USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania > Part 8
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The country here is studded with the finest improved farms where existed a large river bottom. This afterward became a dense forest, cleared by the early pioneers and converted into luxurious farms. Mt. Alto is most widely known for its sanitorium.
QUINCY
Quincy derives its name from John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. It lies in a rich agricultural dis- trict between Mont Alto and Waynesboro.
Quincy was founded in 1745 by Jacob Wertz, owner of the land, and has of late years been a progressive little town. The shops of the Quincy Engine Company were formerly located here but were recently moved to Chambersburg. The buildings however are still standing.
The United Brethren Orphanage is located at Quincy. There are about eighty-five or ninety children there at present. The many pretty buildings which belong to it adorn the town. The Old
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Folks' Home is situated just across the road from the orphanage. The Cumberland Valley trains stop at the Orphanage and all the buildings can be seen from the railroad.
Quincy at present has two churches, the Lutheran and the United Brethren. It has two school buildings. One of them, a very well built school, was built and formerly used by the Orphanage. Some of the Quincy children go to school there now as the township supplies the teachers while the building belongs to the Orphanage.
MARION
Marion is a beautiful little town about six miles south of Cham- bersburg. The first building was erected in 1810. For some years it was called "Independence", but later when a post office was es- tablished it was called Marion in honor of General Marion. The first store was owned by Mayor Cook in 1822. The small village has grown to quite a large one. There are about five hundred inhabi- tants now. There are also two general merchandise stores, a bank and a warehouse. The Cumberland Valley railroad and the trolley run thru it.
Most all of the houses have been built in the last few years. They are all of the modern, up-to-date type. It has two churches, the Lutheran and the Reformed, and four good schools. The school buildings are modern.
WAYNESBORO
Waynesboro, formerly called Waynesburg, is in Washington township. It is two miles from the Maryland line and nine miles from Greencastle. The land upon which the town stands was taken by John Wallace, Sr., and gradually built up and was called "Wal- lacetown." In the year 1797, John Wallace, Jr., formally laid out the present town and called it Waynesburg in honor of Gen. An- thony Wayne, "Mad Anthony" of Revolutionary fame. The town was made into a borough Dec. 31, 1818, and the name became Waynesboro. It has always been a great manufacturing place and in its early history John Bell for years carried on a large pottery in this place. At the present time it is one of the most progressive and up-to-date towns in the valley. It is full of business and its people take great pride in their industries, schools and the beauty of their city.
ROUZERVILLE
Rouzerville, southeast of Waynesboro, was laid out in 1868 by Peter Rouzer. On Saturday afternoon, July 4th, 1863, about 2:00 o'clock, this little town was wide awake, for its citizens, aided the
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Union forces to capture nine miles of Lee's wagon train as he was retreating from Gettysburg.
SNOW HILL
Snow Hill or Schneeberg is situated on Antietam creek, in Quincy township, one mile south of Quincy. Since the decline of Ephrata in Lancaster county, it is the principal place of worship of the German Seventh-day Baptists of the United States. The society had a farm of about one hundred and thirty acres, with a grist mill upon it. They also had a large brick building, two stories high and 120 feet long, for the brothers and sisters. They still have a church here where they worship every Saturday.
GREENCASTLE
Greencastle is ten miles south of Chambersburg, The land for this town was taken by a warrant issued to Samuel Smith in Sep- tember, 1750. He conveyed to John Smith Nov. 4, 1761, John Smith conveyed to John Davidson Nov. 6, 1762, and he sold to William Allison July 26, 1766, and by his deed dated May 31, 1769, he con- veyed the tract, 300 acres, to his son, Col. John Allison, who laid out the town in 1782. He named it Greencastle, some think in honor of Maj. General Nathaniel Green of Revolutionary fame, but it is more likely it was called after Green Castle, a large fishing station, where there was a fort and harbor in the county of Donegal, Prov- ince of Ulster, Ireland. Col. Allison divided his town plot into 256 lots of equal size, numbered from 1 to 256 and sold them at $8.00 per lot. Dr. McLelland, a resident of Greencastle, and one of its early settlers, was the first regularly bred physician in this part of the county. His medical visits extended into the interior of Bed- ford, Huntingdon and adjacent counties, a distance of some sixty miles.
At the east end of the present town, was an old tavern or castle which was painted green, from which the town may have derived its name.
When George Washington was on his way to the French and Indian war, he stopped at this town and stayed all night at this old tavern. There was also a tribe of Indians that lived west of this town along the Conococheague creek. They were known as the Cornplanter Indians. These Indians sold this land to a man by the name of Kennedy. This land was handed down through three gen- erations of this family.
There was also an old fort west of Greencastle, one of the earliest erected. It was afterwards turned into a distillery and was town down last summer.
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Northwest of the town one will see a small park, which is the place where Enock Brown's school once stood. While Brown was teaching his pupils, they were all attacked by several Indians, and were all murdered, except one, who later recovered. This hap- pened during Pontiac's conspiracy. There is a large monument marking this place and several small ones which mark the grave- yard and small spring.
CASHTOWN
Cashtown is situated in Hamilton township on the State road leading from Chambersburg to Mercersburg.
UPTON
Upton is situated in Peters township, on the turnpike from Greencastle to Mercersburg. The first house was built by Alexander White in the year 1812. The town was commenced by Geo. Cook in the year 1840 but the greater portion has been built since 1860. It was first called Jacksonville in 1836 but afterwards changed. At the suggestion of Miss Elizabeth Watson of Greencastle, the name of Upton was taken for post office and village. The post office has been discontinued.
MERCERSBURG
This is a very old settlement. About 1730 a man by the name of James Black built a mill at or near where the town now stands. His settlement was called Blackstown. Nearly all the set- tlers were Scotch-Irish and in 1738 a Presbyterian church was or- ganized under the name of "The West Conococheague Church." Mr. William Smith bought out Mr. Black as early as 1750 and it passed into the hands of Mr. Wm. Smith, Jr., and was known as 'Squire Smith's town," the proprietor being justice of the peace for Cum- berland county. Mercersburg was also a great trade center with Indians and first settlers on western frontiers. It was not uncom- mon to see from fifty to one hundred pack horses there at on time loaded with salt, iron, etc., ready to go over the mountains to the Monongahela country. Many unruly spirits were here as is always true of frontier places and riots were frequent and gave the British troops at Fort Loudon some trouble. The town was laid out in 1780 by William Smith, Jr. He called it Mercersburg in honor of Gen. Hugh Mercer, of the Revolutionary army who fell mortally wounded at the battle of Princeton January 3, 1777, and died a few days af- terwards. Gen. Mercer was an eminent physician and resided for a number of years at Fort Davis, south of Mercersburg, near the Maryland line, when he practiced his profession. As early as 1756
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he was a captain in the Provincial service, having had training and experience in Europe and a liking for military life. He rose to the rank of Colonel and then General. He was intimately acquainted with Washington and served with him in Forbes' campaign in 1758. Upon Washington's suggestion Congress appointed in 1776 Conrad Mercer a brigadier general in the army of the United States. While the army was in New Brunswick, New Jersey, General Mercer had shown great kindness to Mr. Wm. Smith and he named his town in his honor.
Mercersburg is situated in Franklin county, in the midst of a fertile limestone region at a distance of an hours walk from the base of what is called the North Mountain. The scenery formed by the mountains which bend around it like a crescent or ampitheatre con- trasting as it does with the rich open country below is very pictur- esque. The Tuscarora mountains are on the west, Two Top, be- tween Casey Knob and the Tuscarora is directly on the south. Mount Parnell on the north and Blue Ridge is on the east.
WELSH RUN
Welsh Run is six miles from Mercersburg in Franklin county. David Davis, an immigrant from Wales purchased a large tract of land along the stream nearby between the years 1736 and 1740; being joined by a number of others from his native land the place received the name of Welsh Run.
CAMP HILL
Camp Hill is in Montgomery township at the base of Casey's Knob, six miles from Mercersburg. It was started by Wm. Auld, Esq., about the year 1830 and took its name from the large camp meeting held there.
MASON AND DIXON
Under the deed of 1760 commissioners were appointed to lay down the lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland. They met at New Castle to begin work on the 19th of November, 1760. They made but slow progress and the Penns and Calverts who were at that time in London, becoming impatient at the delay, engaged Charles Mason and James Dixon of that city to complete the sur- vey. These two men were described as mathematicians and sur- veyors, or merely as surveyors, but it is evident that they were both men of profound scientific learning. Both were afterwards elected members of the American Philosophical Society. Mason was at one time assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. After re- turning from their work in America which included, in addition to
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laying down the boundary line, the measurement of the length of a degree of longitude in Maryland, they were sent to the Cape of Good Hope by the Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus. Mason did other important astronomical work. Late in life he came to Philadelphia and became a citizen of that city where he died in 1787. Dixon died in Durham, England, ten years previous.
These two men whose names have become so familiar to Ameri- cans, left England in August 1763, and arrived in Philadelphia the 15th of November. The work on the boundary line was begun early and completed in 1767. In 1768 the placing of the stones was com- pleted. In establishing the difficult point around the circle bounding the Delaware on the north, one of which was to be the beginning of the line to the west, these scientific engineers with the superior in- struments, reported that the line as ascertained by them would not pass one inch to the westward or eastward "of the points indicated by the colonial surveyors several years previously, and that the sighting poles and the rude chain measurements of 1761 and 1762 would have answered every purpose, had the proprietors so thought." The beginning of the east and west line was indicated by setting up a "remarkable stone" bearing on its east and north faces the arras of the Penns and on the other side the Baltimore coat of arms. Be- ginning at this stone, the end of the line fifteen statute miles due south of the most southern point of Philadelphia, the line, which is known as Mason and Dixon's in political history, was extended due west two hundred and eighty miles, eighteen chains and twenty-one links and two hundred and fifty-four miles, thirty-eight chains and thirty-six links, due west from the river Delaware, and would have continued it to the end of five degrees longitude the western bounds of the Province of Pennsylvania but hostile Indians prevented.
As the surveying party proceeded westward they cut down the trees of the forests through which they passed, making a path or "Visto" as they called it, eight yards wide, or four yards on either side of the line. During the month of October 1765 the party was engaged on the part of the line which bounds Washington county on the north, and on the 27th of that month they ascended the summit of North Mountain whence they observed the Potomac river. On the 4th of June, 1766, they had reached the little Allegheny and there broke off work for fear of the Indians. A number of months was occupied in negotiating with the Six Nations, and under the escort of a body of braves the party reached the point two hundred and forty-four miles from the Delaware river, just thirty-six miles from the proposed end of the line. They dared not go further be- cause their Indian escorts ordered them to desist at this point.
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Before the survey was finally abandoned twenty-six of the party became frightened and left their comrades. The line was com- pleted by other surveyors many years afterwards and its end is shown by a caisson of stones five feet in height which is the north- west corner of the state of Maryland."
Mason and Dixon is the name of the little town on the Cumber- land Valley railroad. It marks the dividing line between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the history of which is given in the above.
MIDDLEBURG
The first settler here, who built the first house, was Jacob Wolgamot. The village was founded by Jacob Strickler in 1812. It is on the main road leading from Greencastle to Hagerstown, and takes its name from the fact that it is equi-distant between the two places. It was originally called "Spiglersburg". Wolgamot, it is said, built his house on the State line, one half of the house in Mary- land and one half in Pennsylvania, so he could worry the officers who occasionally called to see him on official business. This house is still standing and occupied at the present time. Afterwards this town was surnamed Mutton-town.
The post office address is State Line instead of Middleburg be- cause there is a town in Snyder county named Middleburg, and, that the two towns would not conflict with each other's post office, they decided to call this town's post office State Line.
The Middleburg Reformed church had its first preaching by Rev. John Rebaugh in 1837. The Church was organized in 1852 and was supported by a congregation of sixty-four members.
In 1845 a United Brethren church was erected at the eastern part of the town, on the road leading from Middleburg to Waynes- boro. This church is still standing at the present time.
In 1846 in the central part of the town there was a very pro- gressive store built; and in a few years this town was thickly popu- lated and is called the garden spot of the world.
HAGERSTOWN, MD.
The valley of which Hagerstown is now the center known as Hagerstown valley, or a portion of Cumberland Valley, a northern continuation of the valley of Virginia, is embraced between the North and the South Mountains. The valley is drained on the east side by the Antietam creek, flowing a few miles from the base of South Mountain into the Potomac, or Coriongoruton river-(shining in the sun like molten silver)-toward the west, the valley is also drained by the larger stream known as the Conococheague.
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A German adventurer, whose name was Capt. Jonathan Hager arrived in America about the year of 1730 and pushed on to the "back country" of the Providence of Maryland. The date of his arrival at his future home is not known, but it must have been shortly after the very first settlement of Conococheague and the location of Col. Cressop at Long Meadows. In 1739, when Hager obtained his first deed from Lord Baltimore, that conveying to him the tract of two hundred acres which he called Hager's Choice, he was living in a house which already had been built upon. it. It contained an arched cellar, which was the refuge of Mr. Hager and his family during the Indian war.
Hagerstown is the county seat of Washington county, Mary- land. It is 86 miles from Baltimore. It lies in a fertile valley over- looked by the South Mountains and the North Mountains.
It was laid out as a town in 1762 by Captain Jonathan Hager. It was an important station on the old National road. Gen. Robert E. Lee concentrated his forces here before the battle of Gettysburg.
Kee Mar College, a nonsectarian school, was established here in 1852. Like Metzger College, Carlisle, Pa., it is no longer in ex- istence. The larger colleges absorbed the smaller schools for girls. in the Cumberland valley.
SHARPSBURG
Sharpsburg, Md., is not in the Cumberland Valley but is indirect- ly associated with Chambersburg and Hagerstown, a brief account of the founder and of its early history will show how this was brought about.
On July 9, 1763, Joseph Chapline laid out on his tract, "Joe's: Lot", the town of Sharpsburg in lots and named it in honor of Gov. Horatio Sharpe, who was at that time the proprietor's active repre- sentative at Annapolis. Chapline came from England and was one of the earliest settlers in Washington county, Maryland. He was a soldier in the French and Indian war. His farm, Mt. Pleasant, was. on the Potomac river about two miles from Sharpsburg, and there in a private graveyard his body lies buried. When Chapline laid out Sharpsburg, which is, next to Hagerstown, the oldest in the county, there were four houses in it, one was a log house used for years as an Indian trading post. Living near Welsh Run at this time was a Welsh minister named Williams. He was a Presbyterian missionary to Virginia and after the death of his wife emigrated to America and settled in Frederick county, Virginia. Here he was tried for per- forming a marriage ceremony, which under the laws of the Province could only be done by a clergyman of the established church. He then came to Maryland with his three daughters, one of them
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Ruhannah, married Chapline; the second, Jane, married William Price, a lawyer in Hagerstown, after it was made the county seat. The third, Sarah, married Colonel Chambers the founder of the town of Chambersburg, Pa. All three were runaway matches. Wil- liam's wife owned a large property in Wales and her daughter, Mrs. Chambers, went to Wales and obtained her portion. The other two daughters never did. Joseph Chapline's oldest son, Joseph, inherit- ed the Mt. Pleasant estate. He was a man of great consequences and an officer in the Revolutionary war leading a large body of vol- unteers to the army. He died at Mt.Pleasant in September, 1821, aged 75 years. Unlike the Hagerstown valley, Pleasant valley was covered with a dense and almost impenetrable forest and the early settlers had hard work to bring their lands under cultivation. This woods was alive with wolves and other beasts of prey which de- stroyed the domestic animals of the settlers.
WILLIAMSPORT, MD.
The history of Williamsport, Md., dates back to 1787 just after the Revolution, when the city was founded by General Otho Holland Williams, a close friend of Washington and a member of his staff. Like Shepherdstown, a few miles further down the Potomac river, Williamsport was considered as a possible site for the National cap- ital; in fact, General Williams probably founded it in the hope that it would be chosen. It is said that the high tableland of the upper Potomac was Washington's personal choice. When, however, Con- gress decided to build a city on the present site of Washington, D. C., General Williams was not discouraged, but continued to carry out his plans for Williamsport.
Since the Revolution Williamsport has often figured in history. The first of the battles which raged along the Potomac during the four years of the Civil War took place on the slopes of Double- day's Hill, on the Maryland side of the river. Here a detachment of Federal troops under General Doubleday checked for several days the advance of the Confederate body. Here too, General Lee cross- ed the Potomac on his retreat from the disastrous battle of Get- tysburg. On this occasion battles raged all around the city, and running fights in the streets were every day matters.
It is Williamsport's pride that after having been the dividing line between the North and South during the war, it has now opened a new gateway for through travel between the two. This gateway is the bridge across the Potomac, built at an expense of $100,000, and finally opened in the fall of 1909. By taking the route over this bridge the tourist can considerably shorten the trip from Hagerstown
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to Winchester, and secure uniformly good roads. However, Wil- liamsport should not be considered merely as a city to be passed through. Both the long-distance tourist and the automobilists of nearby cities in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland who are plan- ning week-end trips may stop off at Williamsport to good advantage. The Cumberland Valley offers much beautiful scenery, and the roads as a rule are excellent.
Several important industries add to the prosperity and wealth of the city. It is a half-way station between Cumberland and Baltimore on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, and hundreds of boats unload coal to be shipped over the Cumberland Valley and Western Maryland railways. Other industries are the large tannery of W. D. Bryon & Sons, the coal yards, brick kilns and lumber yards, and manufac- tories of doors and sashes, brooms and overalls. The population is in the neighborhood of 2,000. No better commentary on the en- terprise and progressiveness of the citizens can be made than the part they took in the construction of the new bridge.
The Conococheague divides the town from the most thrifty and prosperous suburb known as Hoffman's Addition, where the large tannery of W. D. Byron & Sons is located. Since the establishment of this big industry, which gives employment to several hundred men, a little town has sprung up around it with two stores and a number of pretty and suitable homes. The population of this suburb is at least several hundred persons. Byron's tannery occupies ten acres and the buildings are all of brick and the entire plant sub- stantial and equipped in the most modern fashion. The firm does an immense business and the plant ranks among the best and most important in its line in the east. The proprietors are all progres- sive business men.
Adjacent to this suburb on the north is located the plant of the Conococheague Brick & Earthenware Company which gives employ- ment to about fifty men. The company manufactures brick of a superior quality and the plant is one of the most modern in this section, having an enormous capacity. Since the plant was started the trade of the company has constantly grown until it has reached large proportions. The firm is Victor Cushwa & Sons, also widely known in the coal trade of the town and extensive shippers on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
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CHAPTER VII EARLY SCHOOLS
F ROM THE KNOWN CHARACTER of the early settlers, there remains no doubt that schools,were established in all the settlements, although it is very hard to discover any ยท records of the same. The practice of opening a school in the vicinity of the church, as soon as erected, or in the absence of the church, in the vicinity of the usual place of worship, is evidence that schools were established very soon after the first settlements were made within the Valley.
Most of the school houses of early times were built by joint vol- untary efforts of the citizens, some giving material, others labor and money. The schools were supported by subscription, each patron paying for each pupil sent a fixed sum per quarter or per month. Many of the earlier teachers possessed very limited qualifications. When it is remembered that any one could open a school that desired to teach, and if popular with the people, might secure a good per- centage, this does not excite surprise. In respect to morals, many were not above reproach and to take a "wee drop too much" was not received in the same light then as now. .
In Hampton Township, half a mile north of Shiremanstown, stands a school house built in 1797, which is still occupied for school purposes. Its history is as follows :- A German Reformed Congre- gation, organized in the eastern portion of the County, shortly before this, agreed to build a house for school purposes, in which also to hold their religious meetings until a church should be built. John Schepp, having erected a new dwelling house, had the old one for sale and this it was designed to purchase for the purpose above stated. This school house which was composed of logs, contained originally two apartments, one occupying one third of the building being design- ed as the teacher's residence. The dimentions of the building are as follows,-length 30 ft. 6 in, width 28 ft. 9in. and height of story 10 ft. 6 in. This building has had several new floors, a new roof and
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