USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Conewago in Adams County > Conewago : a collection of Catholic local history : gathered from the fields of Catholic missionary labor within our reach. > Part 3
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land in the valley, school houses and chapels at every little surrounding village ; and a large and well-established Convent School and Sisterhood at McSherrystown.
Conewago is a thoroughly Catholic settlement. From Hanover to Gettysburg, sixteen miles cast to west, half of the population is Catholic ; from Oxford to Littlestown, ten miles north to south, two-thirds of the population is Catholic. You can travel five miles along any road within that distance from the Chapel, and meet almost nothing but Catholics .- There are Protestant families scattered all through the val- ley, but they do not make up one-tenth of its population .- Though not belonging to our church, we have come to con- sider them very near and dear to the household of faith. All live agreeably together, associating and assisting each other as citizens, and taking part in every enterprise that concerns home or church. The few Protestants in the valley have al- ways been good and liberal neighbors to the Catholic Church. Mixed marriages, you ask ? are rare occurrences under these circumstances. Catholic teachings and associations are strong, thanks to the watchful Fathers of the church and the good Catholic mothers of the valley. Conewago has been free from all dire afflictions of Providence, and spared from all shame and disgrace into which human nature is so apt to fall. Not to say that none have fallen ; no, but they have been quietly helped to rise again ; and this we say, that in all the history of the valley, memory can point to no serious reflec- tion on priest or people ; no difference or disagreement in any work of the church. Her record is fair and pure. People who have always lived here do not rightly appreciate the blessings of a Catholic community. It is easier to be a Cath- olic here than in the mixed and busy push of the towns and cities. Yet look at the work the struggling Catholics accom- plish alone in those places,-build churches, support priests and schools and contribute to every cause of religion. They have no rich establishments of any order or society to build upon. The poor are everywhere the brightest ornaments of
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the church. So at Conewago.
We need not transport ourselves with De la Martine (Harmonics Poctiques) to the neighborhood of some church in the Middle Ages, to " see the humble crowd winding its way along the pious path. It is the poor orphan who spins as she walks ; it is the blind man who feels his way with his stick ; it is the timid beggar whose hand holds a rosary ; it is the child who caresses each flower as he passes by ; it is the old man who hastens with feeble steps ;- youth and age are the friends of God."
In Catholic times and Catholic countries, of which Cone- wago reminds us so much, one of the greatest virtues practic- ed was the education of the poor and an effort to start them in life. The Catholic wealth of Conewago presents not one such instance. The priests and the people had an anxious care for the poor-never a care the rich. Could only the widow and the orphan speak.
As a farming country, the Conewago Valley is one of the richest in the State. The soil is the best quality of lime- stone land, and very productive. There is a perfect system in agriculture, and hardly a foot of ground that has not been reclaimed and put to use. The land tenure is hereditary, and there is little of that great desire for change which has scat- tered Pennsylvanians over every State in the Union. The first Conewago settlers are represented to-day by an industri- ous and well-to-do people, many of them on the same lands which their forefathers took up. Times, and customs, how- ever, are changing now. The restless, worldly spirit of pro- gress and novelty has entered the precincts of this old-time retirement. The young people have caught the spirit of the age-that freedom of parental restraint unknown to their fathers and mothers, and show an unwillingness to follow the safe and steady paths which have led the generations before them to peaceful homes and plenty, and to old age crowned with humble but virtuous and useful lives. Who can tell what will be the result ? The good old missionary Fathers,
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so suited to the times and the people, are also gone. True, we have good priests of modern education and American ways, and perhaps it is better that everything moves with the times.
One thing is certain, if the future Conewago remembers her God and her religion as faithfully as did the Conewago of the past, there is no danger, whatever may happen. The history of the church has shown that she is equal to any emergency, and suits herself to the changes of time and ens- tom, to the revolution of governments, of nations and of ages. She goes on forever, and in her there is no change or shadow of vicissitude.
It is hard enough for those who belong to the past, and are used to the ways of ye olden times, to reconcile themselves with the changes of the quickly-passing years. They may well weep with Schiller over the times gone by, and sigh for the days of peace, the homes of their fathers, and the elysian scenes of their childhood. How they call upon Nature to mourn with them for the scenes that will never come again, and with their balmy sighing cool no burning brow ;- " they are gone ! gone ! and may not return."
EARLY HISTORY OF CONEWAGO.
There is nothing striking or very prominent in the whole history of the Conewago Valley. Entirely an agricultural country, its history is one of hard labor, economy, peace and plenty ; and that is record enough for a plain, virtuous and law-abiding people. They have tried to follow the illustrious example of their leaders, the Jesuits, whose greatest deeds are only recorded in Heaven. Patriotism was never wanting in the valley. The colonial records and the archives of the State show that old Heidelberg contributed as much or more than any of the other original townships, when called upon
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in time of need. It supplied men and aid in the French and Indian wars, the Revolution, 1812-14, the Mexican war and the "late unpleasantness " as we call it further South, but known here as the Rebellion.
The first claim on the land was held by the Carrolls, from Lord Baltimore. The Carrolls were an Irish family, and the elder Carroll was Secretary to Lord Powis, a leading minister in the cabinet of James II. This minister, forseeing troublesome times ahead, and having a great regard for the success and welfare of his Secretary, advised him to go out into the Maryland colony. Daniel Carroll with his father came to America in 1689, acted as agent for Lord Baltimore and obtained large grants of land. Charles Carroll, Sr., was born in 1702 ; Charles, Jr., surnamed of Carrollton, in 1737.
The " Releases " of the Carrolls to the lands in the Cone- wago Valley extend from the first settlements to the Revolu- tion. They amounted to a mere form, for security's sake on account of the title troubles, as there is no record of any payments except the mention of certain ground rents includ- ed in the first sales of land, which probably originated with the Carrolls, descended to the Diggeses and became extinct in the MeSherrys.
There must be some reason for the peaceful attitude of the Indians towards the Conewago settlers. In the western part of the county and northward, buildings were burned by them, children abducted and the settlers murdered. There is not a single instance of wrong by them in the Conewago Valley, except where in a state of intoxication they assaulted the family of Adam Forney near Hanover. There is no tra- ditional evidence that they were feared by the people, by whom it seems they were regarded as friends. True, the western borders formed a barrier against Indian raids, and the people from the frontier settlements, in times of threaten- ed danger from the Indians, would flee for safety almost this far into the interior. There certainly were Indians through the valley, for there are evidences to this day of their camps
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or villages on several places around Conewago. On account of the labors of the Maryland missionaries among the Indians, they may be looked upon as a part of the early settlers, traveling together in their explorations and living together in their settlements. There are several traditional stories handed down of the " last Indians " seen, coming to a house here or there for food, or to a blacksmith shop to have a lame horse or pony shod, and going off into the Pigeon Hills for coal when the blacksmith was out ; but whether true or not, we will not say. They left here like everywhere else, pushed away by the advance of civilization, the destruction of their forests, and the absence of game, for even then bears and deer began to keep closer to the mountains. Poor Indians ! the last remnant of them is crowded to the ocean's wall, and there seems to be no more room left.
The early settlement of the Conewago Valley does not differ much from that of the other parts of the State. The people coming from the older settlements of Maryland might have been a little better provided for than the poorer emi- grants from the German Palatinates, the expatriated Irish and poor "redemptioners." A few of the better class were able to build substantial stone houses that stood for a hun- dred years and more, but the most of them built very com- mon log houses. The settlement almost from the beginning was made up not only of farmers but of different kinds of mechanics. A little later, carpet weaving, spinning, woolen and flax industries, were very generally followed. For over a hundred years, wagoning was the great means by which trade was carried on. Grain and flour were taken to Pitts- burg, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and store goods and what- ever else was needed, brought back. In the proper season, shad and other fish in large quantities were hauled from the fisheries along the Susquehanna. Many a priest and student rode to and from Conewago, Baltimore, Washington and other points, with these old teamsters. Conewago was well situated with regard to the early modes and routes of travel. The
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wagon road from Wright's Ferry, on the Susquehanna, to the Monocacy road at the Maryland line, passed through the val- ley. The wagon and stage roads from Philadelphia to Fred- erick and from Carlisle to Baltimore, crossed each other where Hanover now stands, the first house of which was McAllister's tavern, part of it standing yet, built up in modern walls.
The country around Hanover was entirely a German set- tlement, while the Conewago settlement was considered Irish, and many a good old time the two elements had together .- At the first election for York County held at York Town, McAllister was the candidate of the Germans for Sheriff, and Hance Hamilton led the Irish. There was a general fight ; the Irish were routed and driven from the polls, but their candidate was commissioned by the Governor. For many years a jealous spirit of rivalry existed between the two settle- ments ; which, perhaps, was good for their growth and success. The upper part of what is now Adams County was settled by the Scotch-Irish, between 1736 and 1740. The Conewago Valley was settled by a few English families from the Prov- . ince of Lord Baltimore, somewhere between 1700 and 1725, as there were births and deaths between these periods. Then the Irish and Germans came in about equal numbers, and scattered together from the " barrens " all through the valley, and westward, as one of the principal directions emigration took to Pittsburg and the western settlements, was from Con- ewago. English and German sermons alternated at Cone- wago up to 1800 ; after that English took the lead. Ger- man sermons might have averaged one a month to 1850 .- Fathers Enders, Deneckere and Manns preached in German once in a while after that ; now German is not heard, except for a special purpose. The first English sermons were preach- ed in the Protestant churches of Hanover in 1837. The first English papers in Hanover and Gettysburg were started about 1818. The first German paper was started in Han- over in 1769, and a German paper is still published there.
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THE CONEWAGO OF THE INDIANS.
The name "Conewago" is the last connecting link be- tween the aborigines of the valley and their successors, the present American people. With them it will continue, and may even exist after their identity shall have been obscured or lost in the deepening shadows of antiquity. Like all other foreign names and words, Conewago had to shape itself to English use, a tendency which carried everything in its way. Later in the history of the language, "young America " be- came afflicted with such a mania for anglicism, that the names of their fathers full of memory and meaning were ruthlessly despoiled in making them assume an English garb that fits in nothing but the ridiculous. The Conewago missionaries were of different nationalities, but the Latin tongue was to them a common language. Thus the English Conewago comes down to us from the Latin, and not direct from the Indian term .- In handling the German names in Latin, the missionaries made some amusing changes. The German names are mostly derived from solid words in that language, which sound all right when translated into English, but in writing them in Latin according to sound, they lose all significance and trace of origin. The German Koontz is given the Latin Cin Cunes and the English hn in Kuhns. Thus we could note many simi- lar changes had we the time to follow them up.
The Indian word " Caughnawaga " is said to mean " the rapids." The Germans pronounced it " Konowago ;" the Eng- lish and Irish, "Canawaga." The missionaries wrote it Con- ewago as early as 1740, placing it in the third declension, --- Accordingly, those who persist in using "Cono," follow the German derivation. Conewago is the correct way as applied to the Chapel or the Creek ; when meaning the township, it may be claimed that the rules of law by which it was formed have it "Cono," which is immaterial, as the name has but one origin.
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As a definition of the word "Caughnawaga," " the rapids" was certainly not applied originally to the streams of that name in southern Pennsylvania. The Big Conewago drains the slope east of the Blue Ridge and flows into the Susque- hanna. The Little Conewago winds through the lower valley and empties into the Big Conewago. It rises about on the dividing line between the Susquehanna and Potomac drains. Except when swollen by heavy rain or melting snow, neither of these creeks can be called swift or rapid. Since the Cone- wago Valley has been stripped of its forests, the Little Cone- wago is narrowing its banks into a mere stream, and the mills along its course have parted with the old-fashioned water wheels and put in turbines.
The original "Caughnawaga " of the Indians was a tri- butary of the St. Lawrence. There were no native tribes in this part of Pennsylvania ;- only roving bands from the great branches of the Indian families along the bays, rivers and mountains. The number of Indians in the Provinces was not as great as many suppose. The Shawnees were a "restless nation of wanderers," who inhabited the region of Kentucky. By permission from the Pennsylvania authorities in 1698, some of them came from Carolina and settled in Pennsylvania. When in 1732 the number of Indian fighting men was esti- mated at 700, half of them were Shawnee emigrants. "So desolate was the wilderness," says Bancroft, " that a vagabond tribe could wander undisturbed from Cumberland River to the Alabama, from the headwaters of the Santee to the Sus- quehanna." From the heart of the Five Nations two war- riors would thread the wilderness of the South ; would go through the glades of Pennsylvania, the valleys of Western Virginia, and steal within the mountain fastnesses of the Chero- kees, and after securing scalps enough to surprise their native village, bound over the ledges and hurry home.
If it is true, that " a pious rivalry " existed between the Maryland missionaries and those of the St. Lawrence, as the great American historian says there did, there must have
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been some means of communication. This could only come through the Fathers in the old country, or by means of wan- dering bands of Indians. St. Mary's was the starting point of the Maryland missionaries ; Caughnawaga the " chief mission " of the St. Lawrence Jesuits. It was a Mohawk village on the Caughnawaga Creek, into which the Indians cast the body of Father Jogues, after murdering him, in 1646. Goupil and Lelande met a similar fate at Caughnawaga. When the Sus- quehannas poured down upon the missionary settlements in Maryland, Father Jogues received word at Caughnawaga that one of the Jesuit Fathers " had fallen amid his neophytes." -- " At Caughnawaga the faith was more constantly embraced than in any other part of the Mohawk country," and here, say the missionaries, we first saw a native church and christian
generosity displayed. From 1673, prayers were said at this mission as regularly as in any christian community in Europe. Fathers Bonaface and De Lamberville labored at Caughnawa- ga. Catharine Tegahkouita, a pious and saintly Indian maid- en, was born there ; and the noted chief, Tagannissoren, con- verted. His oratory was compared to that of Cicero by English writers, and the king of France hung his portrait in the galleries of Versailles.
The Maryland Indians consisted of branches of the great Huron-Iroquois family. The Susquehannas were the most powerful, and among them the Catholic missionaries began their labors. The Five Nations, a powerful northern confed- eration, had conquered almost all the surrounding tribes of Indians. The Indians in Pennsylvania were all subject to the Five Nations. They seem to have been fugitives, having no settlement of their own, but loving their wild freedom, sought to keep out of the way of the more powerful and warlike tribes. The St. Lawrence Indians were engaged in many in- cursions into the country of these roving bands, and the prisoners they brought in were instructed by the mission- aries and every effort made to save their lives. When the Senecas and Ottawas were at war, Father Fremin instructed
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and baptized the prisoners brought in to die. Conestogues were frequently burned, and always instructed and baptized. They were called Gandestogues by the French, or Andastes, and were in all probability the Susquehannas. Father Fre- min found some who were instructed in Catholic doctrine, and Shea thinks they might have been objects of the care of the Jesuits in Maryland. The Indian missions were from time to time broken up by the ceaseless warfare among the tribes. The Caughnawagas were subject to the Five Nations, and the mission has almost a continuous history, down to the present Sault St. Louis. Being thoroughly Catholic, (except in their murderous wars which will forever cling to them,) if there ever was any communication between the missionaries, it was through the Caughnawaga or Susquehanna Indians .- It might have been in this way that at an early day they found their way along these creeks into the Maryland mis- sions, and left their name to the valley. Future researches in the line of the St. Lawrence missions, and the older Cath- olic settlements of Maryland,-St. Mary's, St. Inigoes, St. Thomas Manor, Newtown, Port Tobacco, " Hickory " in Har- fort County,-will throw additional light upon the Caughna- waga of the Indians.
THE FIRST PLACE OF WORSHIP.
The course of new settlements is everywhere and at all times the same. First a few pioneer families build their humble homes and lay the foundation for others to follow .- Then arises the demand for business and professions, churches and schools. The local history of the Catholic church invari- ably finds the priest saying mass in a room of some of the few Catholic families, whose spiritual wants bring him among them. Thus was the Catholic religion introduced into the
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Conewago Valley. The present Conewago Chapel stands on high ground, on one of the many little spurs that follow the Blue Ridge range, of which the Pigeon Hills is the largest, and the last to the eastward from the mountains, about two miles from the chapel. Beyond that the " barrens" set in, extending southward with the valley into Maryland. Similar hills, valleys and lowlands are found across the river in Lan- caster County. The Little Conewago and the Plum Creek come together along the foot of the hill on which Conewago Chapel is built, the former from a direction due South, the latter a little to the East. The meadow land along these streams was grown up with dense underbrush and trees, and received its name from the man who farmed the church land, known from 1830 as " Will's Bottom," and now as " Devine's." The land had been cleared and cultivated under Father De- Barth, but suffered to go to waste again after him, until Father Enders had it given out to be cleared, drained and farmed. The present site of Conewago Chapel has been used for church purposes since 1740. This valley is the oldest settlement in the county, and here also is the oldest place of religious wor- ship. The first Kreutz Church settlers, near Littlestown, came in 1734, and organized their church in 1747. The Marsh Creek and Great Conewago Churches date from 1740; the . Bermudian Churches from 1747, and Christ Church, Hunting- ton, from about 1750.
Settlers from Lord Baltimore's Province pushed north- ward through Baltimore County, and reached the Codorus almost as early as 1700. Rupp's researches through these parts of Pennsylvania, Glossbrenner & Carter's History of York County, Smith's Annals of Hanover and History of York County, all give from 1710 to 1720 as the time when this valley, the barrens and the land along the Codorus to the river, were settled by the Marylanders. Many of the Mary- land settlers were Catholics, while the most of those who came into the valley from the East of the river, before 1750, were Protestants. They settled the surrounding country, and
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the fact that only a few Protestant families secured land in the Conewago settlement would go to show earlier Catholic claims. Digges' grant of 1727 was given conditionally, for vacant land only, and improved land was particularly except- ed. This he plainly disregarded, since from the moment he attempted to locate his choice in the valley, he was met with opposition ; and that must have come from those who had previously located there, though they may have had no right from either Province, until Digges' effort to take their land made them apply to the Maryland or Pennsylvania proprie- taries for patents, and appeal to both for protection of their claims. That part of Digges' Choice to the west of the Little Conewago, was left out of his re-survey without an effort to enforce his claim, and his strongest efforts in the contest were made for the lands farther south, near the disputed boundary line ; so that he left Conewago undisturbed, probably because " the improvements " had gone too far before his grant was taken up. Patrick McSherry had a large tract of land, cov- ering all the ground around MeSherrystown, and taking in the present lands owned or occupied by Sunday, Geisleman, McSherry and Croninger. He had a title from the Diggeses, but he also had patents from both Provinces and a release from the Carrolls. The earliest Protestant families adjoining the Chapel, were the Schreivers and the Slagles. Ludwig Schreiver held the land immediately to the west of the Cone- wago settlement proper, under Lord Baltimore's patent dated November, 1735. He built a mill near where O'Bold's now stands. The McCrearys at a later date were Protestant neighbors, John and David purchasing four tracts from Pat- rick and Catharine McSherry, March 15th, 1795, now adjoin- ing the O'Bold mill property on the west. Christopher Slagle settled in Berwick Township, on Slagle's Run, adjoining the Chapel land on the north, in 1737. Slagle's Run must have been the dividing line between Berwick, Heidelberg and Man- heim Townships. Henry Slagle, one of his sons, was a very prominent and useful man, occupying public positions until his
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death about 1802. The Slagles were farmers, millers and carpenters. One of the Slagles built Conewago Chapel in 1786-7, and when the church was enlarged in 1850, he used to come and watch the work, too old to do anything, while one of his sons was working there at the trade, to the best of our information as the contractor. Many of the old deeds in the valley are in the hand-writing of Henry Slagle. IIe must have been very popular with the Catholics, as the many offi- ces he held attest. Another Protestant family adjoining the church more to the east, was the Keagys. Jacob Keagy set- tled on part of the Manor of Maske in 1752. The land in the possession of these older Protestant families, like that of the Catholics, hardly ever went out of their hands. These Pro- testants among a few others whose names have not come down to us, were good neighbors to the church, and when a little after the Revolution the present large stone building was erected, they gave their teams and lent their aid in what was then an important undertaking. These actions show their good will towards us, and we make this in acknowledgment of our respect for them.
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