well cal- culated to stimulate and nerve the farmer to care for his family, his home and his farm; and it is but fair to say, that the time is now here, when the ambitious, desiring to succeed in social attainments, and take honorable position in society, are not com- pelled to leave the farm for other profes- sions and occupations, already more than full, for the quality and standing of any hon- orable calling can only be measured by the character of the men and women engaged in it; and no system can so well bring boys and girls up to the required standard, as for them to stay at home and improve their

minds in moral, social and intellectual cul- ture, for under such training they can only become the equals in intelligence with any other known class of respectable scientists in the country. "The noblest mind, the best contentment has." The place called home should be adorned and attractive in all its surroundings-for he only, who has a home to love and a home to defend-can best do his duty to himself, his family and his country."

Turnpikes and Highways. Indian trails were the first highways of the pioneer set- tiers, and some of theni were partly used in the routes laid out for subsequent roads.

The first public road in Cumberland county was laid out in 1735, by order of the court of Lancaster county, and ran from Harris' ferry on the Susquehanna to Wil- liams' ferry on the Potomac. It was fin- ished as far as Shippensburg by 1755, but in the meantime packsaddle roads had been made from settlement to settlement, and by 1790 numerous public roads had been laid out and built in different parts of the county. The first turnpike was the Han- over and Carlisle which was put under con- struction in 1812, and in a short time the Harrisburg and York turnpike was built along the west side of the Susquehanna, while in 1816, the Harrisburg and Cham- bersburg was put under contract and passed through Hogestown, Kingston, Middlesex, Carlisle and Shippensburg.

In Adams county the first public road was opened, in 1742, from the Marsh Creek settlement to York and other roads were surveyed and made as the settlements in- creased. Turnpikes were agitated in 1807, and the next year the Gettysburg and Pet- ersburg turnpike was put under construc- tion. The turnpike from Galluchas' saw mill to Chambersburg was chartered in 1809, and two years later the Gettysburg and Black Tavern and the Gettysburg and

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.

York turnpikes were put under contract, while today the county is well supplied with public roads and pikes.

The traders' and missionary routes in York county followed the Indian trails and were changed into packhorse roads, which were the only thoroughfares of that day until 1739 when the Lancaster county court ordered the location and construction of the Monocacy road from Wrights Ferry past the sites of York and Hanover to the Maryland line, although three years earlier the Hanover and Baltimore road had been laid out and worked. Succeeding these roads came the Smith and York road, 1742; Walnut Bottom and Hussey Ferry, 1742. Hussey and Wilkins, York and Lancaster, Newbury and York, 1745; Rutledge Mill and York, 1747; Anderson and Wright, 1749; Nelson and York, 1749; Lancaster, Lowe's Ferry and Shippensburg, 1750; Peach Bottom and York, 1752; York and Maryland, 1754; McGrew Mill and New- bury, 1769; Canal, 1769; and York-Hellam Ironworks road opened in 1770. Since then other roads have been laid out and built wherever needed in the different sec- tions of the county.

The first turnpike in York county was the Susquehanna and York Borough built in 1808. Succeeding it we find the Han- over and Maryland Line, 1808; York and Gettysburg, 1818; York and Maryland Line; York and Conewago, Berlin and Hanover; and York and Chanceford, 1877. Over these roads is quite a volume of travel notwithstanding an increase of railways.

Milling and Merchandizing. Surpass- ing all branches of manufacture that have an intimate relation to agriculture is the manufacture of meal and flour. In 1880 Adams county had 52 flouring and grist mills; Cumberland, 55; and York, 156, whose combined product was worth over 2} million dollars.

The "pioneer mill" was a hollowed stump and a pestle, which was succeeded about 1740 by the small log grist mill. In that year or a little later John Day erected such a mill 12 miles north of York, and William Leeper built another south of Shippens- burg, while tradition accredits one or two log mills to the southern part of Adams county but the local and county historians of the district give but little account of the early mills. After the Revolution the log mill was succeeded by frame and stone mills operated by water power, until about 1850, when steam was introduced for mill- ing power, and to-day the burr mill is being largely supplanted by the roller process mill of extensive proportions and immense output made possible by railway transpor- tation which gives foreign market in addi- tion to home demand.

The pedlar with his pack was the first merchant and as the settler's clearings in- creased he came with a pack horse and then a wagon, and in many cases served as a postoffice for the transmission of news be- tween the pioneers and their friends and relatives in Lancaster county and Philadel- phia. As the ambition of the "Cross Roads" owner aspired to the foundership of a town, he opened a small store which was the wonder of the country around. These stores grew in size with the building of the towns and yet were principally general mer- cantile stores until after the late war since which a large number of them have been conducted in individual lines of merchan- dise. Wholesale houses as well as retail establishments are now to be found in the one city and the several larger towns which for size, stock and trade compare favorably with many of the mercantile houses of the larger cities. There is some record of the prominent merchants of to-day, but of the pedlar, the county store-keeper and even the town merchant of fifty years ago, in

NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.

the district we have found no account, al- though the names of some of the latter class might be found as advertisers in early news- papers that have been preserved.

Manufactures. This great branch of national industry has grown into immense proportions from small beginnings. "The dry and repulsive skeleton of mere facts and figures, presented in the official tables, gradually take on form, substance and habiliments, and becomes animated with something of the life, activity and beauty of a living economy. The statistics of looms, spindles and factories, of furnaces and forges, of steam engines and sewing machines, and of a thousand other instru- ments of creative industry, become the rep- resentatives of almost every form of na- tional and individual happiness, exertion, aspiration and power."

The earliest manufacturing industry of the Nineteenth district was milling, which has been noticed. Cotemporaneous with milling, was the home manufacturing of clothing, leather and crude agricultural implements; also distilling and lumbering, and then came the manufacture of iron, which constituted a period of the history of the district.

A forge was built at Lisburn, on Yellow Breeches Creek in Cumberland county, in 1783, and was succeeded in 1790 by Lib- erty forge two years later. Stephen Foulk and William Cox, Jr., built Holly furnace, which was torn down in 1855, to give place to a paper mill. Michael Ege, in 1794, built Cumberland furnace which was ten miles southwest of Carlisle and ran until 1854; and in 1806, Jacob M. Haldeman purchased at New Cumberland, a forge built previously and added a rolling and slitting mill, which went down in 1826. Near Shippensburg three furnaces were built-Augusta in 1824; Mary Ann, 1826; and Big Pond in 1836, of which the latter

was burned in 1880, and the former two were abandoned prior to 1885. Fairview rolling mill near the mouth of Conedogui- net creek, was built, in 1833, by Gabriel Heister and Norman Callender, and ran un- til 1836, when Jared Pratt, of Massachus- etts, leased it and added a nail factory. The pre-Revolutionary iron works of Cumber- land county were a forge built about 1760, at Boiling Springs, where a blast furnace, a rolling and slitting mill and a steel fur- nace were afterward added and constituted the Carlisle iron-works. A forge was built at Mt. Holly in 1765 and Robert Thornburg & Co. built a forge in 1767 at some point in the county, while Thornburg and Arthur, about 1770, erected Pine Grove furnace and Laurel forge. Of all the iron- masters mentioned Michael Ege was the most prominent. He was in the iron busi- ness for fifty years, came from Holland, and shortly before his death, August 31, 1815, owned the Carlisle iron works and Pine Grove furnaces. In 1840 there were six furnaces and five forges and rolling mills in Cumberland county, and forty years later but six iron and steel manufac- turing establishment were in operation, yet they employed nearly 700 hands in 1880.

Iron manufacturing was developed in Adams county at a late date, but its leading iron master was the "Great Commoner," Thaddeus Stevens, who with a Mr. Paxton, built Maria furnace in Hamiltonban town- ship in 1830. Chestnut Grove furnace was built at Whitestown also in 1830, and both are now abandoned, the former going down in 1837 and the latter blown out since 1880.

The earliest iron made west of the Sus- quehanna was in York county where Peter Dicks erected a bloomary in 1756, obtain- ing his ore from the Pigeon Hills. On the site of the bloomary, in 1770, Spring Grove forge was built, which was afterwards pur-

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.

chased by Robert Coleman and ran until 1850. Mary Ann furnace was built by George Ross and Mark Bird in 1762 and continued in operation up to 1800, and in 1765, William Bennett erected the Hellam iron works or Codorus forge which went down after 1850. Palmyra or Castle Fin forge was started in 1810. In 1820, Davis and Gardner built the York foundry, furnace and forge, and the Slaymakers erected Margaretta furnace in 1823 and Woodstock forge in 1828, but both furnace and forge were abandoned about 1850. Sarah Ann or Manor furnace was built in 1830 by William G. Cornwell but went down, while York furnace started in the same year by James Hopkins, was quite active in 1880, when York county had three iron and steel establishments employ- ing thirty-five hands. Prominent among the iron masters of York county are Rob- ert Coleman, James Smith, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Phineas Da- vis, Henry Y. Slaymaker and James Hop- kins, with whom James Buchanan read law, yet so far Mr. Coleman has been the most noted iron manufacturer of the county. Robert Coleman was born near Castle Fin, Ireland, November 4, 1748, married Ann Old, in 1773, and died in Lancaster in 1825. He owned a number of forges, forges and iron works in Lan- caster county and Spring Grove furnace in York, wliere Castle Fin forge was built by his sons and named in honor of his birth- place in Ireland.

Shortly after the first forges and furnaces were started, the lumber industry received an impetus along the Susquehanna and for a time promised to take a front rank in the industries of the district, and place a line of prosperous towns on the river, but the in- troduction of steam saw mills and the open- ing of the Central railroad was death to the visionary schemes of wealth and town

growtlı. Changing from water to steam saw mills affected the river towns but did not lessen the volume of luniber sawed and for nearly half a century lumbering has held its place as an important industry in Cumberland, Adams and York counties. In 1880, these counties had 96 saw and planing mills which gave employment to 297 hands.

The manufacture of cotton and woolen goods has been carried on in York coun- ty for a number of years and nearly 20 years ago there were 7 factories which then employed over 100 hands.

To York county is also confined the manufacture of liquors, once prevalent throughout the district, when there was a distillery on every farm. In 1880 there were 14 distilleries and breweries which employed many hands.

Likewise York county manufactures lime for sale in several establishments, although lime is heavily used in the other countries, where the farmers burn their own lime- stone.

The manufacture of agricultural imple- inents dates back in Cumberland and York counties to about the year 1850, and 30 years later there were 14 factories in which over 400 hands were employed, while fer- tilizers were not made in York county un- til some years later and in 1880 came from two factories.

Paper has been manufactured for nearly three quarters of a century in Cumberland and York counties. The Spring Forge paper mills in York county were started in 1850, and in 1880 arrangements were made to enlarge them into a half a million dollar plant with a capacity of 30,000 pounds per day. The York Haven paper mills were started in 1885, and four paper mills in Cumberland county in 1880, afforded em- ployment for over two hundred hands.

The manufacture of boots and shoes,

NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.

men's clothing, and wagons and carriages is carried on to a considerable extent in Cumberland and York counties, while cigar boxes, marble and stone work and whips are turned out in large quantities in York county, whose Peach Bottom roofing slate is used in many of the leading cities of the United States.

In Adams and York counties the manu- facture of tobacco, cigars and cigarettes has grown to immense proportions, and nearly twenty years ago required II factories in Adams and 153 in York county with a total of over 700 hands.

Among the later industries of the dis- trict are the manufactures of confectionery, ice machinery, wall paper, bank safes and locks and steam engines and boilers, and the city of York alone employs two hund- red and fifty salesmen to canvass the mar- ket in the interests of her manufactories. At York is situated the Pennsylvania Agri- cultural Works, the largest of the kind in the world; the Weaver Organ and Piano Company, whose instruments are in de- mand all over the United States; and sev- eral confectionery factories, whose goods are sold in several States; and a branchı factory of the Singer Sewing Machine Company which supplies eight counties of this State with the Singer machine.

The growth of manufactures for 20 years after the late war in the Nineteenth Con- gressional district was as follows: In 1870 there were 502 establishments in Adams; 449, in Cumberland; and I, III in York, with a total product of several millions of dollars; while in 1880, Adams had 276 es- tablishments; Cumberland 308; and York, 859, with a product of over 9 millions of dollars.

Banks. The establishment and the mul- tiplication of sound banks are significant evidences of prosperity and material prog- ress, and business expansion always call

for an extension of banking facilities. There is not sufficient data obtainable from which to venture any calculation as to the amount of money in the district or to the location of its financial center.

In tracing the banking institutions of Cumberland county we find in Carlisle the following named banks and data relative thereto:

CARLISLE DEPOSIT BANK .- Chartered 1846; Renewed, 1866; Renewed, 1886; Capi- tal Stock, $100,000; Surplus, $50,000.

President, Hon. R. M. Henderson; Adam Keller, Cashier; Vice President, Wm. R. Line; Directors, Hon. R. M. Henderson, Wm. R. Line, J. Herman Bosler, Lewis F. Lyne, Joseph Bosler, John Sellumo, R. P. Henderson, James A. Davidson, George D. Craighead.

FARMERS' BANK .- Chartered, 1871; Re- newed, 1891; Capital, $50,000; Surplus, $50,000.

President, William Barnitz; Cashier, Walter Stuart; Directors, William Barnitz, S. R. Brenneman, Walter Beall, J. W. Craighead, W. A. Coffey, Albert A. Line, David Strohm.

MERCHANTS' NATIONAL BANK .- Char- tered, Oct. 14, 1890; Opened, Nov. 5, 1890; Capital, $100,000; Surplus and Profits, $32,- 000.

President, Jno. W. Wetzel; Vice Presi- dent, J. H. Wolf; Cashier, J. T. Parmley ; Directors, J. W. Wetzel, J. H. Wolf, Jno. W. Plank, Jas. W. Eckles, J. W. Hand- shew, J. H. Gardner, Dr. J. G. Fickel, W. F. Glatfelter, W. Scott Coyle.

The First National Bank, of Carlisle, ceased to exist a number of years ago.

The Newville Saving Fund Society did a banking business from 1850 to 1858, and Rhea, Gracey and Co. were private bankers from 1853 to 1863, when their institution was reorganized as the First National Bank of Newville with a capital of $100,-

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.

000. In 1859 Merkle, Muma & Co. com- menced banking at Mechanicsburg and two years later had their institution chartered as the Mechanicsburg bank which was changed in 1864 into the First National Bank of Mechanicsburg with a capital of $100,000. The Second National Bank, of Mechanicsburg, was organized in 1863, with a capital of $50,000, and the First Na- tional Bank of Shippensburg came into ex- istence in 1866.

Adams county as early as 1813 moved in the direction of securing banking facilities within her own territory, and in that year a bank was opened at Gettysburg which is still in operation. A second bank was es- tablished, in 1864, when the First National Bank of Gettysburg was organized with a capital of $100,000.

THE YORK NATIONAL BANK .- The first meeting of the Directors of the oldest fi- nancial institution in the City of York was held at the public house of Samuel Spang- ler, on January 31, 1810. The minutes of that meeting record the election of David Cassat, President, and William Barber, Cashier, pro tempore. The Directors were Henry Irwin, John Spangler, Godfrey Len- hart, William Nes, John Myers, Jacob Hay, Jacob Barnitz, Philip King, John Jessop, Jacob Brillinger. The Directors were all men of prominence in the community and some among them were veterans of the war of 1776. A call was made for subscription to the capital stock and Tuesday of each week was established as discount days, when the Board of Directors sat at the tavern of Samuel Spangler. The minutes are silent in regard to the operation of the bank until Sept. 13, 1813. Probably during the War of 1812 the business was suspended. At this meeting it was decided to "be expedi- ent to resume the operations of the York Bank." In the autumn of 1813 the lot of ground upon which the present banking

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Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. , Esq., editor Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Press of York Daily Number of Pages: 612

Author: Wiley, Samuel T. , Esq., editor
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Press of York Daily
Number of Pages: 612