USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Lancaster's golden century, 1821-1921; a chronicle of men and women who planned and toiled to build a city strong and beautiful > Part 3
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In 1821, Lancaster had a number of churches,
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THE LANCASTER OF 182I
representing a diversity of religious views, and yet in spite of all this, the community has always been wonderfully free from religious controversy. The Mennonites, who were among the very first to come to the county, under the leadership of Hans Herr, and who became the first regularly organized denomination in the county, had thous- ands of members scattered through the city and county of Lancaster, one hundred years ago. The Amish, then as now, met in private houses. The Friends or Quakers had at least a half dozen meeting houses.
The Lutherans had come to Lancaster prior to 1730. The year of Lancaster's incorporation was the year of the Founding of Trinity Lutheran Church. The first church started in 1734 and dedicated in 1738 stood on the site now occupied by Trinity Chapel. When the Church of the Holy Trinity was rebuilt in 1766, Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg preached the sermon. In
this old church, the pipe organ, the frame of which is still one of the ornaments, was considered one of the magnificent instruments of the time. Con- cerning it a British prisoner in Lancaster in 1778 wrote " The largest pipe organ in America is now in use at the Lutheran Church." Some of the officers went to see this wonderful piece of me- chanism, and sent descriptions of it to their homes. The manufacturer had made every part of it with his own hands. It is in this church that Thomas Wharton, President of the Su-
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preme Executive Council of Pennsylvania was buried with military honors in 1778; the pas- tor of this church, Dr. G. H. E. Muhlenberg was the first President of Franklin College in 1787; here Thomas Mifflin, the first Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania, was buried in 1800. In 1821 the Rev. C. L. F. Endress was pastor. He was a man of fine literary culture, a fin- ished classical scholar, an author of no mean ability and a preacher of rare power. In 1911, Trinity celebrated the 150th anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of its present hand- some house of worship. Old Trinity church has been one of Lancaster's central landmarks for generations past.
The people of the Reformed Church had come into Lancaster early in the eighteenth century. The Ferrees, members of the Reformed Walloon Church settled in Lancaster County in 1712. With the Ferrees came Isaac Le Fever and brought with him his French Bible. In 1727 a number of Palatines came. As early as 1730 a congregation was organized at Lancaster and several other parts of the county. Before long Rev. Michael Schlatter of St. Gall, Switzerland came to America, and visited among other churches, those in Lancaster city and county. The first church edifice was dedicated in 1736. The earliest extant records are entitled : " Church Pro- tocol of the newly built Reformed church, here in the island of Pennsylvania, in Cannastoken, in the
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new town named Lancaster." The record says, " Now as regards the building of this, our church, the beginning was made in the year 1736, and it was so far completed that on the 20th of June, 1736 upon the festival of Whitsuntide we held divine worship in it for the first time. This first church was a log building. It stood on
the rear of the lot, near what is now the corner of Grant and Christian streets. The old log church was displaced by a second edifice in 1753: There is a tradition that the bell of the church when it was first procured hung for sometime upon a hickory tree in the neighborhood of Centre Square (probably the famed hickory tree where the Indians are said to have held their council), and was rung there until the steeple was built for it. In 1821 the pastor of the First Reformed church was the Reverend John Henry Hoffmeier. It is an interesting fact that there is still living in Lancaster a woman 97 years of age, who was baptized by Father Hoffmeier. He was a man of fine spirit, serving here in Lancaster for 25 years, from 1806 to 1831. A marble panel in his memory is one of the ornaments of the present First Reformed church. The present church building with its handsome twin spires was erected in 1852.
The Moravians were already settled in Lan- caster in 1742, when Count Zinzendorf then head of the church, on his visit to America came to this city and preached in the old Lancaster Court
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House, " where he made such an impression that many people asked him to send them a regular preacher of his denomination." Bishop Spangen- berg presided at a meeting in the Lancaster Court House in 1745, after which the Moravians of Lancaster organized themselves into a congrega- tion and planned to build their own house of worship. They owned a large tract of valuable land on Prince street which they turned into a cemetery, and purchased additional lots from the original Hamilton estate on the south side of Orange street from Market street westward, on which they erected a plain stone building. A new brick structure was built in 1820. The ori- ginal cornerstone of the first building is still to be seen on the southeastern upper corner of the present structure. In fact the old stone build- ing is still standing and is "the oldest church building left standing in the city, one of the few old landmarks that have not succumbed to the ravages of time, nor been defaced by the ruthless hand of so-called improvement." Dr. J. Max Hark in his History of the Old Moravian Chapel says " Here, that gentle missionary hero, old John Heckewelder, more than once delighted the scholars of the school with his interesting talks to them about his own experiences with the In- dians. Here David Zeisberger addressed our fathers and thrilled them with his own zeal and love for his " dear brown hearts," and once at least there came with him that knight errant of
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the mission field Frederick Post. It was in Au- gust, 1762 when a great Indian Treaty was be- ing held in this city. Our two missionaries came at the head of no less than 30 Indians, while 300 more, from all parts of the Province, were gath- ered together in an encampment just west of the town, and nightly terrified the inhabitants by the hideous noise of their drunken carousals. One evening these savages startled the little congre- gation exceedingly by appearing during the even- ing service and filling all the windows with their swarthy faces, some of them having large knives in their hands." In 1821 the Rev. Samuel Renike was pastor here.
St. James Parish of the Episcopal Church, or- ganized in 1744 built its first structure in 1750, and erected a new church building in 1820, the southeast corner of the new building resting on the old foundation. It is said that when Bishop White dedicated the church on Sunday, October 15, 1820 he wore the attire of an English Bishop, black silk stockings and silver shoe buckles. The name of William Augustus Muhlenberg, Rector of St. James Parish, will always be linked with all that is best in the life of old Lancaster. It was largely through his efforts that a better school system was introduced into the city. The story goes too that in St. James' churchyard lie two sisters who died in early womanhood, both noted for their beauty and character, one of whom might have become the wife of James Buchanan, the
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other of William A. Muhlenberg, but for the un- willingness of their father, whose displeasure had been incurred by Mr. Muhlenberg because of the institution of an evening service. There is a record to the effect that when the Orphan Asylum in Philadelphia burned to the ground, the Episcopal Church of Lancaster raised 300 dollars on Janu- ary 31, 1822 to rebuild the institution.
The Presbyterians had organized their congre- gation in Lancaster as early as 1763, and while their meeting house was being built on East Orange street on land granted by James Hamil- ton, the congregation met in the Court House. Rev. Mr. Sample was pastor for forty years, from 1780 to 1820, dividing his ministrations between the Presbyterian churches of Leacock, Lancaster and Middle Octorara. In 1820 the church was enlarged and improved. A newspaper of April 20, 1820 reports that " Divine Service may be ex- pected in the English Presbyterian meeting house in this city (the enlargement and alteration of which is now nearly completed) on the first Sabbath in May next at the usual hours." In 1821 Rev. Wm. Ashmead was pastor.
The first regular mission of the Roman Catholic Church in Lancaster was established by Jesuit Missionaries from Maryland, who visited an Indian trading post in this county, as early as 1730. The first church they erected in Lancaster was a log chapel. The church at Lancaster was first called " The Mission of St. John Nepomucene."
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It is not known just when the name was changed to "St. Mary's of the Assumption." In 1821 Father Holland was one of the two priests serving the parish. This man has an interesting history. Robert J. Thompson living on South Queen street had an attack of yellow fever. When scarcely any body would attend to his wants during his brief illness, the Rev. J. J. Holland, pastor of St. Mary's church, ministered to his wants, also contracted the disease, and died universally lamented. In St. Mary's cemetery a time-worn marble tomb marks the resting place of this young martyr- priest of St. Mary's, who at the age of 37 laid down his life for another. He was succeeded by Rev. Bernard Keenan who served St. Mary's Parish for a period of fifty-four years, and who according to an authoritative historian, "endeared himself to all classes, both Catholics and Protes- tants, by his actions and languages, and by a beautiful charity."
Methodist ministers first came to Lancaster County in 1781 and formed the Lancaster Circuit a year later, under the appointment of Rev. William Partridge. In the city of Lancaster the Rev. Jacob Gruber preached occasionally about 1805. The first regular service held in town was at the house of Philip Benedict by Rev. Henry Boehm in 1807. A number of circuit preachers followed. In 1821 the Methodists had no regu- lar church home in Lancaster. For a time they held service in a room over the market house, in the public square on Market street.
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The Hebrew congregation in Lancaster has a history that is older than is commonly supposed. They had a society here prior to 1747. In that year the borough of Lancaster conveyed a half acre of land in the township of Lancaster " in trust for the Society of Jews settled in and about Lan- caster, to have and use the same as a burying- ground." This society is said to be the third in point of antiquity in the United States, the first having been in Newport, R. I. and the second in New York City. One of the trustees to whom this lot was given was Joseph Simons, one of the richest and most prominent Indian traders in the province of Pennsylvania. For a time he had a store, about 1740, at the southeast corner of Penn Square. He made frequent trips to the Ohio and Illinois country. He died in Lancaster in 1804 and on his tombstone in the old Hebrew burial ground, is this beautiful inscription
" And Joseph gave up the Ghost. And died in a good old age. An old man and full of years And was gathered to his people."
Joseph Simon, departed this life the 12th day of the month Shebot, in the year 5565, corresponding with the 24th of Jan. 1804, aged 92 years, in a good old age.
" And he walked with God, and he was not; for God took him."
At the Portraiture Loan Exhibit in Lancaster in 1912 there was exhibited a miniature of Rebecca Gratz, the granddaughter of Joseph
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THE LANCASTER OF 1821
Simons. She was often in Lancaster, and tradi- tion says that she was the inspiration of Sir Walter Scott's heroine, Rebecca in " Ivanhoe."
There was an interesting attempt made at the establishment of a Union church in Lancaster about a hundred years ago. John Eliot an Englishman came to this country and settled in Lancaster about 1816. For several years he preached in the old Friend's meeting house, then he decided to erect a church called the Union church. He purchased a lot on Chestnut street between Duke and Queen and erected a church. In May, 1822 the following notice appears in a Lancaster paper: " The building recently erected in the city by Christians of all denominations will, with Divine permission, be dedicated to the public worship of Almighty God on the second Sabbath of this month." It was a splendid dream of inter- denominational fellowship, but it failed.
Thus we see some of the elements entering into the Lancaster of 1821. "A map of busy life, its fluctuations and its vast concerns." This was the motto of a newspaper in those comparatively quiet times. Life was neither busy, nor were the con- cerns vast. And yet men laid solid foundations in those earlier days in business, education, reli- gion and government for the development of in- fluential cities and great Commonwealths.
CHAPTER III
A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
ITHIN a few years after Lan- caster became a city there were marked signs of public improve- ment. In 1823 the following ordinance was passed : "From and after July Ist it shall be the duty of the inhabitants of the city of Lancaster to pave their sidewalks with brick." From this time on there are frequent records of the building of bridges and grading, turnpiking, paving and the extension of streets. The streets of course kept their English names, relics of royalty, King, Queen, Prince, Duke. It is an interesting fact that in 1846 a resolution was adopted by Councils " to consider the propriety of altering the names of the streets of the city so as to give them more of an American or republican stamp." But the change was never made.
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A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
The beginning to secure a regular water system for the city was made in 1822. Efforts were made for several years to discover a water supply. A committee was appointed to " search for water." In 1829 the Lancaster Water Co. was incorpor- ated, and in 1831 a number of progressive and public-spirited citizens seeing that nothing was being accomplished urged the formation of a new company and the trial of a new plan. A town meeting was held and the appointment of an engineer urged, but still nothing was definitely ac- complished until 1836, when the mayor was au- thorized to borrow seventy thousand dollars in order to carry the project into effect. Eight acres of land at the east end of King street were bought as a site for a reservoir, contracts were entered into for building a dam, trenches were dug in the streets, pipes laid, and by February 1837 water was brought into the city. In 1851 another reservoir was built, in 1882 a standpipe was erected for serving the higher parts of the city, and since then continuous improvements in the way of pumping stations and filtering plant have made the Lancaster Water Works a credit to the city and adequate to its needs.
In days of yore a man's loyalty to his Fire Company was one of his chief sources of interest. There is a reference as far back as 1744 to the use of ladders, hooks and buckets in the extinguishing of fires. In 1761 an engine house stood on West King street between Water and Mulberry streets.
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In 1765 the burgesses agreed that a house be erected to contain three fire engines on the north- west corner of the market house. At the sugges- tion of the committees of the three fire companies, the Sun, Union and Friendship, an engine was im- ported from England. Active and public-spirited citizens did their best to defend the town from fire, in spite of crude and ineffective implements. Volunteer fire companies were in existence for over a century and formed the centre of a great deal of the social and political life of the citizens
of the community. There was great rivalry as to the honor of priority between them. The quar- terly banquets which after 1830 were changed into yearly banquets were fixed institutions in Lancas- ter for many years. In 1820 the Washington Company was organized, in 1836 the American, in 1839 the Humane, in 1852 the Shiffler, in 1856 the Empire. In 1882 a paid city fire department was substituted for the volunteer system, and has since kept pace in equipment and efficiency with the development of the city and the needs of modern life.
Among the great events of historical note in Lancaster in early days was the visit of General Lafayette. The citizens of Lancaster, not behind the rest of the nation in the expression of their gratitude toward this illustrious defender of liberty, invited him when he came to the United States in 1824-25 to honor their city by a visit. On July 27, 1825, he came to Lancaster and was
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A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
elaborately entertained by the people. In the morning of the halcyon day General Lafayette was met in Chester county by a committee of citizens from Lancaster. " Three elegant barouches, each drawn by four fine horses, had been secured for conducting the General and his suite to Lancas- ter." As he entered Lancaster county he was re- ceived by an escort of cavalry and formally wel- comed as the guest of the county. Two miles east of Lancaster city a battalion of city infantry and the " Strasburg Blues " received him. Young men with sashes and badges and cockades ranged under separate banners, troops of citizens on horseback, farmers with ears of wheat in their hats as emblems of plenty, thousands of citizens of all ages, joined in the welcome. There was a salute of thirteen guns as he entered the city and the band played " Hail Columbia."
On King street an immense floral arch had been erected. At the corner of King and Duke streets, Lafayette was saluted by fifty veterans of the Revolution, lined up on a platform in front of the Farmer's Bank. The historian says, "As the General gazed on the veterans he said, 'These are the wrecks of that gallant band that in the vigor of youth and full strength of manhood, stood by me, side by side in the hour of their country's peril: That country-that grateful country-will smooth the pillow of their declining years.'" On another arch on King street was inscribed, " Hail, Friend
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of Liberty " and " Brandywine, 1776-Yorktown 1781." There were a number of arches on West King street, some of them decorated with portraits of Washington, Wayne, Hand, Montgomery and Franklin. The procession then moved to Frank- lin College on the west side of North Queen street, between Lemon and James, the same building formerly known as " The Old Store House," built by the State of Pennsylvania early in the Revolu- tionary period for the housing of military sup- plies. From there Lafayette went to the hotel where he was welcomed by Mayor Lightner and given a dinner prepared by the ladies of Lancas- ter. In the evening a complimentary ball was given in his honor in Masonic Hall. He left the ball to attend a dinner given to him by the veterans of 1776 at the house of Leonard Eich- holtz. There Lafayette drank a toast to the memory of General Washington and then to the memory of Generals Warren, Montgomery, Mercer, Nash, Greene, Hand, Wayne, Gates, St. Clair, Morgan and "our departed female patriots." Next morning Lafayette visited the Lancastrian School at Prince and Chestnut streets and was greeted by several hundred boys and girls, who arose and sang as he entered the door,
" Hero Hail! all hail to thee Champion of our liberty."
Later Lafayette dined with George Ross, son of the Signer of the Declaration of Independence,
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who lived at the northwest corner of Prince and Prague streets. £ At four o'clock he went to the Court House and was given another banquet by a hundred citizens "in the same room in which General Washington dined on his visit to the city." After a number of toasts to Lancaster and a variety of patriotic themes, Lafayette concluded with a classic toast to " Our Fair Countrywomen."
" Woman, the happiest pledge of Heaven's good will, Woman, the perfect picture of its skill ; Woman, who all our noblest thoughts employs, Woman, the center of all earthly joys."
The next day he left for Baltimore on an ele- gant traveling carriage drawn by four gray horses, after which he went to Washington where he was the guest of the President of the United States. When the death of Lafayette occurred in 1834, no community felt the loss more keenly than did Lancaster. City councils ordered its halls to be draped in mourning for a period of six months.
It was during the period under consideration that rapid improvements were made in transpor- tation which finally ended in bringing the railroad to Lancaster. £ In very early days of course pack horses were used as a means of transportation. The bridle paths were usually Indian trails. These were soon superseded by the King's High- ways, one of the most important of which was the "great road " from Philadelphia to Lancaster. Then came the turnpike period with the incorpor-
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ation in 1792 of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Co., and for a time the travel by stage line became enormous. This turnpike to Philadelphia, 62 miles long was one of the earliest and most important enterprises in the state, and was the first road of the kind made in the United States. There were sixty taxerns on the route be- tween Lancaster and Philadelphia, almost one for every mile.
This too was the period of the Conestoga wagon. It is not known who first made a Conestoga wagon, but it is given to Lancaster county to claim the honor. The wonderful breed of horses raised here, powerful draught horses, and the unique canvas-covered wagons were the special pride of the owners. The Conestoga wagon of the Revolution and post-Revolution period, known as, "The Ship of Inland Com- merce " was said to be far superior to anything of that date in England. Witmer's bridge, which was erected in 1799, and spans the Conestoga a short distance east of the city, was on the direct wagon route from Philadelphia to the western part of Pennsylvania. The ponderous Cones- toga team was superseded by the canal boat and railway car. Previous to this change, the turn- pike presented a busy scene-an almost unbroken procession of these wagons, " each of them drawn by six strong large horses, and many of the teams having a row of bells hanging over the collar of each horse," After the loss of their occupation,
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because of the inroads of canals and railroads, the wagoners got up a song which ran as follows :
" Oh, it's once I made money by driving my team, But now all is hauled on the railroad by steam,
May the devil catch the man that invented the plan,
For its ruined us poor wagoners, and every other man."
Then came the experiment of the Conestoga Navigation Company, a canal scheme to use the waters of the Conestoga for receiving and send- ing goods to Baltimore and Philadelphia. By means of nine locks and slackwater pools, com- munication 18 miles in length was secured from Lancaster to Safe Harbor on the Susquehanna at the mouth of the Conestoga. By means of the tide- water canal to Port Deposit a navigable communi- cation was opened to Baltimore. This work was completed in 1829. Reigart's landing was a busy place in those days. Pleasure and packet boats, some sixty and seventy feet long, drawn by horses, conveyed passengers and merchandise to and fro from lock to lock.
The slow and safe transportation by packet boat was soon displaced by the coming of the railroad.
As early as 1826 the State Legislature granted a charter for the Columbia, Lancaster and Phila- delphia Railroad. Preliminary surveys were made by Major Wilson and Joshua Scott, of Lan- caster, who was considered one of the best civil engineers and draughtsmen in the state, By
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1828 the engineers reported they had located twenty miles of the road east from Columbia, running in an almost straight line from Little Conestoga to Big Conestoga Creek, by way of what is now known as the " Cut-off." Progressive citizens protested, obtained an appropriation of sixty thousand dollars from the state and had the survey changed so as to have the railroad run through Lancaster. The change necessitated the building of several important bridges. On the last day of March, 1834 three passenger coaches drawn by horses arrived at Columbia from Lan- caster, and three days thereafter the locomotive made its first trip. On the day appointed for the opening of the road from Columbia to Philadel- phia, Governor Wolf, members of the Legislature and other distinguished guests arrived at Colum- bia by way of canal from Harrisburg. " The cars were in waiting " says the historian, "with locomotive attached and steam up. The cars were
taken to Lancaster in one hour. When the dis- tinguished party passed over the road from Lan- caster to Philadelphia on April 16, 1834, they were met at every station with crowds of people who came from their farms and workshops to see the novel sight." W. B. Wilson in his history of the Pennsylvania Railroad says that the first two locomotives commissioned on the same day were called the "Lancaster " and the " Columbia." The weight of the "Lancaster " was 8 tons and was capable of drawing 56 tons. It took eight
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