York, Pennsylvania

“ Isaac Weld, traveling in the United States in the last decade of the eighteenth century, noted methods of securing aliens in the town of York, Pennsylvania: “The inhabitants of this town as well as those of Lancaster and the adjoining country consist principally of Dutch and German immigrants and their descendants. Great numbers of these people emigrate to America every year and the importation of them forms a very considerable branch of commerce. ”

“ During the Civil War Philadelphia lay in the channel of the great stream of volunteers from New England, New York, New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania, that commenced flowing early in May, 1861. Working in grand harmony the national and more extended organizations for the relief of the soldiers, were houses of refreshment and temporary hospital accommodationsaccommodations furnished by the citizens of Philadelphia. ”

“ New York was torn by internal factions, and the history of that colony would have been infinitely more sad had it not been that its fighting contingent was led by the redoubtable William Johnson. The state of Pennsylvania was actually worse than that of New York; it was "a sanctuary for sloth, cowardice, and sordid self-interest. The humanity of Penn, the peace principles of the early Quakers, were a cloak behind which the factious and indolent citizen with no sense of public responsibility could always screen himself." ”

“ During the French and Indian War of 1755–58, the barrier of the South Mountain shielded the settlers of York County, from the savage incursions that desolated the Cumberland Valley and other parts of the frontier of Pennsylvania. Yet occasionally a party more daring than the rest would push across the mountain and murder or carry defenseless families into captivity. ”

“ And New York, whose population increased from 1,400,000 in 1820 to 2,400,000 in 1840, drew heavily upon her eastern neighbors; Pennsylvania, of more steady habits, drew less from New England than her immediate neighbors, though both New York and Pennsylvania gave freely to the West. There was thus a steady drift of the people from their Eastern homes to the better opportunities of the Middle States, while from these, in turn, large numbers joined the more courageous who were never content until they built their cabins along the river borders or on the prairies of the Northwest. ”

“ S., of Lehigh County, says, “We make money in Pennsylvania by saving; in New York, they make money by paying out.”
Mrs. E., of the same county, says, “We Pennsylvanians are brought up to work in the house and to family affairs, but the Eastern girls are brought up more in the factories, and they don’t know anything about housework. Many have been married, and lived here in this town (Allentown) , of whom I have heard speak, who have not lived happily, because they were not used to keep house in the way that their husbands had been accustomed to. ”

“ When Howe sailed with his army from New York to make a mighty effort to end the Revolution by capturing Philadelphia, the Continental Congress, July 31, 1777, recommended to the Government of Pennsylvania to make prisoners of such of the Crown and proprietary officers as were disaffected. ”

“ The Indians being recognized as owners of the soil, the whole was purchased from them by different treaties. One at Fort Stanwix extinguished their title to the lands of Western Pennsylvania and New York, excepting the Triangle or Presqu’ Isle lands, which were accidentally left out of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia and were supposed at different times to belong to each. ”

“ I explained, “if the material is interesting enough, and there isn’t a thing that you can say about the Hudson River or the central part of New York State that hasn’t been said a thousand times before. Poughkeepsie, Albany, Troy, Syracuse, Rochester—all ghastly manufacturing towns. Why don’t we cut due west and see how we make out? This is the nicest, dryest time of the year. Let’s go west to the Water Gap, and straight from there through Pennsylvania to some point in Ohio, then on to Indianapolis.” A vision of quaint, wild, unexpected regions in Pennsylvania came to me. ”

“ Public spirit was more active in Pennsylvania than in New York. More roads and canals were building; a new turnpike ran from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and the great highway to Pittsburg was a more important artery of national life than was controlled by any other State. The exports of Pennsylvania amounted to $12,000,000, and the custom-house produced $1,350,000. The State contained six hundred thousand inhabitants—a population somewhat larger than that of New York. ”

“ General Edward Hand, the commandant at Fort Pitt, had failed in two expeditions, and the resultant effect was disastrous to the American cause on the border, especially in the spring of 1778. During the previous winter the British, under General Howe, had occupied Philadelphia, the capital of the colonies; the Continental Congress had been driven to York, and Washington’s Army, reduced to half-naked and half-starved condition, had suffered in camp at Valley Forge, so there was not much to win adherents to the cause of liberty among those otherwise inclined. ”

“ The claims of New York are particularly aggressive, not merely potential, but actual, active and persistent-best shown by the fact that New York has already escheated part of the very funds originally claimed by Pennsylvania. ”

“ Any person refusing should be incapable of holding office, serving on juries, electing or being elected or even bringing lawsuits, or buying or selling lands and as was perfectly reasonable, should be disarmed.
Early in June, General Howe, commander of the British forces at New York, showed a disposition to advance by land across New Jersey, and to take possession of Philadelphia. On the 14th of that month he actually made an advance by two columns, which led General Washington to believe that this was his real intention. ”

“ Philadelphia lost power as New York City gained it. Though the counties tributary to Philadelphia constituted the old center of population and political power, the significant fact of growth in Pennsylvania was the increasing importance of Pittsburgh at the gateway to the Ohio Valley. In the Great Valley beyond the Blue Ridge lived the descendants of those early Germans and Scotch- Irishmen who early occupied the broad and level fields of this fertile zone, the granary of Pennsylvania. ”

“ At the outbreak of the Revolution he was elected a member of the Committee of Safety for York County, and in June of the same year, 1775, he served as a delegate in the Provincial Conference, which met in Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. He again served as a member of the same body in January, 1776.
When the Fourth Battalion of York County militia was organized, 1775, Richard McAllister was commissioned colonel. And during the fall of the same year, he was made colonel of a battalion of Minute Men, formed out of the militia of York County. ”

“ In New York it is a struggle of family feuds—a feudal aristocracy. Pennsylvania is a contest between German, Irish and old England families. When Germans and Irish unite they give 30,000 majorities. There is virtually a white rose and a red rose, a Cæsar and a Pompey, in every State in this Union, and contests and dissensions will be as lasting. The rivalry of Bourbons and Noaillises produced the French revolution, and a similar competition for consideration and influence exists and prevails in every village in the world. ”

“ Adams was erected from York January 22, 1800, and February 13 following Center was formed from parts of Northumberland, Lycoming, Mifflin and Huntingdon, and March 12 eight new counties—Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and Warren—were formed. Thus, the remaining corner of the State was organized. The counties were taken from Lycoming and Allegheny, Westmoreland furnished a part of Armstrong and Washington yielded up a portion for Beaver, but Allegheny furnished the largest amount of territory for the new counties. ”

“ In the preliminary movement to form a nation, only five of the thirteen colonies were represented. Delegates from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, met at Annapolis, Md., September 11, 1786, and after much discussion and consideration, they recommended that a convention bebe called to meet in Philadelphia on the second Monday of May, 1787. ”

“ When I was pressed by the New York interests to urge the Governor of Pennsylvania to take a decided stand for law and order, I told them that I knew the Governor of Pennsylvania; that he would perform his duty without suggestions from any one; that no person in the commonwealth better understood what was his duty ”

“ Among them is the old Pennsylvania, of one hundred and twenty guns. Besides her iron works there are many mills and facto [Pg 388] ries. Miles of carpet, of superior quality, are woven every day, besides immense quantities of other woolen and cotton goods and shoes. Her retail stores, taken as a whole, will not compare in size and elegance with those of New York, though there are two or three exceptions to this rule.
The headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad is at Philadelphia, and there is a grand depot on Broad street, near Market, which is palatial in its appointments. ”

“ In New York there is an annual town meeting at which local officers are elected and matters of poor relief, taxes, schools, etc., attended to. In the pure Pennsylvania form the town meeting does not exist, town affairs being managed by a corps of officers elected by the people of the town. The New York, or supervisor type of local government, has been adopted in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, New Jersey, and elsewhere. The Pennsylvania, or commissioner system, has been transplanted to Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, and in a modified form to Minnesota and the Dakotas. ”

“ Pennsylvania takes the second place among the States of the Union as regards population and wealth. It has immense beds of coal in its soil, and great natural beauty in the interior of the country; Susquehanna River, and the Valley of the Wyoming are celebrated for their romantic beauty. Philadelphia is second to New York in size and population, the population of Philadelphia being about 300,000. The disorders in the city may, in great measure, arise from the vastly increasing population upon which no educational influences have yet operated. ”

“ The freemen of the city of Philadelphia, and of the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks, respectively, shall choose by ballot one person for the city, and one for each county aforesaid, to serve for three years and no longer, at the time and place for electing representatives in general assembly. The freemen of the counties of Lancaster, York, Cumberland, and Berks, shall, in like manner elect one person for each county respectively, to serve as counsellors for two years and no longer. ”

“ During the colonial period four companies of soldiers from this county assisted in driving the French and Indians from the western part of the province before 1758.
At beginning of the Revolutionary War it is said that the first military company from Pennsylvania that arrived at Washington’s headquarters, siege of Boston, in 1775, shortly after Battle of Bunker Hill, were from York County; this company, and one commanded by Captain Morgan of Virginia, were first American troops to use rifles; they became the terror of the British regulars, who still used the old-time flint musket. ”

“ The Duke of York's fresh grant of East New-Jersey to the 24 proprietors. 1682, Apr. 25. The frame of the government of the province of Pennsylvania, in America. Votes of Repr. Penn. xxvli. 1682, Aug. 21. The Duke of York's deed for Pennsylvania. Vo. Repr. Penn. xxxv. 1682, Aug. 24. The Duke of York's deed of feoffment of Newcastle and twelve miles circle to William Penn. Vo. Repr. Penn. 1682, Aug. 24. The Duke of York's deed of feoffment of a tract of land 12 miles south from Newcastle to the Whorekills to William Penn. Vo. Repr. Penn. xxxvii. 1682, Nov. 27. 34. Car. 2. ”

“ England has its immense cities, abounding with ignorant and vicious classes of population—it has its London, its Liverpool, its Birmingham, its Manchester and its Leeds, and yet this single city of New York, if we may trust official tables, exceeds not only each of them in crime, but all put together! It cannot be ascribed to any peculiar character of our people, distinct from theirs—for it is notorious that the greater part of our criminality springs from the foreign element of our population. ”

“ The press of Hall and Sellers, of Philadelphia, was set up in York, and even Continental money printed there. This was the first printing press erected in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna.
On November 15, Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation; on November 27, a new Board of War was organized. On December 1, 571Baron Steuben landed at Portsmouth, N. H., and started for York, where he arrived February 5, 1778, and remained two weeks. He was received by Congress with every mark of distinction, and was appointed Inspector General of the Army. ”

“ It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. ”

“ Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, stone, Gothic, with spire, built, 1852, on Main Street, has memorial windows by Tiffany and Lamb, New York, and chancel window from England. The Immaculate Conception, Roman Catholic Church, built, 1905, and rectory, 1915, Gothic, with two towers, Hummelstone brownstone, architect, J. A. Dempwolf, York, Pa., corner of Water and Third Streets, is on site of an earlier church, built in 1857, dedicated by Rev. ”