Sheriff's races lead to fightsTwice, York County tries to elect a sheriff. Twice, the Scotch-Irish-backed candidate, German Hans Hamilton, runs against the German-supported candidate, Scotch-Irishman Richard McAllister. Twice, violence erupts. Twice, Richard McAllister is elected. Twice, the governor overrules the election and appoints Hamilton, reportedly his friend, as sheriff. The conflict appears to reflect ethnic tensions. One authority, however, believes the elections represent a conflict between the York area and eastern York County on one side and western York County, including future Adams County, on the other.
Generally, the Rhinelanders and Scotch-Irish avoid each other. One group would settle and the next would move a little farther west so that the pattern of German and Scotch-Irish settlement resembles spokes on a wheel. Scholars note that 19th-century English (often Quakers), Scotch-Irish and Germans in Pennsylvania were largely unmixed and retained their national characters beyond those in any other state.
c. 1750: Lancaster County
Wagon industry moves westWagon makers begin developing the Conestoga wagon near Lancaster to haul freight on new roads winding through the province. Soon, wagon makers in York County also begin building this freight carrier of America's frontier -- ancestor of the prairie schooner.
These freight haulers inspire at least two legacies: They become so numerous that rules of the road evolve. Soon, teamsters develop the custom of riding on the right. And, as the story goes, teamsters often smoke cigars while directing the wagon from the back of one of the horses. These cigars become known as stogies, short for Conestoga.
County prison is erectedA county prison is constructed on a lot at the northeast corner of East King and South George streets. It serves as the primary county lock-up until 1855. Before the construction of Camp Security, a prisoner-of-war camp in future Springettsbury Township, Colonial forces hold prominent British Revolutionary War prisoners in this jail.
1751: Lancaster County
Major Clark born in the eastMajor John Clark, who became a noted Revolutionary War soldier and one of York County's most prominent citizens, is born. He spends his first 20 years in Lancaster County before crossing the river. Clark joins the York Rifles, the initial local company leaving for Boston after the outbreak of Revolutionary War fighting. He distinguishes himself in battle there and later assumes commanding positions in several major encounters with the British. He is named chief of scouts -- responsible for gathering military intelligence -- for Commander George Washington at Valley Forge and comes to know Washington personally. After the war, he operates a law office in York and practices until his death in 1819.
1751: York County
Business spurs plea for roadResidents of Carlisle petition courts in York and Cumberland counties for construction of a road to York. The petition suggests that business and commerce is growing between the newly minted counties of York (created in 1749) and Cumberland (1750).
1752: Digges Choice
Border dispute kills a DiggesThe temporary border ordered in 1737 does not end boundary disputes between Pennsylvania and Maryland or property line problems between individual settlers. Disputes over Digges Choice's boundaries, for example, lead to the 1752 death of Dudley Digges, one of John Digges' sons. The death occurs as Dudley Digges and Jacob Kitzmiller struggle for a gun loaded with buckshot during a property dispute. Jacob and his father, Martin, are acquitted in York County Court. The proceedings also involved the question of whether Maryland or Pennsylvania's courts had jurisdiction in the case. A financially unsuccessful John Digges moved from the area after 1757 and died in poverty about 1760.
c. 1753: Future Hanover
Schreyer joins gun businessGeorge Schreyer Sr. begins a formal apprenticeship as a gunsmith. By the time he dies in 1819, he produces about 650 guns. The Pennsylvania long rifle, Schreyer's specialty, is an adaptation of a German hunting rifle developed in Lancaster County. Its superiority is so recognized that gunsmiths are duplicating it in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Kentucky. It becomes best known as the Kentucky Long Rifle -- made popular by the legendary Pennsylvanian-turned-Kentuckian Daniel Boone. Schreyer and numerous other craftsmen in York County join their Lancaster counterparts in the rifle trade. The Hanover area, where Schreyer works, becomes a particularly fruitful place for gun makers to toil between 1750 and the 1820s. Thousands of settlers heading for the Shenandoah Valley and points south pass along the Great Wagon Road. It is known locally as the Monocacy Road and passes through Wrightsville, York and Hanover. Settlers traveling to their new homes would patronize Schreyer and other gunsmiths along the way to arm themselves for frontier life.
1753: York County
Brackenridge arrives hereThe family of 5-year-old Hugh Henry Brackenridge sells its excess possessions to complete its journey from Scotland to York County. Once here, the boy's mother encourages him to study the classics, although he reportedly often walks 30 miles to borrow books and newspapers. Later, he enters Princeton as a classmate of James Madison, who shares a love for literature and politics. Brackenridge moves to Pittsburgh in 1781, studies law and writes a satirical novel, "Modern Chivalry." Brackenridge's activities during the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 lead federal officials to suspect him of disloyalty, but his friend and fellow former York County resident James Ross helps save him from prosecution for treason. Despite this controversy, Pennsylvania Governor Thomas McKean appoints Brackenridge justice of the state Supreme Court in 1799. "Although successful as a jurist, Brackenridge did his most important work as a writer of Revolutionary propaganda, and as a satirist of abuses in the new democracy," a biographer wrote.
Ellis Lewis, Jeremiah S. Black, Jacob Hay Brown and Herbert Cohen were later Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who lived in York County.
1754: York County
Joppa Road is improvedThe county court reviews the "crooked and narrow" Joppa Road and orders improvements. A survey shows the road, constructed in 1742, to measure 183/4 miles from York to the Maryland line where it extends southward to the port town of Joppa, Md. This road intersects with the Monocacy Road, now Route 462, to form York's Centre Square.
The future Susquehanna Trail, known as South George Street in the city of York, followed the approximate course of this north-south road.
1755: York County
Tories driven from countySamuel Johnston, an English-born attorney, is admitted to the bar and becomes a colleague and mentor to James Smith, Thomas Hartley and other attorneys in the young county. Johnston, a Tory, represents the Penn heirs. As local fervor against the English crown mounts, the well-connected Johnston is forced to resign as county prothonotary, sell his property and move to Maryland. There, he renews his practice of law. His exit is more graceful than that of the Rev. Daniel Batwell, pastor at Episcopal churches in York, York Springs and Carlisle. The Tory refuses to adjust the Episcopal liturgy, which demands an oath to King George III. County patriots make him pay for his persistence, dunking him in the Codorus several times and making him ride 12 miles in his wet clothes. "What Mr. Batwell had done, those wicked People could not say themselves, but it was because he was a Tory as they thought proper to call him, as almost all the Church people (Episcopalians) in this County are ... ," his friend Johnston wrote.
1756: Future Spring Grove
Dicks fires up iron furnacePeter Dicks begins firing his new iron furnace. (Some sources say 1755.) Dicks' Bloomery makes cannonballs and other products. Dicks, a Quaker, brings fellow English-speakers to the German settlement including the Richardsons, Coatses and Tuckers. Spring Forge No. 3 later replaces Dick's Bloomery, and the town of Spring Grove emerges from this early industry.
Until 1956, many thought the iron furnace produced bar iron for transportation to eastern forges, where it would be converted to cannons and cannonballs. A discovery changed that thinking. "As they were digging footers for a new papermaking machine in Spring Grove," a history states, "workers uncovered two cannonballs that Washington's army never got to fire at British troops."
1757: York County
Ranger hired to tend to wildMuch of the county is wilderness, and fencing is rare. Jacob Shetter and other farmers register brands for their livestock. One source describes Shetter's brand: "The marks of Jacob Shetter's hogs and cattle: the off ear cropt, and the near slit." No indication is given whether the right or left ear was the off ear. Pennsylvania's provincial governor appoints a county chief ranger to corral livestock not so marked and to return runaway branded livestock to owners. The chief ranger serves as a mixture of present-day dog wardens, game protectors and state foresters, handling numerous duties in the wild, including unauthorized harvesting of forests.
c. 1758: York
Merchant gains influenceElijah Etting, thought to be the first Jewish settler in the county, sets up a small store. Etting keeps in contact with the Lancaster Jewish community and gains influence in his own county. Joseph Simon of Lancaster asks Etting to intervene with the Continental Congress, meeting in York in 1777-78, on his behalf concerning a financial matter.
Alexander Graydon, later a well-known lawyer, spends part of a summer in the Etting household. As described in his memoirs, Graydon found hospitable reception unavailable in York, except at the Ettings. He particularly relished the hospitality of Shinah, Elijah's wife: "Those who have known York ... cannot fail to recollect the sprightly and engaging Mrs. E., the life of all the gaiety that could be mustered in the village: always in spirits, full of frolic and glee, and possessing the talent of singing agreeably . ..."
1758: York County
Settlers clash with IndiansThe French and Indian War inflames conflicts between settlers and American Indians that had largely escaped the county because of the Penns' policy to pay Indians for land. During a raid in western York County (now Adams County), Indians capture the Jemison family. "My dear little Mary," Jane Jemison tells her daughter after her family's capture, "I fear that the time has arrived when we must be parted forever. We shall probably be tomahawked here in this lonesome place. ..." Her mother urges Mary to remember her native tongue and to say her prayers every night. The Indians kill her parents and siblings, but spare Mary. Mary later survives two American Indian husbands. Despite chances to return to white settlements, she voluntarily lives among her adopted people. She becomes known as "the White Woman of the Genessee."
1759: Coleraine, Ireland
Future pastor born in IrelandRobert Cathcart, later one of York's most influential 19th-century pastors, is born to a Scotch-Irish family. The Rev. Cathcart comes to York in 1793 and serves First Presbyterian Church for 44 years. He also preaches on alternating Sundays at Round Hill Presbyterian Church, Hopewell Township. His community activities include presidency of the Board of Trustees of the York County Academy, which grew into York College.
It is said he missed one Sunday in 42 years of ministry at the Hopewell church, 15 miles from York. "Punctuality," he said, "if not a Christian grace, is certainly a moral virtue."
Christ Lutheran Church growsBy this time, the 550 members of Christ Lutheran Church in York outgrow their first house of worship. Workers start construction on a new stone church measuring 67 feet by 40 feet. The stone structure must have stood out in a community of wooden houses. The congregation is growing, in part, because of the popularity of its pastor, Dr. Lucas Raus, a medical doctor/theologian. The pastor would undertake Sunday morning pastoral duties and ride through the countryside practicing medicine on Sunday afternoon. The stone church serves the congregation until 1812, when the congregation sets a cornerstone for a new brick building, still in use.
A king and George StreetKing George II, the most effective of the three King Georges, dies at the age of 77. York thrived, and the county separated from Lancaster under George's reign. Although the change from George II to George III probably causes little consternation in York County, the new king's policies prompt the American Revolution. Today, motorists regularly remember King George II when they drive York's main north-south thoroughfare -- George Street.
Paine writes at Cookes HouseJohannes Guckes builds a house beside the Codorus Creek, known as the Cookes House today. According to tradition: The house becomes a tavern in the Revolutionary War era. Tom Paine, whose fiery writings fuel the Colonial cause, stays and writes there. The house is the finest stone house west of the Codorus, and members of the Continental Congress, then meeting in York, occupy prime lodgings near the Colonial Courthouse. So, Paine lodges away from the downtown. In the 20th century, the house passed from owner to owner and fell into disrepair until its restoration in the late 1970s. Today, the house, listed on the National Historic Register, stands in Martin Luther King Park in York's west end.
1762: Manheim Township
Furnaces heat iron oreGeorge Ross of Lancaster County and Mark Bird of Philadelphia construct Mary Ann Furnace, four miles south of Hanover. Three years later, William Bennett builds Codorus Furnace in Hellam Township near where the Codorus Creek empties into the Susquehanna. James Smith, prominent lawyer, later operated the furnace. Interestingly, Ross and Smith, both signers of the Declaration of Independence and members of the Continental Congress, held financial interest in early county iron furnaces. Workers at both furnaces backed America's Revolutionary War efforts. The furnaces heated iron ore -- often mined from county soil -- to make cannonballs and other armaments. In the 20th century, a large quantity of balls was found at the Mary Ann Furnace site, ranging from small rifle balls to 4-inch cannonballs. Nothing remains of Mary Ann Furnace today, other than some cinders. Codorus Furnace is the oldest remaining landmark of the iron industry in the county. The site is located about two miles from Route 24 in the Starview area.
Conestogas targetedThe Conestogas, the only surviving American Indian group in the Lower Susquehanna area, become targets after American Indians attack settlers in western Pennsylvania. The attack frightens a group of white men from Paxtang, near Harrisburg. The Paxton boys raid the Conestogas, killing six. Authorities detain surviving Indians under protective custody in the Lancaster County Jail. The Paxton boys return, break into the jail and kill the remaining 14 Conestogas, including elderly men, women and children. After the massacre of these Susquehannock descendants, the Paxton boys claim Conestoga Town in Lancaster County and build two cabins there. Governor John Penn orders them off the land. Two Indians, known as Michael and Mary, survive, and Penn presents them with a letter guaranteeing their safety. They live out their days on a Warwick Township, Lancaster County, farm.
McAllister names townInnkeeper Richard McAllister lays out future Hanover in lowlands at the junction of busy trade roads. The area previously was part of Digges Choice. According to one account, McAllister names the town Hanover to gain favor from the many people of German descent who populate that area. Much later, Hanover adopted a municipal flag bearing the colors of blue, the color of the state flag; white, for York, the White Rose City; and gold, prominent in the heraldry of the House of Hannover, Germany. Many people, including a visiting George Washington, called the town McAllistertown. As a crossroads community, Hanover played host to many prominent citizens including Benjamin Franklin, Martha Washington and Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne.
A fight for Jewish rightsSolomon Etting, who later gained fame for his fight for Jewish rights in Maryland, is born into York's first Jewish family. Shinah Etting moves Solomon and his seven siblings to Baltimore in 1780, two years after her merchant-husband Elijah dies. "Having been endowed with plentiful vitality, courage and perseverance from Shinah, and with an indomitable will, impeccable honesty and remarkable business acumen from Elijah, the Etting progeny proved to be giants in a rapidly growing Baltimore, and were numbered among its most influential and respected citizens," a writer observed. In 1797, Solomon Etting asked Maryland's General Assembly to put Jews "on the same footing with other good citizens." The Maryland constitution required officeholders to declare belief in Christianity. Etting continued his fight for Jewish civil rights. In 1825, the legislature approved the so-called "Jew bill," lifting restrictions against Jews. In 1826, Etting and Jacob I. Cohen won Baltimore City Council seats and became Maryland's first Jewish elected officials. Etting, later city council president, and Cohen also gained prestigious positions as directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
1765: York County
McClean's RevolutionArchibald McClean, who later became one of the county's most prominent residents, arrives here as part of the Mason and Dixon surveying team. Surveyors in Colonial times usually are men of trust and power. McClean must have been counted among those numbers because he was connected to the important Mason-Dixon project. After the Declaration of Independence in 1776, local government in Pennsylvania is restructured. The British crown no longer holds authority. McClean advances the revolutionary government by accepting commissions as county commissioner, prothonotary, register of wills and recorder of deeds, among many other positions -- positions necessary to ensure order under a new government. He holds key positions in county government until his death in 1786. "If a scholar who had spent some time in careful study of the records were asked to name the person in York County who did most to advance the American Revolution, he would probably choose James Smith (signer of the Declaration of Independence), Thomas Hartley (for military and political exploits), or Archibald McClean," a history states.
1766: York County
Manor of MaskeSurveyors line out Manor of Maske, the second largest reserved estate of the Penns in Pennsylvania. Springettsbury Manor was the largest. The manor, then part of York County, includes the area covered by present-day Gettysburg. It measures about six miles in width and 12 miles in length.
Friends indeedThe Society of Friends in York construct a meeting house. Nathan Hussey, William Willis, Joseph Updegraff, Joseph Garretson, William Matthews and Harmon Updegraff made initial contributions to offset construction costs. The West Philadelphia Street structure is the oldest existing house of worship in York. The eastern section of the building is the original structure; the western part was built about 1783. In the 20th century, a hostile takeover, a large elm and disuse threatened the historic building.
In 1925, Edison Electric Light Company, operator of a nearby steam generating plant, unsuccessfully battled for the land on which the meeting house stands. In the late 1940s, high winds toppled a giant elm, which just missed the building. As the Friends' numbers dwindled over the years and maintenance became sporadic, the building's walls and roof weakened.
A drive garnered enough funds to restore the building in the 1970s. "The York Friends Meeting House is friendless no more," a newspaper said. Friends continue to worship in the building.
1768: York County
Manor re-surveyedCharles Lukens re-surveys Springettsbury Manor, finding it covers 64,520 acres instead of the 75,520 in the 1722 survey and with vastly different lines. The discrepancy on such an important piece of land points to the complexity of determining property lines in a previously unsettled territory. The second survey becomes necessary because of confusion over the lines established in the 1722 survey.
c. 1769: York County
Miller's crossingsHenry Miller, a Lancaster native, moves to York, marries, purchases a house and settles down for a long public career in his adopted county. His life is decorated with achievement: He heads the York Rifles during the Revolutionary War; and serves as county sheriff and prothonotary, York's first burgess, state representative, justice of the peace and delegate to the state constitutional convention. He is part of the force that helps President George Washington quell the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Many established and prominent York leaders stay in York County all their lives, often residing in comfortable brick homes. However, Miller leaves the area for Baltimore and moves at least three times after that. As a brigadier general in the U.S. militia stationed in Baltimore, Miller helped fend off the British in the War of 1812. The transient Miller later moved to Perry County in Pennsylvania and then Carlisle in Cumberland County, where he died in 1824.
1770: York County
Otterbein begins ministryThe Rev. Phillip William Otterbein, pastor of York's German Reformed Church, takes a mid-term break from his pastorate, spending a year in his native Germany. He returns to serve for three more years before pursuing a ministry that brings him national renown. Historians credit Otterbein with founding the United Brethren in Christ Church, a German church that draws from the principles of Methodism. Otterbein becomes acquainted with the views of John Wesley, founder of Methodism, and friendly with Francis Asbury, the renowned Methodist circuit rider. Otterbein helps Asbury promote Methodism in York County. Otterbein's death in 1813 did not stop the growth of the United Brethren in Christ denomination, whose adherents numbered in the tens of thousands. A split occurred in 1889 at a meeting in York. But the denomination persisted and combined with the Evangelical Church, founded by another Otterbein contemporary named Jacob Albright, in 1946. The resulting Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church in 1968 to become the United Methodist Church, combining the spiritual descendants of Otterbein with those of Wesley and Asbury. Many of the 93 United Methodist churches in York County today are former United Brethren in Christ and Evangelical Church congregations.
1771: York County
Churches get family namesSeveral Lutheran churches in York County bear two names -- the name of a family and a formal name, such as a saint. The informal name is drawn from the family that sold or donated land for the church or is otherwise tightly connected to it. Four such congregations are founded in 1771-72: Jerusalem (Fissel's) in Shrewsbury Township; Emanuel (Frey's) in Windsor Township; St. Paul's (Ziegler's) in North Codorus Township; and St. Luke's (Stehley's) in Chanceford Township.
1772: Guilford County, N.C.
Jessops arrive by wagonJonathan Jessop, later one of York County's most prominent residents, is born. Ann Matthews Jessop, Jonathan's recently widowed mother, brings her young son to York in the 1780s. The pair travel by wagon, camping at night by a fire to scare any intruding animals. Once in York, the teen learns clock and watchmaking from Elisha Kirk, a kinsman and fellow Quaker. Jessop later toils as a clockmaker, storekeeper, civil engineer and apple grower. When he dies in 1857, his obituary said, "He was esteemed by all who knew him for his benevolence, pure-heartedness, liberality of views and unyielding integrity." Ann Jessop serves as a minister for the Religious Society of Friends before and after she moves to York. Female and male Quaker ministers are articulate members who devote their lives to speaking the truth. Elders approved those who felt the call to ministry without formal training. A meeting might have several ministers.
Ann Jessop, now a missionary with a home meeting in York, continues her travels in the British Isles.
1772: York County
Severe snow kills deer herdsThree and one-half feet of snow falls in the county followed by a freezing rain. A thick crust forms, a condition that leads to the near extinction of deer and shortages in the deer herd for years. "Nearly every man and boy in the county now turned out to chase deer," a historian wrote, "for while the hunter could run fleetly on the crust, the poor animals struck through, and from the wounds received on their legs, were unable to proceed far."
1773: Hopewell Township
Three senators born in countyJohn Rowan, one of three U.S. senators to hail from York County, is born in its southeastern part. His father, William Rowan, serves as county sheriff in the mid-1770s. Like fellow senators James Ross and Matthew S. Quay, Rowan is born into a Scotch-Irish family that moves from the county in his youth. Ross and Quay moved to western Pennsylvania and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate. Rowan's family moves to Kentucky, where he served in the U.S. House from 1807 to 1809 and the U.S. Senate from 1825 to 1831. Henry Clay succeeded him in the Senate. Later, he was appointed commissioner for carrying out the Treaty of 1839 with Mexico. Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" is said to have been inspired by the composer's visit to his kinsman Rowan's house in Bardstown, Ky.
1774: York County
Panel protests British taxesCounty residents name a committee to protest British taxation. After the Boston Tea Party causes a British blockade of Boston Harbor, the county supplies financial help to the New England patriots. Late that year, county soldiers begin training. The company's officers were: James Smith, captain; Thomas Hartley, first lieutenant; David Green, second lieutenant; and Henry Miller, ensign. All four would provide leadership in York County for decades.
1775: York County
Colonials meet at tavernColonial troops gather at Samuel Gettys' tavern near the crossing of the Shippensburg-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh roads. They soon join with the York Rifles for a march to Boston. The Gettys crossroads became known as Gettysburg, then in York County.
1775: York County