History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 106

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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587

POLITICAL

On account of the excise laws, many of York County had 1.466 taxable inhabitants the voters of York County and other coun- with an entire population of about 6,000. ties in Pennsylvania opposed to these laws, In 1750 there were 1.798 taxables, and in changed their political sentiments and allied themselves with the Jeffersonian Democ- tion of over 8,000. 1751. 2,043 taxables and an entire popula- This will illustrate how rapidly immigration into the county took place, as the increase of population in two years was thirty-three and one-third per cent.

racy. Colonel Thomas Hartley, who had represented York County in Congress from the adoption of the national constitution to the time of his death, in 1800, was one of the leaders of the Federalist Party in Pennsyl- vania. Although a man of eminent ability,

In 1783 immediately after the treaty of peace had been signed between England and France which closed the Revolution, in he could not have been re-elected to Con- accordance with a resolution of Congress gress after 1800, because of the position he and an act of the Pennsylvania Assembly, had taken in relation to the excise law. He assessors were appointed for every town- was succeeded in Congress by John Stew- ship in York County. These persons were art, of York, one of the followers of empowered to make a complete assessment Thomas Jefferson. From that time forth, of all real and personal property in the the Federalist Party in this state and county for the purpose of laying a tax to largely through the country was on the aid in paying the expenses incurred by the wane. York County failed to give a ma- War for Independence. According to the jority vote for James Ross, her most dis- official reports of these assessors furnished tinguished son, who was three times the to the State authorities, York County in Federalist candidate for governor of Penn- that year contained a population of 27,007 ; sylvania, between 1800 and 1809. Even of this number 17,007 resided within the present area of York County. There were then in the present limits of York County 657 colored slaves.

Major John Clark, one of the ablest soldiers who served in the Revolution from Pennsyl- vania, and a pronounced Federalist, was de- feated for Congress in 1817, greatly to the disappointment of his adherents and him- self.

In 1832. Charles A. Barnitz, a leading member of the bar, was elected to Congress from York County by the Whigs. Dr. Henry Ness was first chosen to Congress as an Independent, and at his second elec- tion by the Whigs. The other representa- tives in Congress from York County, down

The first official census taken by the au- thority of the United States Government in 1790, gave York County a population of 37,747, which was an increase of about 10,- 000 in seven years. This would seem to be enormous but illustrates that the immigra- tion to the county during that period was rapid. The next census was taken in 1800, after the formation of Adams County out of the western part of York County. when the to Colonel James A. Stahle, belonged to the latter had a population of 25,643 and con- Democratic Party. Governor Curtain failed to carry the county or borough of York as the Republican candidate for governor in 1860 and 1863. From the time that Andrew Jackson became the political leader of the country in 1828, down to 1904, nearly all the county officials and state senators and repre- sentatives from York County were allied with the Democratic Party. last named year, the entire Republican county ticket was elected. CENSUS REPORTS.

tained its present area of 921 square miles ; in 1810 York County had a population of 31,938; in 1820, 38,759: in 1830, 42,859; in 1840, 47,010: in 1850, 57,450: in 1860, 68,- 200; in 1870, 76,134; in 1880, 87.841; in 1890, 99,489 : in 1900, 116.413 ; the estimated population in 1907, 127,000.

The tabular statement found below show-

During the ing the population of all the townships and boroughs in York County at each decade from 1790 to 1900 was carefully prepared from government records. It will be no- ticed that some of the townships contained a large population as early as 1800, when the borough of York had 2,503. It should be observed that the variation in the num- ber of inhabitants in certain townships was

The County of York when organized out of Lancaster County in 1749. contained an area of 1469 square miles, or 950,000 acres. It then embraced the present area of Adams County. In 1749, the year of its formation, owing to the formation of new townships.

588

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

A Table of Comparative Population in York County.

1820

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1890

1900

Carroll.

Chanceford.

1248

1177

1439

1572

2110

898 2501

1083 2994

3060

2798

Codorus ..

2133

2429

1131

1371

1840

2002

2261

2322

2251

Conewago.

945

1093

1068

1264

1288

1382

1495

1555

1506

Cross Roads Borough

167

Dallastown Borough

287

482

779

1181

Delta Borough

269

565

684

Dillsburg

268

270

293

281

455

587

732

246

300

418

419

465

438

Dover . .

1816

1874

1920

1918

2258

2281

2378

2349

2313

East Hopewell.

1234

1074

East Manchester

1413

1359

East Prospect

261

292

Fairview.

1764

1892 785

1993

2098 1043

1903

1941 1457

1685

1647

1554

Fawn Grove Borough.

199

202

Felton Borough

226

Franklin.

973

1003

819

815

82 1014

181 910

234

232

250

Glen Rock

289

537

651

687

1117

Goldsboro.

310

378

345

385

Hanover

998

1100

1205

1630

2317

3746

5302

Heidelberg

1313

1528

1428

1616

1758

916

954

1013

Hellam ..

2062

1876

1421

1529

1642

1639

1963

2164

2058

Hopewell.

1941

1095

2380

3288

3618

3773

1540

1376

Jackson ..

1421

1499

1836

1603

1596

Jefferson Borough.

110

164

234

327

320

374

Lewisberry

220

243

292

268

283

170

228

Loganville

221

256

320

296

343

Lower Chanceford

1051

1232

1637

2150

2471 2538

2764

2345 2649

Lower Windsor ..

1687

1923

2162

406

430

507

Manchester

1949

2198

2152

2591

2695

2427

2636

1556

1305

1361

1528

1806

1091

1159

1293

1258 1229

Monaghan

1158

1214

770

990

1030

1028

1055

923

New berry

1794

1856

1850

2129

2182

2144

2228

2238

New Freedom

324

364

550

New Salem

224

231

241

North Codorus

1540

2124

2253

2476

2550

2637

North York Borough

1837

1819

2117

2353

1206

1372

1269

1214

Peach Bottom

928

898

1074

1652

1874

2130

2198

1888

Penn. . .

1962

1501

1875

Railroad Borough.

220

201

213

Red Lion .

241

524

1337

Seven Valley

428

Shrewsbury.

1988

2571

1328

1617

2926 552

3550 600

2087

2041

1953

Springetsbury

1783

Springfield.

1207

1341

1637

1958

1854

1912

1641

Spring Garden.

1603

1907

2393

2809

3010

4176

5209

879

Spring Grove

576

1005

Stewartstown

212

303

441

573

Warrington

1274

1229

1340

1570

1796

1825

1830

1660

Washington

1061

1037

1226

1339

1386

1444

1450

1464

1388

Wellsville.

296

West Manchester

1073

1269

1290

1352

1524

1834

2476

1743

1820

West Manheim.

1265

1197

1202

1269

1418

Windsor

2096

2760

1110

1250

1627

2024

2155

2372

2516

Winterstown

217

Wrightsville

980

1250

1294

1544

190 1776

209 1912

2266

Yoe Borough

525

York.

3546

4216

5821

6963

8605

11103

13979

20793

33708

York Haven.

824

York Township

2107

1181

1294

1950

2390

2307

2370

2489

2793

------- -------- ---------------- ------------------------------- 1 1 1 1 1 I

2042

2078

Fawn ..

803

859

1309

Franklintown

952

962

895

946

1839 2266

2306 242y

2512

Manchester Borough

513 1783

847 2101

North Hopewell ..

2639 1199

1122 1185

Paradise.

Shrewsbury Borough.

472

580

562

554

993

882

803

882

188 1681

1300 2366

965

Manheim.

1630

250 2150

Dover Borough

. .

589

POLITICAL

POST OFFICES IN YORK COUNTY.

Benjamin Franklin was appointed post- master at Philadelphia in 1737. Under his skillful management that city became the centre of the whole postal system of the American colonies. In 1753 he was made postmaster general. At this date he estab- lished a postal route through Reading and Lancaster to York. In 1774 when the Revolutionary sentiment was gathering force, Franklin was relieved from the posi- tion of postmaster general by the British government. During the Revolutionary period a postal system was established un- der authority of Continental Congress. When Congress met in York, post riders brought the mail here from different sec- tions of the country on horseback. It was one of the chief post towns of the country during that eventful period. Under the present postal system which went into ef- fect in 1790 the first office established was

at York. February 16, 1790, Andrew Johnston, a former lieutenant of the Revo- lutionary war, was made first postmaster. In early days the columns of the York pa- pers frequently contained long lists of ad- vertised letters belonging to persons living fifteen, twenty or thirty miles away from York. In January, 1795, an office was es- tablished at Hanover, and Henry Welsh appointed postmaster. An office was es- tablished at Marsh Creek, Gettysburg,

about 1800. In November, 1815, Jacob Kirk became the first postmaster at Lewis- berry, and John Kirk the same year at Peach Bottom.

On October 2, 1819, proposals were re- ceived for carrying mails by relay of stages from Lancaster through York, Abbotts- town, New Oxford and Gettysburg to Chambersburg, seventy-seven miles every day; from York to McCall's Bridge once a week ; from York through York Haven and New Market to Harrisburg, three times a week ; from Belle Air, Md., through Lower Chanceford, York, Dover, Rossville, Lew- isberry, Lisburn, Dillsburg and Carlisle, fifty-nine miles, once a week. In Decem- ber. 1815, a postal route was established by authority of the Postoffice Department, be- tween York and Carlisle. The mail was conveyed once a week. New offices were established along the route at Dover, Ross-

ville, Lewisberry, Dillsburg and Lisburn. The postmasters appointed for these places were charged to be economical or their offices would be discontinued.

The following is a list of postoffices and postmasters in York County in 1832:

Bermudian Gideon Greist

Chanceford .. Andrew Clarkson

Codorus ... . Martin Sherer

Cross Roads. Alexander Gordon

Castle Fin ..

Edward Markland

Day's Landing (New Holland) ... Peter Dessenburg Dillsburg. G. L. Shearer

Dover. E. Melchinger

Fawn Grove. Thomas Barton

Franklintown .. .. Martin Carl

Farmer's. William Snodgrass

Guilford (now Stewartstown) . . Anthony Stewart

Hanover . Peter Mueller

Hetricks John Hershner

Lewisberry . Samuel Croll

Loganville Samuel Keyser

Lower Chanceford. William Cowan

Manchester .. .J. T. Ubil

Margaretta Furnace S. Y. Slaymaker

Newberrytown. Thomas Wickersham

Peach Bottom James McConkey

Spring Forge Abraham Bletcher

Rossville Michael Wollet

Shrewsbury. Philip Folkemmer

Siddonsburg. James G. Frazer

Windsor. William C. Cornwell

Wrightsville. . James Kerr

Wolfrom's. Gustavus Wolfram

York Haven

D. Winchester, Jr.

York.

Daniel Small

The following is a list of postoffices in York County during the year 1906, as fur- nished by the department at Washington :

Admire

Farmer's

Airville

Fawn Grove

Alpine

Felton

Andersontown

Fiscal

Bandanna

Fortney

Benroy

Franklintown

Bigdam

Freysville

Bigmount

Gatchelville

Bittersville

Glatfelter

Bridgeton

Glen Rock

Brillhart

Glenville

Brodbeck's

Grahamville

Brogueville

Graybill

Bryansville

Graydon

Chanceford

Hall

Clear Spring

Hamelown

Codorus

Hanover

Cly

Hanover Junction

Craley

Hellam

Dallastown

Highrock

Davidsburg

Hokes

Delroy

Holtz

Delta

Hopewell Centre

Dillsburg

Ironore

Dover

Jacob's Mill

East Prospect

Jacobus

Eastmont

Keys

Emigsville

Laboit

Etters (Goldsboro)

Larne

590

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Laurel

Lewisberry Loganville

Shrewsbury Siddonsburg Slab

Smith Station

Spring Forge

Manchester

Springvale

Marburg

Spry Stewartstown

Menges' Mill

Monaghan

Stiltz

Mount Royal

Stony Brook

Mount Top

Strinestown

Mount Wolf

Sunnyburn

Muddy Creek Forks

in Swat Thomasville

Nashville

Newberrytown

Tolna

New Bridgeville

Turnpike

New Freedom

Weiglestown

New Park

Wellsville

New Sinsheim

West Baugor

West Manchester

Windsor

Parke

Winterstown

Peach Bottom Porter's

Woodbine

Potosi

Wrightsville

Railroad

Yocumtown

Raubenstine

Yoe

Red Lion

York

Rockey

Yorkanna

Rossville

York Haven

Saginaw

York New Salem

Seitzland

Ziegler

Seven Valley

Zions View

Shenks Ferry

No branch in the Postal Service, so far as it effects York County, has made greater progress than the Rural Free Delivery. This is due to the energy of Ex-Congress- man Robert J. Lewis and the present Con- gressman, Daniel F. Lafean. Mr. Lewis' first efforts to establish the service in York County was met with determined opposi- tion owing to the misapprehension on the part of his rural residents,-it having been represented to them that not only would their taxes be increased but a special tax would be levied for the maintenance of every box.

ceeded in having an order issued granting a service throughout York County. Before this work was completed, however, Mr. Lewis retired and Mr. Lafean was elected. The latter took up the work where the for- mer left off. That Mr. Lafean did this work well is evidenced by the fact that every public road in York County is now covered by the ninety-four routes starting from every section of the county, thus af- fording the rural residents the best possible mail service.

The establishment of these routes, in ad- dition to the increased mail facilities af- forded the patrons, has been the means of bringing into York County annually over $65,000, which is received in the way of salary by the ninety-four carriers.

The improved facilities of the United States postal service during the present century are striking in comparison to those afforded our ancestors who lived in York County, a century or more ago. In those days the cost of sending letters depended upon the distance, and ranged from five to fifty cents. It cost twenty-five cents in 1830 to send a letter from New York to Detroit, Michigan. The person receiving the letter had to pay the postage. The first stamp used by the United States govern- ment made the uniform postage on a letter five cents. This was decreased to three cents, and finally to two cents, the present charge for letter postage throughout the United States.

CHAPTER XXXIII

This, and other opposition, did not dis- SLAVERY IN YORK COUNTY courage Mr. Lewis in his efforts and he finally succeeded in having the first route in Early Slave Owners-Colonizing Negroes- Underground Railroad-Servants and Re- demptioners. York County established from Glen Rock on October 1. 190i. This route was fol- lowed shortly thereafter by two from Wrightsville, one from Laurel, and so on Slavery was introduced into the Virginia colony in 1620 by the arrival of a Dutch trading vessel at Norfolk, loaded with ne- groes. It existed in Pennsylvania under the Swedes and the Dutch, prior to the granting until routes were established in different sections of the county. These routes had hardly been started when the people who did not receive the service, seeing the in- creased advantages their neighbors were en- of the Province to William Penn. The joying, sent petitions for the establishment provincial assembly as early as 1712 passed of routes all over the county. He then suc- an act to restrain its increase. The same

Long Level McCall's Ferry McFord

Slate . Hill

Wiota

Okete

Orwig

59I

SLAVERY IN YORK COUNTY

authority, later, imposed a prohibitory duty Spangler, 3; George Stoehr, I; Andrew on the importation of slaves into the Prov- Welsh, I ; Bernard Eichelberger, 1.

ince. This was repealed by the crown, as

There were thirty slaves owned in 1780 slavery was then common in England. The in Manchester Township, which then in- price of an imported negro, about the middle of the eighteenth century ranged from £ 40 to £ 100, Pennsylvania currency. The So- ciety of Friends, who for many years con- trolled the legislative assembly, took an ac- tive part in the abolition of slavery, and at an early period would not allow any of their members to own slaves.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Aboli- tion of Slavery was founded in 1775. It continued an organization until Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, struck the death blow to slavery, by signing the document known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Benjamin Franklin was its first president, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, the first secretary. society in 1790 sent a memorial to Congress bearing the official signature of Benjamin Franklin, asking that body to devise means for removing the inconsistency of slavery from the American people. On March I, 1780, owing to the pressure of public opin- ion, the legislature of Pennsylvania passed four females and two males. The last ne- an act for the gradual abolition of slavery.

gro who had been a slave in York County This law required that all slaves should be died in 1841 at Hanover and was owned by registered in the office of the clerk of the Marks Forney. court of quarter sessions on or before No- vember 1, 1780. The name, age, term of service and valuation of the slave were de- manded; all persons held as slaves for life, or until the age of thirty-two years, should continue as such ; but all persons born after that date of slave parents should be free, except children born of registered slaves, who should be servants until they were twenty-eight years old. This law was so modified in 1788, as to prevent persons from taking their slaves to another state; an in- teresting case to test this law was tried in Lancaster in 1804.

Slave

Owners.

number owned byeach individual : Rev. John Andrews, 3; William Alexan- der, I ; Valentine Crantz, 2; Michael Doudel, 3: Widow Doudel, I ; Joseph Donaldson, I ; James Dobbins, I: Colonel David Grier, I ; George Erwin, 3: Joseph Chambers, 2; John McAllister, 1 ; Widow Moore, I ; Peter Reel, I; Colonel Michael Swope, 2; Baltzer

cluded West Manchester; forty in Fawn, which included Peach Bottom; William Chesney, of Newberry, who owned the ferry below New Market, 7 (he was the only slave-owner in the township at that time, which included Fairview) ; Dover had none; Ephraim Johnson, of Menallen Township, Adams County, then a part of York County, owned 2 slaves; one was 110 years old in 1780; Manheim, 14: Monaghan, which em- braced Carroll and Franklin, had 21; James Dill owned 9 of them; Windsor, including Lower Windsor, 10; Paradise, including Jackson, 2; Codorus, 5; Heidelberg, includ- ing Hanover, 14; Shrewsbury, 22; Hellam, This 8; Warrington, none, as slavery was op- posed by the Quakers: Chanceford, includ- ing Lower Chanceford, 21; Hopewell, 5. In the entire county, which included Adams County, there were 471 slaves in 1783, and 499 slaves in 1790. There were 77 slaves in I 800. In 1810, there were 22; in 1820, 6,

In 1816 Captain Izard Bacon, a wealthy planter, who resided in Henrico County, Virginia, manumitted fifty-six of his own slaves. Some of his heirs attempted to hold them in slavery, but the courts finally pro- nounced them free on June 15, 1819. Charles Granger, a nephew of Bacon, loaded them on wagons to take them to Canada. Fifty-two of them in September, 1819, passed through York, and most of them lo- cated in Columbia, where their descendants, the Randolphs, Greens, Pleasants, Haydens, and others have since resided. The Colum- bia Abolition Society procured for them po- sitions when they arrived.

The following are the names of persons in York, who owned In 1821, 100 manumitted slaves from Han- slaves in 1780, together with the over County, Virginia, came into York. Some remained here, while others went to Columbia and Marietta, and settled there. They were employed by the lumber mer- chants along the Susquehanna. Just prior to the passage of the Fugitive Slave law, in September, 1850, several hundred of them passed north to Canada. In the fall of 1850, William Baker was arrested and taken to

592

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia, tried as a fugitive, and re- of the leading citizens proved the identity manded into slavery. This was the first of the black man and procured his release rendition of the new law. His friends at Columbia raised money and purchased his freedom. from the hands of the kidnappers, who to escape prosecution returned hastily across the Maryland line. The incident caused The American Colonization So- great excitement among the anti-slavery Colonizing ciety was organized at Wash- advocates in York County. The negro had been inhumanly treated, for after his release he was compelled to walk to Columbia, a distance of twenty-five miles, through snow and slush.

Negroes. ington in 1817, soon after the accession of James Monroe to the presidency. He advocated the coloni- zation of freed slaves. Through the efforts of this Colonization Society, the United

States government in 1819, formed the Re- THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN

public of Liberia, on the coast of Africa, and called its capital Monrovia, after the Presi- dent. It was intended to be a "colony for any free person of color who may choose to go there."

On the evening of August 8, 1819, the cel- its protection in the constitution, trouble

ebrated Rev. Dr. Meade, of Washington, delivered a lecture on the subject, "Coloni- zation," in the Court House at York, and the same evening an organization was ef- fected and an auxiliary society formed, called the "York County Colonization So- fluences of the North Star. ciety." The Pennsylvania Society was formed eight years later.

A constitution was adopted and the fol- lowing named persons elected as officers and managers of the York County Society : President, Jacob Barnitz; vice-presidents, George Barnitz and Jacob Eichelberger ; managers, Charles A. Barnitz, Andrew Creamer, Dr. William McIlvain and Charles A. Morris; treasurer, John Schmidt; secre- tary, John Gardner.

In 1825 a number of free colored children were kidnapped in Philadelphia and sent to Mississippi, where they were sold into sla- very. This created great indignation throughout Pennsylvania.

As slavery gradually ceased to exist in Pennsylvania, most of her people became opponents of it, and abolition societies orig- inated in the north. Many persons gave assistance to runaway slaves that escaped north of Mason and Dixon's Line.

An exciting incident occurred on January 5, 1826, near the western terminus of the Columbia bridge. Two citizens of Mary- land, who performed the nefarious practice of kidnapping, seized a negro whom they claimed was an escaped slave. They passed through York in the dead of night and halted at Abbottstown. At that place some clared by Lord Mansfield that "as soon as a

YORK COUNTY.

BY ISRAEL H. BETZ.

Immediately after the formation of the union which recognized slavery and assured began. The South through a combination of circumstances became aggressive in its maintenance. The thing termed "prop- erty" or "certain persons held to labor" be- came restive and followed the beckoning in-

It was thus that the free soil of the North became a hunting ground for the slave holders of the South. The moral conscience of the North became quickened and sympathy for the bondman became contagious. As early as 1688, the Friends and Mennonites had sent a protest from Germantown to the Yearly Meeting, which has become historic. The Friends in England in 1727 declared that slavery was a practice "not to be commended nor al- lowed." In Pennsylvania they continued to take advanced ground until in 1776 they excluded slave holders from membership in their society.

In 1786 a Society existed in

Opposition Philadelphia for succoring fu- to Slavery. gitives who reached there, of

which the ruling spirit was

Isaac T. Hopper, its president. By a strange coincidence Washington became the first sufferer of prominence at its hands. While he took his loss philosophically, yet he also signed the first Fugitive Slave Law in 1793. But the law was found inefficient. Since the North Star was found immovable, it was hoped that the British Crown might be induced to declare Canada no longer a "Mecca of Freedom." But Britain stood firm in the maintenance of the principle de-

-------------- !

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! 1

593

SLAVERY IN YORK COUNTY

slave set his foot on British soil, he was carriages, even funeral processions, dray- free."

Turning to our own halls of Congress ef- forts were made for a more stringent law which failed until the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was enacted and went into force. Meantime the hegira towards the Promised Land of Freedom had increased to such an extent that it has been estimated that as many as 200,000 fugitives had left slavery for freedom in a period of seventy-five years. During this period the work of aiding fugi- tives had become extended, organized and systematized.

At the beginning of the last century, Co- lumbia, Pennsylvania, became an objective point in the work of the Underground Rail- road. To John Wright, a grandson of the original settler bearing that name, belongs the credit of first establishing "stations" at distances of about ten miles apart, in east- ern Pennsylvania. The work of aiding fu- gitives was one attended with exhilaration and excitement, but it was also attended with danger to property and person. It re- quired sagacity, quickness of perception and foresight. It required means, sympathy and benevolence, without public applause or hope of reward. Its abettors and workers were hated and despised by those whose loss was their gain. The North contained multitudes who regarded them with distrust and ill-concealed aversion. But they looked upon slavery as the sum of all villainies, and the crime of all crimes. They believed in aiding rather than talking.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 106

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372