USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Lancaster > The story of Lancaster, old and new : being a narrative history of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, form 1730 to the centennial year 1918 > Part 3
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And so ends the chapter, semi-historical, semi- traditional.
CHAPTER II
THE HEARTY GREETING OF A LONG-LOST VOLUME
THE meeting of an old friend has ever been to the chronicler an unmixed pleasure, and for the reason that there are so few remaining over whom to make merry. With the young it is different. Friends they have among their former schoolmates, ready at all times to sit by the hour talking over their boyhood days.
However, the friend the chronicler has in mind is nothing more nor less than a rib-bound volume bear- ing the age of one hundred and seventy-five years! For a third of a century it had been resting in the quietude of the solitude, unwept, unhonored and unsung with none to do it reverence.
Opening its time-worn lids, we find written with quill in large English script:
" Hanraster Corporation Book" 1742 1818
It was with indescribable pleasure that the chron- icler continued to rummage through its time-worn pages, and as each was turned over, what a mint of oldtime recordings had been resting concealed from human vision. For a period of seventy-six years it had served as the minute-book for a long line of burgomasters' clerks who had faithfully inscribed
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therein every little eventful incident occurring in the town of "Old Lancaster" during these seven or more decades. And here the question arose, would the contents of the "Corporation Book" prove of any value to the twentieth century reader during these war times if set forth in the shape of a narra- tive?
Impressed with the importance of the undertaking, the chronicler set himself to the task of handing down to posterity such of the volume's minutes as might prove acceptable to the general reader.
Turning to the first page our eyes take in the following: "At a meeting of the Burgesses and their assistants in the Borough of Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster, in the Province of Pennsyl- vania, the thirteenth day of August in the year of our Lord, 1742, by virtue of a charter of Incorpora- tion granted by the Honored Proprietor, James Hamilton, dated the first day of May, A. Domini, 1742."
Following the minutes, we find sitting in a room with its low ceiling and scantily supplied furniture, the first assembly of duly constituted burgomasters charged with duties such as they had never before been called upon to exercise in their corporate capacity. At the head of the table sat Thomas Cookson, Chief Burgess, at the other end, Sebastian Graeff, Burgess, while on opposite sides were their six assistants, Michael Byerle, Mathias Young, John Folke, Peter Worrall, John Dehuff, Abraham Johnston.
These burgesses and their co-advisors had met to
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formulate rules and regulations for the government of the borough under the charter constituting what for a dozen years previous had been but a village subject to no well-established ordinances, rules or regulations.
Before them no doubt rested the charter of the Borough of Lancaster, and from which only a few extracts can be made owing to its length and the space required. It began: "George the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ire- land, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all to whom these Presents shall come Greeting: Whereas our loving Subject, James Hamilton of the City of Philadelphia, in the Province of Pennsylvania, Esq., owner of a Tract of land whereon the Town of Lancaster, in the same Province, is erected, Hath, on behalf of the Inhabitants of said Town, repre- sented unto our trusty and well beloved Thomas Penn, Esquire, one of the Proprietors of the said Province, and George Thomas, Esq., with our Royal Approbation-do grant and ordain that the streets of said borough shall ever continue as they are now laid out and regulated. And we do now nominate and appoint Thomas Cookson and Se- bastian Grooffe to be present Burgesses; and that said Thomas Cookson shall be called Chief Burgess within said borough, and Michael Byerle, Mathias Young, John Dehuff, John Folkes, Abraham John- ston, and Peter Worrall, assistants for advising, aiding and assisting the said Burgesses in the exe- cution of the powers and authorities herein given them."
JAMES HAMILTON
JAMES HAMILTON, FOUNDER OF LANCASTER, PENNA.
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Being a law unto themselves with the charter as their guide, these goodly burgomasters began to legislate in accordance with what the charter pre- scribed, religiously, morally and socially.
The burgesses' first action ran as follows: "On receiving the charter from James Hamilton, and in regard for the great service done this town of Lan- caster in procuring the same to be incorporated, it is unanimously agreed by the Burgesses and their assistants that they wait upon him and return him the thanks of the Corporation for his services. And also request him [in the absence of the Burgesses] to return their thanks to his Honor, the Governor, for the same.
"It is taken into consideration that, by act of Assembly of this Province, made the fourth year in the reign of the late Queen Ann, for the observance of the Lord's Day, it is enacted, that no tradesmen, artificers, workmen, laborers or other persons what- soever shall do or exercise any worldly business, or work of their ordinary calling on the Sabbath day, therein called the 'First' day upon pain that every such offender forfeit twenty shillings to the use of the poor-Provided always, that nothing in said act extend to prohibit butchers from killing and selling their meat on that day in the months of June, July and August before the hour of nine in the morning, and after five in the afternoon-And that all con- stables are required to search every tavern, and if any persons are found drinking or 'tippling' on the Sabbath, they are to be fined one shilling sixpence; and the keeper of such house or tavern, ten shilling 4
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for the same use with the proviso that travelers, inmates and lodgers may be supplied with their victuals, drinks for themselves only."
As the minutes continue: "But notwithstanding such act, it is only too customary for shopkeepers, tavernkeepers and others within the Borough to allow their ordinary callings on the Sabbath day- the shopkeepers by selling their goods to country people, and tavernkeepers by entertaining company -For the putting a stop to such practices for the future, it is ordered that the said act of Assembly be put into execution-And that the chief constable do publish this ordinance, and take due care that all offenders be brought to justice."
Signed, "GEORGE SANDERSON, clerk of the Bur- gesses."
The narrator has no means of knowing what rela- tion if any, this George Sanderson was to the tenth mayor of the city. He might have been his great- grandfather. As to the status of the constables, unless they differed greatly from many of their successors, it need not be assumed that these early guardians of the peace were not disposed to take a sly nip of the liquid that came from the Gibson still even on the Sabbath.
Only in imagination can the present-day reader picture to himself these religiously inclined burgo- masters, as for the first time they sat in the enforce- ment of the provisions of the new charter in starting the townstead on its future career.
Of one thing there isn't any room for doubt even by the twentieth century law-violator, namely, that
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the burgomasters were men of the very highest standing, otherwise they would not have been selected by proprietor, James Hamilton, as burgesses and assistants. While the majority were Germans, they were not all of one nationality as the minutes will make clear as the narrative continues on down through seventy-six years to the year 1818. But come from whence they might, they were men of sterling human timber-pioneers who had endured hardships years before the village had been made a borough.
Without anticipating coming events, the author has gleaned sufficient to show that many of the long line of burgesses and assistants had lived down through the stirring times of the Revolution, but at no time during their seventy-six years of rule was their loyalty ever questioned. Firm in their devo- tion to the mother country and the government of the Penns, so steadfast were they to the flag, with stars and stripes after the colonies had secured their independence. Opinions differed as they do to-day over matters of church and private affairs, but in their official duties they were actuated by a desire to leave their impress deep and lasting on the pages of history. And unless greatly mistaken, a goodly number of those living in city and county can trace their ancestry back to the time of the burgesses.
And here the question arises, How came the first burgesses and their assistants to hold office, inas- much as the minutes make no mention of an election being held prior to their entering upon their duties? However, following the year 1742, an election was
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held yearly down to the year 1818. As only a certain class, freemen, could vote, see what trouble it saved the rank and file, and all without any taxa- tion to worry over. It was not until the year 1812 that the first property tax was laid and collected. Think then, ye twentieth-century overburdened tax- payers, citizens of "New Lancaster," with no assessor, no tax-collector! Imagine, if you can, a town without taxes for schools, water and streets to worry over! Why, we verily believe that three fourths of the voting population of our city of the present day would be willing to forego the right of franchise, could they feel assured that, for the next half a century, there were not to be any taxes to worry over!
But the query, How was it possible for the bur- gesses to run the town for half a century without the sinews of war, so to speak?
They had but three resources, markets, fines and fairs. The latter must have been money makers, otherwise they wouldn't have been held twice each year, during June and September, with only two exceptions, during the trying days of the Revolution, after which they were again resorted to, as shall be shown later.
Fairs, unlike those of to-day, were managed by the corporation instead of by private capital. It would well repay any reader for the time in going through the "Corporation Book" to find how many small accounts had to be kept by the clerk of the burgesses, and to find that on fair-settlement day the profit realized scarcely exceeded a few pounds.
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GREETING OF A LONG-LOST VOLUME
One thing the twentieth century reader may have cause to regret, in that the burgesses' clerk did not mention the kind of visitors attending these fairs. Surely they did not reach the townstead on a trolley car or in an auto. The young men must have come on horseback with their girls behind them. Only in imagination can a glimpse he had of what was going on during fair week! No backwoods com- munity of the present day can in any way compare with the townstead "Old Lancaster" during these semi-annual weeks of jollification! But for one thing the country people had cause to be doubly thankful, there were not any turnpikes with "catch- penny" gates, requiring the chauffeur to stop a minute and a half and then speed up the motor in trying to make up for lost time. The few trails were free to all, young and old, rich and poor, with more of the latter than of the former.
However, as has already been said, as it was not possible for even the burgesses to continue to build up the town on the receipts of markets, fairs and fines, the time came when taxation became an abso- lute necessity, and to this year 1917 it has become a requirement, but seldom has it been downward- always upward. At times the rate has been lowered with the assessment increased, thereby equalizing conditions. But why bring unpleasant reminders to an already overtaxed people the world over!
In closing this chapter, let the narrator quote from the historian Gordon as follows: "Along at the time the town was founded it had but a few one story houses, rented to the poorer classes. As the
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LANCASTER: OLD AND NEW
ground upon which they stood was being let on the ground-rent plan, and on terms so easy as to invite many poor settlers, it soon became evident that the townstead's two square miles was too large for the surrounding country." And as the reader shall learn, too large it was for a good many years there- after. Surrounded the dwellers were with plenty of the "open," but much of this was still in the hands of the founder's agent to be sold either for ready cash or on the ground-land plan. But what signi- fied easy terms with the majority without money? Unlike in this twentieth century, pounds, shillings and pence did not come rolling in almost as free as the air we breathe. The struggle for existence was the lot of the first settlers, many of whom had come from Europe with little more than enough to pay their way to this later town of plenty.
As the minutes of the burgesses show, there were promoters, who bought up valuable tracts, awaiting a rise. But one of the difficulties was, when taxa- tion became a necessary evil, how to reach these land grabbers! Many would neither build nor sell. And as shall be shown, when streets came to be laid out, the price demanded was extortionate! But the time came, during Revolutionary times, when not a few died with plenty of land but with little ready cash. And herein lies one of the secrets of Lancaster's slow development.
By some the town's slow progress is attributed to the German settlers, known ever since for their conservatism. However, with these opinions and others the narrator is not disposed to differ; his
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mission is to set forth from the "Corporation Book" and later from the councilmanic records a true narra- tive of how the town grew from an insignificant ham- let in 1730 to a city of fifty odd thousand in this year of our Lord 1917.
To trace the ownership of even the sites upon which buildings stand around Penn Square would require more space than the narrator has to give, when it is recalled that the deed for the original grant where stands the Conestoga National Bank required an endless search and research to determine its present status. Nor is it necessary for the chronicler to go searching round among musty records to ascertain the location of the first house built in the hamlet and by whom. By one writer it has been said that here and there one or more were built as early as 1717. As neither one nor the other was erected by the chronicler's great-great-grandfather, why bother himself over trifles?
Too many other matters of greater importance are to occupy the chronicler's attention. What the readers want to know is more of the inner life of their ancestors, their habits, customs and traditions, in order to profit by their virtues and avoid their errors. And oh, how delightful, were it possible to take one and all back to the time of the burgesses to visit them in their homes of one hundred and seventy- eight years ago; to enter therein and maybe to sit before the open fire hearth on a cold winter evening listening to stories of how their ancestors lived before them.
We know how enjoyable it would be to be shown
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LANCASTER: OLD AND NEW
around the first log court house, to sit under the shade of the old hickory tree by the famous spring, and, after a bath in "Roaring Brook," to partake of a sumptuous repast at the "Gibson Inn" with a little something invigorating from the Gibson still with no government tax of so much per gallon to be collected for revenue purposes.
Think ye, ladies of "New Lancaster," of the pleasure of stepping into this or that store to be fitted out in a wardrobe such as the burgesses' daughters used to wear as they promenaded the streets where are now stores, and of the kind un- known during the good old days,
Were this long time-distance covered in miles instead of in years, the journey might be made in an automobile, but this being impossible-not counting the consumption of gasoline-the reader must remain content with a description of the townstead as taken largely from the "Corporation Book." And even what is to follow may prove of little avail unless the historic student is gifted with a reministic imagination to see things as the chronicler discloses them running down almost to the present day.
Then the cost of the journey must be considered as an item during these war times, with no steamer trunk to be filled with enough winter and summer wearing apparel to worry over! So follow the writer, who will take you back to "Old Lancaster," with a guarantee of a safe return, and all without any worry over a wardrobe. Why, more excursion- ists worry over making preparations for a journey
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GREETING OF A LONG-LOST VOLUME
to the seashore than is good for their health. They grow nervous for weeks before starting, and, after reaching their destination, they long to be getting back home where they are no longer at the mercy of the infernal mosquito on the one hand and the high price of hotel accommodations on the other. So, my contented home body, if you will but think yourself back in "Old Lancaster" of nearly two centuries ago, you'll surely be there; for, after all, life is what we make it-largely a mental process. A good many people without a dollar think them- selves rich, while others with their thousands are forever complaining of being poor. Few realize that the greatest blessing is health. But this is only too frequently sacrificed for wealth. And here, before closing this chapter, is an axiom for boys: To lose wealth is one thing, to lose health is another, but to lose character is to lose everything! Write it out, my lads, and paste it in a conspicuous place to be glanced over when you feel yourself going wrong! Character! it's a jewel! It is delightful to hear it said of a man after passing away, "He was honest, and faithful to every trust in him reposed!" And now to the second meeting of the burgesses.
CHAPTER III
CONTINUATION OF COMPLAINTS BY THE INHABITANTS
CERTAIN descendants of the burgomasters residing in "New Lancaster" at the present time are no doubt waiting with patience to learn what took place at their second meeting at the home of one Jacob Frey. To locate this then well-known place the chronicler has made diligent search in the "Corporation Book," but without success. It might have been a tavern, but, as the burgesses were temperate in their habits, it was more than likely a private house located on the south side of West King Street above Water, where, the narrator has been informed, it stood until 1825, when it was destroyed by fire. In this building the burgesses held their meetings regularly with but few exceptions for seventy-six years. And, as the minutes show, it was always at the house of Jacob Frey, indicating that the first Jacob Frey must have been followed by others in regular succession.
As just one month had elapsed from the time of the burgesses' first meeting to that of their second, sufficient time had no doubt been given them to formulate such other rules and regulations as the newly organized borough required in accordance with the act of Assembly to which they religiously adhered.
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We have no means of knowing if a sentry had been placed at the door, admitting only those who had important business with the authorities by telling them how the town ought to be governed. This may seem peculiar in view of the fact that, in all recently organized Lancaster county boroughs, the newly elected councilmen are usually met by a committee representing every condition of society.
Having lived in a borough for a short time after it was emancipated from the burden of township rule, the chronicler had every opportunity to observe how delightedly contented the inhabitants were until the assessor was followed by the tax collector, when, lo! prayers went out regretfully from property holders that they had ever separated themselves from their previous, easy-going life of township rule. But, in the end, came the consoling thought that, by setting up housekeeping for themselves, they had managed to keep their own town's name on the map. 1147186
However, no sooner had the burgomasters shielded themselves behind closed and bolted doors than they began in earnest to enforce their well-matured mandates as follows:
"Resolved, as chapmen (peddlers), licensed to travel the county, have been violating the law by setting up stalls within the Corporation at times of fairs, election and court-days, in exposing their goods for sale, be it enacted that no persons except freemen, within the corporate limits of the borough of Lancaster, be permitted to display or offer their goods within this town, under penalty of five pounds
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LANCASTER: OLD AND NEW
to be levied by distress, and sale of the vender's goods for the use of the Corporation. And that the high constable see that this measure is carried into effect."
That this proclamation was not printed in one of the daily newspapers, at so much per running line, may have been for the reason that there were no papers until about the year 1756. Since that time it is well to note the fact that as many as three hundred different kinds of this, that and the other have been issued in city and county. This one fact goes far to establish the reputation of our people as a highly cultured community, excelled by none the country over.
The present-day reader, at all times impatient over the non arrival of his own daily on schedule time, can hardly realize how any community could have existed for so many years without a morning or evening newspaper. We sometimes wonder how the women managed to endure without a paper filled with advertisements! Again, think of no dailies from Philadelphia and New York to be read at one's breakfast, or the evening sheet at one's supper!
What these goodly people had to take the place of the newspaper we can better imagine than de- scribe. No doubt every now and then would come a copy of Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard," out of which was culled, among others, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." If this moral were written today, it would read, "Late to bed and late to rise makes a man neither healthy, wealthy nor wise."
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However, it is altogether a matter of conditions. A people who could live for a century depending on wells, pumps and springs, without a railroad, trolley, automobiles, motor-cycles, bicycles, gas or even matches, surely were not worrying over the need ' of a newspaper! No doubt, for what they had they were thankful, neither too much nor too little.
But how different in this twentieth century! Blessings are multiplied four-fold! Why, if the telephone gets out of order for a minute and a half, what growling and grumbling! The only thing many church-goers will overlook is a rainy Sabbath.
And now to a few difficulties with which the burgesses had to contend, one of the most grievous of which was the danger of chimneys catching fire. Numerous complaints having been made by house- wives, it was, "Resolved that any person within the limits of the town of two miles square who shall suffer his or her chimney to catch fire so as to flare out at the top, shall forfeit ten shilling for the use of the Corporation."
This was a wise and necessary provision, enacted not so much for the revenue in the shape of fines, as protection to other properties. Only those old in years can recall how readily chimneys caught fire, owing to the soot gathering from the burning of wood, before coal came into general use among housekeepers. To witness a flare-up during the night with sparks flying in all directions was a sight to bring terror to those living within easy distance of a burning chimney.
As no mention of chimney sweeps was made by
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the burgesses, it may have been owing to the fact that these "sweepers of chimneys" had not as yet found their way to the borough, where, during later years, they could be seen at the top of a chimney, singing out their weird refrain. Crawling upward from the fireplace, they were known at times to become encased within, requiring to be drawn out by a rope and with the greatest difficulty. Covered with soot, on their appearance they might have been taken for a part of the colored population.
But to continue the minutes: "And as to the burning of charcoal by blacksmiths, as this has become a nuisance and very offensive, it is ordered that no charcoal be permitted to be burned within a half mile of the town as already laid out under pen- alty of thirty shilling for each and every offence."
That no mention of either bituminous or anthra- cite coal was made, may have been because these articles of combustion at the time were unheard of among the town inhabitants. As for charcoal, it had, no doubt, become a very profitable industry among the chestnut timber farmers.
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