South Central PA

The Robin Hood of PA

2008-02-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

David Lewis was born in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in March of 1790. By the age of twenty the bright, handsome young man had developed a career of robbery and counterfeiting. He worked his trade in the central counties of PA near the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers and in the Allegheny mountains from Lock Haven to Bedford. From 1816 to 1820 he was a highwayman, robbing people at gunpoint and living as a mountaineer in various cabins and caves throughout the state. He was known to use a cave at Doubling Gap, where he knew the owner of a cabin near the sulphur springs. When the coast was clear the friend hung a flag from his window and Lewis could venture from the cave to the cabin. He was apparently well known and liked by the locals and there were stories of men and women visiting the cabin for parties and impromptu dances with Lewis and his fellow outlaws and friends.
There were many stories of the exploits of Lewis. He was well known for his brazen daylight robberies, but was even better known for targeting wealthy people and then giving the money to poor farmers and laborers that were facing hard times or foreclosure. He called himself an 'equalizer", but became known as the Robin Hood of Pennsylvania.
He was successful at his trade, despite being arrested and jailed between 4 and 8 times. This bad luck was offset by his ability to escape before standing trial. In his most famous escape he seduced the jailers daughter and then eloped with her. She became the mother of his first child.
In 1820 a Centre County posse caught Lewis and his men after they robbed a wagon train that was on its way to Bellefonte on the Seven Mountains Road. Lewis was wounded in the gun battle and developed gangrene while being held at the Bellefonte jail. He wrote his memoir on his deathbed and claimed to have hidden caches of money, gold and plunder in caves throughout the Allegheny Mountains.
David "Robber" Lewis died at the age of thirty in the Bellefonte jail and was buried in Milesburg, Pennsylvania.

Shiremanstown Fire

2008-02-01T09:22:00.001-05:00

On September 2, 1908 sparks from a passing Cumberland Valley Rail Road train caught the roof of a Railroad Avenue warehouse on fire. Shiremanstown had no fire department and a civilian bucket brigade was unsuccessful in fighting the fire due to windy conditions. The wind fanned the flames and caught a nearby house on fire, then quickly jumped from house to house,destroying 6 homes before it reached Main Street. At that point the Mechanicsburg Fire Company arrived and were followed shortly by the Camp Hill Fire Company. The Hope Fire and Washington Fire Companies of Harrisburg also answered the call. Before firefighters were able to gain control 6 more homes on both sides of Main Street and St Johns Lutheran Church were destroyed.In all, the fire destroyed 12 homes, 1 church, 1 warehouse and 8 stables.Several other homes were damaged.

Pennsylvania Canal

2008-01-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

The first notable canal in Pennsylvania was built in 1797. Boats needed to get around Conewago Falls on the Susquehanna River near York Haven. The privately built, 1.25 mile canal had two locks to help boats over a 19 foot elevation. Using the canal, boats could now traverse the Susquehanna both downstream and upstream. Before the canal, most boats traveled south only and stopped at Middletown to unload their goods, which then were shipped by wagon 100 miles to Philadelphia. After the canal was built both Middletown and York Haven became important flour milling centers, turning the raw wheat that came down the river from farms into flour before it traveled downstream to Columbia, where it shipped to Philadelphia on what became US Rt 30.

In 1824 the legislature approved the construction of the "Main Line of Public Works", which was a canal system throughout the state. By 1834 the Public Works was transporting people and goods from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, 391 miles through a system of canals, railroads and inclined planes.

The Susquehanna Division of the canal was located north of Harrisburg at the mouth of the Juniata River and ended at the canal basin in Northumberland.
There are PA Historical markers on Rt 15 north of Amity Hall and on Rt 15 north of Liverpool.

The Wiconisco Canal also started near the mouth of the Juniata at Duncans Island, but traveled 12 miles to Millersburg, overcoming a 35 foot elevation change and enabled easier transport of coal from the Lykens Valley.

By 1850 the railroads were starting to take more and more business from the canal systems. In 1857 the state sold the Main Line to the Pennsylvania Railroad. By 1859 the state was completely out of the canal business. The railroads continued to use the canals to move freight and even formed the Pennsylvania Canal Company in 1867. By 1900 most canals in Pennsylvania were no longer in use.

Fulgurite

2008-01-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

Fulgurite is a glass tube that is formed when lightning strikes the earth, especially in sandy soils or in areas where quartz is present. It can also be formed on the surface of a rock. Fulgurite is somewhat difficult to locate and hard to recover without breaking. Areas that are prone to lightning strikes are the best places to find fulgurite.

York County and parts of Adams and Cumberland counties all have many iron ore deposits near the surface. This can generate more lightning strikes, especially ground strikes, which could produce fulgurite. In searching eBay for minerals I have seen numerous postings of York County fulgurite! Several of my York county friends report that they live in areas that seem more prone to lightning problems than other neighbors, even right down the road.

Wikipedia has a nice write up on Fulgurite.

South Central PA Timeline

2008-01-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

1600 - 5,000 to 7,000 Susquehannock indians live in the area.

1608 - Captain John Smith travels up the Susquehanna.

1642 - Maryland governor orders Susquehannock indians shot on sight.

1649 - Susquehannocks fight Virgina Puritans in northern Maryland.

1652 - Susquehannocks sign treaty, give up all Maryland claims.

1654 - Smallpox hits the Susquehannock indian villages.

1656 - Susquehannocks end 6 year long war, make peace with the Mohawks.

1661 - Smallpox decimates the Susquehannock, population never recovers.

1669 - Susquehannocks down to only 300 warriors.

1675 - Susquehannock indians decimated by war with the Iroquois.

1676 - Susquehannock surrender to the Iroquois, move to Mohawk lands.

1706 - Iroquois allow 300 Susquehannocks to move back to central PA.

1719 - John Harris Sr. settled at present day Harrisburg.

1727 - John Harris, founder of Harrisburg born.

1730 - Hanover settled.
1730 - Shippensburg settled in July 1730 along Burds Run.

1735 - Widow Pipers Tavern built in Shippensburg.

1733 - John Harris Sr. aqquires 800 acre land grant at Harrisburg

1737 - Monaghan Presbyterian Church founded in present day Dillsburg.
1737 - Boiling Springs area settled.
1737 - Big Spring Presbyterian Meeting House erected.

1740 - Greater Conewago Presbyterian Church formed in Hunterstown.
1740 - Old Paxton Presbyterian Church built in Paxtang.
1740 - Fort Franklin (log fort) built near Shippensburg.

1741 - York founded by settlers from the Philadelphia area.
1741 - Hunterstown founded.

1745 - Monaghan Township formed.
1745 - Warrington Friends Meeting House established near Wellsville.

1749 - York County created from Lancaster County August 19, 1749.

1751 - Carlisle laid out by Scots-Irish immigrants.

1753 - Benjamin Franklin stayed at the Green Tree Inn, Carlisle.

1763 - The last 20 Susquehannock indians were killed by Paxton Boys mob.

1764 - James Joner laid out Dover on 203 acres, called Jonerstown until 1815.

1773 - Dickinson College founded at Carlisle.

1775 - Cumberland Riflemen fight in Quebec.

1782 - Carlisle incorporated as borough on April 13, 1782.

1783 - Dickinson College chartered.

1785 - Harrisburg laid out and surveyed.
1785 - Dauphin County was created from Lancaster County.

1787 - York incorporated as a borough on Sept. 24, 1787.
1787 - Riot at Carlisle against a planned march in favor of US constitution.

1790 - Newville laid out by Big Spring Presbyterian Church trustees.

1791 - Harrisburg incorporated.
1791 - The "Oracle of Dauphin", first local newspaper published.

1793 - George Washington has his horse shod at Hunterstown.
1793 - Federal troops assemble at Carlisle during the Whiskey Rebellion.

1795 - Failed attempt to move state capital to Carlisle.

1797 - Conewago Canal built near York Haven.
1797 - Earliest note of Encampment of Knights Templar at Harrisburg.

1798 - First public execution at Harrisburg

1799 - George and Martha Washington visit York Sulphur Springs resort.

1806 - Mechanicsburg area settled.

1809 - Harrisburg Academy established.

1812 - Harrisburg named state capitol.

1814 - Harrisburg Bible Society established.
1814 - Harrisburg Bank chartered with $300,000 capital.

1815 - Hanover incorporated as a borough.

1816 - The Harrisburg Bridge opens, toll houses completed 1817.

1819 - Shippensburg incorporated as a borough on January 21.

1820 - David "Robber" Lewis, the Robin Hood of PA, died.

1824 - State approved the construction of the Pennsylvania Canal.

1825 - Gen. Lafayette and son visit Middletown and Harrisburg.
1825 - Riot at Harrisburg over a captured runaway slave.
1825 - First steamboats arrive on the Susquehanna at Harrisburg.

1826 - Lutheran Theological Seminary founded at Gettysburg.

1828 - Mechanicsburg incorporated as a borough on April 12, 1828.
1828 - Harrisburg Masonic Lodge closes due to public distrust.
1828 - First water in Pennsylvania Canal at Harrisburg.

1831 - New Cumberland incorporated as a borough on March 21, 1831.
1831 - Great Snow Storm, over 2' of drifting snow buries the area.

1832 - Gettysburg College founded.

1833 - The Great Meteor Shower was witnessed by area residents.

1834 - Dickinson School of Law founded at Dickinson College in Carlisle.

1835 - Joseph Ritner, Governor 1835-1839

1836 - The first locomotive train arrives in Harrisburg from Middletown.

1837 - Cumberland Valley Rail Road opens from Lemoyne to Chambersburg.

1839 - Railroad bridge across the Susquehanna to Harrisburg completed.
1839 - Harrisburg Sunday School Teachers Union formed.

1841 - Harrisburg builds new $40,000 prison.
1841 - Harrisburg Water Works completed.
1841 - Harrisburg Masonic Lodge reopens after 13 year closure.

1845 - Harrisburg Cemetary Association incorporated on Feb 14.

1846 - Flood takes out two Susquehanna bridges at Harrisburg.

1847 - Iron ore discovered in Dillsburg.

1849 - Harrisburg Female Seminary established.

1850 - Harrisburg Gas Company incorporated.
1850 - "American Whig", first daily Harrisburg newspaper.

1851 - Harrisburg Lunatic Hospital completed on 130 acre farm.

1852 - Harrisburg Borough Item newspaper founded by George Crap.

1853 - Pennsylvania Female College established at Harrisburg.

1857 - State sold the Pennsylvania Canal to Pennsylvania Railroad.
1857 - Harrisburg Building Association established.
1857 - Irving Female College established in Mechanicsburg.

1864 - Dover incorporated.

1866 - Pennsylvania Steel Company opens in Steelton.

1871 - The Normal School founded, now known as Shippensburg University.

1872 - Dillsburg branch of the railroad completed.
1872 - First Granger's Picnic at Williams Grove.

1885 - Camp Hill incorporated as a borough on November 10, 1885.

1887 - York incorporated as a city.

1905 - Lemoyne (formerly Bridgeport)incorporated as borough on May 23, 1905.

1906 - Thomas Edison visited local mining operations.

1917 - The first Pennsylvania Farm Show held at Harrisburg.

1929 - Irving Female College in Mechanicsburg closes.

1936 - Last train through downtown Carlisle on Oct. 17, 1936.

1949 - Allenberry Playhouse opens at Boiling Springs.

1972 - Hurricane Agnes brings major flood in June 1972.

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear disaster March 28, 1979.

Dillsburg Post Office

2008-01-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

The first Dillsburg Post Office was established in 1816. In 1913 the postmaster relocated the post office to a 3 story building at the corner of York Street and South Baltimore Street.

The post office occupied half of the ground floor of the building. The lobby was separated from the mail room by a series of oak panels. The panels were fabricated by Federal Equipment Company of New York, New York and Carlisle Pennsylvania. A standard practice of the time, the prefabricated panels were selected from a catalog by the postmasters so that they could design a post office that fit their local need for space and customer services. The panels, roughly the size of a door, were then assembled on site by the postmaster.

Panels selected for Dillsburg included a "General Delivery" window, a "Registry" mail window, and a "Mail Order" window. The post office door was marked "Postmaster". Also included in the post office was a section for 108 rental lock boxes so customers could get their mail even if the windows were closed.

This post office remained in operation until 1971. Thanks to local residents and representatives of the American History Museum the interior panels were dismantled and relocated to the Smithsonian's American History Museum. In 1993 it was moved to the National Postal Museum at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington DC.

The current Dillsburg post office has been in operation since 1971.
It is located at 28 North Baltimore Street.

Turquoise

2008-01-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania has a lot of different geology and minerals. Usually we associate PA with coal, limestone and iron. There are lots of other elements found too, just not as much or as concentrated.

There are various gemstones found in eastern Pennsylvania, but surprisingly there is a location in south central PA that has a deposit of turquoise. The mineral is found at Waggoners Gap along Route 74 in Cumberland county.

There is a parking area along Route 74 at the gap with a great view. All around that area the terrain is very rocky and you can see where great rock layers push out of the ground , an ancient layer of the earths crust exposed.

The mineral can be seen as a blue-green mineralization on the older rock. You may or may not see it from the road, but walking into the woods a short ways, you will start to detect the blue-green color on the boulders and rocks.

Note: This is not a "vein" of turquoise, merely traces. You will not be able to "chip off a piece". The rocks are extremely hard. With the right hammer you might get lucky and break off a piece of rock that has a little blue-green on it.
So, while not really a good treasure hunt, it is still pretty cool to be able to see and recognize this mineral that is so unusual in Pennsylvania, right in Cumberland County. Note: the area of rocks extends up the mountain into Perry County too.

Skirmish at Sporting Hill

2008-01-01T19:46:00.000-05:00

During the Gettysburg Campaign of the Civil War, southern Lt General Richard Ewell led two divisions up the Hagerstown Valley and into the Cumberland Valley.
Part of his cavalry, a brigade led by Brig. General Albert Jenkins raided Mechanicsburg on June 28, 1863. On June 29 Jenkins briefly skirmished with the 22nd and 37th New York Infantry at Sporting Hill, just west of Camp Hill. The confederates pressed on to the outer defenses of Fort Couch, which is located on the hills of Lemoyne, overlooking Harrisburg. They exchanged fire with the outer picket line for over an hour. Then they retreated back toward Carlisle to rejoin Ewell's infantry for the march to Gettysburg. Losses were listed as 11 union and 16 from the 16th and 36th Virginia Calvary.

Hunterstown

2008-01-01T18:26:00.000-05:00

Hunterstown, PA is located on Route 394, 1 mile east of Route 15 near Gettysburg. Route 394 is the modern version of "Black's Gap Road", which was the main east-west road of its day. The Great Conewago Presbyterian Church was formed here in 1740 and the town was founded in 1741. Originally called Woodstock, it was later renamed Hunterstown after David Hunter.

The Grass Hotel was built there in the 1700's. The town had a doctor, blacksmith, shoemaker, watchmaker, undertaker, tailor and wagon builder. It is the second oldest town in Adams County and once vied for county seat.

President George Washington stopped at the Taft Farm and blacksmith shop to have his horse shod when returning to Washington from the Whiskey Rebellion in October 1793.

In the 1800's there were many families that operated chair making businesses in Hunterstown. During the 1830's John C. Studebaker operated a wagon building business between Hunterstown and Heidlersburg, making the Conestoga wagons that were to become famous as America moved west. His descendants later moved to Indiana and used their skills to build the largest company for building wagons and carriages. Their company later produced Studebaker automobiles. A good part of that story can be found here.

In the Civil War, the Felty and Gilbert farms were the scene of a battle on July 2, 1863 between the cavalries of George Custer and Cobb's Georgia Legion, where Custer is said to have narrowly escaped with his life. It is rumored that confederate soldiers were buried on the Felty farm. The Grass Hotel was used as a field headquarters and field hospital during the battle at Gettysburg. The National Park Service has recently (Sept 2006) recognized Hunterstown, known as the North Cavalry Fields, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign. An excellent description of the battle is located here.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's Hunterstown was the headquarters of the Reliance Mining and Milling Corp, a large local employer. Hunterstown was at one time prosperous enough to have a guard unit and a baseball team. Today the village is home to just 100 people.

There is a Hunterstown historical group, their page can be found here.

The Fruit Industry

2008-01-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

Farmers in the area experimented with the growing of fruit trees and berries with some success. It became known that areas of Northern Adams county, Northern York county and to a lesser degree parts of the Cumberland Valley were good places to grow fruit. They had the proper soils and conditions that allowed fruits to thrive without much caring required.

Northern Adams county in particular was ideal. With an elevation of just 700 feet, an average temperature of 54 degrees, a 180 day growing season and an annual rainfall of 45 inches, as well as rolling hills, the orchards were not prone to freezing or drought.

The apple orchards had their ups and downs in the early 1800's, as poor transportation methods made fruit more of a local product. Farmers tended to concentrate more on traditional crops and just use a few acres for fruit.

By the mid 1800's the first commercial orchard, known as Fairview Fruit Farm was planted just north of Fox Hollow in Franklin Township (York County?). Other orchards started to spring up throughout northern Adams. In 1893 the owners of an orchard between Arendtsville and Cashtown went to the Worlds Fair in Chicago to display their fruit and received the first commercial orders for apples to be shipped out of Adams county to a national market. With the improved rail links developed in the second half of the 1800's it was possible to ship fresh fruits by train to the larger cities. Many family fortunes were made by the fruit farmers of our area. Growing up in the local area I heard the term "fruit barons" used more than once to describe some of the large family operations in the area.

There was also growth in the industry of processing and canning fruit. Apples were often cut into slices and packed in barrels for transport. The Biglerville Canning Company was founded in 1905 and was purchased by the C.H. Musselman family in 1907. A cousin, I.Z. Musselman started a cannery in Orrtanna. I.Z. pioneered the red tart canned cherry industry in the area. Other plants sprung up in Peach Glen and Gardners. The Peach Glen plant was eventually sold to M.E. Knouse. By the 1920's the industry started to include fruit juices. CH Musselman became a corporation and began to buy up farms in the area. The depresion was hard on the area and many families had to sell. Applesauce became very popular and sliced apples fell from favor. Musselmans constructed the first applesauce processing machines, which helped create a market for all the apples that were bruised or otherwise unfit for sale. By 1934 all of Musselmans production was switched to applesauce. World War II came along and drove up the demand for canned fruit and the local canning operations flourished. Musselmans continued to buy farms and by the 1970's owned 6,000 acres.

Knouse Foods, which started at Peach Glen, began to grow and buy other plants, starting with the I.Z. Musselman plant and farms at Orrtanna. The company eventually bought other plants in Chambersburg and Scotland, PA.
M.E. Knouse once sold his farms to C.H. Musselman in 1957, but later regretted the move and starting in 1959 he bought seven farms still in operation by the Knouse family. In 1984 Knouse Foods purchased what had been the C.H. Musselman Company. Today Knouse Foods is the largest industry in Adams county and one of the largest apple processing companies in the world.

Another giant fruit processor, Motts Inc. is also located in Adams county. Mott's started in New York in 1842 and produced apple cider. It merged with the Duffy Cider Company in 1914 and started production of applesauce in 1930 and apple juice in 1938. Duffy-Mott bought a processing plant in Aspers, Adams County, PA in 1950. American Brands purchased Duffy-Mott in 1968. A London, England company, Cadbury Schweppes, bought Duffy-Mott in 1982. Today it is known as Mott's Inc and has two plants, Aspers and Williamson, NY. and produces 17 million cases of apple products per year.

York Sulphur Springs

2008-01-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

The first settlers in the York Springs area in the 1700's found that the water had a high content of sulphur and various salts. People came to the springs just to drink and soak in the water. At some point an old style inn and tavern was built that housed up to 50 guests. That building was replaced in 1790 with a larger T shaped structure. The new building was very beautiful, set in a hillside, with balconies, arbors and very well kept grounds. It could now house 150 guests.

The place became known as a resort and was very popular with many people from Philadelphia and Baltimore. The stagecoach companies made York Springs a regular stop and there was daily service to and from the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia. Yes, even George and Martha Washington spent some time at the resort in summer 1799. The resort was very popular through the first third of the 1800's. There was drinking, dancing, croquet, bowling, and even amusement rides installed for the children. The inn was often completely full and local farmers rented rooms in their homes to guests who could not get into the main resort.

By the end of the 1830's railroads became the choice mode of transportation. The rail lines gave people more access to places on the Atlantic coast and the beaches grew as resort destinations. The resort at York Sulphur Springs quickly fell out of favor and deteriorated. The main building was destroyed by fire on January 8, 1896.

There is an organization called "Ye Olde Sulphur Spa Historical Society" which meets regularly in York Springs. You can find their web site here.

The CVRR

2008-01-01T09:19:00.001-05:00

As this area grew in the early 1800's so did the number of towns and roads. Produce and products, as well as people and raw materials all relied on horses, mules, wagons and stagecoaches for transportation. Using a combination of railroads and canals the state of Pennsylvania had a good bulk transport system that could carry goods, but the locals had to get the goods to the river or railroad in Harrisburg or York in order to ship them. In the 1830's a group of businessmen won a charter from the state to build a feeder line to serve the Cumberland Valley. In August of 1837 the first seventeen mile link opened, connecting Carlisle to Bridgeport (now known as Lemoyne) and the Cumberland Valley Rail Road was born. Hundreds of people rode the train named "Cumberland Valley" on August 12, 1837 for the inaugural run. Later that year another 33 mile segment was completed to Chambersburg, and by January 1839 the railway bridge across the Susquehanna River was completed, allowing the CVRR to connect with major railroads in Harrisburg, where travel to Philadelphia and beyond was possible. People and goods could now leave Carlisle at 9 AM and arrive in Philadelphia by 6 PM. Travelers from Pittsburgh would ride the stagecoach over the mountains at Bedford to arrive in Chambersburg, then take the train the rest of the way to Philadelphia.

As you can imagine, the railroads ruled the valley. Everybody and everything that moved went by rail. Every town along the way either had a station or at least some pickup locations that looked like modern day school bus shelters.
Mechanicsburg was designated as a water station where the steam locomotives were refueled with wood and water. In all the towns along the route factories, graineries, lumber yards and businesses located along the railroad. As many as 25 trains per day traveled the line carrying passengers and freight, newspapers and mail. There was a stationmaster house and passenger station built in Mechanicsburg.

The railroad was a dominant monopoly in the area, employing nearly 2000 people and controlling the movement of everything in the valley. It's lines eventually reached Greencastle, then Hagarstown and on to Winchester, Virginia. The Pennsylvania Rail Road owned a controlling share of the stock since 1859 and finally incorporated the CVRR into the PRR in 1919.

The iron ore that was being mined still had to be brought to the rail stations via mule drawn wagons. Various railroad spurs were built to reach out to the iron producing areas like Pine Grove Furnace, Boiling Springs, Mount Holly and Dillsburg. The 8 mile long Dillsburg connection was completed in 1872 and service began in February 1873. There was a station built to service the Dillsburg branch along Trindle Road, which still stands today. There was also a station built at Williams Grove, a popular picnic and fairground. The largest number of passengers carried in one day on the Dillsburg spur was 32,750 people on 110 trains (754 cars) to the Grangers Picnic at Williams Grove in 1892. This line was upgraded to an electric train in 1906. Passenger service to Dillsburg was discontinued in 1928.

The CVRR tracks ran right down the center of High Street in Carlisle. The last train to traveled through the town on October 17, 1936. The railroad built bypasses around Carlisle and other towns to avoid the slow speeds and crossings in town.

The PRR shut down all passenger service on the line in 1952. The last New York to Roanoke train ran in 1961. The PRR was succeeded by The Penn Central Railroad, which closed all the train repair facilities at Chambersburg in 1972. Conrail took over in 1976 and severed the line between Carlisle and Shippensburg. They combined some tracks with the Reading Company and the resulting line is known as the Lurgan Branch and has been operated by Norfolk Southern since 1999. Conrail abandoned most of the spurs in the area in 1976. The Dillsburg branch operated until about 1976, carrying freight to the lumber yards and grain mill. The tracks crossed Route 15 just south of Route 74, next to 84 Lumber. Blinking lights used to stop traffic on the highway as the train crossed. The track at Dillsburg and many of the other local spurs was removed in approximately 1980.

The CVRR was the first railroad to offer a sleeper car, which was just a converted passenger car that had upholstered board beds that folded up to the wall and had shades on the windows.

One of the locomotives that served the CVRR is on display at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, PA.

Monaghan Township

2007-12-30T21:43:00.000-05:00

The Monaghan Presbyterian Church was founded on the site of present day Dillsburg in 1737. Monaghan Township was formed in 1745 and included all the lands that today are Dillsburg and Franklintown, as well as Carroll and Franklin Townships. The early settlers were Scotch-Irish and farming was the predominant occupation. A considerable amount of whiskey was distilled from locally grown corn and rye in the township in the early 1800's. Monaghan Township developed as a great place to grow small fruit trees. The township web site describes stats from 1884 showing production of 73,000 quarts of strawberries, 39,900 quarts of raspberries, 3,000 quarts of blackberries and 7 tons of grapes. You can see some of this fruit farm activity in the Siddonsburg and Mount Pleasant area. Turn at Mount Pleasant and follow the signs toward Ski Roundtop.

Boiling Springs

2007-12-30T20:58:00.000-05:00

Boiling Springs started as a settlement in the 1700's at a place in modern South Middleton township where approximately 30 natural springs bubbled up. There were iron ore deposits in this area around South Mountain, and by the 1750's the settlers had dammed the springs into a small lake to be used in the production of iron. By 1760 the Carlisle Iron Works had installed a large furnace for iron production. The ironmaster, Michael Ege, built a 16 room mansion on the hill overlooking the lake around 1780.

Warrington Friends Meeting House

2007-12-30T20:16:00.000-05:00

The Warrington Meeting House is located on Route 74 between Wellsville and Rossville in York county. The Society of Friends (Quakers) began having meetings on the site in 1745. The current building was erected in 1769, although it was enlarged in 1782. The Quakers met there until 1861, but so many people were moving west as the country grew that there weren't enough members left to keep the doors open. The meeting house was reactivated in 1947 and is still in use today. This building could be the finest example of early Quaker meeting architecture in the country.

Gifford Pinchot State Park

2007-12-30T19:42:00.000-05:00

Gifford Pinchot State Park is located in Warrington Township, York County. The park is on 2,238 acres of land with a 340 acre lake. The park is named after former Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot was governor from 1923-1927 and 1931-1935. The land was purchased in 1959 and the park was dedicated in 1961. The park attracts 600,000 visitors per year with 18 miles of trails, fishing, swimming and boating.

Michaux State Forest

2007-12-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

This Pennsylvania State Forest is located in parts of Cumberland, Adams and Fayette counties. The land in this area was owned by iron companies from the mid 1700's until the early 1900's. When mining gave out, the state bought the properties, including the historic Pine Grove Furnace, which it turned into a State Park. The PA DCNR web site lists the Michaux State Forest as 85,000 acres.
Starting in 1931 the CCC built many of the roads and early buildings. During World War II the Intelligence Department of the Army operated a POW camp at Michaux which housed 1500 German and Japanese prisoners.

You can check the map of the Michaux State Forest on the PA DCNR web site. You'll see that it is quite a huge piece of property. It contains both Pine Grove Furnace State Park and Caledonia State Park.

Michaux borders the Kings Gap Environmental Center which is located in Penn, Dickinson and Cooke townships of Cumberland County Pennsylvania. Kings Gap is a 1,454 acre state park built on the South Mountain Ridge. The land is part of a 2,700 acre parcel that was owned by Pennsylvania businessman James Cameron. He built a large mansion at Kings Gap in 1908. After his death in 1949 the land was sold to the CH Masland Carpet Company, located in Carlisle. The state purchased the land for the park in 1973.

The view from the mansion at Kings Gap is spectacular, and even more so from a geological and geographical viewpoint. The mansion is built on the South Mountain which is an extension of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and Tennessee. Looking west from the patio of the mansion you look directly across the Cumberland Valley, part of the Great Valley that runs all the way to Alabama, and on the other side you can see the eastern ridge of the Appalachian mountains looming like a wall along the valleys west side. Not sure if this is the narrowest point, but it perfectly illustrates these two old mountain ranges, separated by an ancient valley. In fact, the Blue Ridge was originally the western face of the Appalachians, but the Great Valley formed and split them apart, all the way to Roanoke Virginia.

Pine Grove Furnace

2007-12-30T18:15:00.000-05:00

Located on Route 233, just 8 miles from exit 37 of Route 81 is the Pine Grove Furnace State Park. The park is located on the location of the original iron furnace that operated from 1764 until 1895. There are two lakes, Laurel Lake is 27 acres, Fuller Lake is much smaller, about 1.7 acres. It was actually a quarry for the iron works until it suddenly flooded in the 1890's. The quarry equipment is supposedly still at the bottom of this 90 foot deep lake. The water in Fuller Lake is much colder than Laurel Lake, no doubt from the underground spring that feeds it. The state of Pennsylvania bought the iron works and surrounding lands, 17,000 acres in all, in 1913. Most of the land became Michaux State Forest, however 696 acres was set aside for the Pine Grove Furnace State Park.
Much of the original iron works and buildings can still be seen at the site. Many of the park facilities were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) during the great depression.

Camp Tuckahoe

2007-12-30T17:31:00.000-05:00

Camp Tuckahoe is located in the South Mountain west of Dillsburg on the York - Cumberland county border. It is the largest of three boy scout camps operated by the York/Adams Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Formerly a hunting camp, the 1300 acre site was purchased by the council in March 1947. This is one of the areas that was heavily mined for magnetite, hematite and clay during the late 1800's As you drive up Tuckahoe road toward the camp the mountain on the right side of the road is full of old roads and ruins, although may be hard to get to now that homes have been built all along the road. I would guess that there is evidence of past mining on the camp property too. The top of the mountain on the right side of the road is the York-Cumberland county line.

Interestingly, there are actually two very large and somewhat mysterious camps in those woods. On the other side of the South Mountain ridge from Camp Tuckahoe is the Mount Holly side of the mountain at Whiskey Springs. Near where the Whiskey Springs road connects to the Mountain Road on the Mt Holly side, there is a state game land. That dirt road goes up onto South Mountain in the general direction of Dillsburg and Camp Tuckahoe. Far, far back that road is a camp that I think is operated by Tressler Luthern Services. I always heard it was a camp for bad kids, kind of a nature boot camp. Not sure how many acres. Anyway, these two large camps are located about a mile apart up on that mountain with Tuckahoe in York County and the Tressler camp in Cumberland county.

Mining and Geology

2007-12-30T16:13:00.000-05:00

There is some interesting mining history here in the South Central PA area. We don't usually think of mining here, but in the late 1800's there were many. It seems that where the South Mountain pushed up through the earth it deposited various types or iron ores and clays. From Mount Holly around the end of South Mountain to the ironsworks at Boiling Springs, to Dillsburg, and on down into York county there are iron ore deposits.

The ironworks at Boiling Springs dates back to 1762.

In 1847 a Dillsburg farmer named Abraham Mumper discovered rocks which turned out to be a rich black magnetite ore. This led to series of mines opening in the area. Notably, one was at Mumper Lane and Ore Bank Road, at the top of a ridge just east of town. Other mines opened in the Dogwood run area on the west side of town, as well is in the area now known as Camp Tuckahoe. These mines operated until 1908. Thomas Edison visited the mines in 1906.

In Mount Holly there are large deposits of hematite ore which is still mined there east and south of town.

There are several large quarries in the area, including one near White Hill Correctional Institution, one at Locust Point and one off the Carlisle Pike near Wal-Mart.

There are a number of old quarries in the area too. One is located near White Rock Acres, a small one is located at Williams Grove.

Aside from the rock strata that is pushed from the surface near South Mountain the rest of the local Cumberland Valley is basically sitting on limestone which is very porous. The water from the entire valley drains into huge underground aquifers, which sometimes erode away at the surface causing a sinkhole. The underground river swells to the surface at Boiling Springs. The water is a constant 52 degrees and bubbles up from caverns that are estimated to be 2000 feet below the surface.

I wonder just what we are sitting on, something like swiss cheese? It's very surprising to me that we do not hear about the discovery of a cave more often.

Williams Grove

2007-12-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

Williams Grove, located in Monroe Township, Cumberland County is a place that is very interesting to me. Geographically it is located in the rich Cumberland Valley just a short distance from the end of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Dillsburg. It is a natural travel hub. Lisburn Road connects the hill regions to the east with the farms of the Carlisle and Mechanicsburg areas. Residents on the west side of the Blue Ridge at Mount Holly and the east side of the Blue Ridge at Dillsburg could easily access Williams Grove. So could folks coming down from the Appalachians at places like Sterrets Gap and from the northern gap at Summerdale. Some of the most prime land in our area is located in the triangle formed by Williams Grove, Carlisle and Mechanicsburg.

The Williams family owned a farm at a bend in the Yellow Breeches Creek. In 1850 they began hosting picnics along the creek. The picnic area became locally popular and people began building cottages for summer visits. A Merry Go Round was installed for the kids.

The Dillsburg-Mechanicsburg Railroad was completed and many more local people had easy access to the park. Because of the popularity, nice facilities and a good rail link, the Grangers held a successful fair there in 1872. After that the picnic ground was developed into a Fairground. By 1887 there was a 2,000 seat auditorium, camping areas, cottages, exhibition halls and a hotel. The fairgrounds could attract as many as 30,000 people per day. The annual Grangers picnic seemed to be the biggest event. A state historical marker at the site indicates that as many as 90,000 people attended these picnics. The Grangers held their picnics here through the 1890's, but started to decline as an organization.

The fairgrounds went downhill through World War I and was sold several times, finally purchased by the Richwine family in 1924. They turned it into an amusement park which survived through the depression and did well until World War II. In 1939 they expanded the operation by building Williams Grove Speedway. After the war Hershey Park became a big competitor and the park declined. In the 1950's a group of steam engine enthusiasts started up the Grangers Picnic again, which revived the park until Morgan Hughes bought the park and the speedway for $1.3 million in 1971. The park was flooded by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and hit by a tornado in the 1980's, but survived until closing in 2005. Also, in 2005 the Hughes family sold a large parcel of land to the Grangers Picnic organization that has been holding their picnic there since the 1950's. In 2006 the Grangers opened a large weekend flea market on the property and expanded their event schedule. Also in 2006 some of the rides from the park were auctioned off. Williams Grove Park continues to be open weekly as the Park Market flea market. They are located adjacent to the Grangers.

Williams Grove Speedway is a story in itself. I need to verify this story, but as I recall the Richwine family built the speedway on a farm adjacent to their amusement park in the late 1930's in anticipation of the legalization of horse racing in Pennsylvania. In the 1960's there were still rows of windows across the back of the grandstands. Some were used as ticket booths and offices, but the story is that they were all originally intended to be betting windows. The law failed to change, and in 1939 they opened as a race track for automobiles.

Because of its half mile length, grandstands and superior location it quickly became the premier race track in the area. Small local tracks like the one at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds in York Springs fell into disrepair as the all the racers went to Williams Grove. Indeed, Williams Grove began to draw some of the best racers of the time and their entry listings and record books are a Who's Who of automobile racing history.

Between 1949 and 1959 the track hosted local racers and the Championship Car Series, the same cars and drivers that raced at Indianapolis each May. Back then the Indy cars were basically dirt track cars and the same car was used in both situations. The AAA sanctioned the Indy 500 and their races until the Lemans Disaster in 1955 when they discontinued their racing division. The owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony Hulman, founded the United States Auto Club (USAC) in 1956 and took over the events. In what was known as auto racings darkest day for many years the Black Friday of racing happened when 3 different drivers were killed at three different tracks on the same day. William Grove Speedway was one of those tracks, they were hosting the Championship cars that day. I need to verify the date, but I believe it was in 1957.

The track still flourished into the sixties, with many Indy level drivers still competing at Williams Grove events, although the cars were more specialized now. The great race drivers still came from the dirt track ranks and large dirt tracks like Williams Grove were an industry standard. However technology changed things. In the mid sixties the Indy cars changed to a rear engine configuration while dirt track cars did not. By the 1970's more and more drivers broke into auto racings top events like the Indy 500 with little or no dirt track experience and the great dirt tracks, once talent pools for the big leagues, started to fade. But the racers wouldn't give up.

The racers were all independents, most had full time jobs or businesses, many dirt car shops were located in farmers barns and gas station garages. There was still a lot of prestige, at least locally, for racing at Williams Grove and other great tracks in our area, which include, Susquehanna Speedway, Port Royal Speedway, Selinsgrove Speedway and Lincoln Speedway in Hanover. By the mid 1980's these independent drivers, many of whom traveled from track to track looking to "take the purse" had inspired the founding of the World of Outlaws sprint car organization, which was an "official" group of traveling racers and Williams Grove was, of course, a premier place for them to race. Television and media picked up on the sport in the 1980's and have taken dirt track sprint car racing into the big leagues once again. Now one of a diminishing number of large dirt tracks, Williams Grove Speedway is host for the National Open for sprint cars. Many WIlliams Grove regulars compete with the World of Outlaws and other traveling racing shows. Also many aspiring racers move to this area to compete at the track weekly.

South Central PA Geography

2007-12-30T12:02:00.001-05:00

South Central PA is geographically located at a very interesting junction. The area that consists of Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, York and Adams counties is where several great geographic points neighbor and converge on each other.

The Great Valley, or Great Appalachian Valley extends from Canada to Alabama. It runs through Pennsylvania in the form of three great valleys, the Lehigh Valley near Allentown, the Lebanon Valley near Lebanon and the Cumberland Valley, which encompasses an area from Mechanicsburg south to the Maryland line. Once south of the Mason-Dixon line it is known as the Hagerstown Valley, and then farther south in Virginia it is called the Shenandoah Valley.

The western side of this valley is bounded by the Appalachian Mountains. The best example is to travel down Route 81 south from Harrisburg. Just south of the Susquehanna River the eastern face of the Appalachians are close to the interstate. As you travel south that front ridge is visible all along the way until the Newville and Plainfield areas, where the highway begins to run more centered in the valley, although the ridge can still be glimpsed to the west.

The eastern side of the Cumberland Valley is bounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now most of us have heard of these mountains but associate them with Virginia or Tennessee. They do however continue northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The northernmost section is called South Mountain and runs from Maryland up through Adams county and finally ends at Dillsburg. In Adams county the mountain is nearly 12 miles wide and you can experience this by driving from Gettysburg to Chambersburg on Route 30 west. In the Dillsburg area you can experience the end of the mountain chain in several places. By traveling out Mountain Road west from Dillsburg you can eventually reach Whiskey Springs Road which cuts across some of the final rocky hills to the Mount Holly area. The last stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Dillsburg can be easily seen on the west side of Route 15 as you approach the town. If you take Route 74 north from Dillsburg about three miles to Brandtsville the mountain is on your left. Turn left onto Creek Road and follow the Yellow Breaches to White Rock acres, a housing development built at the very end of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

To the east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in our area is a very hilly region that runs north to the New Cumberland area. This hill region includes places like Fairview Township, Monaghan Township, Wellsville, Lewisberry, and Ski Roundtop.