USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Columbia > Columbia, Pennsylvania : its people-- culture, religions, customs, education, vocations, industry > Part 6
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Dr. J. P. Kennedy diagnosed the first victims of smallpox, George Anderson, a mill worker, when he reported to the clinic at the hospital, then on South Second Street, on April 11. On April 29, Dr. H. B. Roop diagnosed the second victim, Harry Schackenbach of 517 Manor Street. With few exceptions, all victims resided south of Locust Street. The disease hit only adults and juveniles beyond the school age. The compulsory vaccina-
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Horse Drawn Ambulance at Small Pox Center
tion law for all children entering school was in effect.
Dr. DeMonie was assisted at the hospital by Nurse Miss Catherine Cubberly. William Springer and J. Wesley Eisenberger acted as male nurses and ambulance drivers. Patients were conveyed to the hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance. Miss Rosa Kent was in charge of the kitchen.
The smallpox center soon became too small (there were 167 persons stricken) and a huge hospital tent was erected. Later a kitchen, a women's ward and a stable were added to the fa- cilities. Because area carpenters declined to work on the construction, convalescing victims and a few others volunteered for the work.
EARLY PREJUDICE
"Stephen Smith, who was born a slave in Pax- ton, and was purchased for a limited time (until he arrived at the age of twenty-eight years) by Gen. Thomas Boude in 1802, was a bright and in- telligent boy, and soon developed a business tal- ent not easily checked in an ambitious youth. Before he was nineteen year of age, Gen. Boude gave him the entire management of his lumber yard, and in the same year he was clandestinely married to a beautiful mulatto girl, who resided in the family of Jonathan Mifflin. He proposed to Gen. Boude to buy the remainder of his servi- tude, and that gentleman agreed to take one hundred dollars. He went to his friend, John Barber, and told him of his designs, when that large-hearted gentleman handed him one hun- dred dollars. He purchased his freedom, and then,
with fifty dollars he had saved by doing extra work, he commenced to buy a little lumber and speculate in every venture in which he could turn a penny to profit. His profits increased rapidly until he owned one of the largest lumber yards along the shore. He also invested money in real estate, and whenever a property offered for sale he was one of the foremost and liveliest bidders. In the height of his prosperity, in 1854, he was served with the following notice:
"You have again assembled yourself among the white people to bid up property, as you have been in the habit of doing for a number of years back. You must know that your presence is not agreeable, and the less you appear in the assem- bly of the whites the better it will for your black hide, as there are a great many in this place that would think your absence from it a benefit, as you are considered an injury to the real value of properity in Columbia. You had better take the hint and leave.
MANY"
"To this he gave little attention. James Wright, Wiliam Wright, and John L. Wright promptly offered a reward for detection of the author of this notice. In the spring of 1834 there had been a number of riots in the several cities of the Northern States against the colored people. Ex- citement ran high everywhere.
"On the 11th day of August, 1834, some person or persons broke into Smith's office, which stood on Front Street, a short distance below the roundhouse, and destroyed his books and papers. This was a great loss to him, but one that he could bear. He stood up manfully for his rights, and did not quail before the men whom he was well assured were encouraging a clamor against him and envoking mob-law. This lawless feeling against a worthy colored man, who was not to be "browbeaten" or driven away by threats of per- sonal violence, was turned against his less cour- ageous colored friends who resided in the north- eastern section of the town. On the 16th, 17th and 18th of August, 1834, a mob drove the colored from their homes and destroyed much of their property. They fled to hills surrounding the town and to Bethel's Woods for safety, and some of them remained there several days without shel- ter or food. David Miller, high sheriff of the county, swore in a large number of "deputies" who went from Lancaster to Columbia and ar- rested a number of persons supposed to be the leaders in the riots. They were tried, but none of
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them were convicted and sent to prison as they deserved to be.
"Mr. Smith removed to Philadelphia in 1842, where he engaged in business. He retained his lumber yard in Columbia, and gave William Whipple, a colored man who resided in Columbia, an interest."
TRANSPORTATION
RIVAL FERRIES
John Wright received a patent, in 1730, to op- erate a ferry over the Susquehanna River be- tween what is now Columbia and Wrightsville. He operated the ferry on the east shore and his son, John, was in charge of the ferry house on the western shore.
Much attention was paid in Colonial days, in the towns of Lancaster and York, to the ferries known as Wright's and Anderson's, located only three miles apart.
: A copy of the York Weekly Advertiser was the Pennsylvania Chronicle, published December 19, in 1787, two years before Washington was chosen President, gives an account of the controversy between the two ferries mentioned. The facts re- lating to this controversy are brought out in ad- vertisements which appeared in the columns of the paper mentioned, and succeeding issues of the same journal.
The most interesting feature of the Chronicle on December 19, 1787, is the controversy between the owners of Wright's and Anderson's ferries.
John Wright, whose father was the first to open a ferry by permission of the province across the Susquehanna, between the present sites of Co- lumbia and Wrightsville, had advertised in the previous issue of the paper that his ferry was the only good one for the people to patronize. Long before the Revolution, William Anderson ob- tained a permit to open a ferry much farther up the river where Marietta now stands. The river was much narrower there than at the place where John Wright had his ferry. Delegates who came to Continental Congress at York in 1778, during the Revolution, frequently crossed at An- derson's Ferry if they rode here from New York and the New England States, coming through Reading. The noted Baron Steuben, who came to York from Boston that year, also crossed at the Anderson Ferry. Most of the delegates who came here from the eastern part of Pennsylvania pa-
tronized the Wright's Ferry. At this early period there was a lively spirit of opposition between the owners of the two ferries. In 1787, when the paper was printed, John Wright and his partner had reduced the cost of transportation over the river and advertised a cut-rate price. This helped to bring him considerable trade. The travel through York on to the South and West at that time was extensive, many four-horse wagons hauling goods to the West passed through York and stopped for the night at one of the village inns.
In answer to the first advertisement of Wright's Ferry we find in the columns of the Chronicle the following
Anderson's Ferry, November 27, 1787.
TO THE PUBLIC
The subscribers cannot think of passing over the illiberal and unjust publication of Massers. John Wright and Joseph Jefferies, in the York Chronicle of the 21st instant, in which they say that he will deceive concerning his ferry at An- derson. I think that the Mr. Wright knows noth- ing of a ferry, nor what constitutes it, and is in no wise calculated to be a ferryman; and that Mr. Jefferies is illiberal and unjust must appear to the public, to be greater deceivers than they are apprized of, for reasons best known to myself, I will not animadvert upon this subject; but the public may rely that I have a better and safer ferry than theirs, and travelers will find that they can go sooner, to York from Lancaster by crossing at this ferry, than at Wright's; and not- withstanding that they have laid wait on the roads; and have induced all that they could, that since occupying that noted ferry, formerly called Anderson, that I have put over the Susquehanna river, 10 wagons and persons to their one. I now say that my boats are new and good, and that they are equal if not superior to any on the river, and sufficient on both sides of the river. I expect the indulgence of the generous public, and re- main their humble servant.
Jacob Strickler
In response to the above the owner of Wright's Ferry in the columns of the same paper publish an advertisement which appeared on the same page with that of Jacob Strickler whose notice appeared in two succeeding issues of the Chronicle.
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WRIGHT'S FERRY, December 8, 1787.
TO OUR FRIENDS
As there have many ill-natured falsehoods ap- peared in an advertisement of the 27th Novem- ber last, signed Jacob Strickler, intending to in- jure the good character of this ferry, and its keepers. The subscribers do not think it worth their while to enter into particulars respecting the author; but beg leave to inform the public, that the Great Western Road from Lancaster through York, is much shorter and far better this way, than any other and the passage of the river perfectly safe; they have a sufficient number of good boats, and make every exertion to forward travelers. They have lowered the price of the fer- riage of a four-horse wagon to 3 shillings and 9 pence, and all other things in proportion. That they will strive to accommodate in the best man- ner in the tavern way any person who please to favor them with their custom.
Joseph Jefferies, John Wright
Only a few copies of the Pennsylvania Chron- icle, the first weekly paper, published in York, are in existence. It continued to be published for three years, when the press and types were sold to a firm in Harrisburg, and a paper started there called the Oracle of Dauphin. The next local paper published in York was the Pennsylvania Herald and the York General Advertiser, founded by John and Samuel Edie, in 1789, a short time before Washington's first inauguration. It was later called the York Recorder, and still later the York Republican which was continued until 1890. Almost the entire files from 1789 to 1890 are in the York County Historical Society. They contain real treasures of local history.
EARLY TURNPIKES
When the first settlers came to Columbia, in 1726, there were no roads, as we know roads. The only means of getting over the country was by trails or paths and to move a wagon over these trails meant unending labor. In dry weather it was not so bad, but in rainy weather in the spring and fall it was almost impossible, as the horses and wagons often became mired in seas of mud.
In 1730 the new county of Lancaster was or- ganized, being cut off from Chester County, and as the population was rapidly increasing it be-
came imperative that transportation facilities be improved. The leading residents of the new county asked the state colonial authorities for a new road as they had no water transportation in the direction of Philadelphia, which was then the center of business activity. It was not until 1741 that any kind of a road was provided.
By 1750 the Conestoga wagon came into use and the trail was gradually widened to accommo- date them but the trail was still a bad road. In 1784 seven to eight thousand passed over it an- nually carrying produce from the upper part of the state to Philadelphia returning filled with goods to the back woods settlements.
All kinds of taverns grew up along the line to accommodate the travelers. There were establish- ments which catered to the passengers on stage coaches exclusively, while there were other ones which took in the drivers of freight wagons. The line was sharply drawn and any place that en- tertained a waggoneer as they were known would not thereafter be able to get the trade of the stage coach traveler.
Every tavern had a large barn in which to house the horse as the entertainment was then for both man and beast, and about 1800 there were 60 taverns in the 80 miles between Columbia and Philadelphia.
As trade and traffic increased with population rapidly, during and after the Revolution it soon became apparent that a real good road was needed. In 1791 the newly formed legislature of Pennsylvania granted a charter to a private com- pany to construct a turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster. This was the first road of its kind in the country, and was started in 1792 and finished in 1796 at a cost of $7,500 per mile. Lancaster was at that time the largest inland city in the United States and was the point of transfer from wagons to pack trains, which were used to transport mer- chandise to the Western country. Pack saddles, harness, Conestoga wagons, rifles and other equipment for the Western trade was manufac- tured in Lancaster and many people were em- ployed in the shops.
The Lancaster and Susquehanna Turnpike, better known as The Lancaster Pike was later a part of the Lincoln Highway. This road was built by a stock company under the same name which was incorporated April 22, 1794. The first board of managers was composed of five men from Philadelphia, four men from Lancaster, and Maj. Thomas Boude, of Columbia. It was a toll road
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but the only improvements on it was large appli- cations of stone. Large stone underneath and smaller stones as a top dressing. At that time they had no material to bind the stone together, and while the process made the road passable, it was a very rough road.
The pike from Lancaster to Columbia was orig- inally layed out to be fifty feet wide, the middle twenty feet to be covered with broken stone. The road was built during the years 1805 and 1806 and was finished in 1807.
The old pike had been in use eighty years as a free road before it was taken over and made into a toll road.
Many think that hitch-hikers are a product of the automobile age, but they are not. Hitch-hik- ing went on in the days of the early turnpikes. The process of getting from place to place at a minimum of cost was carried on then as now. The goal was the same but the conditions were differ- ent. In the old days hitch hikers always traveled with the drivers of wagons. They would not think of trying to get on a stage any more than, we to- day, could imagine them thumbing a bus.
The hitch hiker of the old days earned his way, every foot of it, he rode with the wagoneer, but he always attended the brake upon going down hill, and at stops, watered, fed and curried the horses and made himself generally useful.
When Columbia was still known as Wright's Ferry, the Lancaster Turnpike, being the road to the ferry, took a diagonal course from Fifth and Locust to Fourth and Walnut, then down Walnut Street to the ferry. Until recently, the lines of the old pike could be seen in Avenue H between Fourth and Fifth Streets. The rear lines of prop- erties once owned by Mrs. W. W. Fairer, Adam Hartman, Mrs. Reinhart, the Rich Estate, W. G. Strine, R. B. Fleisher and the State Theatre, were on the North side of the pike. These triangular pieces of ground were sold to other persons and a number of shops were built on them.
When the pike was abandoned the land it oc- cupied reverted to the Locust Street owners. W. H. Lucas purchased several of these lot ends and it is on these that he constructed the build- ings of Lucas Manufacturing Company.
CANALS
In the early part of the nineteenth century, a canal had been built around Conewago Falls in the river above Columbia and was opened in 1797.
COLUMBIA DAM - 1871
This was to allow keel boats and arks to navigate around the falls.
About the same time the State of Maryland chartered the Susquehanna Canal Company, which built a canal from the Lancaster County line to tidewater in the state of Maryland, a dis- tance of ten miles.
The General Assembly of Maryland in 1822 or- dered a survey for a proposed canal from the Conewago Falls to the head of the tidewater, along the west bank of the river. The commission reported in 1823 that the plan was feasible but nothing further was done in the matter.
In 1835 the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania and it was their original intention to construct the canal from Columbia to Tidewater along the west bank of the river.
This required the building of a dam across the river at Columbia which would form a pool in which boats could be floated across at all stages of water.
The dam which was constructed in 1837-38 was composed of two lines of large white pine logs, notched together at the ends, and cross tied by other logs about twenty feet square, the cribs be- ing filled with heavy stone.
In the breast of this dam was left an opening near the Columbia end, through which rafts could pass on their way down the river. This
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opening was known as the raft chute, and it was quite a thrilling experience to ride on a raft through it, on account of the great rapidity of the water flow.
After the dam was built additional stone pieces were built against the lower side of the bridge over the Susquehanna and a double tow path bridge was built upon them. There were two floors in the extension bridge, one placed about six feet higher than the other, to allow the tow line of a team going one direction to pass over mules and driver of a team going in the other direction.
Canal barges or boats came down the Pennsyl- vania Canal and were locked into the river at Columbia and towed across the river on their way to Baltimore.
In February 1826 the State Legislature of Penn- sylvania appropriated the sum of three hundred thousand dollars for the construction of a canal along the east bank of the Susquehanna.
John Barber of Columbia was appointed super- intendent of that portion of the canal extending from Columbia to the mouth of the Juniata river. The first part of this eastern division of the Penn- sylvania Canal to be built was the section be- tween Columbia and the mouth of Chickies Creek; this was finished and the water let in on December 17, 1830.
After the first part of the Pennsylvania Canal, between Columbia and Chickies, had been fin- ished and put into operation, there developed much opposition in the Legislature to the exten- sion of the canal from Chickies to Middletown. It was due to the untiring efforts of Gen. George B. Porter, of Lancaster, and John Forry, Jr., of Co- lumbia, the two local members, that the act was finally passed.
The first packet boat to run on the canal from Columbia to Middletown was the "Red River" which had been built in Lancaster at Graeff's Landing and used on the Conestoga Slackwater navigation to take passengers from Lancaster to the mouth of the Conestoga at Safe Harbor. This "Red Rover" packet boat was brought up the river through various falls from Safe Harbor after several days of hard labor, and the use of set poles, ropes and windlass.
The boat plied the water of the canal between Columbia and Middletown for several years car- rying passengers and parcels of freight and was finally taken to the Codorus Slackwater canal be- tween York and the river.
At the end of the canal at Columbia, was that busy place, the Basin. It was a rectangular pool of water about sixty feet wide and twelve hun- dred feet long and ran parallel with the river, the lower end being about two hundred yards above the entrance to the old railroad bridge. It was simply a widening out of the terminus of the canal allowing space for the loading and unload- ing of merchandise from boats to cars.
David Lech & Company established a freight line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. They developed a new idea in transporting freight. Enormous boxes were built with a heavy iron ring on each corner. These were packed with all man- ner of freight at Philadelphia, and shipped on open cars on the railroad to the basin at Colum- bial, where they were lifted bodily with a crane from the cars and left down into the holds of canal boats.
Later on canal boats were built in sections, each section being about one-fifth of the boat and each having water tight bulk heads at the ends. They were loaded in Philadelphia, hauled over the rail- road to Columbia on low flat cars which were backed down an incline track into the basin where they were floated off the cars, hooked to- gether and proceeded on their way west without being unloaded.
These sectional boats hooked together looked like the ordinary boat and were towed by mules or horses on the canal to Hollidaysburg, where they were again drawn out of the canal and onto cars to be carried over the mountains to Johns- town and from there they again traveled on an- other canal to Pittsburgh.
BRIDGES
In 1809, Pennsylvania's Governor Simon Sny- der approved an act of the Legislature that au- thorized the Governor of the Commonwealth to incorporate a company to build a bridge across the Susquehanna river connecting Wright's Ferry (now Columbia) and Wrightsville. The Legislature (in 1811) stipulated that the bridge must be started within three years and completed within fifteen years.
The first bridge was 5,690 feet long, roofed, and was constructed of wood. This first bridge, be- lieved to be the longest in the world at that time was financed by individual investors and a State appropriation and was completed within three years. Constructed at a cost of $231,771, it was dedicated in 1814, the year that Columbia was
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incorporated as a town. One account tells us that it was constructed across the river opposite Lin- den Street. The bridge was destroyed by an ice freshet in the spring thaw of 1832.
A second bridge was completed in 1834. It was 5,620 feet long, two tracks provided divisions for foot passengers, carriages, two-level towing path; double track rails for railroad trains and was a covered structure. It cost $128,726.50. It was burned by military order on June 28, 1863 to pre- vent Confederate troops, who had reached Wrightsville, from crossing the river at this point and capturing the railroad system tto Philadel- phia.
In 1868-69, a railroad and highway bridge, 5,390 feet long, and roofed, was built of weather- boarding, at a cost of $400,000. A hurricane in September 1896 destroyed this bridge.
In 1864 the Columbia National Bank sold the bridge franchise and piers to a newly formed Co- lumbia Bridge Company, who built the bridge in 1868-69. In 1879 this bridge was sold to the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company.
A fourth bridge was constructed in 1897 by the Railroad company, using as many of the old piers as possible. Completed in 21 work days at a cost of $455,000, this 5,375 foot span was used by pe- destrians, railroad and other vehicles until it was no longer needed. It was dismantled in the 1960's.
A fifth bridge, known as the Inter-County bridge was built of concrete by York and Lancas- ter Counties and on Armistice Day, 1930, was dedicated to the veterans (of all wars) in both counties. Governor John Fisher of the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania was honored guest for the dedication.
The bridge, 7,500 feet long overall, built at a cost of $2,529,000 became toll free in 1943 and was presented to the State of Pennsylvania free of all mortgages or bonds. It carried the Lincoln Highway across the river at this point and con- tinues in use, especially by area residents.
The sixth bridge, also of concrete, carries the Lincoln Highway By-Pass across the river here. It was opened November 1972. It is a 5,340 foot span, built north of the town near the foot of Chickies Hill and cost approximately $12 million.
By Act of Legislature in a bill presented by Rep. Kenneth Brandt in 1976, the Bi-Centennial Year of the Nation, the bridge was named "Wright's Ferry" Bridge, honoring the first transportation between the East and West at this point, the John Wright's Ferry which opened in 1730.
TROLLEY LINES OF COLUMBIA
The First Trolley Car Line
For many years before the coming of the auto- mobiles and good highways, the electric trolley car was the most popular means of local and sub- urban transportation. Practically all the lager towns in Pennsylvania had trolley lines and at one time over one hundred and ten companies were operating trolley lines in the state.
Columbia pioneered in the building of trolley lines and at one time its citizens were enjoying the luxury of trolley transportation while citizens of towns several times larger were still riding the slow moving and unclean horse-drawn cars.
The first company to commence operations in the borough of Columbia was the Columbia and Ironville Electric Railway. This company was chartered under the laws of Pennsylvania in 1892 to build a trolley line four miles in length con- necting Columbia with the rural village of Iron- ville. William B. Given was president of the pi- oneer concern and his brother, Frank, first superintendent.
The equipment of Columbia's first trolley line consisted of four cars. Two of the cars were the closed type while the other two were open bench or "summer" type cars. All were of wooden con- struction and each was equipped with one four- wheeled truck. The cars were painted red with yellow trim.
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