USA > Pennsylvania > Franklin County > Chambersburg > Historical sketch of Franklin County, Pennsylvania : prepared for the centennial celebration held at Chambersburg, Penn'a, July 4th, 1876, and subsequently enlarged by I. H. M'Cauley John M. Pomeroy, publisher. To which is added a valuable appendix by J. L. Suesserott, D. M. Kennedy and others, and embellished by over one hundred lithographic illustrations, drawn by W. W. Denslow > Part 3
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NATIONAL HOTEL.CHAMB'G. PA.
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
nationalities of which this great people is composed, did more for the national good, prosperity and glory, than those known as the "Scotch-Irish," and their descendants.
ROUTE FROM EAST TO WEST.
In those days the chief route of communication from Philadel- phia and the eastern parts of the colony to the west, was up this valley to Shippensburg, thence by the old military road across to Fort Loudon, thence over the mountains to Bedford, and thence to Fort Cumberland. All transportation was done by pack horses, each carrying about 200 pounds. Sir John Sinclair, Quarter Master General of General Braddock, moved much of his supplies by that route, and had one of his principal magazines at M'Dowell's mill, or fort. And after Braddoek's defeat a large part of his dispirited and destitute troops returned by that route, and were quartered at Shippensburg and Carlisle. In 1755 the Province of Pennsylvania made a broad wagon road from F rt Loudon westward, which Gen- eral Forbes and Colonel Bouquet and others used in their western expeditions. Upon that road, for the greater part of its length, the present Chambersburg and Pittsburg turnpike was built.
Colonel Samuel Miles, in his manuscript, says :
"In the year 1758, the expedition against Fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburg, was undertaken, and our batallion joined the British army at Carlisle. At this time Captain Lloyd had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, but retained his company, of which I had the command as Captain Lieutenant, and was left some time in command of the garrison at Shippensburg. On my march- Ing from thence with a brigade of wagons under my charge, at Chambers', about eleven miles from Shippensburg, the men muti- nied, and were preparing to march, but by my reasoning with them, and at the same time threatening them, the most of them consented to resume their march to Fort Loudon, where Lientenant Scott was with eight or ten months' pay. While the army lay at Ligonier, we were attacked by a body of French and Indians, and I was wounded on the foot by a spent ball. In November of this year (November 25th, 1758) the army took possession of Fort Du Quesne, under the command of General Forbes, a poor, emaciated old man, who for the most part of the march was obliged to be carried in a horse litter. In the year 1759 I was stationed at Ligonier, and had twenty-five picked men, out of the two batallions under my com- mand." Miles' Manuscript, second volume, new edition of Penn- sylvania Archives, pages 559-60.
This extract establishes the fact that, as early as 1758, transporta- tion by wagons was also done from Shippensburg, past Mr. Cham- bers' settlement to Fort Loudon, though there wasanother and older ronte across the country, directly between those points.
Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
LAYING OUT OF CHAMBERSBURG.
In 1764 Benjamin Chambers laid out his town of Chambersburg at this point. The settlement, though over thirty years old then, must still have been quite small. The town plot was south of the Falling Spring and east of the Conococheague, and looked more for a southern than a western extension, as is evidenced by the improve- ments towards the south. Colonel Chambers, in his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, printed at Philadelphia, in 1764, in which he announced that the drawing for lots in his new town would take place on the 28th of June, inst., says that "it is situated in a well timbered part of the country." This statement made only thirty-four years after he settled in the county, strongly negatives the traditionary report that when the first settlements were made in this valley it was a prairie country, devoid of timber, except along the streams.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
It was to be expected when the first mutterings of our revolution- ary contest were heard, that the Scotch- Irish people of this valley would be amongst the earliest to rise up against the threatened op- pression, and prepare for the struggle. Accordingly, we find that as early as the 12th of July, 1774, the citizens of Cumberland county met at Carlisle, John Montgomery, Esq., of Irish nativity, in the chair, and adopted resolutions condemning the act of Parliament closing the port of Boston, recommending a General Congress from all the Colonies, the abandonment of the use of British merchandise, and appointing deputies to concert measures for the meeting of the Gen- eral Congress. The news of the battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on the 19th of April, 1775, was received with a thrill of in- dignation all over Pennsylvania. In the distant county of Cum- berland, the war ery was no sooner sounded than its freemen rallied in thousands for military organization and association, in defence of their rights. A writer in the American Archives, volume 2, page 516, dated Carlisle, May 6th, 1775, says : "Yesterday the County Committee from nineteen townships met, on the short notice they had. About 3000 men have already associated. The arms returned are about fifteen hundred. The committee have voted five hundred efficient men, besides commissioned officers, to be taken into pay, armed and disciplined, to march on the first emergency ; to be paid and supported as long as necessary, by a tax on all estates, real and personal." Next morning they met again, and voted that they were ready to raise fifteen hundred or two thousand men," should they be needed, and put a debt of 227,000 per annum upon the county. That was doing nobly for a poor back woods county.
During the summer of 1775 various companies from the county of
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
Cumberland marched to join the army of Washington at the seige of Boston. One was from this place, under the command of James Chambers. Captain Chambers was in a short time made a Colonel, and he, and the company he took from here, remained in the ser- vice until near the close of the revolutionary war.
The Pennsylvania Assembly, in November, 1775, appointed dele- gates to represent the Province in Congress, and expressly instructed them "that they, in behalf of this colony, dissent from and utterly reject any propositions, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our mother country, or a change of the form of this government."
PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE OF 1776.
On the 18th of June, 1776, a Provincial Conference of committees of the Province of Pennsylvania, met at Carpenter's Hall, in the city of Philadelphia. Cumberland county sent the following depu- ties to that conference, viz. : James M'Lene, Colonel John Allison, John M'Clay, Dr. John Calhoun, John Creigh, Hugh M'Cormick, William Elliott, Colonel William Clark, John Harris, Hugh Alex- ander. Of these, we know that Messrs. M'Lane, Allison, M'Clay, Calhoun and Creigh, were from this county, and perhaps some of the others also.
That conference, on the 19th of June, 1776, Resolved "that a con- vention should be called to form a new government, on the author- ity of the people only ;"' and on the 24th of June, adopted unani- mously, an address to Congress, in which they declared that on be- half of the people of Pennsylvania they were "willing to concur in a vote of Congress declaring the United Colonies free and independ- ent states."
ACTION OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS VALLEY.
The people of Cumberland county, of all nationalities, Irish, Ger- man, and English, were among the first to form the opinion that the safety and welfare of the colonies did render separation from the mother country necessary ; and on the 28th of May, 1776, pre- sented their memorial to the Colonial Assembly, setting forth their opinions and asking "that the instructions given to the Pennsyl- vania delegates in the Continental Congress, in 1775, to oppose any action that might lead to a separation from Great Britain, may be withdrawn," and the instructions were withdrawn, and our dele- gates in Congress allowed to vote as they thought the best interests of the country required.
The County Committee, in a letter to the President of Congress, dated August 16th, 1776, said : "The twelfth company of our militia marched to-day, and six companies more are collecting arms and
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
are preparing to march." All this was done in six weeks after in- dependence was declared. The following persons commanded thir- teen of those companies, viz. : John Steele, Samuel Postlethwaite, Andrew Galbreath, Samuel M'Cune, Thomas Turbott, James M'Con- nell, William Huston, Thomas Clarke, John Hutton, Robert Cul- bertson, Charles Lecher, Conrad Schneider, Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Watts. These all, officers and men, were inured to hard- ship and experienced in warfare, and but a few days were required to get ready to meet their country's enemies wherever their services were required ; and during the whole revolutionary contest the people of the Cumberland valley did their full share in raising men and money for the public service, and I have referred to their conduct and servi- ces because we, of the county of Franklin, although not then organ- ized as a county, are justly entitled to a part of the honor of their deeds, and because I look upon their deeds as part of the history of our county.
The Revolutionary War was closed by the Treaty of Paris, between Great Britain and the "United States of America," signed on the 30th of November, 1782, which was ratitied by Congress in April, 1783, and during its continuance the Province of Pennsylvania contributed its full share of men and money towards the carrying on of the contest. Of the latter essential, (money), I see by the accounts of the Provincial Treasurer, the county of Cumberland was called upon to furnish the following, viz. :
Her quota of the five million tax, .
66 fifteen
·
£ 17,225 18s. 6d. 111,968 10 3
forty-five 159,555 6
firsteight monthly taxes, 638,220
10 ()
second "
638,220 10 1
€1,565,190 11s. 3d.
It was impossible for the people of the county of Cumberland to pay all this immense taxation, and from the same authority, out of which I have copied the above statement, I learn that on the first of October, 1782, the county owed thereon £442,463, 17s., 5d., in Con- tinental money, equal to £16,986, 2s., 9d. of State money, of the value in specie, of £5,899, 18s., 11d. Whether this debt was ever paid, I know not. I only now refer to it to show the vast difference that then existed between the paper money of the country and specie.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
On the 9th day of September, 1784, an act of Assembly was passed erecting the county of FRANKLIN out of the south-western part of the county of Cumberland, leaving all of Hopewell township in Cumberland county. The act of Assembly gives the following as
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
the boundary line between the two counties, viz. : "Beginning on the York (now Adams) county line, in the South mountain, at the intersection of the lines between Lurgan and Hopewell townships, thence by the line of Lurgan township (leaving Shippensburg to the eastward of the same) to the line of Fannett township; and thence by the lines of the last mentioned township (including the same) to the line of Bedford county."
Nothing is said about dividing Hopewell township, and it must therefore have all been left in Cumberland county. There were, how- ever, some doubts about the line near the town of Shippensburg, and on the 29th of March, 1790, an act was passed defining that part of the line and declaring that it should run " so as to leave the traet of land belonging to the late Edward Shippen, Esq., whereon the town of Shippensburg is erected, within the county of Cumberland."
The proposition for the erection of a new county had agitated the public mind for some time. At the July session of the General Assembly, in the year 1784, a petition was presented, signed by John Rannells, John Johnston, James M'Cammont, John Scott, Dr. George Clingin, Samuel Royer, Pat. Campbell, Patrick Vance, Nat. M'Dowell, Richard Brownson, Geo. Matthews, Oliver Brown, Jas. Campbell, Thos. Campbell, John Colhonn, John Holliday, John Crawford, Josiah Crawford, Edward Crawford, John Boggs, Jere- miah Talbot, William Rannells, Joseph Armstrong, James Broth- erton, Benjamin Chambers, Benjamin Chambers, Jr., Joseph Chambers, James Chambers, William Chambers, and a large num- ber of other citizens, asking that the division line should be fixed at the Big spring, or where Newville now is, so as to put Hopewell township in this county; and asking the Legislature to fix the county seat "at the most suitable and convenient place"-which to them, of course, would be at Chambersburg.
The contemplated act of Assembly had been published, and was not satisfactory to the people of Lurgan township, for at the next session of the Assembly, held on the 21st of August, 1784, one hun- dred of them remonstrated against its passage "because the militia batallion and the religious society to which they belonged would be divided and thrown into different counties, and the social inter- course requisite in these respeets, would be greatly obstructed," not to mention the burdens that would grow out of the erection of a new court house, prison, &e. They therefore asked to be left within the boundaries of Cumberland county.
The people of Greencastle and the southern part of the county thought that the seat of justice should be located there. Two hun- dred and thirty-four of them, on the 21st of August, 1784, presented their petition, asking that the question of the selection of the county seat be left to a vote of the people, allowing two or more places for the election to be held at. 4
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
They represented that the town of Greencastle had been laid out about eighteen months, on the crossing of the main road from Fort Pitt to Baltimore, and the Carlisle road leading through Maryland and Virginia, and is equally as central as Chambers' town ; that there are already twenty houses in Greencastle, and a number more building ; and it is much better situated to draw the trade of the back countries from Maryland, which at present goes chiefly to Hagerstown, and is so considerable, as to enable more than thirty persons, inhabitants of that place, to carry on business in the commercial line. The command of this trade would, we apprehend, be a considerable advantage, not only to this county, but to the commonwealth in general."
The Chambersburgers were successful ; the county was formed as they wished it, and the county seat was fixed by the Legislature, at Chambersburg.
II.
AFTER THE COUNTY'S FORMATION.
Some persons may, perhaps, think that here my labors as the historian of the county of Franklin should have commeneed, and that all I have already given is outside the record. But, would the history of this Union be complete without including in it our colo- nial history ? As well might we reject from the history of our town all that is connected with it prior to its laying out, in 1764, as to re- fuse to incorporate in the history of our county those things con- nected with its settlement and its people prior to its erection as a county, in the year 1784. The one is so intimately connected with the other that due notice must be given to all the prominent inci- dents connected with each, in order to make up a complete whole.
LOCATION AND AREA.
Franklin is one of the "southern tier," or border counties of the State. In its earliest records it was designated as the "Conoco- cheague Settlement," from the name of the principal stream of water flowing through it. It is bounded on the east by Adams county ; on the north-east by Cumberland and Perry counties; on the north and north-west by Juniata and Huntingdon counties; on the west by Fulton county ; and on the south by the State of Mary- land. Its greatest extent from north to south is thirty-eight miles, and from east to west thirty-four miles; containing an area of seven hundred and fifty square miles, or four hundred and eighty thousand acres. The population in 1870, according to the census returns of that year, was forty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-five, or about sixty persons to the square mile.
RES.OF SAMUEL GARVER, SCOTLAND, FRANKLIN CO.PA.
Page311.
WORKS
00
MARBLE YARD OF S.P.SHULL.CHAMB'G. PA.
Page 228
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
TOPOGRAPHY.
. Our valley lies about six hundred feet above the tide level. The eastern part of it is broken and hilly. The South mountain, which forms the eastern boundary of the county, rises from six to nine hundred feet above the central part of the valley. The northern and north-western parts of the county are mountainous. The Kit- tatinny, or north mountains, as the first range west of the Cumber- land valley is called, stretch through much of that section of the county. Their most prominent elevations are Parnell's and Jor- dan's Knobs, each of which rises to the height of about twelve hundred feet. In the south-west are the Cove mountains with its prominences, Clay Liek and Two-top mountains. Beyond these the Tuscarora mountains, running from south west to north-east, rise to the height of seventeen hundred feet, and form the boundary be- tween our county and the counties of Fulton, Huntingdon and Juniata.
STREAMS.
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The Tuscarora creek rises in the north-western part of the county, and runs in a northern direction, by the town of Concord, through the Tuscarora mountains, and unites with the main branch of Tus- carora creek in Juniata county. The West Branch of the Conoco- cheague creek also rises in the same section of the county, on the borders of Perry county, flows south-westwardly through Amber- son's and Path valleys, past Loudon, and unites with the east branch of the Conococheagne about three miles north of the Maryland line, receiving in its course many smaller streams. The East Conoco- cheagne ereck rises in the South mountain, in the eastern part of the county, flows first northward, and then south-westward, receiv- ing many tributaries, the principal of which is the Falling Spring, at Chambersburg, nnites with the West Branch, and empties into the Potomae at Williamsport, Maryland. The Conodoguinnet rises in Horse valley, and flowing north-east, passes through the moun- tains at Roxbury, and thence into Cumberland county, and empties into the Susquehanna. The Antietam creek has two branches, both rising in the South mountain, in the south-eastern part of the county. They flow in a southern direction, and uniting near the Maryland line, empty into the Potomac. Cove creek drains the south-western part of the county, between the Cove and Tuscarora mountains, flows south through the Little Cove, and empties into Licking creek. The waters of the northern third of our county, containing about one hundred and sixty thousand acres, or two hundred and fifty square miles, except a part of those in Amber- son's valley, are drained towards the Susquehanna Those of the remaining parts of the county flow into the Potomac.
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
CHARACTER OF SOIL ..
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Much the greater part of the land in our county is limestone. The limestone lands east of the Conococheague are well watered, fertile, and in a high state of cultivation. They are estimated at one hundred and eighty thousand acres. Along the base of the South mountain, and between it and the limestone lands, is a strip of territory from one to two miles wide, known as the "pine lands," which for the most part is said to be equal for fertility and certainty of product to any in the county, and is estimated to contain twenty thousand acres. It is composed of sand, mixed with clay, and water-worn pebbles. West of the Conococheague the slate lands prevail, mixed however, here and there with limestone. They are estimated at one hundred and sixty thousand acres, and are not generally so fertile as the limestone, but more easily cultivated, and abounding in pure streams of water, and in luxuriant meadows. The experience of late years leads to the conclusion that these lands when generously treated with lime, or other fertilizers, are as de- sirable and as productive and remunerative, all things considered, as the higher priced lands of the limestone regions. The moun- tainous districts, on the eastern and western boundaries of the county contain about one hundred and twenty thousand acres of land, much of it quite valuable because of its excellent timber, and other large bodies of it very valuable because of the inexhaustible quantities of iron ore contained in them.
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.
A minute description of the many and varied formations in the geologieal structure of our county would consume too much space for this sketch. The South mountain consists almost entirely of hard, white sandstone. The valley west of it contains the great limestone formation. Several belts of different colored slates, and sometimes sandstones are found, here and there, intermixed with it. West and north-west of the east branch of the Conococheague creek the slate lands predominate, though even among them, at various places there are belts of limestone found. The south-western part of the county is of the same geologieal character. The mountain ranges in the west and north-western sections of the county are composed, mainly, of the Levant white, red, and gray sandstones. We have no coal in any part of the county, but iron ore abounds along the base of the mountains on both sides of the county, and in Path valley.
LAWS IN FORCE IN 1784.
At the time of the organization of our county in 1784, the State Constitution of 1776 was in force. It provided that the State should
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
be apportioned for representatives in the General Assembly every seven years. They were to be elected annually and could not serve more than four years in seven.
It also provided for the election of a body called the "Supreme Executive Council," one of whom was to be elected for each county, to serve for three years, and no Councillor could serve for more than - three years out of seven. They were Justices of the Peace for the whole State.
The President and Vice President of the Supreme Executive Coun - cil were to be chosen annually, from the members of the council, by the joint votes of the members of the General Assembly and the council. The council met annually at the same time and place as the General Assembly, and the President, or in case of his absence, the Vice President, exercised the executive functions of the Com- mon wealth.
It also provided that delegates to Congress should be elected an- nually by the General Assembly, and might be superseded at any time, by the General Assembly appointing others in their places. And no delegate could serve more than two years successively, nor be reappointed for three years afterwards.
Sheriff's and Coroners were to be voted for by the people annually, two for each office to be returned to the Supreme Executive Coun- cil, who appointed and commissioned one of the persons thus re- turned. No Sheriff or Coroner could serve more than three years in seven.
Prothonotaries, Clerks of Courts, Registers and Recorders were to be appointed by the Supreme Executive Council, to hold during their pleasure.
One Justice of the Peace was to be elected for each ward, town- ship or district, to be commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council, to serve for seven years.
The County Courts of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, &c., were composed, generally, only of such of the Justices of the Peace of the counties as were specially appointed and commissioned to act as Judges of said courts, three of whom formed a quorum.
In Philadelphia, and some of the older and larger counties of the State, the Presidents of the county courts were gentlemen learned in the law.
FIRST ELECTION IN OUR COUNTY.
The first general election in our county was held on Tuesday, the 12th day of October, 1784, in Chambersburg, there being but one voting place for the whole county, and to it all those who desired to vote had to come. The county was entitled to elect one member of the Supreme Executive Council, and three representatives in the Legislature. James M'Lene was elected Councillor, to serve for
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Historical Sketch of Franklin County.
three years, and James Johnston, Abraham Smith and James M'Calmont were elected Representatives. Jeremiah Talbot, Sher- iff; John Rhea, Coroner; and James Poe, John Work and John Beard, County Commissioners. The vote for County Commission- ers was as follows, viz. : James Poe, 822; John Work, 421; John Beard, 339.
ELECTION DISTRICTS.
By the act of the 13th of September, 1785, the county was divided into two election districts, the first district composed of the town- ships of Antrim, Peters, Guilford, Lurgan, Hamilton, Letterkenny, Franklin, (or Chambersburg) Washington, Southampton and Mont- gomery, to vote at the court house in Chambersburg ; and Fannett township, the second district, to vote at the house of the widow Elliott, in said township.
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