History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 187

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

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of the waters, the wooded range rising gradually behind where the ancient sanc- tuary stood, all united in forming one of

semble and worship Jehovah. The log build- ing at Muddy Creek was burned. A second and temporary building was then erected several miles further south, in the state of Maryland, on land then owned by Michael Whiteford. A vague tradition indicates that this "temporary building" was erected on property later owned by John Beattie. This building was soon deserted, and a third house of worship erected. In 1762 a fourth house of worship was built and is described as "a new, better and fourth

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

site." About the year 1800 this house was ing house be continued where it is." At the burned. Soon after this the fifth church ensuing meeting a committee was appointed was built northwest of the site of Delta, and by the Presbytery to go to the spot and de- stood until 1894.

cide the matter, consisting of Messrs. Blair, Bay, James Finley and S. Finley. They re- ported they " had met the Slate Ridge con- gregation and determined the place of building our new meeting house. A good spring may be had by going a little way from that place." This was doubtless the spring long owned by the congregation. Mr. Strain was installed pastor of the Slate

One statement of the organization of this church says: "A congregation was formed, and church erected prior to 1750." Another account is that it was organized "not before 1750 and probably in 1751." The man to whom, as is generally believed, belongs the honor of constituting this church, was the Rev. Eleazer Whittlesey, who was born in Bethlehem, Conn. He Ridge and Chanceford congregations by spent some time at Nottingham, Cecil Sterling, Andrew Bay and Finley, Novem- County, Maryland, where a Mr. Finley ber 17, 1762. Not long after his installa- taught an academy. He graduated in 1749, tion, he and his congregations were an- at Nassau Hall, then located at Newark, nexed to the Donegal Presbytery, the ses- New Jersey, and was licensed to preach by the Newcastle Presbytery soon after. Writ- ing to Bellamy, May 8,1750, from Mr. Fin- ley's he says he had been directed to ride abroad in March and April to supply vacan- cies. Finley writes, December 3, 1752, that Steel, James Leeper, James Gordan, James

sions of which he and his elder, James Smith, met June 29, 1763. Some of the ruling elders of Slate Ridge and Chance- ford, at this time, were Hugh Whiteford, Rowland Hughes, Joseph Watson, John Clark, James Smith, Patrick Scott, J. Cowan and Thomas Scott. The oldest grave marked in the present Slate Ridge burying ground is that of a child of Alexander Mc- Candless in 1764.

"Whittlesey, whom I tenderly loved for his zeal and integrity, left my house on a Thurs- day morning, cheerful, and in good health, and preached the next Sabbath at Muddy Creek. not designing to continue there longer. Monday, he was taken sick with

Mr. Strain purchased a farm adjoining pleurisy. He continued in pain until Satur- lands of John Edmundson and James White day, and then gave up the ghost. The last words he was heard to utter were: ‘0 Lord leave me not.' The Susquehanna was frozen and no messenger could come to me until all was over. He died December 21, in 1765, within the present limits of Peach Bottom Township. He was not a man of great physical endurance. Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of Princeton, pursued the study of theology with him about this time, 1752." A tradition worthy of belief, asserts for one year. In 1768, Revs. John Strain that the body of Whittlesey was buried in a graveyard near where James Johnston, of Peach Bottom Township resided.

and George Duffield received a call to be- come joint pastors of the Second Presby- terian Church of Philadelphia, at a salary

The successor of Whittlesey was Evander of 200 pounds each.

The next session of Donegal Presbytery

Morrison, of Scotland, who joined the New- castle Presbytery in 1753. During his assembled at Slate Ridge, when a joint ad- ministry the second house was built. He dress from the congregations of Chanceford was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Black, but how and Slate Ridge, remonstrated against the long these clergymen served is not known. removal of their pastor. He yielded to There was no pastor in 1759. Rev. John their wishes, and remained as their minister Strain, who was probably born in 1728, and was graduated at Princeton College in 1757, licensed to preach in 1759, ordered by the Presbytery to supply Slate Ridge and Chanceford in July the same year, and or-

until his death in 1774. He is traditionally remembered as "one of the most eloquent ministers of the Presbyterian church of his time, and very earnest and zealous in his work." There are a number of eulogies of dained December 17, 1760, was next pastor. his character, delivered at the time of his

At the meeting of the Presbytery, Octo- death, still in existence, and The Pennsyl- ber 14, 1760, a number of members of Slate vania Gazette, then the leading paper in Ridge congregation asked that their " meet- Philadelphia, published an extended obit-

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uary of him. His remains were buried in

church. On the tombstone, neatly carved, is the following inscription: "In memory of Rev. Dr. John Strain, who departed this life April 12, 1774, aged forty-three years." During a part of the period of the Revolu- tionary War, this and the Chanceford con- gregation was without a regular pastor; Rev. William Smith was for two years of this time a supply. Other supplies were Messrs. Sample, Luckey, Finley, Tate and Joseph Smith.

months later came to Peach Bottom Town- the graveyard adjoining the Slate Ridge ship, when he became pastor of Slate Ridge Church, which he served for a period of forty years. During his long pastorate Mr. Smith was one of the leading members of the Presbytery to which he belonged. He was widely known and influential throughout the lower end of York County. After retiring from the ministry, he re- sided in Delta until his death in 1906. Rev. A. Lewis Hyde succeeded him as pastor in 1890.

The Slate Ridge Church, a large stone

Rev. John Slemons, a graduate of Prince- building, was torn down during the pastor- ton College in the class of 1760, became sup- ate of Rev. Hyde, and a handsome brick church built at Cardiff, Maryland. This church was dedicated May 10, 1894. The parsonage at Cardiff was first occupied in 1902. During the first fifteen years of Rev. Hyde's pastorate 410 members were added to this congregation. The ruling elders in 1907 are A. A. Maffet, D. A. Bay, W. B. Davis, J. T. Garley, J. Andrew Wallace and Robert A. Stewart. ply to Slate Ridge and Chanceford congre- gation in 1781, and was installed in 1783. He had been pastor of Lower Marsh Creek con- gregation (now Gettysburg) from 1765 to 1774. He purchased a farm in Peach Bottom, containing 238 acres for 500 pounds, and continued to serve these con- gregations until September 1791, when he resigned, and there was no regular pastor until 1795, when Samuel Martin, D. D., was chosen. He was born in Chestnut Level, Lancaster County, January 9, 1767, of par- ents who belonged to the Associate Church. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1790, and licensed to preach three years later by the Baltimore Presby- tery. He at first was pastor of this church only, but April 1, 1800, the congregation of Chanceford asked for one-half of his time for a consideration of 100 pounds. During this period, "the new, better, and fourth

Slateville Presbyterian Church Slateville is situated near what is known Church. as the "old slate quarry," about one mile from the Maryland line and one mile from the borough of Delta. It was organized in the year 1849 by a few members who withdrew from the Slate Ridge Church. James Galbreath and Robert Dinsmore were the first ruling elders. Immediately upon its organization, seventeen more members were received, and three additional ruling elders, viz., church, built of squared logs" was burned. David Mitchell, Joseph D. Wiley and Archi- Dr. Martin lived on the farm, where his bald Cooper. Thus the congregation began successor in the ministry, Rev. Samuel Parke, afterward resided. For a time he ruling elders. kept a classical school near the church.

its history with fifty-two members and five

August 10, 1814, Mr. Parke was ordained September 7, 1849. The building was used pastor of this church: "For forty-three years he continued to preach the word, ad- minister the sacraments, visit, catechise, comfort the mourning and bury the dead."

The cornerstone of the church was laid for worship in January, 1850, and dedicated June 8, of the same year. The pulpit was for some time supplied by the Presbytery of Donegal. Among the supplies furnished by the Presbytery was one of its licentiates, Rev. T. M. Crawford, who labored at in- tervals in this field until February 17, 1751, when the congregation unanimously elected him as pastor of the church. Mr. Crawford served this church for twenty-one years.

Rev. Joseph D. Smith succeeded Mr. Parke in 1860, and continued as the pastor of that congregation until the year 1890. He was born in Ireland and came to this country with his parents in 1847. He was educated at Washington and Jefferson Col- lege and at Princeton Theological Seminary. Under his ministrations it grew rapidly and He was licensed to preach in 1859, by the prospered. In the year 1872, Mr. Crawford Presbytery of Philadelphia and a few relinquished the charge, mnuch to the re-

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

gret of the members. He resided within its many meanings given is "River of Is- the bounds of this congregation until the

lands." About one-half mile below the time of his death in 1901. Rev. D. M. Maryland line are rocks called the "Bald Davenport was called as pastor in May, Friars," which contain curious inscriptions 1873. In 1868 the congregation, finding made by the aborigines. These have be- come famous, especially those on Mile's Is- land and Barrow's Island, where every large boulder contains some figures, which are their church too small, built a new one at a cost of nearly $7,000. This building was renovated and improved in 1884. The con- gregation owns a parsonage and five acres considerably defaced now.

of land, which is situated about two miles from the church.

Rev. Mr. McCormick was pastor of this congregation in 1907.

Mt. Nebo Methodist Protest- Mt. Nebo ant Church, situated two miles Church. east of Delta on the public road to Peach Bottom, was one of the earliest churches of this denomination in southern Pennsylvania. The congrega- tion is composed of some of the leading citizens of Peach Bottom Township. Its members aided in the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church in Delta, when it was organized soon after the in- corporation of that borough.

Peach

The region about this ferry, on both sides of the stream, up and

Bottom. down its banks and on the allu- vial islands in it, were favorite resorts for the Susquehannock Indians. The Indians of this tribe were noted

In the year 1725, Thomas Johnson, father-in-law of Colonel Thomas Cresap, who owned a ferry near the mouth of the river, and was afterward noted in the his- tory of York County as the leader of the Maryland intruders, obtained a Maryland title for the large island at Peach Bottom called "Mount Johnson," there being a hill at the head of it. On the western shore of this island, there is a valuable shad fish- ery. Settlers under Maryland titles used this ferry as a crossing place as early as 1725. About this time Johnson named it Peach Bottom on account of the abundance of the American redwood or Judas tree which in the springtime and early summer made the hillsides along the stream look as if they were covered with large peach orchards.

June 20, 1752, Nathaniel Morgan, John Griffith, Alexander Wallace, Hugh White- ford and Archibald White reported to the

for their size, prowess and endurance, court at York that they had "laid out a according to the description of them road as directed from Peach Bottom Ferry, by John Smith, in the Jamestown col- so-called, to the road leading to the town ony, who ascended the Susquehanna to of York."

a point a few miles below Peach Bottom in Much of the land of this region was taken up by John Cooper, an Episcopalian, who came from Kendall, England, about 1720. As early as 1725, he came to Peach Bottom. Some of his descendants reside here, and 1608, while exploring the Atlantic coast. Mortars, pestles, battle-axes, darts, spear- points and other Indian implements have been found in large numbers in this locality. Indian hieroglyphics are carved on the his remains are buried on the farm of the rocks and cliffs bordering the stream at different points.

late Levi Cooper. John Cooper was mar- ried to Agnes Gill, whose father lived on the site of Baltimore, before the city was

In the river, opposite Safe Harbor, a distance up the stream, from Peach Bottom, built. They had five sons and two daugh- are the interesting Sculptured Rocks. The ters. The names of the sons were John, Indian inscriptions on these rocks have Stephen, Alexander, Nicholas and Thomas. been viewed by a number of archaeologists, The last named, the grandfather of Levi and reproductions of them have been Cooper, in 1774 built the house owned by made. They have been injured by time his grandson, which burned down in 1903. and weather, and ice floes, so that the Thomas Cooper married Mary Aber- original tracings are scarcely recognizable crombie, by whom he had four children. He now. On Mount Johnson Island the relic died in 1799. Stephen Thomas Cooper, his hunters find traces of the Indians. Susque- son, was married to Kezia Bell, of Wash- hanna itself is an Indian name and one of ington County, Pennsylvania. He was a

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member of the Pennsylvania legislature in Va., in 1781, with his army, crossed the 1826, 1827, and 1828, and died in 1855. Levi Susquehanna at Bald Friar Ferry, a few Cooper was his son. miles below Peach Bottom.

John Kirk, an English Quaker, estab- lished a mercantile business and conducted a grist mill at Peach Bottom for many years. He began in 1798, and afterward Major McConkey became associated with him, and eventually succeeded in the owner- ship of the store.

A postoffice was established at Peach Bottom in 1815 and during its prominence as a business centre the following persons have filled that office in order of succession : John Kirk, James McConkey, Andrew Mc- Conkey, James McConkey, Jerry Kirk, Isaac Parker, A. F. Wiley, Elmira Geiger, M. C. Geiger, Elias Fry, C. G. McGlaughlin, poses slate was quarried only in small quan- S. D. Fry and John Q. A. McConkey. tities before 1800.

Joseph Webb, an English surveyor, who was once an employee in the government land office, and who in 1810 started Palmyra Forge at Castle Fin, made a plan for a town at Peach Bottom Ferry in 1815, which he named "Sowego." It proved only to be a paper city of 150 lots, a number of which were disposed of by lottery. The old Mc- Conkey mansion was the only house built on the site of the proposed town. Joseph Webb died in 1840, and willed sixty-nine acres of his land to the Pennsylvania Colo- nization Society.

Slate Point is an interesting geological curiosity, located a short distance below Peach Bottom Ferry. It is the eastern ter- minus in York County of the valuable vein of slate. This point is a perpendicular bluff, 320 feet from the Susquehanna, and is much visited by lovers of romantic scenery. From its summit there is a fine view up and down the river, the waters of which seem to pass almost underneath the observer. To the west of it, a hill rises 150 feet higher. About 1850, a valuable slate quarry was opened a short distance away.

Shad fishing was an important business here half a century ago. As many as 3,000 shad were caught in a seine fifty yards long at Slate Tavern, near Cully's Rapids in the Susquehanna in 1845.

Robert Fulton, the inventor of the steam- boat, was born opposite Peach Bottom in Fulton Township, Lancaster County.

The slate quarries of this town- Slate Quarries. ship for half a century have been famous. They have given popu- larity to the name Peach Bot- tom over a large extent of country. In- dustrial statistics show that five-eighths of the slate used in America is quarried from Northampton and Lehigh counties, in this state, and the valuable quarries of Peach Bottom. For roofing purposes the Peach Bottom slate is unexcelled on account of its durability. The quarrying of the slate of this region for use as tombstones began at a very early period, but for roofing pur-

The land on which the quarries are situ- ated, was originally the McCandless prop- erty and later owned by the Williamson estate. A Baltimore company opened some quarries and did a considerable busi- ness as early as 1812. Peter Williamson, a native of Scotland, became the lessee and Major Thomas S. Williamson succeeded, and eventually purchased the lands. He quarried slate extensively for many years. The slate is first blasted out, then hoisted, by steam to the bank in large irregularly shaped blocks. These blocks are then broken or "scalloped" into smaller blocks, and then split into sheets of required thick- ness. For this purpose a chisel or knife about eighteen inches long in used. The slate as it lies in distinct veins, splits readily wherever the knife is placed, if inserted when the block is wet, or "green," as it is called by the workmen. They call the original moisture in the slate " sap." After the blocks become dry, they harden and cannot be split easily. After the blocks are split, the sheets are dressed or trimmed into shingles of the required shape, by means of a machine worked by foot-power, which is from 6x12 to 14x24 inches.

Slate is packed and sold in "squares," which contain one hundred square feet, or sufficient to cover a space of ten by ten feet, when laid on the roof. One square of slate covers the same area as 1,000 shingles.

For more than half a century most of the intelligent Welshmen. Among the leading

General Lafayette, with a brigade of quarries at Peach Bottom were operated by American soldiers, on his way to Yorktown,

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

operators during that time were John Hum- Charles H. Emig, directors. This company phreys & Company, William E. Williams & has added improvements as an equipment Company, E. D. Davies & Company, James for the mining and manufacturing of slate. Perry & Company, William C. Roberts, It has an office in the Builders' Exchange, Philadelphia, in charge of Chauncey F. Thomas W. Jones & Company, John W. Jones & Company, Foulk Jones, Hugh E. Shellenberger.

Hughes & Company, and Kilgore & Com- R. L. Jones & Company of Delta oper- pany. Many of them had worked in the slate ate a large quarry in this township, which has been in existence for many years. The firm is composed of R. L. Jones, and his two sons, Arthur and John Jones.

Foulk Jones & Son own and operate an- other large quarry. Mr. Jones is one of the oldest and most prominent operators of slate in the State of Pennsylvania, and is widely known as a successful business man. The members of the firm are Foulk Jones and his son, D. W. Jones.

The Cardiff Peach Bottom Slate Manu- facturing Company owns a large mine in Harford County. The Peach Bottom Slate Company, owned by Richard Rees, of Delta, operate a large quarry in Harford County. The Proctor Slate Company owned by the Proctor brothers, is also in Harford County. W. Jerry Jones recently opened a quarry near Delta. Edward Evans & Company own a quarry in Peach Bottom Township near Delta:

All the above mentioned quarries do an extensive business. The workmen, about 500 in number, employed in these quarries, are nearly all Welsh or of Welsh descent.

The population of Peach Bottom Town- ship in 1820 was 928; 1830, 898; 1840, 1074; 1850, 1,652; 1860, 1,874; 1870, 2,365; 1880, 2,130; 1890, 2,198; 1900, 1888. The de- crease in population during the last decade was owing to the incorporation of Delta into a borough.

Peach Bottom has eleven schools with the following names: Peach Bottom, Mt. Joy, Pikes Peak, Glenwood, Mt. Holly, Union, Bellview, Slateville, Bryansville, Pleasant Valley, West Bangor.

Hon. James Ross, one of the

Historical most distinguished lawyers and

Notes. statesmen that Pennsylvania

has produced, was born in Peach Bottom Township in 1762, a few hundred yards north of the borough of Delta. A biography of him appears on page 472.

The birthplace of James Ross was owned from 1827 to 1885 by Robert Ramsay, whose

quarries of North Wales before coming to America. John Humphreys located here, coming from Wales in 1849. The facilities at the disposal of miners for getting out and dressing slate were then very limited and chiefly confined to an ordinary crane and derrick. At that time the mines were not deep like now. The slate ridge which crosses the township south of Delta is neither high nor steep, but preserves a rather uniform outline as far as it can be followed by the eye from the valley below. Some of the quarries are 200 feet deep. Professor Louis Agassiz, the great natural- ist, visited these quarries in 1870.

The excellent quality of the Peach Bot- tom slate is proven by the fact that it has stood the test of use and wear for a hun- dred years and more. As early as 1805, the Slate Ridge Church was covered with slate taken from an adjoining quarry. It remained in position on the roof of the church for a period of ninety-six years, un- til the building was removed, and it was then in good condition. Owing to the pop- ularity of this product, quarries are oper- ated on a large scale and their annual output within recent years averaged 40,000 squares.

The output of the leading quarries ranges from 2,500 to 10,000 squares. Peach Bot- tom slate is now in demand in many states of the Union. The Peach Bottom slate belt covers an area of nearly two miles square, and extends from Peach Bottom Township over the Pennsylvania line into the northern part of Harford County, Maryland.

The Peach Bottom Slate Manufacturing Company, organized in 1901, operates one of the largest quarries in this township. This quarry produces annually from 6,000 to 10,000 squares, and readily disposes of its product all over the United States. The officers and directors of this company are citizens of York. M. G. Collins is presi- dent; C. C. Frick, vice president and treas- urer; D. F. Lafean, Jere S. Black and

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wife, Jane Whiteford, was the daughter of liam Luckey, Robert Luckey, David Smith, Elizabeth, the sister of Senator Ross. Rob- John Morrison and Robert Martin were ap- ert Ramsay was born in Peach Bottom pointed viewers in 1748 of " a road from the Township in 1795. In 1814, he was a sol- Ashmore ferry-road to York running south dier in Captain Amos's company of one to the temporary line to David Smith's pat- ented land." These were some of the first settlers of the lower end of York County. hundred men, who marched to the defence of Baltimore when attacked by the British. The company started from the village of

Dr. James Montgomery, one of the first Dublin, Maryland, in the month of August; physicians of the lower end, after removing on the way remained one night in the Court to Baltimore, won distinction in his pro- House at Bel Air, and the next day arrived fession. at Baltimore. This was two weeks before Rev. Dr. Martin, Hugh Glasgow, Rev. Mr. Parke, Joseph Wiley, Nathan Beamis and Hugh Whiteford were among the first per- sons to introduce pleasure carriages into this section. They were then a novelty. Patrick Scott and others soon followed their example. When these "nabobs " ap- proached Slate Ridge Church with their " wheel concerns," they were the observed of all observers. the approach of the British. Mr. Ramsay delighted to talk of the past, and pictured to the writer in 1884, the bombardment of Fort McHenry, as he saw it, amid the booming of cannon and the explosion of shells, on that eventful night, when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, while a prisoner of war on a British vessel. In 1805, while on his way to school, near Ramsay's Tavern, Mr. Ramsay narrowly es- For a period of ten years there were only eight persons in this township who voted the Federalist ticket. They were John Kirk, James McConkey, Joseph Webb, John T. Cooper, Daniel Mitchell, Wilson Mit- chell, Joseph Mitchell and Robert Ramsay. This was before 1825 when the Federalist caped being captured by a drove of wolves. He voted sixteen times at the presidential elections, casting his first ballot when James Madison was elected. He was then a Fed- eralist, and when that party ceased to exist, he voted with the Whigs. In 1856, Mr. Ramsay cast his ballot for John C .. Free- party ceased to exist.

mont, the first candidate of the Republican party for President.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 187

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