History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 46

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

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actively engaged in the battle. Armstrong and his Pennsylvania militia remained on the heights below Chad's Ford and were witnesses to the battle. After the defeat, Armstrong retreated to Chester and then moved with Washington to Philadelphia. In the battle of Germantown, the Pennsyl- vania militia took a prominent part. They behaved with gallantry in this engagement as well as in the spirited skirmishes at Chestnut Hill, White Marsh and Crooked Billet Tavern. In the affair at White Marsh, Colonel James Thompson, of Hope- well Township, who commanded a battalion of York County men, was wounded and car- ried off the field on a horse by General James Potter, then commanding a brigade of Pennsylvania militia.

After the campaign of 1778, which re- sulted in the victory at Monmouth, New Jersey, the Pennsylvania militia west of the Susquehanna was utilized in guarding the northern and western frontiers from the ravages of hostile Indians, who had been incited by British emissaries to disturb the quietude of white settlers in this region. A battalion of York County militia, in 1779, under command of Colonel Philip Albright. was marched to Standing Stone, the site of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and quartered there for several months.

When the seat of war was transferred to the South, and Pennsylvania was no longer in danger of invasion by the British, the state militia spent most of their time at home, awaiting the result of the war. When Burgoyne's army was marched from Boston to Virginia in December, 1778, a regiment of York County militia took charge of these 4.500 British and Hessians and marched them to Charlottesville, where they were held for three years. After the return of these prisoners to Pennsylvania, two or three companies of local militia, at stated times, guarded about 1.800 prisoners, kept in a stockade in Windsor Township. four and a half miles southeast of York. In 1781, when Cornwallis moved northward toward Virginia and threatened to land at Annapolis, Maryland, and send a division to release the prisoners at York, Lancaster

The first and second classes At Brandywine and Germantown. of militia had already been called out during the early summer of 1777. After the proclamation had been cir- culated, the third class had been ordered to the seat of war. Similar calls were made from other counties in the state. They marched to join Washington's army near Philadelphia and were placed and Reading, a part of the militia force was

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called out and stationed along the west considerable business here for twenty years bank of the Susquehanna, under the direc- or more. Late in life, Colonel Thompson tion of William Scott, who was lieutenant for York County. removed to the Chester County side of the Octorara, where he died October 3, 1807, at the age of 62 years.

After the close of the war, in 1783, the militia system was in force for more than half a century.

COLONEL JAMES THOMPSON, who commanded the first battalion of York County militia at Germantown and White Marsh, was born in Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County, in 1745. He grew to manhood in his native county and in 1773 was married to Lydia, daughter of Robert Bailey. Soon after his marriage he re- moved to the southern section of York County, where he engaged in farming. He became prominently identified with the Round Hill Church, in Hopewell Township. Shortly after the opening of the Revolution he appeared before his brother, Andrew Thompson, one of the court justices for York County, and took the oath of alle- giance and fidelity to the government of the United States. He served as a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania Line and was promoted for meritorious services. In September, 1777, when the Pennsylvania militia was called into active service to aid in opposing the British army under Howe from its approach to Philadelphia. James Thompson was commissioned colonel of the First Bat- talion of the York County troops. This battalion was placed in the brigade of Pennsylvania militia commanded by Briga- dier-General Potter, and served in the cam- paign around Philadelphia during the fall of 1777.

Colonel Thompson was severely wounded in an action at White Horse Tavern, near Philadelphia, and was carried from the field by General Potter, on the latter's horse, to the brigade surgeon for treatment. After recuperating from his wound, Colonel Thompson returned to his home in York County, where he served during the next year as purchasing agent for the govern- ment. In 1779 he was chosen a member, to represent York County, in the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Some- time after the Revolution he removed to Sadsbury Township, where, in association with his brother-in-law, Colonel Jolin Steele. he built a grist mill and a paper mill on the Octorara Creek. They conducted a

MAJOR JOSEPH DONALDSON, of York County, was a native of the Province of Maryland, born August 16, 1742. He located in the southern part of York County, was an active and energetic Whig, and formed one of the Committee of Cor- respondence of the County, to succor the Bostonians at the time of the going into effect of the "Port Bill." He was a dele- gate to the Provincial Deputies, which met July 15, 1774: justice of the peace from 1774 to 1776; member of the Provincial Confer- ence of January 23, 1775; and member of the Convention of July 15, 1776. He was a major of the First Battalion of the Associ- ators of York County, July, 1775, and was in service during the campaign of 1776. On the 8th of November, 1777, he was ap- pointed one of the commissioners to collect clothing for the Continental army. Major Donaldson died at York about 1790. For ten years he was a partner with Wil- liam Harris in the mercantile business at the southeast corner of Market and Water Streets.

COLONEL HENRY SCHLEGEL (SLAGLE) was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1735. His father, Chris- topher Slagle, of Saxony, came to Pennsyl- vania in 1713, and the following year took up a large tract of land on the Conestoga Creek, and built a mill. Subsequently he transferred his interests therein, and re- mnoved, in 1737, west of the Susquehanna, locating near the present site of Hanover. now within the limits of Adams County, on Slagle's Run, a branch of the Little Cone- wago. Henry was one of four sons, Daniel, Jacob and Christopher, and followed the occupation of his father, a farmer and miller. He was commissioned one of the provincial magistrates in October, 1764. and continued in office by the convention of 1776. In December, 1774, he served on the committee of inspection for York County ; commanded a battalion of Associators in 1779; was a member of the Provincial Con- ference of June 18. 1776, and of the subse- quent convention of the 15th of July. He was appointed by the Assembly, December

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16, 1777, to take subscriptions for the Con- part of which subsequently became incor- tinental loan ; November 22, 1777, acted as porated into the town and known as "Hay's one of the commissioners which met at Addition." He died in April, 1810. His New Haven, Connecticut, to regulate the son, Jacob, was a corporal in Moylan's cav- price of commodities in the states. He alry regiment of the Revolution. represented York County in the General

COLONEL ROBERT McPHERSON Assembly from 1777 to 1779: appointed was the only son of Robert and Janet Mc- sub-lieutenant of the county, March 30, 1780: one of the auditors of depreciation accounts for York County, March 3, 1781 ; member of the Constitutional Convention of 1789-90; commissioned by Governor Mifflin, one of the associate judges of York County, August 17, 1791, and continued as such upon the organization of Adams County. He represented the latter county in the Legislature, sessions of 1801-2. Colonel Slagle died at his residence, near Hanover: his remains were interred in the graveyard adjoining St. Matthew's Luth- eran Church. The various offices held by him show conclusively that he had the con- fidence of the community. He was an ardent patriot, a faithful officer, and an up- right citizen.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN HAY, of the Revolution, was born in Alsace, then in France, about 1733. His father, John Hay, was a native of Scotland, who, owing to the religious persecutions, emigrated to the Province of Alsace, sub- sequently coming to America, bringing with him four sons, who settled in Phila- delphia, Northampton, and York Counties, Pennsylvania, and in Virginia. John Hay, of York County, was naturalized April II. 1760. He was one of the Provincial mag- istrates ; a commissioner of the county from 1772 to 1775; member of the Committee of Correspondence to send aid to the people of Boston in 1774; of the Provincial Conven- tion, June 23, 1775; First Lieutenant in Colonel James Smith's Battalion of Asso- ciators. December, 1775; member of the Provincial Conference which met at Car- penter's Hall, June 18, 1776; and of the Convention of July 15. called by that body. He was appointed sub-lieutenant of the county March 12, 1777 ; resigning to accept the office of county treasurer in 1778, filling that position almost uninterruptedly until 1801. He represented York County in the Assembly in 1779. 1782, 1783. and 1784. Colonel Hay was the owner of a large tract of land in the immediate vicinity of York, County. In 1779 he was one of the three

Pherson, who settled in the western portion of York County, in the fall of 1738 on the "Manor of Maske." He was born presum- ably in Ireland about 1730, and was a youth of eight years when his parents became a part of the well-known Marsh Creek settle- ment. He was educated at Rev. Dr. Alli- son's school at New London, Chester County, Pennsylvania, which academy was afterward moved to Newark, Delaware, and became the foundation of the present col- lege at that place. His father died Decem- ber 25. 1749, and his mother September 23, 1767. In 1751 he married Agnes, the daughter of Robert Miller, of the Cumber- land Valley. In 1755 he was appointed treasurer of York County,. and in 1756 a commissioner of the county. The latter office he resigned on accepting a commis- sion as captain of the Third Battalion of the Provincial forces, May 10, 1758. serving under General Forbes on his expedition against Fort Duquesne. From 1762 to 1765 he was sheriff of the county, and from 1764 to the beginning of the Revolution was a justice of the peace under the Proprietaries, serving from 1770 as president justice of the York County Court, and was re-commis- sioned a justice under the first constitution of the state. From 1765 to 1767 he was a member of the Provincial Assembly and in 1768 was appointed county treasurer to fill a vacancy. He was a member of the Pro- vincial Conference which met at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, June 18, 1776; and was one of the representatives of York County in 1776, which formed the first constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. At the be- ginning of the War for Independence he was commissioned a colonel of the York County Battalion of Associators, and dur- ing that and the following year he was in active service in the Jerseys and in the sub- sequent campaign around Philadelphia. After his return from the field he was em- ployed as the purchasing commissary of army supplies for the western end of York

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

auditors of "confiscation and fine accounts." New York City and Long Island for sev- From 1781 to 1785 he served as a member eral months. of the Assembly of the State. Colonel Mc- Major Lewis was a man of education and in 1790, when Harrisburg was a small vil- lage, he founded The Monitor and Weekly Advertiser, the first newspaper at the state capital. Pherson was one of the charter members of the corporation of Dickinson College, and continued to act as trustee until his death, on February 19, 1789. His son, Wil- liam McPherson, served as a lieutenant in Albright's Company, Miles' Regiment, in the Revolution.

COLONEL MATTHEW DILL was one of the first settlers in the vicinity of the present „town of Dillsburg. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. During the troubles immediately before the French and Indian war, he was one of the five commissioners, one of whom was Benjamin Franklin, ap- pointed to make a treaty with the Indians at the Croghan fort, which was located near the Susquehanna, in the lower end of Cum- berland County. He afterward took part in the French and Indian war. In 1749 he was one of the eight justices of the peace, and justice of the Court of Common Pleas of York County. He died before the Revo- lution. His remains, together with those of many of his descendants, lie in the family graveyard a few hundred yards west of Dillsburg, this county. His daughter mar- ried Colonel Richard McAllister.

Colonel Matthew Dill, of the Revolution, was a son of Matthew Dill. In October, 1764, he was appointed justice of the peace and the Court of Common Pleas, under the colonial government, and continued in the same office upon the adoption of the consti- tution of 1776. He served in the General Assembly in 1777-8-9. During the year 1779 he was appointed sub-lieutenant of York County, to organize the county militia, and on March 30, 1780, was ap- pointed one of the three commissioners to seize the personal effects of Tories in York County. For a short time after the Revo- lution he was president justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

MAJOR ELI LEWIS, son of Ellis Lewis, who settled in Fairview Township in 1735, was born in Redland Valley, January 31, 1750. In 1775 he became the commander of a company of Associators in Newberry and Fairview Townships. In 1776 he marched with his company to join the Flying Camp. He was cap- tured and held as a prisoner of war in

After General St. Clair was routed by the Indians in Ohio, he printed and published in his newspaper, "St. Clair's Defeat," a poem containing literary merit, which was widely copied. In 1798 Major Lewis founded the town of Lewisberry. Novem- ber 10, 1779, he married Pamela Webster, at Londongrove Friends meeting house, Chester County. Major Lewis died at Lewisberry, February 1, 1807. The re- mains of Major Lewis and his wife are buried in the Friends graveyard at New- berrytown. The spot has recently been marked by a marble tablet and surrounded by a stone wall. Among their children were Ellis Lewis, who became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; Webster Lewis, physician at Lewisberry ; James, a member of the bar and president of the York bank; Eli, president of the First National bank at York.

COLONEL WILLIAM RANKIN, of York County, of Quaker parentage, was a native of England, his parents coming to this country when he was very young. Prior to the Revolution he was a justice of the peace of the Province, and located near the Susquehanna, in Fishing Creek Valley, York County. Although a member of the Warrington Monthly Meeting, he became at the outset of the Revolution an ardent Whig, and was chosen colonel of one of the York County Battalions of Associators. He was a member of the Provincial Confer- ence of June 18, 1776, and of the Conven- tion of 15th of July following. By the latter body he was continued a justice of the peace. The cause of Colonel Rankin's defection has never been divulged, but during the year 1780 he was detected in holding a traitorous correspondence with the enemy, and in March, 1781, he was arrested and thrown into prison. He escaped, however, from the York jail, when President Reed issued a proclamation offering a reward for his apprehension. With his brothers, John and James, who had also turned traitors to the Colonies, he

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went to England, but whether he died in many of the privates brought their wives exile, we have not been able to ascertain. and families to this country. His property was partly confiscated, as also January : 1776, Jasper that of his brothers, who had large landed Gunsmiths Yeates, of Lancaster, reported estates in York County, although, through the intervention of influential friends, a portion was saved to their descendants who remained in this country. These Tories were all compensated for their losses by the British government.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

The following items arranged in chrono- logical order, relate to interesting facts and incidents of the Revolution :

In September, 1775, the Committee of Safety for York County, of which James Smith was chairman, sold to the Pennsyl- vania Council of Safety, forty-nine quarter casks of powder, weighing 1,225 pounds, and 3,770 pounds of lead, and a supply of arms and accoutrements, receiving 559 pounds, 6 shillings, II pence. At this early date, York contained a depository for munitions of war, for soon after the Penn- sylvania Council ordered the local com- mittee to forward to Colonel Samuel More- head, of Westmoreland County, 500 pounds of powder, and 1,250 pounds of lead, for the use of militia in that county. These trans- actions took place nearly one year before the Declaration of Independence, when the affairs of the Province, then in a state of rebellion against the mother country, were controlled by the Pennsylvania Council of Safety.

October 12, the local committee sent from the magazine at York, 200 pounds of gunpowder and 600 pounds of lead, to the Committee of Safety for Northampton County. About this time, James Smith notified the people of York County that they should not waste the powder and lead for it would be needed to carry on the war with England.

In December, Robert Morris, of Phila- January 13, 1777, York County furnished 4,000 bushels of grain as feed for horses in the continental service. About the same time. Joseph Pennell, assistant commissary- delphia, a member of the Continental Con- gress, requested the Pennsylvania Council of Safety to supply provisions for the women and children of the British troops, general, reported that owing to the demands captured at St. Johns, Canada, and give directions for their removal to Reading, York and Lancaster. During the early part of the war, most of the British officers and

at Work. that the blankets engaged by Mr. Hough, in York County, for the public service, had been detained on the west side, owing to the floating ice on the river. Soon after the Revolution opened, the gunsmiths began to make fire- locks in every section of Pennsylvania, and in April, 1776, the Committees of Safety for York, Cumberland and Northampton Coun- ties were each ordered to send fifty-six flintlock muskets, the same number of bayonets and powder horns to Philadelphia. In June, Colonel William Rankin, of New- berry Township, received 200 pounds, or about $1,000, for rifles which he sold to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety.

Early in July, ten British prisoners of the company commanded by Captain Campbell were brought to York. These prisoners were fed by Elijah Etting, when they first arrived. He received three pounds, fifteen shillings, for feeding them seven days before they were put in permanent quar- ters. July 15, Captain James Sterling re- ceived $100 part payment for expenses in marching British prisoners from Burling- ton, New Jersey, to York.

September 25, Baltzer Spangler and four other persons received in all forty-five dol- lars for riding through York County to notify the colonels of the militia battalions to march to New Jersey. This was the first general call for the militia of York County to serve in the army. They marched to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, near Long Is- land, upon which the British army, under Howe, had recently landed.

On September 30, Joseph Donaldson, of York, succeeded Michael Swope as a mem- ber of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety. Colonel Donaldson immediately proceeded to Philadelphia and assumed his duties.

for whiskey, by the use of small copper stills, many of the farmers in Pennsylvania were engaged in making this product. He notified the authorities that if the practice

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

was continued the supply of rye and other grains would not equal the demand. In February, General John Armstrong, then in command of a body of militia in the army, stated that rye and much of the wheat raised in Cumberland, Lancaster and York Counties, in 1776, had been used in distil- ling whiskey. "This condition of affairs," he said, "is alarming, because in a few months, Pennsylvania may be scarce in bread for her own inhabitants."

The field officers in command of the militia in 1777, were appointed by authority of the State Assembly upon the recom- mendation of the members from the differ- ent counties. The members of the As-

sembly from York County then were Archibald McClean, Michael Swope, David Dunwoodie, James Dickson, Michael Hahn and John Read. March II, Thomas Nesbitt paid Michael Hahn, of York, nine- teen pounds, seventeen shillings, for scab- bards. furnished to the militia. At the same time, Michael Eichelberger, of York, re- ceived from Nesbitt, five pounds for lodging servants of militia officers at York. Mich- ael Hahn, who had been chosen to the Legislature from York, served as paymaster to the militia in 1776. He was succeeded, September 16, 1777, by Lieutenant William Scott.

April 25, 500 militia from York County were ordered to proceed to the camp at Chester. These troops were drafted in ac- cordance with the militia law. In general orders, June 13, 1777, at Philadelphia, the detachment of the First Maryland Regi- ment was ordered to parade at five o'clock the next morning and escort prisoners to York. September 5, Richard Peters, secre- tary of the Board of War, suggested that the county lieutenants of militia for York, Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks and North- ampton Counties, furnish a guard for prisoners held in or passing through said counties, and also for guarding government property.

There were Tories in York Committee Appointed. County, during the Revolu- tion, as well as in other parts of the country .. The most stringent measures were adopted by the State Legislatures to check the growth of disloyalty. For this purpose committees were appointed in each county to seize the

estates of the disaffected and confiscate the property. October 21, soon after Congress came to York, William White, Robert Stevenson, James Nailor, Matthew Dill, William Chesney and John Ewing were ap- pointed a committee for York County. No- vember 8, Joseph Donaldson, George Ir- win, Thomas Stockton, Frederick Gelwix, Thomas Weems, John Nesbitt, Henry Cot- ton, Jacob Staley, John Andrews and Robert Smith were appointed commission- ers to collect arms and accoutrements, blankets, woollen and linsey-woolsey cloth, linens, shoes and stockings for the army, from the inhabitants who had not taken the oath of allegiance and abjuration or who had aided the enemy.

On October 15, 1777, Jacob Smearly was paid 13 pounds, 15 shillings for making irons for the prisoners of war.

November 19, 1777, the Council of Safety ordered the civil authorities of Cumberland County to provide 126 wagons, and of York County 118 wagons for the purpose of re- moving government stores to places of safety west of the Susquehanna. This oc- curred shortly after the battle of German- town. The demands for wagons from the different townships of York County . and from York were as follows: Monaghan, 2; Warrington, 6; Huntingdon, 6; Reading, 6; Dover, 3; Newberry, 6; Manchester, 6; Hellam, 4; York Township, 4; York, 2; Hopewell, 2; Chanceford, 2; Fawn, 4; Shrewsbury, 4; Windsor, 6; Codorus, 6; Heidelberg, 6; Germany, 6; Paradise, 6; Berwick, 4; Mountjoy, 3; Mount Pleasant, 3; Straban, 3; Tyrone, 4; Menallen, 3; Cumberland, 3; Hamiltonban, 3; Manheim, 5.

October 20, Captain Joshua Williams made information before a justice of the peace of York County, charging Stephen Foulke with concealing deserters from Wil- liams' company. Justice Lees discharged Foulke for lack of sufficient evidence.

January 9, 1778, Joseph Jeffries was ap- pointed wagon-master of York County. February 13, Captain Long, commanding militia whose term had expired, was ordered to convey British prisoners from Lancaster to York.

General Washington, who had been given by Congress extraordinary powers, on February 17, 1778, ordered Lieutenant

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Thomas Campbell, of Monaghan Township, to return home and recruit one hundred and fifty men for the army. March 22, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania granted an order in favor of Colonel Richard McAl- lister, lieutenant of York County, for 3,000 pounds, or $15,000, to be given to William Scott, paymaster of militia of York County. David Watson received 1,500 pounds from the same source, April 10, 1778, for the pur- pose of purchasing horses in the County of York, for the Continental cavalry. Captain Thomas Gourley, of the Ninth; Captain Nehemiah Stokely, of the Eighth; Lieuten- ant James McCullough, of the Fifth; Lieu- tenant Thomas Campbell and Lieutenant Samuel Gray, of the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiments, came to York County, in April, to recruit soldiers to fill up the Pennsyl- vania Line.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 46

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