supply of fish. Atkinson altered his dam with a twenty feet passage for boats and fish."-Rupp.

In 1732 a violent contest for a member of Assembly took place between Andrew Galbraith and John Wright. On that occasion Mrs. Galbraith rode through the town at the head of a numerous band of horsemen, friends of her husband. In consequence of her activity, her husband was elected.

In 1734 an Episcopal Church was built in Conestoga, fifteen miles from Lancaster, (locality unknown), and a Lutheran Church in Lancaster. The seat of justice was removed this year from Postlethwaite's to Lancaster. The hottest summer experienced in the county.

In 1736 the first German Reformed Church, a log-building, nearly opposite the present church, was dedicated; after the completion of the new church in 1771, it was converted into a private dwelling and occupied as such until January 14, 1836, when it was destroyed by fire. Rev. John Jacob Hook, or Hock, V. D. M., was German Reformed Pastor in 1736.-Rupp.

August 5, 1786, at a court of General Quarter Sessions: Doctor William Smith, a vagabond and beggar, being convicted before the court of being an impostor, it is the judgment of the court that he receive, in the town of Lancaster, ten lashes, and be conducted from Constable to Constable, and be whipped with ten lashes, in the most public place, till he comes to the bounds of the county, at Octoraro, and there be dismissed.—Rupp. In 1738, the number of taxables, in Lancaster county, was 2,560. About the year 1738, many emigrants from the Palatinate, Germany, settled in Brecknock township; among these were Jacob Guth, Christian Guth, who erected the first grist mill in the township; John Mussleman, Francis Diller, who erected the first distillery in Brecknock; Jacob Schneder, Francis Eckert, Herman Deis, Christopher Waldhauer, William Morris, Englishman, and some others.-S. Bowman's Letter, in Rupp.

In 1739, the Scotch Presbyterians were at their request excused from "kissing the Book," when giving evidence under oath.

In 1742 Lancaster was incorporated as a borough by George Thomas. A copy of the charter is given in Division X.

In 1743 a German Reformed Congregation was organized, near Adamstown, called "Modecrick Church."

Oct. 3, 1744 a meeting to organize St. James' Episcopal Church was held at Lancaster. The Rev. Richard Locke, an itinerant Missionary, was the first officiating Minister. The project of erecting a small stone church, initiated April 15, 1745, was not consummated until 1753.

This year, Murhancellin, an Indian chief, murdered John Armstrong and his two men on Juniata; he was apprehended by Captain Jack's party, but released after a confinement of several months in Lancaster prison.

John Musser, [1744] complained to the Governor that the Indians barked his walnut trees, in the town, designing the bark as covers to their cabins; he asked £6 for damages and was granted £3.

In 1745, the Roman Catholics procured a lot, from Hamilton's estate, on which a few years later they built a small log church, which was consumed by fire in 1760; the building now used as a School House, was founded in 1762.

In 1745, the German pastor of the Lutheran Church united part of his congregation with the Moravians, an act which created much excitement among the Lutherans who alleged that they were compelled to hear a doctrine which they did not approve, or else to resign their church. This year the "dark swamp," once in the centre of Lancaster, was attempted to be cleared of wood, and a drain made to carry off the water.

In 1746, the Rev. Mr. Locke, an Episcopal Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, reports the town of Lancaster to contain 300 houses.

In 1749, James Webb complained to the General Assembly of the undue election and

return of a member from Lancaster county, stating that violence prevailed, that many persons voted from 5 to 10 times, making 2,300 out of 1,000 votes. The election was confirmed, but the officers were brought to the House and reprimanded.

In 1751 a large meeting was held at Lancaster which resolved upon the erection of a house of employment for the special use of settlers who had greatly suffered from want of employment and the hostilities of the Indians. A farm was procured and implements of manufacture purchased. Stockings were made here, for the manufacture of which Lancaster became soon noted.

Lancaster in 1754. Extract from Gov. Pownall's journal:

"To Lancaster one mile. Lancaster a growing town and making money-a manufactory here of saddles and packsaddles, also of guns-it is a stage town-five hundred houses-two thousand inhabitants.

finest farm one can possibly conHere it was I saw the method of

Between Lancaster and Wright's ferry, I saw the ceive, in the highest culture; it belongs to a Switzer. watering meadows by cutting troughs in the side of the hill for the springs to run inthe water would run over the sides and water the whole of the ground. If the plan be used in England I never saw it.

A town called Ephrata, near Lancaster, settled by people called Donkers, Doopers, Dimplers, they are I think, a queer set of protestant regulars.

In speaking of Alexandria, he says, there is one good house in it; it is Lord Fairfax's and perhaps seventy others."

I copied part of Governor Pownall's Journal for you. In the Book was the following note in manuscript:

"When Governor Pownall visited Lancaster there was not one good house in the town. The houses were chiefly of frame, filled in with stone-of logs-and a few of stone. When Lancaster was laid out it was the desire of the proprietor to raise an annual revenue from the lots; no lots were therefore sold of any large amount; but settlers were encouraged to build and receive a lot, paying an annual sum as ground rent-hence the large number of poor or persons in indigent circumstances who were induced to settle in Lancaster. The Lancaster town was therefore too large at an early period in proportion to the population of the surrounding country, and its inhabitants suffered as much from a want of employment as from its local situation remote from water, it was not nor could it ever possibly become a place of business. The proprietor was therefore wrong in forcing the building and settlement of Lancaster. The town outgrew its strength, and looks dull and gloomy in consequence.

Two Governors were buried in Lancaster, Governor Wharton and Governor Mifflin. "LANCASTER, May 27th, 1778.

"On Sunday last the remains of his Excellency Thomas Wharton, junior, Esquire, President of the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Captain General and Commander-in-chief in and over the same, was interred in the Evangelical Trinity Church in this borough (the elders and vestry of that church having politely requested that the body might there be interred). The attention paid by Col. Geo. Gibson, Lt. Col. Stephen Bayard, and Captains Brown and Huston, in conducting the military on the occasion of his Excellency's funeral, did them honour; and the gentlemen of the borough in their military character made a very handsome appearance. "The affection which the House of Assembly had for his Excellency would not permit his body to be carried by any other persons than members, twelve of whom bore his remains to the grave."

"When the British came to Philadelphia, Robert Morris, J. M. Nesbitt and several others came to Lancaster for safety.

"George Bartram, a merchant of Philadelphia, a native of Scotland, was compelled also to come to Lancaster. He dined out with a party of Whigs and took cold, which caused his death in his 43d year on the 24th of April, 1777, and was buried in front of

the Episcopal church. A neat marble slab on the pavement marks the spot where his remains were deposited."

Peter Schaub, of Lancaster county, setting forth to the Assembly, that when the forces under Col. Dunbar were at Lancaster, on their way to Philadelphia, a considerable number of horses and cattle belonging to them were put into his meadow, and kept there for two days, whereby the greatest part of the grass was destroyed, required compensation for damages sustained; Jacob Myers and others valued the damages at £11.7s. The Assembly considered the petition, September 19th 1755. John Brubaker presented a similar petition; his damages were £8.6s.

Col. Dunbar was an officer under Edward Braddock, who met with a fatal reproof, July 9th, 1755, near Pittsburgh, for his overweening confidence and reckless temerity. -Rupp.

In 1758, the freemen of the county, by reason of the badness of the roads to Philadelphia, in spring and fall, pray to be excused from attendance there in the Supreme Court, and request a county court in lieu thereof.

In 1759, owing to the distracted state of the country by Indian cruelties and French hostilities, a barrack was erected in Lancaster, containing 500 men, for the security of the country, Mr. Bausman, barrack-master.

In 1760, statistics of Lancaster county-436,346 acres of land, 5,635 taxables, each taxed £1.2s. Total tax £6,178.10s.

In 1763, a petition by settlers on the Conestoga, complains of its dams, as destroying the former fishery of shad, salmon and rock-fish, which were before in abundance, while the tributary streams had plenty of trout.

In 1763 the house of correction was erected. The famous massacre of Indians by the Paxton Boys, which took place this year, is fully described in a former part of this volume, pages 179 sq.

In 1764, the Rev. Mr. Barton, Rector of St. James' Church, describes Lancaster as a very respectable and wealthy place, containing 600 houses. He reports also that a German surgeon married then about 300 couples a year, worth to him £150.

In 1765 the Presbyterians erected a large meeting house. William Montgomery, John Craig, James Davis.

Building Committee:

In 1783–1784 Johann David Schöpf, who had been Commissioner of the Margrave of Brandenburg during the Revolution, undertook a journey through the Middle and Southern States and the Bahamas, and published an account of his travels at Erlangen in 1788. From that rare and able book I have translated the following account of Lancaster, which will doubtless be perused with great interest:

"Among the interior cities of all North America, Lancaster is the most important. Although hardly eighty years old, it has already 900 houses. Its rapid growth cannot be ascribed to the nearness of a river, for the Susquehanna flows 10 miles to the South, and the small Conestoga 2 miles to the East. This town was originally designed to have been located on the Susquehanna, and a wooden Court House and jail had actually been erected near Wright's Ferry, but Hamilton, a distinguished lawyer, used his influence to have the town located on land belonging to him. His family still retain the proprietory rights, and draw an annual income of at least £1,000 sterling from ground-rents. These ground-rents are unequal, according as the respective lots were taken up at an earlier or later period, or are situated in different parts of the town; for the lots taken up at the first beginning of the place pay least; but with the gradual growth of the town the price of the lots was raised. The town is laid out with regularity; the Court House here, also, is in the centre at the intersection of two of the main streets, which detracts considerably from its appearance. It is said that not more than fifty English families dwell here; all the rest are Germans; but the English language, though not dominant, is the language of the courts. The inhabitants follow agricultural, industrial and commercial pursuits. The commerce, however, is not very

considerable, because the town is still too near to Philadelphia. It has a handsome Lutheran Church and a Latin School.1

"But the greatest attraction which Lancaster presented to me, was the pleasure I derived from the acquaintance with the Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, pastor of the Lutheran Church, and now Principal of the College there.

"This excellent man, by his own diligence, has made considerable attainments in natural science and is indefatigable in his investigations of the animals, plants and minerals of his neighborhood. I have great reason to regret the circumstance that I made his acquaintance so late and for too short a time; but it was the more precious and I shall cherish my recollection of him the more, because he is the only native American with whom I became acquainted, who is a lover of science and of whom I was able to make scientific inquiries. If his exemplary diligence and search of knowledge were more generally found among his countrymen, America would soon become better acquainted with her own products, and natural science become greatly enriched. His cabinet of home minerals, though small, is nevertheless remarkable, because a better one is not found elsewhere."

"The same author furnishes some curious specimens of the peculiar idiom, known as Pennsylvania Dutch, which seems to have been eighty years ago as richly developed as it is at this day; the reader, familiar with this indigenous dialect, will have no difficulty to understand the following extracts from conversations had by Schöpf, with Pennsylvania farmers in 1783:

Ich hab' wollen mit my nachbar tshinen and a shtick geclart land purchasen. Wir hätten no doubt a goote bargain gmacht und hatten kenne goot drauf ausmache. Ich war aber net capable so'ne summe Geld aufzumache, und konnt nicht länger expecten. Das that my nachbar net gleiche, und fing an mich eebel zu usen; so dacht ich 's ist besser du toost mitaus."

"Mine stallion iss ivver de Fens getshumpt and hat dem Nachbar sei wheat abscheulich gedamatsht."

Subjoined is an interesting account of Lancaster in 1833, originally written for the Commercial Herald, and preserved in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 12:

"From Paradise, where our last sketch was made, we resume our journey on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in about nine miles enter the city of Lancaster. In this distance we cross Mill creek by a viaduct 550 feet long and 40 feet high, and Conestoga creek by a viaduct 1,412 feet long, and 60 feet high. The latter is among the noblest structures in the State, perhaps on the Continent. Its great length is occasioned by the width of the Conestoga valley, at this point requiring a large proportion of land bridge. It is built upon the Town patent or Lattice plan, differing in this respect from the other bridges upon the road, in which Burr's model has been pursued. The contractor was Amos Campbell, of New Jersey, who constructed the present bridge at the falls of Schuylkill, several on the Germantown Railroad; and who is engaged to build all the important bridges on the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad crosses the Conestoga about half a mile above the turnpike bridge, which lat

1 Lancaster has now also a College. "In the Interest of the Germans, who, from various prejudices, have hitherto failed to unite with their English fellow citizens in the establishment of an educational institution, the Assembly granted in the fall of 1786, a charter and 10,000 acres of land, for the erection of a College at Lancaster. This College is to bear the name of Dr. Franklin, who has made munificent donations to it. The Germans are greatly rejoiced with this undertaking. The zeal and liberality with which they enter into every good work which contemplates the prosperity of their religion and nation, warrants the hope that this College will speedily equal in wealth and reputation the oldest Colleges in America." (Extract from a letter from Philadelphia, 1787.) The Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg states in a letter, dated June 6, 1787, that this College has gone into operation with five tutors. Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg is President; Rev. Mr. Hendel, Vice-Principal; the Rev. Mr. Melzhaimer, Professor of German, Latin and Greek; Mr. Reichenbach, Professor of Mathematics, and the English minister, the Rev. Mr. Hutchins, teaches English and the Belles-Lettres.

ter is a substantial stone structure of some four or five arches. It was erected-about the year 1789, by Abraham Witmer, a patriarch of the numerous and respectable tribe of that name. By an act of the Legislature, passed in 1787, this intelligent and enterprising German obtained authority to construct the bridge, and to charge a reasonable toll. It continued to be his private property until five or six years ago, when it was purchased by the county of Lancaster, and made free to all comers and goers. The preamble of the law referred to is curious and interesting, on account of the contrast which it exhibits between the resources and enterprise of the Commonwealth at that time, and at the present. A safe crossing of the Conestoga was then essential to the whole communication between Philadelphia and the interior-it was often impassable for many days together-and yet the State of Pennsylvania had not the means to construct a bridge which a single county now would readily undertake.

The public spirited enterprise of a Pennsylvania farmer supplied the deficiency, and entitled him to honorable mention in every history of internal improvement in this State.1 His was the second bridge constructed under State authority, probably the second of any magnitude in the State. The first was built in 1787, under a similar grant from the Legislature over Neshamony creek on the Bristol road, by Charles Bessonett and Gershom Johnson, "proprietors of the stages from Philadelphia to Trenton on the New York road." The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Company-the first in the state or country--was not chartered until 1792, five years after the grant to Abraham Witmer.

What a host of reflections spring from the recollection of these simple facts. Only forty-five years ago, the two great communications from Philadelphia, one leading to New York, and the other to our interior, were rendered precarious by the want of bridges over such streams as the Conestoga and the Neshamony. In that short period what changes have enterprise and industry, the genuine growth of free institutions, produced? More than forty millions of dollars have been expended in the construction of roads, bridges and canals.

The Rail Road, after crossing the Conestoga, passes through the beautiful farm of the late Mr. Coleman, and enters the corporate limits of the city of Lancaster, on its northern edge. The elevation of the ground on which the city is chiefly built, induced the Engineer, (Major Wilson) on the first location, to carry his line around half a mile north of the principal street, along a small valley sloping to the Conestoga. He considered that the city would be as well accommodated by a short branch of inconsiderable expense, and which would not interfere with his choice of ground for the main line. After the routes chosen by him had been graded, the people of Lancaster induced the Legislature to carry a line nearer the main street, involving a heavy deep cut, and an additional expenditure of one hundred thousand dollars. It is doubtful whether they will derive advantage from the change. In the deep cutting, which occurs nearly all the distance through the city, no useful communication can be had with the road, and it must prove inconvenient in many other respects. If they are satisfied, however, far be it from us to complain.

Lancaster is one of the three towns in Pennsylvania upon which the Legislature have

1 The above statement requires correction. Binkley's Bridge, which seems really to be the oldest stone arched bridge in the county, if not in the State, was built at the charge of Christian Binkley in 1789. His expenditure having straightened his circumstances, his neighbors proposed that he should transfer the bridge to the public "in consideration of £1,000 in gold and silver coin, current lawful money in the State of Pennsylvania;" acceding to said proposal, the amount was raised by voluntary subscription in the vicinity. This bridge stood as originally erected until the summer of 1867, when one of the piers gave way, necessitating the rebuilding of the same, which was completed late in the fall of 1868. The old flour and grist mill, adjoining the Bridge and built by Christian Binkley, was converted in 1866 into a first-class paper mill, known as "The Printers' Paper Mill." Christian Binkley is certainly entitled to great praise for the disinterested zeal and public spirit, which prompted him for the benefit of the public at large, to erect this substantial bridge at his own expense.