USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Report of committee appointed to conduct celebration of 200th anniversary of first permanent white settlement in Lancaster County > Part 4
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The committee is indebted to Mr. E. T. Fraim, W. U. Hensel, A. F. Hostetter, A. C. Bruner, and others for their entertainment of invited guests and speakers of the occasion.
All of the above is respectfully re- ported by your committee as their execution of the task delegated to them by this society.
Reported October 7, 1910.
F. R. DIFFENDERFFER,
Chairman ; H. FRANK ESHLEMAN, Secretary;
W. U. HENSEL,
C. I. LANDIS,
MISS M. B. CLARK,
1
W. RIDDLE,
MRS. M. N. ROBINSON,
A. K. HOSTETTER,
J. A. COYLE,
A. F. HOSTETTER,
L. B. HERR,
B. C. ATLEE,
MISS A. NEVIN,
H. L. RAUB,
D. F. MAGEE,
GEO. STEINMAN, ex off.
Members of Committee.
Minutes of October Meeting.
Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 7, 1910.
The Lancaster County Historical Society held its regular monthly meet- ing this vening in the Smith Free Library Building. There was a very encouraging attendance of the mem- bers. President Steinman was in the chair.
Librarian Steigerwalt announced the following donations and publica- tions received since the previous meeting: A Book of Poems, "The Poor But Honest Soldier," 1813, from Miss Ida V. Lipp; Proceedings of the Penn- sylvania Federation of Historical So- cieties, January, 1910; American
Catholic
Historical Society, Decem-
ber, 1909; publication of Lebanon
County
Historical Society, April,
1910; Constitution and Register of Members of General Society of War of 1812; Annals of Iowa, April, 1910; pamphlet of North Carolina His-
torical Society, 1910; Bulletin New York Public Library, September, 1910; Fourteenth Annual Report Carnegie Public Library, Pittsburg, 1910; An- nual Report Grand Rapids Public Library, from Samuel H. Ranck; Geo- logical Survey of Canada, 1896-1900; Report of New York State Museum, 1900; Papers Read Before Historical Society of Frankford, 1910; Proceed- ings American Philosophical Society, 1910; old map of Lancaster county, from B. S. Schindle; Annual Report American Historical Associations, from the Smithsonian Institution; post cards, tobacco raised by Eliza Goch- nauer (aged 92), of Bamford, and dismantled zinc furnaces, Bamford, from D. B. Landis; programme of Jap-
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anese operetta, "Princess Chrysanthe- mum," given by the Stevens Girls' High School, June 4, 1909; Child's Prayer Book, 1832; Twenty-third An- nual Report Inter-State Commerce Commission; a Penn deed, handsome- ly framed, from W. U. Hensel.
There has been a very large in- crease in membership in the society. Seven applications were received this evening, as follows: Mrs. H. L. Raub, city; Mrs. D. H. Landis, Win- dom; George R. Oberholtzer, Erie, Pa .; Horace Engle, Roanoke, Va .; H. L. Simon, city; Mrs. John Witmer Hopper, city; George N. Reynolds, city.
The following persons proposed at a previous meeting were elected members: Luther Willig,Dr. D. Sher- man Smith, Mrs. D. Sherman Smith, Dr. F. A. Achey, A. B. Hess, this city; Hon. J. G. Homsher, Strasburg, and Hon. D. W. Graybill, East Petersburg.
The report of the Executive Com- mittee, read by Secretary Hollinger, was as follows:
At a meeting of the Executive Com- mittee of the Lancaster County His- torical Society the offer of a number of old Lancaster parchments, owned by Judge Shippen, was accepted from Miss Anna M. Weaver. A motion was adopted to publish in the society's pamphlet the article on "Michael Wit- man, Loyalist." As Mr. Steigerwalt, the librarian, is unable to look after the affairs of his office, Miss Lottie M. Bausman was elected as his assist- ant. A motion was adopted authoriz- ing the secretary to negotiate with The New Era for the purchase of the cut of the Bi-Centenary Memorial boulder.
On motion, the report was accepted.
Secretary Hollinger read a letter from Mr. Heilman, Secretary of the Federation of State Historical Socie- ties, in which he extended congratu-
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lations to the local society for the most excellent work it has been doing along true historical lines. The Lan- caster society's report in the proceed- ings of the State Federation sur- passes nearly all her sister societies.
The report of the committee which had charge of the recent Bi-Centen- ary exercises at the Brick Church presented a report through the sec- retary, Mr. H. Frank Eshleman. It covered the full proceedings of the notable event.
The committee and Mr. Eshleman were extended a vote of thanks for their work ,and thanks were also ex- tended to those who contributed to the expenses of the event.
A vote of thanks was also extended to Miss Mary Bowman, of this city, who designed the cover of the sou- venir of the Bi-Centenary. It was a most creditable piece of work, which has been most favorably commented upon.
On motion, it was ordered that the treasurer pay Mrs. Mott, the house- keeper of the Smith building, $5 for her services.
President Steinman was ordered to secure a drop light for the society, to be used on the presiding officer's table.
A brief paper on the Holland Land Company's effort to make maple su- gar in this country in the eighteenth century was read by Mr. Hollinger. It was ordered to be published.
Adjourned.
APPENDIX
ADDRESS DELIVERED SEPT. 8, 1910, AT THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF LANCASTER COUNTY'S FIRST SETTLE- MENT BY H. FRANK ESHLEMAN.
Lancaster county was conceived in Godliness and honest toil. Her foun- dation was laid upon the two great bedrocks of religion and agriculture. Uppermost in the minds of her earl- iest pioneers were these two noble activities. To practice these, they came to the virgin forests of the pequea and of the Conestoga 200 years ago. And these virtues are our best possessions to-day. Expon- ent of free religion and fertile farms then, this county has remained their most vigorous nursery in America, ever since-their most thriving cen- ter through two centuries.
1 .- The Religious Meaning.
What has been the religious mean- ing of our 200 years? Religious fer- vor, transplanted here, flowered out into religious freedom-religious love, ripened into religious liberty. Bruis- ed by the barbarous iron heel of an arrogant state church-filled with the horrors of religious bigotry-satiate with, and stung by the memory of the . traditions and trials and tur- moils and torments and the tortures, suffered by themselves and their ancestors for centuries, for con- science sake, these pious pioneers would not deny to any other soul, an equal freedom with their own, to worship God. And thus all creeds took root, at once, and flourished here. An English visitor to our coun- ty in its very infancy in 1744 wrote,
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"The religious that prevail here are hardly to be numbered" (An. Susq., p. 344).
The Mennonites planted their reli- gion here in 1710-the Presbyterians, Quakers and Episcopalians theirs in 1719-the Reformed theirs in 1722 at Heller's-the Ephrata Dunkers, theirs in 1726-the Amish, theirs be- fore 1730-the Lutherans, theirs in 1733-the Catholics, theirs in 1740-(9 L., 213 et. seq.)-the Jews, theirs in 1742, (3 L., 165)-the Moravians, theirs the same year (9 L., 226)- Dunkards and Baptists, theirs equal- ly early as most these-the Metho- dists, theirs some time afterwards -the United Brethren, the Reformed Mennonites, the Evangelical, United Evangelical, the Church of God, the Swedenborgen, and a score of oth- ers, theirs in quick succession, until in modern times three dozen differ- ent creeds flourish here. And all, from the beginning, prospered and now prosper in peace and harmony together.
From first to last, ours have been a reverential, religious people. And thus to-dav within this county's con- fines there is a higher percentage of communicants than in any other section of America and a far greater number of active religious creeds and sects than in any other equal area on the face of the earth. While in our country as a whole, about one-third of the population are churchmen-in this county the pro- portion is nearly half. While in all America there are 186 religious de- nominations, Lancaster county alone has 35 of them (U. S. Bulletin of Religions, 1906). Those whose views did not and do not now coincide with the creeds of established church- es quickly and freely invented and now invent creeds of their own- deeply religious, their religious crav- ing must be satisfied. Thus practic- ally all here, "belong to church."
From their earliest days the re- ligious forces of this county have made themselves a center of Gospel
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radiation to other fields-a mother- land of church power and influence throughout wide regions. The Men- nonites quickly spread their faith and creed across the Susquehanna in- to the Cumberland and down the Shenandoah; and before the Revolu- tion established the Virginia church. In the early days of the nineteenth century, from this county they went and planted their standard in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and over wide fields in Canada; and after the Civil War, established their phase of the doctrine of peace in Kansas and the West.
The Presbyterians of Donegal early carried the Gospel beyond the Alle- ghenies-the Presbyterians of Octo- raro planted their banners in Cath- olic Maryland-the Presbyterians of Pequea flanked out to Leacock and Little Britain and became the field where Rev. Robert Smith in his 42 years of preaching and teaching became the theological giant and the first great peer of Presbyterianism in this region of America. Through Rob- ert Smith. "Old Pequea" sent forth a score of Presbyterian preachers, east and west, among them Waddell, McMillan and the junior Smiths, who also preached and taught and devel- oped religious schools and laid the foundations of Jefferson, Sydney, Un- ion and Princeton Colleges, (9 L. 252).
The Reformed and Lutherans, long before the Revolution founded differ- ent German religious schools, made scores of ministers and by that means laid the foundation on which to erect, at the close of that war, Franklin, and later Marshall College, the busy breeder of a yearly score or two of powerful preachers through- out more than a century, bringing the bread of life to thousands throughout Eastern America.
The Moravians missionized whites and Indians alike from the earliest days. Other churches also flung out their powers far aud wide beyond the county. Thus through all her history Lancaster county has stood
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in conspicuous pre-eminence for re- ligious activity and earnestness-re- ligious radiation and energy.
Of religious Lancaster county as a whole we may observe that, the great body of its Christians were and are today believers in the liter- al meaning of the Bible; accept in simplicity its humble, homely teach- ings and give no ear to the "new thought," the higher criticism or the higher cults and culture. They have never tried to explain away the Gos- pel or make a pleasant only probable Hell.
Again observe that practically the whole of our people are still wed- ded to the belief not only that re- ligion is part of the common law of the land, but that God ought to be in all our political constitutions and that belief in the Savior ought to be one of the qualifications in all who hold public office and discharge pub- lic trusts as in the ancient times of Penn. It is not the law to-day. But Lancaster county would vote that it should be the law, seeing the en- slaught made against the Gospel in the schools and the lowering by the law of the religious qualifications, in those to whom the people delegate high trusts.
And again observe, in all our numerous religious sects that while Lutherans, Reformed, Cath- olics, Mennonites were enemies of one another in Switzerland and Ger- many and some of them delighted in the blood and torture of others there, the moment they landed here they all dwelt in peace and ever since have so dwelt. Toleration rules on every hand; and its brightening dawn, apace is growing toward the coming rising sun-burst of a universal church.
Then, too, a great tenet
of our early pioneers was that religion should be free from any sort of government- al interference-that church must be separate from state. So determined were they in this that they even held for a time that a true church- man may not take part in affairs of
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state. They had seen and felt the horrors of the state favoring one church and punishing another and they would have none of it. They would not agree that any but God should be obeyed in religious af- fairs. This belief they have held
through nearly 400 years, from
the
time their remote ancestors in
Switzerland in 1532 asserted
it against the government, 250 years before the doctrine appeared in our Federal and State Constitutions. (Ernst Muller's Bernischen Taufer, p. 34).
Finally meditate upon the marvel that the despised doctrine of non- resistance, a corner stone of the be- lief of four great rural Lancaster county churches, for centuries thought to be a doctrine 100 years behind the times, is now recognized as an ideal 50 years ahead of the times and the glorious goal toward which all the giant nations of. our World are bending their most con- scientious and anxious energies to- day.
Such is the religious meaning of Lancaster county's history.
2 .- The Agricultural Meaning.
Our country has held on to agricul- ture. The first settlers did not take up little lots or gardens and cultivate them; they took up great tracts and made them huge gardens-a commun- ity of them took up whole valleys- they made the horizon their boundary line. The Swiss and Germans quickly took up the good land of Lancaster county-the Irish-Scotch were too busy holding the frontier and holding office. In the first four years 60,000 acres or nearly 100 square miles of land were surveyed for applicants on the Pequea and the Conestoga (Tay- lor Papers, 3,323); and in 1719 before the end of ten years the proprietary surveyors reported that there was Conestoga very little land left on and Pequea (Do. 2,920 and 2,932). Swiss and Germans came to the Lan- caster regions thick and fast. By 1724 there were over 1,200 in the Conestoga section alone, (9 L.,
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151). So many of these
transforming
farmers came here
that by 1718 the Quaker authorities at Philadelphia were jeal- ous and fearful of them overwhelm- ing all others and carrying the pro- vince away from England and putting it under the dominion of the Ger- man empire (2 V., 217 and 220).
Our county for about 150 years has been known as the garden spot of America. Eighty odd years ago a
careful writer declared that this county was even then "proverbial in Pennsylvania for fertility of soil and excellence of tillage," (4 H., p. 50). All thanks to the careful early Ger- man farmer.
Agricultural development by 1781 had brought the assessed value of Lancaster county about $700,000 (2 H., 78), to $6,700,000 in 1814, (2 H., 12), and to $28,700,000 (Gord. Gaz.) in 1830, or double that of Bucks coun- ty, more than double that of Chester, three times that of Montgomery or four times that of York at the same time (Do.).It was valued that year at one-sixth of all Pennsylvania exclu- sive of Philadelphia, at over one-half of all the state west of the Susque- hanna and was equal to all of the state west of that river, excepting York, Adams, Huntingdon, Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington coun- ties (Do.). And finally in 1830 Lan- caster county having one-fiftieth of the area of Pennsylvania, and one- sixteenth of the population (exclud- ing Philadelphia) had one-sixth of the wealth of the entire state omit- ting Philadelphia (Do.). This wealth was largely cultivated land and this is largely true to-day. Therefore, our imperial county, through all this time has been supreme mistress of agricul- ture in America, excelling all other counties to-day in that particular.
In her agricultural crops and dairy products in our modern day this county holds the banner, stand- ing first in amount and variety in all America with an annual value of over $17,000,000, of which her tobacco is worth over three million dollars,
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her corn four millions and her wheat nearly half as much. And this monu- mental year of 1910 her crop is near- ly $20.000,000 on her $73,250,000 ru- ral land and live stock valuation; a gross income of 27 per cent. (As- sessment for 1910). Her produce market is the most famous in any ru- ral section of our nation and has been so since the days of Witham Marshe in 1744. Her cattle market ranks next only to those of Balti- more, Philadelphia, Buffalo and New York in all Eastern United States.
Our county stands for ownership of farms as against the tenant sys- tem. This alone will maintain the dignity of farming. Yet that love of the native acres of our childhood, that patriotism for the homestead, has lately suffered here in common with the general trend of agrarian tenancy, so general in the South,and so growing in the West. We are far behind New England farmers in their tenacious hold and their happy hom- ing upon, and their loving hope for the land upon which they were born and upon whose bosom they expect to die. But nowhere, in the New England or any other section have we stronger love of and fidelity to the ancestral home than here on this remarkable ten square miles of land making up the original settlement, which we celebrate to-day. And this ancient patrimony of the pioneers belting five miles across two town- ships, sending from one side of its civilization a blazing beam of ad- vice and example to-day like a mighty search light to us on the oth- er side across 200 years of experi- ence, of toil and of progress, should renew in us our love and de- termination to hold, possess and pass on to our line and kin, the acres that come to us from goodly Godly ancestors.
Three-fifths of our farms in Lan- caster county are yet farmed by the owners who live on them. This still ranks higher than in the central states where more than half of the farms are in tenants' hands, or in
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the South where less than one- third of them are farmed by owners. When the West and South shall be as old as Lancaster county, at the rate tenants are now taking hold in those states, they will not be able to show a record of nearly two-thirds of their farms operated by the own- ers as we do now. But while our county has a large percentage of her farms in tenants' hands, it wisely has only 12 per cent. rented out to tenants for money rent, who pay the rent and then frequently ruin the farm by robbing it; while the coun- ties of Berks and Bucks and Chester and Montgomery and Delaware have respectively 16, 18, 22, 28 and 36 per cent. of their farms let out on money rent-the system that gives the ten- ant no incentive to stay very long on a farm and care for it and keep it up; but rather to rob it and go -"to skin it and skip." (Census of 1900).
As to tenant farming, our county stands for that more provident sys- tem of tenacies (or in many cases only employment of a manager) on shares, thus giving the owner voice in the control and care of the farm and the tenant an incentive to re- main upon it for a term of years and keep or build it up.
For this our county has stood in agriculture. And from the early days of the last cen- tury until a decade or two ago the ideal of the patriarch farmer was to secure a farm for each of his boys to live and work and spend their lives upon; and marry his daughters to sons of other farmers who had the same purposes for their boys.
3. The Patriotic Meaning.
Lancaster county's patriotism, through 200 years can only be under- stood, its meaning can only be known after thorough study - its quality can only be appreciated when the deeper springs of human action are explored.
In the earliest days family was its unit-the large family its charm, and
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glory-the home community its ulti- mate object. Family love was its cen- ter-community love its circum- ference. The pious pioneer Teutons loved the family, the community - they loved the land whereon the fam- ily, the community dwelt. They would not be tenants on that beloved land -they would own the land. And they did. Their patriotism was devo- tion to their families, faith and hon- esty among neighbors-duty towards rulers-to Caesar what was Caesar's and to God what was God's. They believed that these ideals sincerely lived were better patriotism than wild, extravagant and often empty public eulogies on the flag, by those who froth and foam and shout, but who are not fit for a political trust, who would take advantage of a neighbor or cheat the public. And they were right.
National glory did not appeal to our pioneers. "Our Country" to
them was:
"The little world of sights and sounds,
Whose girdle was the parish bounds." But they were not disloyal. Not that they loved Mother Britain or even Pennsylvania less, but Pequea and Conestoga more. That was the keynote character of their patriotism. They did not fight in war; but they never shirked a tax. They never
builded forts nor
entered armies;
but they furnished the strongest sinews a state can use in war- great graneries of food; and they provided the guarantees of a people's prosperity in peace - bounteous ma- terial wealth and strength and re- source. And while the Swiss and Ger- man and Quaker farmers plowed, the gallant Scotchman stood armored on the frontier and protected the homes and herds of the valleys. That was his patriotism.
But neither the German, Swiss, Scotch nor English sons of Lancas- ter county were wanting in national spirit and patriotism when the
needs of the English empire, their nation, demanded it, even though it was only the adopted and not the
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native nation of the Swiss and Ger- mans. When Spain and France be- gan to war on Mother England, the valley of the Conestoga was the first spot in the province to rouse herself; and in 1744 raise and officer a com- pany of soldiers to defend against the French. In Earltown, in the heart of a German settlement, Thom- as Edwards this year was captain to raise the first company of asso- ciators (5th A-1-3). Of the 400 men demanded by the king from Pennsyl- vania in 1746 to join in reducing the French in Canada, Lancaster county led all other sections in
numbers (Do. 6 to 16). In the asso- ciators of 1748 when our county had less than 4,000 men (5 H., 115) two regiments with a total of 33 companies organized themselves for the defense of home and of Britain (5th A-1-22 & 25), a mass of per- haps 2,000 associators. In the French and Indian wars, beginning in 1754 when there were perhaps 4,500 men in the county (5 H., 115), she fur- nished thirteen companies and their and regimental offi-
company
cers (5th A-1-57); and also
scores of teams and hundreds of wagon loads of provisions. During the Revolutionary war when there were about 5,500 men in the county (4 H., 12), there were 30 companies of soldiers, large numbers of whom saw service and most of whom vol- unteered in the beginning of the war -about 2,500 men (E & E, 33-69) ; and the first life given in battle for independence by Pennsylvania was that of William Smith, of Lancaster county (Do., 40). And in the Civil war this county furnished about 12,- 000 soldiers to help to teach the World that a republic cannot be dis- membered and that a slave was not a chattel, but that God also "breath- ed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul."
Going back again to the Revolu- tionary war, no more numerous or enthusiastic meetings were held any- where than in our county, against British barbarity, which stirred Lan- caster county patriotism to its bot-
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tom. All shades of feeling were rep- resented here; the meaning of the Revolution was studied by all and in all its aspects.
All must admit that in its charac- ter and essence the war for Inde- pendence was insurrection, rebellion, secession; but it was justified by the abuse and tyranny of the Brit- ish government. Thus it was not treason, because Britain declared us outlaws and public enemies, and her- self thereby broke the compact which bound us to her as part of the na- tion. This view the leaders for inde- pendence held. But there were other views. Independence thus, was early, the hope of some, the dream of many and the fear and regret of others.
Allegiance to government also wore a different hue to different elements of our county in the time of the Revolutionary war. Each was attract- ed by his own paticular favorite part of the spectrum. In that spec- trum the important tint to one class was the purple of royalty and empire -- to another class, the blue of truth and loyalty to the established gov- ernment; while to others the warm enthusiastic red of freedom and in- dependence appealed.
The German's sense of duty long prevented many of his race from rising in rebellion against the es- tablished government. Though he was not native born, but only an adopted son of the British empire, he felt that she had accepted him on the honor of his promised allegi- ance; and he stood by her while her own native Scotch and English sons -scions of a race for hundreds of years, bred and taught under ler laws, protected by her majestic arm, bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh-were waging a war of rebel- lion and secession against her
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