History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 3

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 3

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The forests disappeared before that people, and, as has been said, like the lichens and mosses of nature, they fastened themselves to the fertile soil where they were planted, and the agricultural regions of this common- wealth where they settled are the boast of Pennsylvanians. They seem to have paid little attention at first to the political features

of their new home. They accepted the free- dom they enjoyed as a means of exercising their industry, and of practicing their thrift. They seemed to dwell apart from others, and formed, as it were, a separate population, and in many portions of the State, to this day, they are distinguishable from their fel- low citizens, maintaining a language pecul- iarly their own. For a long time, with conversation and books in German, they and their children were ignorant of the English tongue. They preserved their usages, and held among themselves the superstitions of the peasantry of the land from which they came .* The howl of the dog, the hoot of the owl, the croak of the raven were to them prognostics of evil. They believed in dreams, love spells and charms, and in incantations for the relief of aches and hemorrhages. Sorcery and witchcraft were as much matters of reality to them as to the New Englander. The horse shoe nailed to the door was fatal to the witch, and the tail or ear of the black cat or young dog would counteract the mach- inations of the sorcerer.+ Some of these superstitions in a modified form linger amongst their descendants in these days of education.

Yet, with all this, they were firm in their religious faith. Their preachers came with them, taught in the schools of the Reformers. Churches were established at once, and it re- quired no laws, like the Blue Laws, to com- pel their attendance on the services. They were Lutherans and German Reformed, and among them were Mennonites and Amish. The latter had come over in the first immi- gration and remained where they had settled in the territory now comprising the counties of Berks, Lancaster, and Lebanon. Those who subsequently crossed over into what is now York County, were generally orthodox followers of Luther and Zwingli. The im- press of their worship and theology has a per- manent hold here that cannot be displaced.

When licenses to settle opened the rich regions of Codorus and Kreutz Creeks to them, they at once occupied the choice places, extending their settlements toward the site of the present borough of Hanover. The names of the beautiful cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg, capitals of the country from which they principally came, are remembered in the townships bearing these names. Man- heim is one of the original townships of the county. The Rhenish Palatinate, and places adjacent, have furnished the ancestors of many of those citizens of York County who now

* Bancroft.

+ III Col. Rec. 374. Rupp's Hist. Lanc. Co. p. 74.

* Introductory Memoir to Braddock's Expedition. Hist. Soc. + Ibid.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

constitute its principal families in wealth and culture. If one visits that section of Europe, he will find those same idioms of speech which are the peculiar features of the celebrated Pennsylvania Dutch lan- guage, except so far as they may have been corrupted by Germanized Anglicisms or Americanisms.

On the 2d of January, 1738, Gov. Thomas, in a message to the General Assembly, said: "This province has been for some years the asylum of distressed Protestants of the Palatinate, and other parts of Ger- many, and I believe it may with truth be said, that the present flourishing condition of it is in a great measure owing to the in- dustry of those people; and should any dis- couragement divert their coming hither, it may well be apprehended that the value of your lands will fall, and your advances to wealth be much slower, for it is not alto- gether the goodness of the soil, but the num- ber and industry of the people that make a flourishing country." To which the Assembly replied: "We are of opinion with the Gov- ernor that the flourishing condition of this province is in part owing to the importation of Germans, and other foreigners; but we beg leave to say, that it is chiefly to be ascribed to the lenity of our government, and to the sobriety and industry of the first settlers of this country, and of the other British sub- jects inhabiting the same." *

The jealousy of foreigners expressed by the English settlers was soon diverted by another class of immigrants, whose antagon- ism to the views of the Friends was more to be apprehended than the aggregation of Germans. This was the. Scotch-Irish, a people of peculiarly marked character. They were the descendants of the Scotch and perhaps English, who had been settled a century before in the province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland. James I had parceled out that part of Ireland to Scot- tish and English settlers in the early part of the seventeenth century, which is known in history as the plantation of Ulster. And later, after the Restoration, when Charles II attempted to introduce Epis- copacy into Scotland, many of the Coven- anters took refuge in the north of Ireland. And still later, when the Union was formed between the kingdoms of England and Scot- land in 1707, in the reign of Queen Anne, f the dissatisfied seceders took refuge in the same country. The province of Ulster be- came a flourishing and enlightened part of

the "Green Isle," where the Presbyterians obtained control. From thence the more ad- venturous sought a more secure asylum here. Of the counties of the province of Ulster, Monaghan is the only name which is fixed in the county of York, being one of the original townships; while in that portion of the county which was afterward made the county of Adams, are the names Menallen, Tyrone and Strabane. The Scotch-Irish were a hardy and brave race. They are described as hot- headed, excitable, invincible in prejudices, warmly attached to friends, and bitter antag- onists to enemies; the hand opened as impe- tuously to the one as it clenched against the other. They were Calvinistic in faith, and haters of prelacy, as they venerated Calvin and Knox. They lost none of these character- istics here. They did not respect the Quak- ers and they hated the Indians. *

Their ancestors had experienced persecu- tion on the hills of Scotland, and the world owes much to those barren heights and to the sturdy Covenanters who came from them, and passed through many trials for freedom and the rights of man. This people, in their set- tlements, did not locate on the rich limestone lands, which it was said were liable to frost and heavily wooded, but found their way to the barrens and red lands, to which they were accustomed, and which their sturdy in- dustry has made fertile. They have been the progenitors of statesmen and of lawyers of distinction and influence, who have been the peers of any in the world, and whose intel- lect and energy have molded the free institutions of America. Such men as James Smith, James Ross, Hugh H. Breckenridge, James Buchanan and Jeremiah S. Black are numbered among them.

From these two peoples, the Germans and the Scotch-Irish, are descended the larger portion of the inhabitants of this county. At the time of its settlement, the population of Pennsylvania by immigration, principally from Germany and the north of Ireland, was increasing at the rate of 5,000 or 6,000 a year. That of the Scoth-Irish began about 1715, and the number annually increased to such an extent that the Provincial Secretary, in writing to the proprietaries, says : "It looks as if Ireland is to send all her inhabi- tants, for last week not less than six ships arrived, and every day two or three arrive also. The common fear is that they crowd where they are not wanted." So the Scotch- Irish possibly thought of the Germans. By reason of feuds, in 1749, between the Germans and Irish in York County, the proprietaries

* IV. Col. Rec. 315, 316.

+ Knight's Hist. Eng., Vol. V., pp. 311-328.

* Introductory Memoir-supra.

THE EARLY SETTLERS.

instructed their agents, in order to prevent further difficulties and disturbances, not to sell any more lands in York County to the Irish, but to hold out strong inducements by advantageous overtures to settle in the north, in the Kittaning Valley .*

We must not overlook the fact that the peculiar people to whom the colonization of Pennsylvania is due, had some settlers here. The hills of Newberry were found by the Friends, who came from Chester and planted themselves on that land known as Sir William Keith's Tract. There still linger among the inhabitants of that section and the surround- ing region of country some of their peculiar marks. One is that of affirmations in courts of justice instead of the oath on the Book.

These people were peacemakers and were opposed to war. Yet their descendants could not long maintain their peaceful attitude, for that section of country was subject in some degree to incursions of the Indian. That race, whom the followers of Penn had made friendly, appeared in fierce and deadly array as the allies of the French, and the Friends here upon the border imbibed to some extent the martial spirit of their fellow- citizens. But there will be occasion here- after to note, in passing, the embarrassments of the province on account of the anti-bel- ligerent principles of the Friends, as well as of large bodies of Germans, whose religious faith contained the same doctrines regarding war.

It seems strange to us, of the present day, that the religious peculiarities of the original settlers upon the soil of Pennsylvania should be so expressly noted. But the history of the seventeenth century, in which the colony of Pennsylvania was planted, was that of struggles for religious freedom. In England, dissenters of all kinds had boldly proclaimed their opinions and had been subjected to punishment for them, and the Covenanters of Scotland had been hunted in their recesses by the armies of the king. While the greater struggles around monarchical thrones were carried on by Catholic and Protestant, the quiet religionists like the Quakers and the Anabaptists were securely working their way among the peasantry. A sympathetic feeling extended itself from land to land, and hence, when the colonization of this great common- wealth began, immigration was opened to those peasants, to a country where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and enabled them to become that power in political life known as the People. Religious toleration became at

once in Pennsylvania a fundamental princi- ple, and that, rather than political freedom, had been the real object of its first settlement. The wars that devastated Europe so many years had been religious wars. They had ceased at the time when this history begins. There was the dawn of a new era. The pol- itical rights of the individual had begun to clamor for recognition. The opening of the eighteenth century had already changed the aspect of affairs. The treaty of Utrecht had ended the war of the Spanish succession, which placed Philip V on the throne of Spain. Louis XIV, the grand monarque, had calmly passed from earth, and from the State of which he had declared himself the impersonation. Charles XII of Sweden had fallen by the fatal cannon ball in Nor- way, soon after,

" On dread Pultowa's awful day,

When fortune left the royal Swede."

Peter the Great had founded his mighty empire, and hitherto barbarous Russia had taken its place among the powers of Europe. The Scottish and English union had been formed, constituting the kingdom of Great Britain. The second king of the House of Hanover, George II, had ascended the throne. There was a period of peace on the continent ·of Europe, and democratic ideas had begun their advance-an advance which before the close of the century secured the independence of the American colonies and plunged a great nation on the continent of Europe into a state of anarchy-a nation, which, after suc- cessive periods of democratic and monarch- ical rule, has at length become an established republic. Even as a monarchy, France had helped our people to republican freedom.

The government of Pennsylvania had been established on a purely democratic basis. It had been instituted by William Penn, with the advice of one of the noblest and wisest of men, Algernon Sidney. The right of popu- lar representation was enjoyed to some extent in all the other colonies, but the system of Penn was a holy experiment-the experiment of a commonwealth in which the whole power lay with the people, the trial of a pure democracy, to bear witness to the world that there is in human nature virtue sufficient for self government .* The great founder had died in 1718, some years before the first set. tlers crossed the Susquehanna River into our territory. They came on this side of the river with his principles of government fixed for them in their new homes. An account of the organization of the govern- ment of the province will show how speedily

*Egle's Hist. Penn., Cumb. Co., p. 615. Gordon's Pa. 241-2. *Dixon's Life of Penn.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

the hold of the people on its administration was secured. On the 4th of March, 1681, Charles II had constituted William Penn proprietary of the land in America, which the monarch himself named Pennsylvania. In 1682 Penn visited the country, landing at Newcastle on the 27th of October. He called an assembly of the freemen. which met at Chester on the 4th day of December, and which though it continued in session but four days, passed Jaws for the government of the prov- ince. He then divided the territory into three counties, namely, Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester. Writs were issued for the election of members of the Council and Assembly provided by the charter-three from each county for the Council and nine for the Assembly. This Council and Assem- bly met for the first time on the 10th of March, 1683, and over the Council the pro- prietary himself presided, giving personal assent to its transactions. These represent- atives soon manifested jealousy of their rights. The Frame of Government under the charter had provided for a number not exceeding seventy-two for the Provincial Council and 200 for the Assembly. This included the three lower counties, as they were called, namely, Newcastle, Kent and Sussex, which had been annexed as Territories to the Prov- ince. It was supposed that the seventy-two chosen by the writs issued had the power of the whole freemen of the Province and Ter- ritories and so were capable of serving as a Provincial Council and General Assembly and thus hinder the people from the benefit of the charter. The Governor answered "that they might amend, alter or add for the public good, and that he was ready to settle such foundations as might be for their hap- piness and good of their posterities accord- ing to ye powers vested in him."* The number was to be increased by the governor, council and freemen, in Provincial Coun- cil and Assembly met. A new charter of privileges was granted by the proprietary in 1701, which was approved and agreed to by the Assembly and Council. This allows four members out of each county for the Assem- bly. The three lower counties did not accept the charter and separated themselves from the province, hence the representation was increased to eight members from each county. The Assembly had by the last charter been given the right to sit upon its own adjourn- ments, and could not be dissolved during the term for which it was elected. It passed bills of every character, took upon itself the reorganization of the judiciary, refused to

vote supplies or not, at its pleasure, and claimed the right generally to meddle with the affairs of state, and assuming full leg- islative power, the government virtually fell under its control .* Settlers in all parts of the province were thus, from the start, accus- tomed to the right of suffrage, not alone for the purpose of representation, for the right had also been extended to the choice of sher- iff and coroners in each county, at least to name the persons from among whom these officers should be selected, a century and a half in advance of the mother country, which has not even yet attained to popular suffrage in representation. The great Reform Bill did partially relieve the people of Great Britain from the oppressions of government, but the property qualifications still exist. There was no test here for holding office but a belief in Christianity. The Friends held the wealth of the province and the control of the Assembly. The Episcopalians were the next in influence, though not numerous.t In addition to the religious denominations of Germans already mentioned, the Moravi- ans claimed consideration, and there after- ward sprang up the sect of the Dunkers and the Menists.

The very first law passed by the General Assembly of the Province was "The Law concerning Liberty of Conscience," and though repealed by the Council, there was a similar law passed on the 14th of October, 1705. So when the first Roman Catholic Church was built on Walnut Street, Phila- delphia, in 1734, and Gov. Gordon objected that it was contrary to the laws of England, passed in the reign of William III, the Council doubted whether the act of 1705, passed in the fourth year of Queen Anne, was repealed. Besides, it was contended that there was warrant for the provincial law in the charter of privileges. The church there- fore remained.į

" This " says Hildreth, "was the only Catholic Church allowed in any Anglo-American colony prior to the Rev- olution." The act of William and Mary seems to have been in force in Maryland; though by a law of 1704, chapels were al- lowed in private houses, or where they were under a common roof.§

It will thus be seen how religious and political freedom had been already established in the province, at the time of the commence- ment of our history. Before any authorized settlements were made on the west side of the Susquehanna, the county of Lancaster had

*I. Col. Rec. p. 2.

· * Dixon.

+Hildreth's History, U. S.

IIII. Col. Rec., page 563.

@ Hist. of Balt. Sharff.

THE EARLY SETTLERS.

.been organized in the year 1729. In, the spring of that same year the first settlements were made, under the authority of the government, in what is now called York County. During the interval of time from 1729 to its organization in 1749, our people had their representation in the Assembly as citizens of Lancaster County. Among the Delegates during that period were John Wright and Samuel Blunston, who were Quakers, and who are so well known in the history of the province and of this county, as foremost men in Indian affairs and in re- sistance of Maryland encroachments. The history of that period of time on our soil is of the most intense interest, and forms a very considerable part of the trials of the early settlers. John Wright and Samuel Blunston were in the commission of the peace, and were by virtue of their office Justices of the Courts of Quarter Sessions. In pursuance of an act of Assembly in 1739, providing for the division of Lancaster County into districts, the first district was constituted of Hempfield, Lancaster and Hellam Townships .* This last named appears to have been the first township formed in the territory now York County, and was the seat of the fiercest border contests. In 1741 the town of York was laid off on the Codorus Creek, within Springetsbury Manor, and became a center of renown and enterprise. During this same interval of time, namely, between the time of the first settlement and the county organization, there were born men who were destined to take conspicuous part in the affairs of the county and of our coun- try's history. ? James Ewing was born in Manor Township, Lancaster County, in 1736. Henry Miller was born in Lancaster City in 1741. Thomas Hartley was born near Reading in 1748. John Clark was born in Lancaster in 1751, just two years after the formation of the county of York. The names of these patriots suggest reflections upon the spirit- stirring times in which they lived and acted. York took a very prominent part in the trans- actions of those days, as will be seen here- after. The Revolution occurred scarcely forty years after the settlement of the county, and the eloquence of that period does not alone belong to the Roundheads and Cavaliers of Massachusetts and Virginia. The Scotch- Irish of Pennsylvannia seconded with voice and pen the great struggle for freedom, and the rolls of honor contain numerously the names of their descendants, as also of those of Palatine ancestors.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

The following interesting account of the early settlers is copied from Glossbrenner's History of York County, 1834:

'Kreutz Creek) -- The first settlements in this county were made on Kreutz Creek* and in the neighborhood where Hanover now stands. Before the erection of the county of Lancaster in 1729, a number of persons resided on tracts of land lying on the west side of the Susquehanna, within the bounds of what is now York County. These persons remained, however, but a short time on the lands they occupied-were not allowed to warm in the nests ou which they had squatted-and may not be looked upon as the progenitors of the present possessors of the soil of York County. They were known only as "Maryland intruders," and were removed in the latter end of the year 1728, by order of the Deputy-Governor and Coun- cil, at the request of the Indians, and in con- formity with their existing treaties.

"In the spring of 1729 John and James Hendricks, under the authority of Govern- ment, made the first authorized settlements in what is now called York County. They occupied the ground from which some fam. ilies of squatters had been removed, some- where about the bank of Kreutz Creek. They were soon followed by other families, who settled at a distance of about ten or twelve miles west and southwest of them.

"The earliest settlers were English; these were, however, succeeded by vast numbers of German emigrants. It is a remarkable fact, that, when the first settlements were made in this county, the greater portion of the lands in the eastern and southeastern part of it were destitute of large timber. In sections where now the finest forests of large timber stand, miles might then have been traversed without the discovery of any vegetable production of greater magnitude than scrub oak; and in many places even that diminutive representa- tive of the mighty monarch of the forest was not to be found. This nakedness of the country was generally, andwe have no doubt correctly, attributed to a custom which pre- vailed among the aboriginal owners of the soil, of annually or biennially destroying by fire all vegetation in particular sections of

# Rupp, 274.

cre

* Some persons say that the proper name of this creek is Kreis' Creek, from an early settler near its mouth, whose name was George Kreis. But others with greater appearance of truth say that the common name is the correct one. It is called Kreutz Creek not from a man of the same name, as some assert, but on account of the union of two streams, and thereby the formation of what the Germans call a Kruetz .i. e. a cross). In the return of a survey made in 1722, it is called the " White Oak Branch." It had, however, no certain name until about the year 1736, when numerous German settlements were made on its banks.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

the country for the purpose of increasing the facilities of hunting.

"Most of the German emigrants settled in the neighborhood of Kreutz Creek, while the English located themselves in the neigh- borhood of the Pigeon Hills. In the whole of what was called the 'Kruetz Creek Settle- ment,' (if we except Wrightsville) there was but one English family, that of William Morgan.

"The early inhabitants of the Kreutz Creek region were clothed, for some years, alto- gether in tow cloth, as wool was an article not to be obtained. Their dress was simple, consisting of a shirt, trowsers and a frock. During the heat of summer, a shirt and trowsers of tow formed the only raiment of the inhabitants. In the fall the tow frock was superadded. When the cold of winter was before the door, and Boreas came rush- ing from the north, the dress was adapted to the season by increasing the number of frocks, so that in the coldest part of the winter some of the sturdy settlers were wrapped in four, five or even more frocks, which were bound closely about their loins, usually with a string of the same material as the garments.

"But man ever progresses, and when sheep were introduced, a mixture of tow and wool was considered an article of luxury. But tow was shortly afterward succeeded by cot- ton, and then linsey-woolsey was a piece of the wildest extravagance. If these simple, plain and honest worthies could look down upon their descendants of the present day, they would wonder and weep at the change of men and things. If a party of them could be spectators at a ball of these times in the borough of York and see silks and crapes, and jewels, and gold, in lieu of tow frocks and linsey-woolsey finery, they would scarcely recognize their descendants in the costly and splendid dresses before them; but would, no doubt, be ready to imagine that the nobles and princes of the earth were assembled at a royal bridal. But these bonest progenitors of ours have passed away, and left many of us, we fear, with nothing but the names they bore to mark us their descendants.

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 3

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104