History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 115

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USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 115
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 115

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York County, and they were without mails, courts, or marts for traffic, ex- cept to go all the way to the town of York. The question was started for discussion, and while all could see the imperious necessity for a change in this respeet, yet many did not desire to risk the plunge from the sphere of the known evils into the regions of the unknown. The movement to form a county origi- nated with the Scotch Irish, who largely held possession of the northern por- tion of the territory out of which the new county was to be formed, and the southern part of this territory was in the possession of the Dutch, with a very light sprinkling of Germans and a very few Scotch-Irish. The Dutch did not desire to be stricken off into a new county with the Scotch-Irish; they believed they would be outnumbered, outvoted, and in the end, from foretastes in elections in former times in York County, they were apparently justified in their apprehensions. The leaders of the Scotch-Irish were strong, active and aggressive- men: at least they were never noted for great diffidence in laying claims to their plain and just rights. The leaders of the Dutch were slow, solid and, upon even slight pretexts, stubborn as the granite hills about them. But these incongruities were eventually overcome by the commanding necessities of the time, and a new county was created, called in honor of the theu President of the United States-Adams County.

The act of the Legislature creating Adams County is of date January 22, 1800. And it goes without the saying that, with the division among the people, it was carried through the Legislature successfully by what in modern times has come to be called "log-rolling;" that is, by combinations among parties in the Legislature. In numerous other parts of the State where new counties were wanted, or other wants were pressing upon the constituents of members. all these parties would join and vote in turn for each other's measures. In this case, at least. "log-rolling" was a beneficent thing in the end for our people, and gave the great commonwealth one of her most prolific agricultural municipalities, almost literally a community of farmers with no great individ- ual fortunes, and almost without a trace of extreme poverty and suffering. For, after all, the farm is the great alma mater of all -- the factory, the rail- roads, commerce and the comforts and joys of our best civilization coming from that one common source.

The commissioners appointed to run the boundary line of the new county were Jacob Spangler, deputy surveyor of York County; Samuel Sloan, dep- uty surveyor of Adams County, and William Waugh, and they fixed upon the following boundary lines: "Beginning at the line of Cumberland County where the road from Carlisle to Baltimore leads through Trent's Gap; then following said road to Binders; thence on a straight line to Conowago Creek, opposite the mouth of Abbott's Run; thence along the line of Manheim and Berwick Townships westwardly, until it strikes the road leading from Oxford to Hanovertown; and from thenee a due south course until it strikes the Mary- land line; thence along the Maryland line to the line of Franklin County. thence along the line of Franklin and Cumberland Counties to the place of beginning." It contains 531 square miles in an area of twenty- four by twen- ty-seven miles. The total acreage is 339,133 acres, originally all timber land: in farms and other improvements, the timber area has been reduced to 50,000 acres. When the county was formed there was a population, as given by the United States census of that year, of 13, 172, including, as the tax-books show, nine negro slaves. The owners of these slaves were James Gettys, two women; Widow MePherson, one man: William MeClellan, one man; Alexander Russell, one woman; Reynolds Ramsey, one woman; James Scott, a man and a woman; William MePherson, two men. The highest assessed value of any

IIISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

slave was $150. The assessor's books for 1801 show that this year there was added to the slave owners James Scott. "one negro man;" and the next year Alexander Cobean was assessed "one negro woman, $100," and Conrad Hoke " negro woman fifty years old," no value given. Slaves were now freely introduced and in considerable numbers, and some of the quaintest documents in the spelling and structure of sentences that we remember to have come across, are the few original bills of sale of slaves that have been preserved among old papers and documents.

The total number of "taxables" in Adams County in the year 1800 was 2,563, and the next year the total number of negro slaves was ninety-four.

In addition to the negro slaves (these people all then called their farms "plantations "), there were the indentured or bonded white men-men who had given so many years, as agreed upon where the capitalist made both sides of the bargain, of their labor, for money or sustenance, generally claimed to have been furnished to convey the servant to this country. These servants, or they and their time, were matters of transfer as any other property. There are no records by which the number of this class of people here can now be ascer- tained. But when a newspaper commenced to be published in Gettysburg it was a frequent occurrence to see advertisements offering rewards from 1 cent to $10 for the recapture of these runaways. They would grow tired of their cruel bargain and " go West to grow up with the country "-not even tak- ing with them Greeley's historical half-dollar or perfected Hoe printing press.

The new county was about to be formed and its municipal machinery to be put in operation. The contention over the subject was of the deepest interest. The preponderance of population was along the east side of the county, with the Scotch-Irish in possession of the north and the Dutch of the south. Here were distinct interests, each determined to do the very best they could in secur- ing an advantageous location of the county seat. It was a tempting morsel, and a field-day to sections of the county, contending communities, and even to nearly every individual who owned a tract of land, on which he had a shanty and a truck patch cleared, that did not lie on the extreme borders of the county. Many of these excited owners of " plantations " no doubt saw his shanty and small clearing blown in a night into embryo county capitals, and could almost see the future great eity, with its teeming population, factories, grand avenues, palatial residences, baronial castles, its towers and minarets gleaming in the early morning sun, and chink in his pockets the fabulous prices per front foot the incoming rush of humanity would thrust upon him. Like other elections or selections all could not realize their fond dreams.

. James Gettys, a man of brains, force of character and resources, had opened a farm, a very large farm for that time, where the borough of Gettys- burg now stands. The improvement included nearly all of the present town limits. He had built a small shanty near a spring-of which there were many in the locality-on the north side of the hill. some distance north of where the McClellan house now stands, or a little northeast of the triangle. And as soon as he had fairly got his farm opened the talk commenced about forming a new county, to include substantially the present county boundaries, and thi early suggestion, or perhaps even earlier than this, the natural location of the place and the settlements north and south and around it suggested to Gettys to lay out a town on his land. It cannot now be ascertained what was the true date of the commencement to build a town here. He put up a spacious two story log house, the first real residence built here, which, with the kitchen and out- buildings standing upon the elevation, made quite a show. This house stood a short distance north of where the "Globe Inn" now is-northeast of the triangle.

In yeni Bellan 5

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

He opened this as a hotel. The house stood as he built it until a few years ago (ISSO) when it was burned; a remarkable faet being that it stood for a century, the first house put up, and was the first residence in the place consumed by fire.

To return a little, by way of explanation, it is necessary here to say that in 1790 the subject of forming a new county progressed so far as to appoint three commissioners to seleet a county seat, and James Cunningham, Jonathan Hoge and James Johnston had been chosen commissioners to make the selection. They selected a tract belonging to Garret Van Orsdel, in Strabane Township, "between the two roads leading from Hunters and Gettystown to the briek house, including part of said road." Then in 1791 the subject was again put in mo tion, and Rev. Alexander Dobbin and David Moore were chosen to select the county seat location. The matter ran along with nothing further done until 1799, when Gettys, in order to be in apt time, deeded to Dobbin and Moore, for the use of the new county, 200 lots, with the quit rents, and also a lot for a " gaol " and a court house lot. James Gettys purchased the land now occupied by the borough in 1790, and it is probable, though no official or other evidenee as to dates are now to be found, he soon after conceived the idea of making the future county seat, and so announeed to the world, and offered inducements for people to come here and settle. One of the conditions in his deed to the trustees was the "enhanced value of the remainder of the property from the location of the town seat here." The ground rent upon each of the lots donated to the county was 7s. 6d. The long document is signed by James and Mary Gettys.

In the meantime other parties were as busy as was Gettys in the effort to seeure the future county town. The most formidable rival was Hunterstown. The strong champions of this place were Dickson, Brinkerhoff, Shriver and others. It was then very near the center of population of the county, while Gettystown was very near the geographical center. The latter was championed by such strong men as the McPhersons, McCleans, MeSherrys, Horners, Cob- ean, Crawford, Dunwoody and many others of nearly equal force of character.

The commissioners, Alexander Dobbin and David Moore, as early as ro- quired by the act, had fixed upon Gettysburg, and on the 23d of February of that year they deeded the lots and property conveyed to them by Gettys to the county in the name of the three county commissions, Robert McIlhenny, Jacob Grenamire and David Edie. In Gettys' deed he gives the name of the place as "Gettystown." On further examination of the act creating the county it seems that the friends of "Gettystown" managed this part of their work as shrewdly as they had that of forming the county. They had the Legislature fix the county seat at this place; and the tempting inducement to do this was a bond shown the members of the Legislature, signed by prominent men, offer- ing to pay a large sum toward ereeting the county buildings.

The act authorized the county commissioners to levy a tax of $3,000 for public buildings on the county, and it was agreed that the additional $7,000 for that purpose should be contributed by private subscriptions. The act re- cites the essence of the bond, which is signed by Henry Hoke, James Scott, William MeClellan, George Kerr, William McPherson, Alexander Cobeau, Alexander Irwin, Alexander Russell, Walter Smith, William Hamilton, John Myers. Emanuel Zeigler and Samuel Sloan, and was for the sum of $7,000, to be paid one-third in six months after the passage of the bill, and the two-thirds in equal annual payments thereafter. Then for the first time in this act of the Legislature it is called "Gettysburg." This strong and effective bond, effective in making this the county seat, was in the hand-

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

writing of Alexander Russell. The venerable document is without date, and was long ago marked across its face "Cancelled." It had been paid accord- ing to its tenor. The people, moved by a generous public sentiment, and as many had pledged, no doubt, the signers of the $7,000 bond, started subscrip- tion papers. Five papers were circulated, and the following receipt explains fully the result of this movement:

Received January 6, 1801, of Reynolds Ramsey, Henry Hoke, Alexander Russell, Alexander Cobean, Mathew Smith, Alexander Irwin, George Kerr and James Scott, five subscription papers, wherein a number of the inhabitants of Gettysburg and its vicinity had subscribed certain sums of money supposed to be eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven dollars and thirty three ceuts, for the purpose of erecting publick buildings in a county proposed to be struck off the county of York. From whom I am directed to collect the sums set opposite the respective names of the aforesaid subscribers. [Signed] ROBT. HAYES.

There is no doubt there was a mistake of a year in the date of this instru- ment. This is made plain by the sentence "in a county proposed to be struck off."

Robert Hayes, then, was then commissioner to collect subscriptions and the county fund, and make the payments on the public buildings -court house and jail. Like all general subscription papers this was a hard work to perform, and all the time he was giving notices to "pay up"-threatening suits against delinquents, etc., etc. The most of them paid by labor and materials furnished.

William McClellan, Henry Hoke and William Hamilton were appointed by law commissioners to contract and superintend the erection of the county build- ings.

February 29, 1804, the commissioners made a statement, in which they charge themselves with $3,000 received from the county, and $7,000 from Robert Hayes; total, $10,000.

They are then credited with $9,802. 70, money paid for labor and materials on the court house and jail. This would indicate the cost of these buildings. Walter Smith, Henry Hull and Michael Slagle were the commissioners of the county who, on January 28, 1804, certified to the correctness of this report. The largest single item in the list of payments is $3,913.122, paid Alexander Cobean for building the jail.

The court house was constructed after the one style of all such buildings of that day-of brick, with stone foundation, and square. The lower floor was the court room, a door in the north and south, the south door only being used, as the judge's bench was placed against the north door. The house stood in the center of the public square. On each side of the south door was a stairway leading to the galleries, the left stairway also leading to the three rooms on the up- per floor, grand and petit jurors' rooms. About one-third of the space in the main court room was given to juries, on the right and left of the judge, and the attorneys sat in front of the judge. Two great wood stoves heated the room. This was the court house room and accommodations that served well for over fifty years. The building, now the store of Weaver & Co., on the northeast corner of the square, was occupied by the county officers, clerks, etc.

When the business of the courts and county officers, and the needs of the inhabitants had long outgrown the accommodations of the old court house, the people began to importune the grand jury to put up a new and suitable build- ing. All the leading citizens saw the urgent necessity for this, and yet they dreaded the great expense. The Democrats had only fairly got in power in the county, and shrewd party leaders were nervous when they thought of a heavy tax upon the people for even the best of purposes. But the people pre- vailed, and in March, 1858, the new court house, as it now stands, was contracted

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

for, and in 1859 it was completed and ready for occupancy. The building is a credit to the county ample in proportions, strong and solidly built from foun- dation stone to turret, commodious and well appointed in its court room and of tices, with strong fire- proof vaults, and crowned with steeple containing bell and town clock. It is a perpetual testimony to the good judgment and integrity of the authorities under whose auspices it was built, especially when it is known that. in its completion, the whole cost was less than $20,000. There are many counties in the country that have paid from $40,000 to $120,000 for their court houses, that in every respect were not superior to the Adams County Court House.

A great improvement to the town was tearing down the oldl court house in the public square, and throwing these grounds open to the public use.

The jail, after a fashion, held the few criminals committed to its keop- ing; that is, like all jails. held some, while others escaped. In 1832, "when the stars fell," there was a murderer in the jail, and it is supposed this awful display of heavenly fire-works frightened the poor fellow so that he broke out, went to the blacksmith shop, filed off his shackles and iled to the woods, and, as he forgot to come back and give himself up to be hanged, it may be inferred he is still fleeing from the "stars" that do not pursue. On the night of January 7, 1850, there was discovered a bright fire burning in the jail. The discovery was made by a young man of Gettysburg who had been out late interviewing his sweetheart, and he gave the alarm; but it was too late to save the building, and it burned to the ground. Two men, Toner and Musselman, who were de- mented to some extent, were eonfined in the building, and one had in some way started the tire, as it had commenced in his cell, and Musselman's body was almost wholly consumed. Toner was suffocated. The jail, as it now stands, was built in 1851.

The county hospital originally built in 1817-18. The building stands a few rods northeast of Gettysburg. The new part was built in 1878, and this and the other building that had been previously constructed at different times, give ample accommodation and comfort to the county's poor unfortunates. These are the county buildings. The economy and honesty exercised in their con- struction and management are well attested to by the assessor's books calling upon the people to pay the bills. Then. in addition to these county buildings. the county is most abundantly supplied with stone and iron bridges and free turnpike roads. And to all this we can add no word of commendation to the two generations of men who have controlled and performed all these splendid and durable public improvements, than to call the attention of the reader to the light county tax-a little less on the average than three mills-that is lev- ied on the people. In these respects no county in the Union has been more fortunate. Literally, no stealing from the public has so far blurred the fair name of Adams County.

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

CHAPTER X.

BY AARON SHEELY, A. M.

NATURAL HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY-GEOLOGY-MINERALOGY-THE SOUTH MOUNTAIN-THE "BARRENS"-DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS-STREAMS-ELE- VATIONS-SCENERY-TREES AND SHRUBS-FISII-BIRDS.

GEOLOGY.

"THE geology of Adams County is its physical history, and has for its object the investigation of the causes which have produced the phenomena ex- hibited both by its exterior and interior rock formations. This history is writ- ten in the layers and masses of mineral matter which constitute the crust of the earth comprised within the limits of the county, and becomes intelligible in the investigation of the successive changes to which this portion of the earth has been subjected.

The first geological survey of any portion of the county under govern- mental direction was made in pursuance of an act of Legislature dated March 29, 1836, by the eminent geologist, Prof. Henry D. Rogers, with the aid of a corps of competent assistants.

The field work of the first season was sufficient to determine with certainty the order of the rocks of middle and southern Pennsylvania, and to establish the fact that the South Mountain range belongs to the great Laurentian sys- tem, the oldest known to geologists. It also established the fact that Adams County belongs to the mesozoic or medieval time of the earth's history, com- prising a single age only-the reptilian, and that the strata or beds lying eastward of the South Mountain are sedimentary, that they occur in long narrow strips parallel with the mountains and coast-line, occupying synclinal valleys formed in the course of the folding of the Appalachians, and that the twisted and disturbed condition of the beds is due to this folding.

The results of this survey to the State, as well as to the cause of geological science, were most important, and served to correct several erroneous theories concerning the geology of this part of the State. It may with truth be as- serted that this survey gave birth to the science of American structural geology.

The act of the Legislature ordering the second geological survey of Penn- sylvania was passed May 14, 1874. Prof. Persifer Frazer, Jr., of Philadelphia, was the geologist in charge of the York and Adams district, assisted by Prof. A. E. Lehman, of Lebanon, Penn. These gentlemen promptly commenced work in their district, visiting mines and important exposures, tracing lines of outerop, collecting specimens of rocks and minerals, and, after properly arranging and marking the same, forwarding them to headquarters at Harris- burg for examination and study, running lines and making measurements in every direction, gathering much valuable information concerning the geology and mineralogy of the district, and sending carefully prepared reports from time to time of their operations.

These surveys by Prof. Frazer and his assistants have been very elaborately and faithfully made, at least so far as Adams County is concerned. There are few if any localities that have not been thoroughly examined and accurately

HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.

reported. Whilst it is to Prof. Rogers that we owe the discovery of the clue to the general law of the earth's structure prevailing in this section, it is to Prof. Frazer that we are indebted for the successful working out of the clue.

Very full reports of the second geological survey have been published by the State, but the facts and data contained in them, being scattered through a large number of volumes, which seem to be running through the press indefin- itely, are for the most part so detached and fragmentary as to impair seriously their usefulness for practical purposes. It is to be hoped that the valuable infor- mation embraced in these voluminous reports may, without unnecessary delay, be so condensed, arranged and published as to make it of interest and use to the general reader.

According to Prof. Frazer, "two thirds of the county consists of mesozoic soft sandstone or shale, traversed by extensive trap-dykes. Its western town- ships rise upon the South Mountain azoic rocks, resembling the Huronian se. ries in Canada, very siliceous and porphyritic, carrying some copper ores as yet unproductive. The York County limestone belt of the Codorus Valley spreads over Conowago, as also parts of Oxford and Union Townships, and is bordered on the southeast by the mica schist belt. The chlorito schist just enters the southeast corner of the county. Extensive outcrop fragments of quartzite indicate the presence of the Potsdam sandstone in Berwick Township along the continuation of the Pigeon Hills of York County, and several thou- sand feet of rocks assignable to the Potsdam make up the mountain ridges of Menallen and Franklin Townships north of the Chambersburg pike."

The South Mountain forms, as has been stated, a broken range of the old- est protozoie or Laurentian formation. This consists chiefly of layers of met- amorphic or semi-crystalline sandrock called gneiss. The principal minerals of importance are iron and copper ore. The outcrops of these may be seen in the vicinity of Gettysburg. The soil is principally of three kinds, partaking of the character of the rock formations of the county. These are for the most part limestone, red shale, and trap or syenite, the disintegrating and wearing away of which has formed the soil, the abundant presence of iron giving the prevailing red color to it. The area of the county is 530 square miles.

MINERALOGY.

Iron. - There is in the county a great outspread of gneissoid sandrock and mica slates containing beds of magnetic iron ore, each traceable for many iniles. To determine whether or not these constitute a separate system requires further observation and study. Some of the ore beds have become decom- posed along their outerops, affording extensive surface mines of brown hema- tite. The great ore beds of the South Mountain seem to be buried at consider- able depths beneath the surface. They will probably at some distant day, as the needs and demands of the country increase, become sources of wealth to the county. Iron ore of various kinds and qualities has for many years been sought and mined in different parts of the county. A few of these mining operations will be briefly described:

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280