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 55

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 55

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would not be in place to speak of further here. But among the writer's personal ac- quaintances there are many Pennsylvania German gentlemen, residents of the counties specially mentioned in this chapter, who have large and well-selected private libraries, and which are by no means (as is too often the case) mere matters of ornament, but sources of constantly increasing knowledge and en- joyment. They contain works historical, bi- ographical. poetical, philological, scientific, religious, political, etc.

As to. the habits, manners, customs and general mode of life among the Pennsylvania Germans, little need be said. Enough has been shown, if indeed there had been need for it, to prove that they are good citizens; but to be simply a good, quiet citizen, is like being merely a good, quiet Christian-a merit not generally much esteemed. To go into details on this subject would necessarily pro- tract this paper (already too long). still much farther beyond its originally intended limits. Suffice it to say, that as a body, they are among the best, trustworthy class of people in this or any other country. Their ambi- tion is, ever has been, and may it ever con- tinue, to be good rather than great, solid rather than brilliant, honest rather than rich. As practical farmers, they are unsurpassed; as mechanics, they are skillful, reliable and re- spectable; as merchants and financiers, they have shown equally with others that truth, candor, honesty and fair-dealing are the very handmaids of success in business. As sol- diers and civilians, as clergymen and lay- men, and, indeed, in all the various relations of life, we have seen them, on the average, equal to emergencies as they chanced to arise, and fully abreast of the times with their fellow citizens of other nationalities. As colonists and pioneers in the great work of civilization they were behind none of them.

As the miners follow the richest veins of ore, so the Pennsylvania Germans from their first settlements have followed the most fer- tile valleys in pursuit of the best farming lands. Thus. we find them in the great cen- tral Nittany, Kischicoquillis, Canoe, Kreuz Creek, Sinking Spring and other smaller val leys, and in Morrison's Cove, Friends Cove, McConnell's and other Coves-the " remarka- ble limestone threshing-floors of Pennsylva- nia." Says a writer in the American Reprint of the Encyclopedia Britannica " (vol.xviii, ar- ticle Pennsylvania): " The limestone plain of Lancaster spreads west across the Susque- hanna into York County, and east into Berks and Chester Counties to within twenty miles

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of Philadelphia. The whole plain swarms with life; the houses are small, but the stone barns are of colossal size, 100 and even 150 feet long and from 30 to 50 feet high, the barnyard wall supported on ranges of heavy columns, while on the other side of the building an earthen slope ascends to the great barn door."

Without stopping to criticise the assertion of a " barn-yard wall" being " supported on ranges of heavy columns," exception must be taken to the statement that " the houses are small." Of course, farm-houses are meant, and so far from these being small, the fact is that a large proportion of them are substantial structures of brick or limestone, almost as colossal in size as the barns A few hours' ride along the great turnpike-road leading through the heart of Kreuz Creek Valley - from the Susquehanna twenty miles westward toward Gettysburg, would alone be sufficient to demonstrate this to the traveler.

Not only are' these Pennsylvania farm- houses and barns large, airy and commodious, but almost invariably in good order and repair, well painted or stuccoed, and usually wearing an air of comfort and cheerfulness conspicuously absent about the homesteads in many other portions of the country, notably in even the richest limestone valleys of Vir- ginia, where many Pennsylvania German farmers are settled, and whose homes, as is often remarked, can be readily distinguished, even from a distance, by their resemblance, in this respect, to those in our own valleys. Almost everywhere the homestead premises of Pennsylvania German farmers are models of neatness and order, with, moreover, a gen- eral appearance of thrift and prosperity. Their houses are usually well furnished, ac- cording to their means, with good beds and well-supplied tables as specialties. The women are noted, the world over, as good cooks and thrifty housekeepers, and especially for their cleanliness in all things. Who that has lived among them has not seen a crock of milk, cream and all, dashed into the swill- tub, because, forsooth, an insect had dropped into it, or a cat had touched it with her tongue? The very atmospheres of their spring-houses, cellars, dairies and kitchens are appetizers; and scrubbing, and scouring, and washing and cleaning, so far from being regarded as menial labors, appear to be enjoyed as pleas- ant pastimes, especially by the buxom yonng country lasses. So far from living in rude, filthy, floorless huts or houses, their very kitchens are carpeted, and that with home. made. Indeed, so careful are they in this respect, that during the season of flies, they

occupy summer kitchens in neat out-houses, built apart and arranged specially for the purpose ; and here, unless strangers or visit- ors are present, they eat their meals, and enjoy them too, with weary limbs and sweat. ed brows, often, it may be, but with clear consciences and good digestions withal.

Nor are these people less noted for their hospitality. Friendly visiting, and receiving and entertaining visitors, are good old cus- toms, and the many social enjoyments inci- dent thereto are among the pleasures and amusements that lend to their holidays their sweetest charms, and serve to lighten the toils of every-day life. Their custom of furnish- ing meals, that sometimes almost rise to the dignity of feasts, at funerals, and at vendues of the estates of deceased persons, is so old, popular and well established, that it has, to some extent, become a law, at least so far as that courts have, in some instances, allowed the reasonable expenses thereof out of the estates. And while no people are more dis- posed to discourage and discountenance idle- ness, indolence, beggary and crime, such is their Christian charity and fellow-feeling that, with many, the rule of the household is, to turn no one, not even a well-behaved tramp, empty away.

Again, the same writer says: "The eight counties which lie along the face of the South Mountains, in the southeastern region of the State, are in the highest state of cultivation, and resemble the most picturesque rural dis. tricts of England-a country of rolling hills and gently sloping vales, with occasional rocky dells of no great depth, and low cas- cades, utilized for grist-mills, factories and machine-shops ; a country of wheat, rye, maize, potatoes, tobacco, turnip-fields, or- chards, meadows and patches of woodland ; a country of flowing water, salubrious, fer- tile and wealthy; dotted with hamlets, vil- lages and towns, and with the country-seats of affluent citizens."

If to this, so far a true picture, had been added churches, schoolhouses, col- leges, seminaries, academies, normal schools, railroads, canals, turnpike-roads, " colossal " bridges, telegraphs, telephones, iron-ore mines, furnaces, forges, rolling mills, foun- dries, palatial alms-houses, and hospitals, for the care and maintenance of the indi- gent poor, and that a very large propor- tion of the people who inhabit these coun- ties, and have borne their full share in establishing, maintaining, operating and governing all these things, are Pennsylvania Germans, the descendants of the Palatinate colonists, the statement would still have been

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strictly within the bounds of historical truth.

Without recurring again to the specially enterprising Pennsylvania Germans of other counties, mention should be made of the Fricks and Geisers, of Franklin. George Frick, the inventive genius, founder and general superintendent of the Waynesboro Steam-engine and Boiler Works, is a native of Lancaster County. a Pennsylvania German farmer's son, who removed to Franklin County when George was twelve years old. George learned the mill-wright trade, but soon after began building agricultural im- plements, and for his own use, and from his own patterns, and guided by his own native skill and ingenuity, built a stationary steam- engine. Such was his success in business that in a few years he was enabled to lay the foundations of the present extensive works. "Eclipse" steam engines, (stationary and traction), being the great specialty, are of the highest reputation for safety, complete- ness and efficiency, and many of which are shipped to foreign parts. In 1870 C. F. Bowman, another Pennsylvania German, was taken into co-partnership, and in 1873 a stock company, of nearly all such, with a capital of $100,000 was organized, and has since been incorporated with a largely in- creased capital, under the name of the Frick Company. Its works have been much enlarged and are now simply immense. It employs several hundred hands who turn out an almost incredible amount of work, the reputation of which, for superiority, like that of the pro- prietors for honesty, responsibility and fair dealing is rapidly becoming world-wide.

George Frick was also the founder, in (1860,) of the extensive business establishment in the same place, now and for a long time past conducted under the name and auspices of the Geiser Manufacturing Company. This also is a company of enterprising and intelligent Pennsylvania German business men, consisting, formerly, of Daniel Geiser, B. E. Price, Josiah Fahrney, Joseph Price, J. F. Oller, A. E. Price, Daniel Hoover, John Phillips, J. S. Oller and others. They were incorporated in 1869, with a capital of $134, - 000; their buildings alone cover about two acres of ground; they employed about 200 workmen in 1878, building agricultural im- plements, chiefly the celebrated Geiser Thresher and Separator, turning out not less than four such machines a day; the number of hands employed and work turned out are now much larger.

And so, coming back to York, and going through our extensive car building shops,

foundries, variety iron works, rolling mills, lumber yards. chain works, shoe factory, carpet factories, haircloth factory, agricul- tural implement-works, breweries, tanner- ies, cigar manufactories, furniture establish- ments, candy manufacturies, clothing houses, hardware, forwarding and commission houses, drug and dry good houses, our extensive sys- tem of flouring mills, our agricultural soci- ety and its splendid annual fairs, our gas works, paper-mills, and our wonderfully improved water-works, and we shall see that they have been nearly all originated, organ- ized, and are being successfully carried for- ward, chiefly by Pennsylvania German labor and capital. And who are our principal contractors, builders, architects, and civil engineers, but men of the same national- ity? The Schmalls, Dietzes, Gottwalts, Weigels, Ettingers, Dempwolfs, and many others. There is perhaps scarely a public building, church, or fine private residence now standing that was not designed, erected and adorned by the skill and handicraft of Pennsylvania German mechanics. And none have ever fallen from unskillful work . manship or bad materials.

And going back to the records we shall find that none of our clergy have ever been convicted of heresy or involved in private or public scandal. No judge has been im- peached, and not one of the great host of our public servants, high or low, has been con- victed of misdemeanor in office. In all our history, one man was declared a traitor, and he was not a Pensylvania German; three were defaulters, of whom one was a Pennsyl- vania German.

Follow these people to their settlements in Canada, and all over the great and grow- ing West, and we shall everywhere find them, as a people, what we have shown them-or rather what they have shown themselves-to be, here, in these so-called German counties, the same brave, honest, plain, and industrious citizens; yet always ready and willing to recognize their superiors in wisdom and knowledge, and to sit at their feet and learn.

These German counties are the Pennsylva- nia Palatinate. Among the Rhine Palat- inates their motto is :

Frölich Palz, Gott erhalt's !

Let ours be the same, and let us fearlessly sing :

Die Pennsylfaanisch Deutsche, die, Sin a'h netjuscht so dumm ;

Es Recht un's Ehrlich liewe sie, Un hasse's Schlecht un's Krumm.

Ignorance and prejudice, with an audacity

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rarely equalled, have led certain journalists in eastern Pennsylvania and western New York to indulge, within a few years past, in publications like the following, concerning the Pennsylvania Germans :

They live in low, squalid log-cabins with earthen floors, and know of nothing better. * * * They live more like pigs than human beings. #

* * -Westchester Local News, Bucks County Intelli- gencer.

THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH-A CLASS OF NATIVES THAT SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE.

DAUPHIN COUNTY, PENN., December 24, 1884 .- In this great America of ours, and in the very heart of its oldest and highest civilization there are whole communities whose present inhabitants, as well as their ancestors for a century past, were born where they now reside, and yet are almost entire strangers to the English language, hundreds and even thou- sands of them not being able to speak or under- stand a word of it. Take the counties of York, Lancaster, Lehigh, Berks, the northern half of Bucks, and the southern half of Dauphin, besides several other counties in the State, and four-fifths of the people will be found to entirely ignore the English language among themselves, and in many communities the English-speaking traveler will scarcely be able to find anyone to whom he can make himself understood, certainly no women.

These people are what are known as Pennsylva- nia Dutch. They have no written language, their speech being simply a dialect, the only analogy of which with anything else of human antecedents lies in the fact that an occasional English, German, French or Spanish word has been sandwiched with strange discordance into it. A great number of the people are bitterly opposed to their children's learn- ing to speak English, and if allowed to go to school at all it is to a private one with a Dutch teacher, and even at the public schools, where, of course, English is taught, the children relapse into their native jargon upon the play-ground, as was observed by the writer while passing a country schoolhouse only a few days ago. In fact, in passing through this entire section of central Pennsylvania the ordi- nary American will find his surroundings, as regards both language and the social customs of the people, just as strange and foreign to his ideas as though he were in Westphalia or Norway.

And not only this, but he will find that he is looked upon with the same degree of half suspi- cious curiosity, and as being as much of an inter- loper as would be the case in the foreign countries mentioned. This condition of things embraces a territory of many thousands of square miles of the very finest section of this great commonwealth, and a population of more than 300,000 people in the very heart of our civilization. The masses of the Southern people have ever labored under the im- pression that during the late unpleasantness our army was very largely recruited from foreign coun- tries. This view has been held up to the writer on innumerable occasions, and made to explain our ability to place such overwhelming armies in the field. This belief arose from the frequent capture of these Pennsylvania Dutchmen, who could not in many cases speak English, and in their contact with several regiments of troops raised in this re- gion. And yet the ancestors of these soldiers for generations back were born upon this soil. In fact, so far as the matter can be traced, this language is indigenous to this section, as no people using the same or a similar dialect are known anywhere else on the face of the earth. The native Hollander, be he of either high or low Dutch origin, can no more understand the people here than can the ordinary American. As a rule they are not an agreeable people to mingle with either in business dealings or in social intercourse. Ignorance, selfishness and greed are their governing traits .- Buffalo Courier.

It was not, nor is it the purpose of the writer of the foregoing chapter (on the Pennsylvania Ger- mans) to enter directly into any controversy with the authors of such productions as those above given. They have, however, induced him to set the truth, as taken chiefly from the records, some- what more fully and sharply in contrast with the libels manufactured by the irresponsible and anony- mous scribbler who seems to have obtained his in- formation from observations made "while passing a country schoolhouse." Even the average Pennsyl- vania German farmer, who lives in his spacious and comfortable brick or stone homestead, with all the modern conveniences, and quite as many of the luxuries as are worth having, can well afford to smile at, and even pity the ignorance or malice of such traducers.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

FRIENDS OR QUAKERS.

· BY GEORGE R. PROWELL.

THE Society of Friends, or Quakers, arose in England about the middle of the seventeenth century, a time of consider- able religious excitement, when the honest- hearted were aroused by the general preva- lence of vice and immorality, in which the king and court were but examples. The term Quaker (i. e., Trembler) was first used in 1650, and was given to Friends in derision by Justice Bennet, of Derby, because George Fox, the founder of the society, bade him and his companions to tremble at the word of the Lord. Its application was further induced by the fact, that some of the early preachers and others trembled violently when under strong religious exercise. They even accepted the name Quaker, so far as to style them- selves "the people called Quakers," in all official documents intended for publication to the world at large. The early form of mar- riage certificates contained the expression "tlie people of God, called Quakers," but in 1734 the Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania and New Jersey agreed " that ye words 'of God' in marriage certificates, between 'people' and . called Quakers,' be left out of that form for the future." In 1806 the expression was changed to the "religions society of Friends." Some of their principal characteristics, as differing from other professing Christians, was in opposition to all wars, oaths and a paid ministry; and a belief in the " light within," or grace of God, which is given to every man as a guide to salvation. George Fox says, "moreover when the Lord sent me forth into the world, he forbade me to put off my hat to any one, high or low; and I was required to thee and thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. And as I traveled up and down, I was not to bid people good morrow or good evening, neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one; and this made the sex and professions to rage, but the Lord's power carried me over all to his glory, and many came to be turned to God in a little time; for the heavenly day of the Lord sprang from on high, and broke forth apace."

For refusing to pay tithes in England,

the goods of Friends were taken to many times the value; for absence from the national worship a fine of £20 per month was im- posed, and when brought before the courts, the oath of allegiance was tendered to them as a pretext. upon their refusal to disobey the injunction "swear not at all," for the imposition of further penalties. Meetings of the Friends were broken up, and in many cases they were shamefully abused. The sober, upright lives of Friends were a con- stant reproach, and aroused the hatred of many around them. It is probable that fully one-half of their sufferings were due to this cause, as their persecutors certainly cared little for religion.

In 1659 a petition was presented to Par- liament signed by 164 Friends, offering their own bodies, person for person, to lie in prison instead of such of their brethren as were then under confinement and in danger of their lives therefrom. More than 250 died in prison, and while some in England were sentenced to banishment, it was only in New England that a few were hung and others had their ears cut off.

THEIR EMIGRATION TO AMERICA.

Persecutions were continued with more or less severity until the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England, when an act of toleration was passed in 1689. Prior to this, however, many Friends had sought a home for religious liberty in America, and when William Penn established his colony in 1682, it was but natural that a large number should have been attracted thither. The settlement at first near the Delaware River, and largely by Friends, gradually extended backward, and though the Scotch-Irish and Germans, after thirty years, began to pour into the country, the Friends wielded the political power of the Province of Pennsylvania for more than seventy years. At length, when others by unjust treatment had aroused the savage nature of the aborigines, and the mother country had become involved in a war with France, the pressuro brought to bear upon the Province, by England and the

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neighboring colonies, was too great for a continuance of a peaceful policy; warlike measures must be enacted, and yielding to the inevitable, several Friends withdrew from the halls of legislation in the Pennsylvania As. sembly, leaving their places to be filled by those not opposed to war.

THEIR EMIGRATION TO YORK COUNTY.

Friends were among the first settlers in York County, and they came from New Cas- tle County, Delaware, then a part of the "Territories" of Pennsylvania, and the southern part of Chester County. We naturally think of them as coming up to York County by the rich valleys of the Pequa and Conestoga to their new settlements on the "west side of the Susquehanna, " and in the northern part of York County, extending their settlements on west into what is now Adams County. When Friends emigrated from one place to another in which they wished to locate, permission was granted by the meetings to which they belonged, and the record of it was placed on the minute books. Among the first emigrants who came to this country are recorded the names of Garretson, Day, Cox, Bennet, Fincher; Hussey, Frazer, Hodgin, Carson, Davison, Elliot, Mills, Key, Smith, Underwood and others.

John Day built the first mill, in the north- ern part of the county, before 1740. It was twelve and one-half miles north of York. He became the first president justice of the York court. Nathan Hussey opened a ferry in 1736, near the present village of Golds- boro. At that point some of the early Quaker emigrants crossed the Susquehanna. John Wright, who in 1730 obtained a right for a ferry at the present site of Columbia, and who named Lancaster County, and after- ward for sixteen years was president justice of the county court there, was a Quaker, and many of his Society, as well as Germans and Scotch-Irish, crossed the Susquehanna at his ferry. Another prominent Quaker was Samuel Blunston, the agent of the Penns, who granted permits for lands west of the Susquehanna for several years, and had a controlling influence in the settlement of York County, from 1730 to 1735. He lived at John Wright's Ferry. John Wright, Jr., located at the present site of Wrightsville. Nathan Hussey, Thomas Cox and he, all Friends, became three of the five commis- sioners who laid off York County in 1749. Few people now living have a correct idea of the number of Friends who emigrated to, and resided in York County a century ago.

About the beginning of the present century the western emigration fever began to draw them away, and hundreds of them helped to establish new meetings in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and other points.

Much earlier than that many of them moved to North Carolina, Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

PLANS OF ORGANIZATION.

The organization and subordination of the meetings of Friends are as follows: One or more meetings for worship constitute one preparative meeting; one or more preparative meetings constitute one monthly meeting; several monthly meetings constitute one quarterly meeting; several quarterly meetings constitute one yearly meeting, which is an independent body; yet the different yearly meetings maintain more or less of corres- pondence with each other.

The preparative meetings are held monthly, and generally in the week prior to the re- gular monthly meeting, for the preparation of reports and other business, to be presented thereat.

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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 55

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