History of York, (York County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Local History Notes:

YORK, a county in the S. S. E. part of Pennsylvania, bordering on Maryland, has an area of 925 square miles. The Susquehanna river forms its entire boundary on the N. E.; it is also intersected by Conewago and Codorus creeks, and bounded on the N. W. by Yellow Breeches creek. The surface is diversified by minor mountain ridges, called South mountain, Conewago, and Pigeon hills. The soil is generally good, and part of it is excellent, and highly cultivated. Grain, potatoes, hay, tobacco, cattle, horses, pork, and iron are the staples. In 1850 this county produced 578,828 bushels of wheat; 707,151 of corn; 582,817 of oats; 124,867 of potatoes; 50,760 tons of hay; 418,555 pounds of tobacco, (the greatest quantity produced by any one county of the state,) and 1,082,579 of butter. There were 115 flour and grist mills, 40 saw mills, 3 paper mills, 1 steel furnace, 9 iron foundries, 2 iron forges, 8 woollen factories, 1 cotton factory, 7 manufactories of farming implements, 45 distilleries, and 37 tanneries. It contained 98 churches, 7 newspaper offices, 10,582 pupils attending public schools, and 315 attending academies and other schools. The creeks furnish extensive motive-power. Quarries of limestone, slate, and sandstone, suitable for building, are worked. The Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad connects at York with the York and Cumberland railroad. The York and Wrightsville and the Hanover Branch railroads are included in the county. Organized in 1749. Capital, York. Population, 57,450.

Biographies:

Thomas Hartley, representative, was born in Reading, Pa., Sept. 7, 1748. He practised law in York, Pa., until the beginning of the Revolutionary war, when he enlisted in the Continental army. On Oct. 25, 1776, he became lieutenant-colonel of the 9th regiment of the Pennsylvania line and the same year was made colonel of the 6th Pennsylvania regiment. In October, 1778, he was ordered, with his command, against the Indians who had perpetrated the Wyoming massacre. He destroyed their settlements and recovered much of the property they had stolen from the settlers. He was sent to the Pennsylvania house of representatives in 1778, was one of the council of censors in 1783, and a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention that adopted the Federal constitution. He was a representative in the lst-6th congresses, inclusive, 1789-1800. He was one of those who voted for locating the capital of the United States on the Potomac river. He died at York, Pa., Dec. 21, 1800.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Rhodes Franklin, naval officer, was born in York, Pa., Aug. 25, 1825; son of Walter Semonds and Sarah (Buel) Franklin, and brother of William Buel Franklin, U.S.A. He entered the U.S. navy as a midshipman, Feb. 18, 1841; was on board the United States and the store ship Relief, 1841-47; was promoted past midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847, and served in the Mexican war, 1847-48, in the Mediterranean squadron, on board the Independence, 1849-52, on the brig Dolphins. 1852, and on coast survey service, 1853-55. He was made master, April 18, 1855, and lieutenant, Sept. 14, 1855. He was on duty at Annapolis, 1854-56; with the Brazil squadron on the Falmouth, 1857-59; on the Macedonian, 1860-61, and on the Dacotah on the Atlantic coast, 1861-62. In March, 1862, he was in Hampton Roads, Va., as a volunteer on board the Roanoke in the engagement of the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac with the U.S. fleet before the arrival of the Monitor. He was made executive officer of the Dacotah and took part in the attack on Sewall's Point. He was promoted lieutenant-commander, July 16, 1862; was in command of the Aroostook on the James river, 1862; in the gulf on blockade duty, 1863; chief of staff to Commodore Bell, 1863, and at New Orleans, 1864. Serving with Com. Henry Knox Thatcher, commanding the squadron operating against Mobile in 1865, he represented the navy in the demand for the surrender of that city. He was made commander, Sept. 27, 1866; captain, Aug. 13, 1872; commodore, May 28. 1881; rear admiral Jan. 24, 1885, and was retired Aug. 24, 1887, on reaching the age limit. His services after the civil war were: commander of the Saginaw in the North Pacific squadron, also commanding the Mohican, conveying astronomers to Plover bay to observe the total eclipse of the sun, 1866-67; ordnance duty, Mare Island navy yard, 1868-69; in command of the Wabash and of the Franklin in the Mediterranean; chief of staff to Case and Worden and hydrogrnpher in the bureau of navigation, Washington, D.C., 1870-80; president of the board of examiners, 1883; superintendent of the naval observatery, 1883-85, and commander of the European station, 1886-87. He was a delegate to the international marine conference, Washington, D.C., 1889, and president of the American delegation and of the conference. He represented the republic of Colombia in the international congress to establish a universal prime meridian. He published Memories of a Rear-Admiral Who has Served for More than Half a Century in the Navy of the United States (1898).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

George Jones, naval chaplain, was born in York, Pa., July 30, 1800. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1823, A.M., 1826. He was an instructor of midshipmen on the Brandywine and on the Constitution, 1826-28; tutor at Yale, 1828-31; was ordained a deacon in the P.E. church in January, 1831, and was assistant rector at Middletown, Conn., 1831-33, and chaplain in the U.S. navy, 1833-70. His duties in the navy included Perry's expedition to Japan, 1853-55, and he was last stationed as chaplain of the U.S. naval asylum, Philadelphia, Pa., where he died. His observations while on the northern seas in the expedition to Japan added largely to scientific knowledge of the nature of zodiacal light, and from his reports, which fill one volume of Perry's Report of the U.S. Expedition to Japan, was deduced the theory of a nebulous ring around the earth. He is also the author of: Sketches of Naval Life (1836); Excursion to Cairo, Jerusalem and Balbee (1836); Life Scenes from the Four Gospels, and Life Scenes from the Old Testament (1865). He died in Philadelphia, Jan. 22, 1870.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John Gottlieb Morris, clergyman and author, was born in York, Pa., Nov. 14, 1803. His father was a surgeon in the Continental army during the American Revolution. John attended the College of New Jersey, Princeton, where he was awarded a prize for oratory; was graduated from Dickinson college, A.B., 1823, A.M., 1826; from Princeton Theological seminary, 1826, and from time Evangelical Lutheran Theological seminary, Gettysburg, Pa., in 1827. He was ordained, Oct. 15, 1827, at Baltimore, Md., and was pastor of the First Lutheran church at Baltimore, 1827-60. He was an intimate friend of George Peabody, a trustee of the Peabody Institute and its librarian in 1860. He was pastor of the Third Lutheran church, Baltimore, 1864-73, and of the Lutheran church at Lutherville, Md., 1875-85. In 1853, with his brother, he founded the Lutherville Ladies' seminary. He was a lecturer on natural history at Pennsylvania college in 1834 and on pulpit eloquence at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological seminary in 1874, besides delivering numerous lectures at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington. He was secretary of the General synod in 1839, president in 1843 and 1883; president of the First Lutheran church Diet, held at Philadelphia in 1877; a trustee of Pennsylvania college, and a director of the Evangelical Lutheran Theological seminary for many years. He was a member of many scientific societies; chairman of the entomological section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; president of the Maryland Bible society, and of the Maryland Historical society. He traveled in Europe in 1846, and while in England aided in the establishment of the Evangelical Alliance at London. He founded the Academy of Lutheran Church History, and was its first and only president. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Pennsylvania college in 1839, and that of LL.D. by the same college in 1873. He is the author of: Catcehumen's and Communicant's Companion (1831); Henry and Antonio (1831); Catechetical Exercises on Luther's Catechism (1832); Lectures on Geology (1889); Popular Exposition of the Gospels (2 vols., 1840); Life of John Arndt (1853); To Rome and Back Again (1853); Life of Martin Behaim (1856); Life of Katharine de Bors (1856); The Blind Girl of Wittenberg (1856); Quaint Sayings and Doings concerning Luther (1859); Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of North America (1860); Synopsis of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of the United States (1862); The Lords Baltimore (1874); Bibliotheca Lutherans (1876); Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry (1878); A Day in Capernaum (1879); The Diet of Augsburg (1879); Augsburg Confession and the Thirty-nine Articles (1879); Journeys of Luther (1880); Luther at Walburg and Coburg (1882); Life of Luther (1883); Lutheran Doctrine of the Lord's Supper (1884); Memoirs of the Stork Family (1884). He died in Lutherville, Md., Oct. 10, 1895.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor