History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 172

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

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Brickley. Philip Crone and John H. Myers building committee were Samuel Kunkle, John H. Myers and Henry S. Crone.

did the mason work. The trustees and sale.

On the 19th of March, 1800, Jacob Rohler vicinity. for one pound and ten shillings deeded " one 522. acre of land adjoining a graveyard to Hugh

For more than half a century Frederick Ernst Melsheimer practiced medicine in this

His biography is found on page

Davidsburg is situated in the center of a Laird, John Riclicrick and John Miller, fine agricultural region. John H. Gross,

Rohler's

Rohler's Church is situated in the northeast end of the town-

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

who served as prothonotary of York town which was changed to Newport. County from 1903 to 1906, conducts a har- When Swiler Kunkle, the storekeeper in ness-making business at Davidsburg and is also engaged in the sale of farming im- plements. Henry H: Spahr, residing near the village, has been justice of the peace for twenty years, and Charles Artzberger for half a dozen years. William F. May and Emanuel S. Gross are engaged in general merchandising business. George Raffens- perger owns a cigar factory, and A. A. Gruver conducts the village hotel. this village, became the first postmaster, the name, Voltaire, was selected. A long dis- cussion followed in reference to the use of the name Voltaire, when it was discovered to be the name of a great French aetheist and disbeliever in revealed theology. The religious people of the community, includ- ing the postmaster, desired to drop that name. They searched through the postal guide, and found that the names they wished to select had already been used to desig- nate post towns in Pennsylvania. Finally, the word, Admire, was chosen and has since been the name of the village and postoffice. M. H. Moul succeeded Swiler Kunkle as storekeeper and postmaster.

Weiglestown. Weiglestown is a hamlet near the southern boundary of Dover Township, about five miles from York. Among the first set- tlers in this section were two men by the name of Weigle. One of them was a tav- ern keeper, and the other a blacksmith. The village received its name about 1825, at which time there was a collection of half a dozen houses. It is situated on an inclined

plane of the mesozoic red sandstone, of istence here for many years.

which most of the township is composed. The first store was kept by John Noss. The postoffice was established in 1878 and Wil- liam Weigle appointed postmaster. At the Emig's Mill. south end of the village, in 1878, St. Paul's United Brethren Church was erected. It is the only house of worship in the village. The present population is about 200. Emanuel Grove owns the hotel kept by Jo- seph Naylor : Henry Weigle owns the build- ing in which Aaron Bupp keeps the village store. A few hundred yards north of Weiglestown, at the forks of the Dover and Shippensburg roads, Captain George Sharp was killed in the autumn of 1814. He was commander of a militia company in Dover Township. At the time of the approach of General Ross with the British army to Bal- timore, his company, together with all others in the county, was called to the place of rendezvous at York, where 6000 soldiers had collected. Upon the news of the death of Ross and the retreat of his army from Baltimore, nearly all the soldiers who had gone to York were discharged. known as the " picket."

On his way home, Captain Sharp was rid- ing a race, when the horse at the forks of the road, threw his rider against a tree and he was instantly killed.

Admire is a small village, a short Admire. distance south of Davidsburg. It

Mount Royal is a small collection of houses in the northern part of the township along the road leading from Dover to Ross- ville. A store and postoffice has been in ex- Robert Kun- kle is the postmaster and merchant of the village.

For more than three-fourths of a century one of the old- time houses of public enter- tainment was kept at a place known as Emig's Mill along the Big Conewago, first by Dietrich Updegraff, who took up the land in 1745. A store has been kept here for many years by Henry Emig. Jacob Emig purchased the mill site in 1831, from Jacob Frick, who bought it from Adam Speck in 1813. Tempest Tucker was the owner of the property for many years be- fore this time. The mill originated in colonial times. Martin Emig was the owner for many years. A covered wooden bridge across the Conewago at this place, was built in 1848 by John Finley. By a special act of Legislature, the Conewago is a public high- way as far up as the mouth of the Bermu- dian Creek. The picturesque point formed by the confluence of the Conewago and Ber- mudian near Emig's Mill is familiarly

The Emig's Mill property within recent years has been owned by a milling company composed of Samuel Harlacker, Amos Swartz and H. S. Swartz. It is now a roller process mill and doing a large business.

Along the Conewago Creek from Emig's was originally known as Slab- Mill to the mouth of the stream at York

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Haven, stone axes, hatchets, arrow heads, June 30, he ordered dinner for himself, his spear points, mortars and pestles, made and used by the Indians, have been found by va- rious collectors. The late George Ens- minger of Strinestown, found a large num- ber of these in Dover Township and they formed part of his interesting collection. He also discovered what seems to be a large stationary mortar hewn out of rock and sit- uated near Harmony Grove Church. From indications this mortar was made by the In- dians and used by them for grinding corn into meal with the aid of a large pestle.

Confederate On Sunday morning, June 28, 1863, General Jubal Early, Invasion. with three brigades of his di- vision, about 6000 men, crossed the lower part of Dover Township toward York, over the Canal Road. His other brigades under General Gordon, en- tered York over the Gettysburg turnpike. Gordon had encamped the previous night at Farmer's Postoffice and Early in the vicinity of Bigmount. The Canal Road extends east and west a few hundred yards south of Davidsburg. In order to see the Confed- erate invaders, some of the people of the village sat on the fence along the Canal Road and watched the movement of the troops toward York. Among these was John B. May, who held a York newspaper in his hand. General Early with his staff was riding near the head of his column. When he saw the newspaper in the hands of Mr. May he asked for it and it was given to him. He immediately began to scan it as he rode along stating, "This is just what I wanted." He expected to find some in- formation of local value in it.

Early's troops were nearly all infantry. When he arrived at Weiglestown he sent a detachment of about 200 mounted men, be- longing to the Seventeenth Virginia Cav- alry, to the mouth of the Conewago at York Haven. They were ordered to that place for the purpose of burning the railroad On the morning of July 1, the day follow- ing Early's retreat, General J. E. B. Stuart, who had been defeated at Hanover, crossed Dover Township with nearly 6000 mounted men. His troopers captured a large num- ber of farm horses in this township and ex- changed them for their worn-out old nags which had seen hard service on the long bridges there, which they did about noon of the same day. Early crossed from Weigles- town to the Harrisburg turnpike, and en- tered York from the north. He remained at York until the early morning of June 30. Having been ordered to fall back to Get- tysburg, he returned westward, nearly over the same route he had gone to York. When march into Pennsylvania. They were never he arrived at Davidsburg about noon of returned and many Dover horses were killed

staff and two of his brigadier generals, Smith and Hayes, in all twenty men. At this time, Early did not know but that he might meet an opposing force of Federal troops in the Paradise valley that afternoon. While the dinner was being prepared by the family of William Julius, proprietor of the hotel, Early and his brigadier generals held a conference in a small room where they spoke in low tones, discussing the situation. The staff officers sat in a front room, some of them reading pocket Bibles which they carried, for they all knew a desperate battle was soon to take place. These twenty men sat around a long table for half an hour eat- ing their midday meal, which they all seemed to relish. There was very little conversation at the table for a serious air seemed to pervade the entire room, all the time they remained. As General Early and one of his officers passed out the front door- way of the hotel, they heard the booming of cannon toward the southwest.

" I suppose a battle has begun," said Gen- eral Hayes to his chief, as Early mounted his horse, which was then being held by the proprietor of the hotel. Before leaving the hotel, General Early handed the proprietor four five dollar Confederate notes, in pay- ment for the twenty dinners, that he had engaged to be prepared. One of these bills has been preserved and presented to the Historical Society of York County by George W. Gross, of Admire, Dover Town- ship, in 1904.

The booming of the cannon which the officers heard as they rode away from the hotel, came from Hanover, where an en- gagement was then taking place between the cavalry and artillery forces of Kilpat -. rick and Stuart. This prevented a colli- sion between Early and Kilpatrick in the Paradise Valley, while the Confederates were on their march toward Gettysburg.

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in the battle of Gettysburg two days later. before York County was organized. In the The story of Stuart at Dover is told in the years 1801 and 1802 several petitions, signed history of that borough, found elsewhere in by a large number of citizens, were pre- this volume.

CHAPTER L.

TOWNSHIP HISTORY-Continued.

sented to the court at York, asking for the formation of a new township out of "the upper end of Newberry," stating further that " said township was too large for the convenience of the inhabitants."

Fairview - Fawn - Franklin - Heidel- berg - Hellam - Hopewell - Jack- son - Lower Chanceford. The court appointed on the third Mon- day of November, 1802, as viewers John Heckert, John Forsythe, Valentine Emig, FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP. Colonel Henry Reisinger, Rudolph Spang- ler, and Peter Hoke, Sr. The surveyor's Fairview lies in the extreme northern part of York County. A ridge of wooded hills crosses the center of the township, extend- ing in almost a due north and south direc- tion. Around the base of this mountain, some of the early settlers took up lands without legal title, and the name originally given to this region was the " Free Moun- tain." The River Hills extend from the draft, made by Jacob Spangler, represents the dividing line to begin "opposite the mouth of the Swatara at Joseph Glancey's ferry, through lands of John Nichols, now owned by Silas Prowell nearly in a direct course to Lewisberry; thence in a south- westerly direction to Leeche's fording on Stony Run." The report of these viewers was confirmed at February term of court Middletown Ferry, skirting the northeast- of quarter sessions in the year 1803.

ern boundary. As late as 1870, these moun- tains contained much valuable oak, poplar The name first designated by the peti- tioners for the formation of this township and chestnut timber. Part of these hills are out of Newberry was "Franklin." The now covered with dense thickets, while township now bearing that name had not other parts contain a fine growth of young chestnut trees. Huge bowlders of basaltic rock are found in the River Hills. A part of the extreme eastern section is of trap formation. The large crevices in the rocks afford a convenient lurking place for the fox, and the hollow trees for the raccoon and opossum. The wolf once had his haunts in these forests and much later wild turkeys in the thickets. then been formed. The viewers in crossing the ridge dividing the Fishing Creek Valley from the Redland Valley, began to " view the landscape o'er." The fertile valleys mostly within the limits of the proposed new township, and the broad expanse of Cumberland, Dauphin and Lancaster Coun- ties were presented within the extended horizon that bounded their field of vision. The name " Fairview " was then suggested, and was confirmed by the court.

Fairview is drained by the Yellow Breeches Creek, Miller's Run, Bennett Run,

The original settlers here were English Fishing Creek, and other smaller tributaries and English Quakers, who commenced to locate in the township as early as 1734. By the year 1737 the most valuable lands were occupied. The English language has al- ways been used by citizens of this town- ship.

of the Susquehanna. The soil is generally fertile and productive, growing all the cereals common to this latitude with equal success. The northwestern or Marsh Creek section is the lower end of the limestone re- gion, which extends into Fairview from Much of the land now em- braced in Fairview was part of Settled. Pennsborough Township Cumberland County. Fishing Creek and Boundary Redland valleys are mostly of red sandstone formation, frequently passing into the red which was laid out pursuant to shale soil. The valleys are in a high state an act of the Provincial Assembly in 1739, of cultivation, as well as the alluvial soil along the Yellow Breeches Creek.

and then included nearly the whole of the present limits of Cumberland County. For a period of sixty-one years, the area of When first formed, Pennsborough was Fairview was embraced in Newberry Town- within the limits of Lancaster County. ship which was laid out in 1742, seven years York County, when separated from Lancas-

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ter County in 1749, had no clearly estab- They crossed the river at Middletown Ferry lished boundary. Many- disputes arose and passed through Fishing Creek Valley to Cumberland County, and from thence up the Cumberland Valley to the Shenandoah. There was no church building Religious within the present area of Fair- which commissioners from York and Cum- berland counties tried to settle. They met along Yellow Breeches Creek, 'near the present site of New Market. This occur- red in 1751, one year after the formation of Cumberland out of Lancaster County. The Cumberland County commissioners claimed the original boundary line, which was from a point opposite the Swatara Creek through the Fishing Creek Valley, nearly in the same direction as the present dividing line between Fairview and New- berry. The dispute was finally settled by a special act of the Provincial assembly in 1751, which made the Yellow Breeches Creek the boundary between the counties, and placed the whole of the present territory of Fairview in York County and annexed it to Newberry Township, of which it re- mained a part until 1803.

History. view Township for 100 years after this region was first set- tled. Lying on the borders of Dauphin and Cumberland some of the inhabitants in early days attended religious services at houses of worship in those counties. The original set- tlers of Fairview were largely members of the Society of Friends, and they were iden- tified with the Friends' Meeting at New- berry, where they regularly worshipped. some of them going a distance of eight or ten miles to attend religious services. According to the monthly meeting in 1775, "some friends living a considerable distance from Newberry meeting, near Yellow Breeches requested to be indulged with holding a week-day meeting at the house of William Maulsby." This place was in what is now Fairview Township. At the last ses- sion of the monthly meeting, Isaac Everett, Peter Cleaver, John Garrettson, Sr., Joseph Elgar and John Underwood were appointed to sit with them at the place proposed to hold said meeting and report. Of the fe- male members of the committee were Mary Chandlee, Jane Taylor, Joanna Heald, Ann Penrose, Hannah Cadwallader and Martha Everett.

The population of Fairview Township in 1820 was 1,764; in 1830, 1,892; 1840, 1,993: 1850, 2,098; 1860, 1,903; 1870, 1,941; 1880, 2,150; 1890, 2,042; 1900, 2,078.

At the mouths of the Conodogui- Indians. net, Paxton and Yellow Breeches creeks, in 1719, there were In- dian villages. When John Harris located on the site of the present city of Harrisburg, he secured a charter for a ferry across the Susquehanna, and became an Indian trader. He afterward purchased the alluvial lands along the river at New Cumberland and in Fairview Township immediately below the mouth of the Yellow Breeches Creek. His

A favorable report was granted to allow them to hold a meeting on the fifth day of each week, except the day of Newberry pre- son, John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, parative meeting, which they were urged to born in 1727, was "the first white child born in Pennsylvania west of the Conewago Hills who attained the age of manhood." John Harris, the father, once narrowly escaped being tortured to death by a squad of Shaw-

attend. This meeting was discontinued in 1784 when all the Friends then living in what is now Fairview Township were asked to attend the Newberry meeting.

A short distance south of New Market anese Indians who came up the river, on the present site of Mount Olivet Church, stopped at his stone mansion, and de- a stone school house was built, shortly after manded rum. This being refused, the In- the Revolution. It was never dedicated as a house of worship but was used by the ad- herents of different religious denominations for worship, and was torn down in 1860.

dians tied him to a mulberry tree and were about to torture him, when he was rescued by some friendly Paxton Indians, who were his neighbors ..

Owing to the removal of many Quakers In 1742, twenty-one Onondago and seven from Newberry, Fairview and Warrington Oneida Indians obtained authority from the Lancaster County Courts to cross the pres- ent area of York County, on an expedition

to other sections of this country, the in- fluence of the Society of Friends in the northern parts of York County declined. against the Tallapoosa Indians in Virginia. The religious thought and sentiment of

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Fairview and Newberry, however, con- Salem Church was built. Since the erection tinued in its quiet and peaceful vein until of this church it has been the centre of reli- 1830. During that year, Rev. John Wine- gious interest to the entire community. brenner, organized the Church of God. In early days in this valley as well as From 1820 to 1827 he was pastor of a Re- many other sections of York County, the formed church at Harrisburg. Owing to his dead were buried in private cemeteries. religious views in relation to slavery, Sun- Down by the Walnut Grove school house, day Schools, temperance and revivals, and a large number of the Fisher family are his opposition to the liturgy of the church, buried, the first interments being made to which he belonged, he withdrew from more than a century ago. A short distance the denomination in 1827. Winebrenner above the Salem Church on an elevated travelled as a missionary through various plain, lie the remains of Captain Wil- sections of the state, preaching his new liam Prowell who commanded a com- pany of soldiers during the Revolu- theology. He advocated the ordinances of baptism by immersion, feet washing and the tion in Colonel Patton's Regiment from Lord's supper. Being an eloquent speaker, Chester County. The remains of many of he attracted multitudes to hear him. He his decendants rest in the same burying frequently came into the quiet valleys of ground. The farm upon which this ceme- the Redland and Fishing Creek, and often tery now stands was owned for half a cen- preached in the village of New Market. His tury by Samuel Prowell, who was one of revival meetings were an innovation to the the leading citizens of the community. quiet sentiment in this community, which

Salem United Brethren Church, fa- had been dominated for nearly a century by miliarly known as the Stone Church, lies in the religious thought of George Fox and the center of the Fishing Creek Valley. William Penn, founders of the Society of This was the first building erected as a Friends. Not always being admitted into house for religious worship within the the school house to conduct religious ser- limits of Fairview Township. Rev. John vices, Winebrenner and the clergymen of Fohl held a protracted meeting in the the same faith often preached from the steps school house half a mile to the west in 1842, of these buildings. As early as 1832, he and soon afterward a congregation was or- held a revival at the "River school house", ganized. At a meeting of the quarterly con- a short distance above Goldsboro and in ference held in this valley, April 22, 1844, another building at Newberrytown. The John S. Prowell, Henry B. Kauffman and doctrines of this church were thus intro- Jacob Miller were appointed trustees of the duced into Fairview Township, but the con- congregation already formed. Mr. Prowell gregations were organized in the adjoining township of Newberry.

About 1840, the church of the United Brethren in Christ began to hold revival meetings in private houses and at the old stone school building where Mount Olivet Church now stands. This denomination had been founded by William Otterbein who of $1,000.

served in that capacity for a period of forty- five years, until his death. Religious ser- vices continued to be held in the school house until the year 1844, when the congre- gation purchased half an acre of land for the site of a church and a graveyard. Dur- ing that year a church was built at a cost

Rev. J. C. Smith, Rev. Kessler, Bishop

was also a dissenter from the faith of the Reformed Church, in which he had served John Dickson and Rev. Daniel Eberly, D. D., were some of the prominent pastors who ministered to this congregation in its early history.

as a clergyman. Meetings were continued at intervals in the stone school house and in a frame building in the Redland Valley. In 1842, Rev. John Fohl, a clergyman of

Within recent years, the cemetery ad- the United Brethren Church, was invited joining the church, has been enlarged to to the Fishing Creek Valley by David include an area of nearly two acres. It is Fisher. He was pastor of a church at now the most important place for the burial Shiremanstown in the lower end of Cum- of the dead in Fishing Creek Valley. berland County. After he had conducted a Fetrow Cemetery was opened about 1870. revival, a congregation was organized and Many interments have been made at this

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burial place. Two other graveyards are lowing ministers preached in this church : situated farther down the valley.

Mount Olivet Church of the United ten, A. N. Warner, J. E. Honeycutt, S. E. Brethren in Christ, known as the Marsh Run Church, is situated near New Market. Shortly after the Revolution, land was ob- tained here from one of the Mosser farms, on which was built a union meeting house and a school house. No services were to be held "during candle light."

This historic building, after being used three-fourths of a century, was torn down in 1860. That year Rev. J. Dickson, after- ward one of the bishops of the United Brethren Church, increased the membership of the congregation here, by a series of re- vival meetings. In the language of the venerable clergyman, "to hold the ground, officiating clergymen were Revs. H. B. a church was needed," as the old school- Hartzler, U. F. Swengel and H. A. Dietrich. Some of the early pas- tors were Revs. H. A. Dietrich, A. W. Kreamer, J. A. Irvine, E. Swengel, S. E. Davis, B. F. Anthony and L. Dice. Rev. G. S. Albright was pastor in 1907. house had become dilapidated. The grave- yard adjoining it, was the burying place for the inhabitants of the surrounding neigh- borhood, hence others besides members of the United Brethren Church contributed liberally, and a brick church was built in 1860, at a cost of $1,600. The building com- mittee were A. B. Hursh, Francis Hollar and Rev. Dickson. It was dedicated the same year by Bishop Glossbrenner. Rev. Daniel Eberly, J. C. Smith, J. X. Quigley, B. G. Huber, J. Snoke, S. Proffit, Thomas Garland and others have ministered to this congregation.

Mount Olivet Cemetery, adjoining the church, is a tract of about four acres of land. It was laid out in 1870. The first directors were H. R. Mosser, John Miller, Owen James, Dr. A. W. Nichols, Allen Ross, Dr. George R. Hursh, Elias Hake, Washington Master and Jacob Carpenter.

Mount Zion Lutheran Church .- Religious services were first held in a schoolhouse, about one and a half miles from Mount Zion Church, in Fairview Township. As the membership increased the schoolhouse be- Market.

came too small, and the people felt the need of a larger building. One acre of ground was bought. A building committee, com- posed of J. Pledger, J. Neff, and A. Zinn, was chosen. The cornerstone was laid April 17, 1858, by Rev. F. C. Staver, of Mechanicsburg, and was dedicated in the fall of the same year. In 1873, some re- pairing was done, and it was re-dedicated December 7, by S. E. Herring. The fol- hanna and adjoining the lands of John Har-

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 172

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