POSTLETHWAITE'S

WHY WAS POSTLETHWAITE'SCHOSEN AND THEN ABANDON-ED AS THE COUNTY SEAT OFLANCASTER COUNTY?

Giving an authentic sketch of theconditions as they appeared herebefore the scenes were changed bythe first Europeans. Also, briefsketches of the Susquehannock orConestoga Indians, the Traders,Penn's Troubles, the Palatines,Councils held at the Indian Townof Conestoga, Beginning of Lancas-ter City, Conestoga Manor and thelocation and present owners ofprominent places which were inti-mately associated with Postle-thwaite's; adding a sketch of JohnCartlege, the King's first magistrateof what is now Lancaster County.

Going from Millersville to Safe Har-bor, one would little suspect that youpass through the main street of whatwas once the county seat of Lancas-ter county. There is nothing, what-ever, to suggest to the traveler as hepasses along the road, from GeorgeFehl's corner to the hill at Rock Hill,that that section was ever anythingelse but a few excellent farms. Yet,we all know that less than two cen-turies ago it was the most prominentplace in what is now Lancastercounty. Historians call it Postle-thwaite's, because John Postlethwaitehad a tavern and a trading-post whereGeorge Fehl's house now stands, but,knowing this, one would naturally ask,

why should he have located in such anout-of-the-way place? But, what ismore surprising is that when Lan-caster county was formed, in 1729,this place was of such prominencethat it was selected for the countyseat of Lancaster county. When thatdecision was made, John Postle-thwaite hurriedly fitted his building fora temporary Court House, which isnow George Fehl's dwelling house. Inthis building the first sessions ofCourt were held. A prison was built,with a high wall, just west of what isnow Hiram Warfel's dwelling, and ouroldest residents still remember seeingportions of the wall along the southside of the road there. The ancientand massive arched walls on whichMr. Warfel's dwelling is built indicatethat they were built at that earlyperiod, also, and were probably thedungeon part of the prison. Mr. War-fel tells us that at many places abouthis farm he finds old stone foundationsof log buildings. There are about thirtylicensed public houses, such as Pos-tlethwaite's, in this county at thattime,' but Postlethwaite's was of moreprominence and commanded morelicense than any others. A place ofsuch prominence may have had achurch or a meeting house and a num-ber of residents. It was probably laidout in streets and plots, as its competi-tors, Wright's Ferry and Lancaster,were. But, singular as it appears,thatall this should have been locatedthere, still more surprising is it thatall should have so completely disap-peared. It was these unusual condi-tions that have led the writer to in-vestigate. We find the prominence ofPostlethwaite's was due, first, to theIndian history surrounding it, and,

'Rupp's History of Lancaster County.p. 255.

secondly, to the first European settle-ments. In order to see why this siteshould have been a place of suchprominence, one must see this sectionas it appeared at a much earlierperiod, and review it step by step.

Authentic Sketches of This SectionShowing Its Appearance Before

the Changes Caused byEuropeans.

The first view we have of this beau-tiful and fertile section is when itwas inhabited by the great tribe ofSusquehannock Indians, who are thusdescribed by Alsop in his quaint, butforcible, way, about 1660: 2 "The Sus-quehannocks are a people looked uponby the Christian inhabitants as themost noble and heroic nation of In-dians that dwell upon the confines ofAmerica; also, are so allowed andlooked upon by the rest of the Indians,by submission and tributary ac-knowledgment, being a peoplecast into the mold of amost large and warlike deport-ment, the men being for the most part

seven feet high in latitude and in mag-nitude and bulk suitable to so high apitch, their voice large and hollow, asif ascending out of a cave, their gaitand behavior straight, stately and majestic, treading on the earth with asmuch pride. contempt and disdain ascan be imagined from a creature de-rived from the same."

These statements are substantiated

by Captain John Smith, who saw themat the head of the Chesapeake Bayfifty years before, and also by skele-tons which have since been unearthed

in this section. This section was thena veritable Indian paradise, with itsgreat forests, its beautiful springs and

²Alsop's Maryland, 1666 (MarylandHistorical Society Fund Publication,No. 15), p. 72.

streams, and with the SusquehannaRiver widening out almost into a lake,where grapes, nuts, fish and game

were abundant, as Alsop again de-scribes: "Fowls of all sorts and va-rieties dwell at their several timesand seasons here, especially the tur-key,' whom I have seen in whole hun-dreds in flights in the woods. Theswans, the geese and the ducks arrivein millionous multitudes about the

middle of September and leave aboutthe midst of March, and plenty ofalmost all sorts of fishes live and in-habit the several streams and rivershere, far beyond the apprehension orcrediting of those who never saw thesame."

About a century afterward, in 1763,the settlers here filed a petition com-plaining of the dams as destroying theformer shad, salmon and rockfish , in

the Conestoga, and the trout in itstributaries. Alsop continues: "Thedoer are mighty numerous in thewoods, and are little or not at all af-frighted by the face of man. Theywill stand almost until they becratcht, being daily killed by the In-

dians and brought in to the English.There is such a glut or their flesh thatit is rather denied than esteemed ordesired."

Acrelius says of this section about1750: "The soil, whim is at someplaces 20(5) feet deep, is so strong andblack that it is not adapted to grow-ing wheat, but suitable for growingmaise and hemp." When the earlyexplorers met the Indians they foundthem more agricultural than aftertheir needs were supplied through

³Alsop's Maryland, pp. 38-42.(4)Mombert's History of LancasterCounty, p. 372.(5)Acrelius' "New Sweden" (MemoirsPennsylvania Historical Society, vol.xi), p. 146.

the traffic with the traders,after which their clothing andtheir habits greatly changed.Their squaws rudely cultivat-ed' corn, pumpkins, melons, to-bacco, etc., all of which were unknownto Europeans before that period.

Capt Smith states about 1609: "TheIndian Cabins are in the midst offields or gardens, which are smallplots of ground, some 20 acres, some40 acres, some 100' acres, some 200,some more, some less." The early ex-plorers and first settlers depended al-most entirely upon the Indians forfood. Smith again states: "I durstundertake to have corn enough fromthe savages,' for 300 men, for a fewtrifles." Hudson's and Harriott's ac-counts also correspond to Smith'sstatement. When Gov. Calvert ar-rived in Maryland in 1634 the nativeshad such a store of corn that hetraded 1,000(9) bushels of it and sent itto the colony in New England in ex-change for other commodities.

The Fur Traffic.But with the arrival of Europeans

these scenes changed. Europeantraders found it immensely profitableto exchange beads and other inexpen-sive articles for the valuable hides forwhich this section was then especiallynoted. William Claybone, an English-man of a prominent family, who wasgranted a charter to trade with theIndians, and located on the Isle ofKent, at the head of the Chesapeake---

(6)Wyth's Graphic Sketches.Bry's Plate, 22; Holms' "New Sweden"(Memoirs Pennsylvania Historical So-ciety, vol. 3, part 1), p. 43; Bartram'sObservations, Evans' map, note, pp. 36-37.

'Captain John Smith's General His-tory (Richmond edition), vol. 1, p. 131.

'Smith's General History, vol. 2, p188.

'A Relation of Maryland, 1635 (Sa-bin's Reprint) . p 13.

Bay, in 1621, was, perhaps, the mostprominent trader among the Susque-hannock Indians. In 1632, he export-ed (10) beaver skins alone to theamount of forty thousand crowns ingold. The Profit on them was estimat-ed at thirty fold. He acquired an im-mense estate through this trade. TheDutch at New Amsterdam (now NewYork); the French Canadians alongthe St. Lawrence, and the Swedesalong the Delaware, soon were insharp competition for the

Susquehannock trade. Among the animals thennative a here were the black fox,which is now scarce in remote Canada,of which a single pelt commands $150;also, many black squirrels, fishers,"otters, wildcats and panthers, and thebeavers, of which no sign remainsexcept the name of two of our

straems.(13) There was also a greattraffic in bear, deer and elk skins, andAlsop, Lindstrom and the Indian pic-tures on the rocks at Safe Harbor tellus the (14) Buffalo was here also. Manyof the trifling articles, as beads, orna-ments, implements, clay pipes, etc.,which those traders gave the Indiansin exchange for their valuable peltry,have since been ploughed up at thevarious Indian village sites of ourcounty, and are interesting and valu-able assistants in determining the pe-riod when the village sites were inhab-ited, and to what class of traders thewares belonged.

¹ºFisk's Old Virginia and Her Neigh-bors,vol. 1, p. 269; Marylandium (Mary-land Historical Society Fund Publica-tion, No. 7), p. 49.

"Holms' "New Sweden," p. 157.¹²Alsop's Maryland, pp. 40 and 66.¹³Mombert's History of Lancaster

County, p. 386."A Relation of Maryland. 1635, p. 22;

Holms' "New Sweden," Lindstrom'sMap of New Sweden; Landis' Photo-graphs of Inscriptions by Our Aborigi-nees, pp. 18-19.

Penn's Arrival.When Wm. Penn arrived in 1682

game had already become reducedthrough this wholesale slaughter, yetthe contest for the Susque-hannock trade was still on be-tween the French Canadians, theDutch, the Swedes and the Maryland-ers. As there was great danger ofthese traders inciting the Indians toattack his little colony, he very wiselycalled the chiefs together, purchasedtheir land and made a peace treatywith them, lest his colony might meetwith the same fate that had befallenthe Dutch colony at Schwanendal(now Lewes,(15) Del.,) who were massa-cred fifty years before. Many ob-stacles confronted him, and perhapshis greates disappointment was whenhe found that the 40th parallel (whichby Lord Baltimore's charter" wasclearly Maryland's northern boundary,and which Penn had actually agreedto, in 1680), did not give him a harboron the Chesapeake Bay, and scarcelyenough of one on the Delaware, andespecially when he found that CrispinBezar and Allen had located his"great town" just south of this line.

involved Penn and Lord Balti-more in a boundary dispute which notonly occupied the proprietors of thetwo provinces, but caused endlesstrouble "(17)between individuals, occu-pied the attention of the Privy Councilsof at least three monarchs, and wasnot adjusted until eighty years after-ward in the establishment of theMason and Dixon line. However,every effort was made to colonize his

"Day's Historical Collections, p. 9.(16)Dr. Archer's Dismemberment ofMaryland, (Maryland Historical. So-ciety Fund Publication, No. 30), pp.34-37.

"Pennsylvania Magazine, October,1885.

province. As the colonists werecrowded in they pushed northwardand westward toward the Susque-hanna. The westward route they fol-

lowed was an old Indian trail, long inuse in the trade between the Dutchat New Amsterdam and the Susque-hanock Indians. The first settlersalong this route, through what is nowDelaware and Chester counties,were English, Welsh an Scotch-Irish. There were many Qua-

kers among them. These settlementswere made principally between 1685and 1700; very few went beyond theBrandywine, although some Indiantarders, adventurers and land specu-lators were then already investigatingthe Susquehannock lands.

Derivations of the Word Conestoga,and the Compact Which Resulted

in the Indian Reservation atConestoga Manor.

In Penn's first treaty, at Shacka-maxon, he had treated with the Sus-quheannock Indians for the Susque-hanna lands, but not with the Five Na-tions of New York, to whom they werethen tributary. The

Susquehannocks(18)were not an Algonquin tribe,as the Delawares were, but were ofthe same linguistic stock as the FiveNations. The Dutch and Swedes call-ed the Susquehannocks, Minques andseveral similar names. The Mary-landers named them Susquehannocksor Susquehannas, and the FrenchCanadians used their tribal name,

Gandastogues,(19) meaning cabin-pole-men, from Andasta, the peculiar cabinpole which they used in the construc-tion of their cabins. They also oftencalled the Andastas. The name bywhich they were known here, Con-

(18)Holms' "New Sweden," p. 58.(19)Alsop's Maryland, Dr. Shea's Note,p. 40.

estagos, was merely a modification ofGandastoquis, the name by which theFrench Canadian traders knew them.In 1635 they could muster 1,300 war-riors. They were bitter enemies ofthe Iroquois, or Five Nations, withwhom they were at war about twenty-five years, from about 1650 to about1675, until finally through the unitedefforts of the Five Nations they werereduced so much by war and smallpoxthat in 1675 they could muster only300 warriors and were completelyoverthrown. They were then madetributary to the Five Nations, whoclaimed all the Susquehannas, or Con-estogas' former land possessions. Itcan now be seen why it became neces-sary for Penn to make a second treatyfor the Susquehanna lands. As Pennwas then in England, he engaged hisfriend and agent, Col. Thomas Dougan,a former Governor of New York, topurchase the Susquehanna lands.After holding several councils withthe Five Nations in New York, Gov-ernor Dougan finally succeeded ingetting ²º "the river Susquehannaand all the islands therein, and allthe land laying on both sides of the

river, and next adjoining to the utmostconfines of the lands which are, orformerly were, the right of the peoplecalled Susquehannas." This deed wasconveyed to Penn, January 13, 1696,in consideration of 100 pounds ster-ling, and was confirmed by twoSusquehanna chiefs, September, 1700.The remnant of the tribe remaininghere did not approve of the abovesale, so Penn, on his second arrivalfrom England, sent for them, andheld a council with them at Philadel-phia, in 1701. At this council he toldthe Conestogas that he had been in-formed that they were sorry that he

²ºMemoirs Pennsylvania HistoricalSociety, vol. 3 . part 2, p. 172.

had purchased the Susquehanna landsfrom the Five Nations, whereupon hedrew out a great roll of parchmentand spread it out on the ground, say-ing to them that, although he had senta great many goods in a vessel to NewYork for the land, it should be incommon among them, that the Con-estogas should enjoy the same privi-leges on the Susquehanna lands asthe English. It is very probable thatthe Indian Reservation which washere in Manor was the result of thiscompact.

The First Routes to the SusquehannaLands and Some Early Visits

Here.As already referred to at that period

(1700), the main road westward fromthe little colony at Philadelphia wasthe Indian trail, leaving what is nowMarket street, passing through WestChester, Gap, the Long Lane, pastPostlethwaite's, crossing the

Conestoga²¹ at Rock Hill, passing over thehill, and crossing the Little Conestogaat Dentlinger's mill, then down thewest side of the creek, and in the In-diantown Road to the Indiantown ofConestoga. It was probably alongthis road that trade was carried onmore than half a century beforePenn's arrival, between the Dutch atNew Amsterdam and the Susquehan-nas, or Minquas, as they called them.There was another old trail from theSusquehanna rands down along theeastern shore of the river, and led toNew Castle, on the Delaware, by wayof Christina or Minqua creek, ²³ as theSwedes called it . Along this route

²¹Joseph Wright; H. F. Eshleman'sMap of Early Highways, and Ellis andEvans' History of Lancaster County.²²Second Pennsylvania Archives, vol.7, p. 464.

²³Holms' "New Sweden," Lindstrom'sMap, and p. 157.

trade was carried on between theSwedes and the Susquehannas, orMinquas, as they called them thirtyyears before Penn's arrival. It wasalong this route, known as the NewCastle route, that James Logan, thenSecretary of the Province, accom-panied by two" New Castle Sheriffsand ten others, made his first visit toConestoga in 1705. During the sameyear the noted Quaker preacher,Thomas Chalkley, also visited here.At this time the French and Maryland-ers were inciting the Indians, at Con-estoga to make the Proprietariestrouble, and it required some effortto keep the links of friendship bright.In 1706 Governor Evans, with severalmembers of his council, also went toConestoga by the New Castle route,Before reaching Conestoga hestopped" at the Indian village ofPequan, which Rupp says was at themouth of the Pequea creek, where theIndian-trader and interpreter, MartinChartier, was located. Here Gov-ernor Evans met' the chiefs of a num-ber of tribes, the Nanticokes alonehaving seven towns. In 1707 GovernorEvans again visited Conestoga withWilliam Penn, Jr., evidently with thedesign of having a gay time, and byall accounts" conducted themselvesin a very unbecoming manner for suchdignitaries.

Penn's Troubles and the Arrival of thePalatines.

Many trying conditions existed then.It was only with a great struggle that

(24)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, pp. 40-43; Day's Historical Collec-tion. p. 390.

(25)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, pp. 40-46; H. F. Eshleman's Map ofEarly Highways; P. W, Sheaffer's His-torical Map of Indian Trails; Lind-strom's Map of New Sweden, Holm.(26)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, pp. 44-45.

Penn and his heirs succeeded in re-taining their rights to their province.Through the efforts of their enemiesthe governing of Penn's province wasgiven to Governor Fletcher, of NewYork, who directed the administrationfrom 1693 to 1695. Regaining hisrights, Penn returned from Englandand personally administered from1699 to 1701. Becoming involved indebt, in 1702 he returned to Englandand mortgaged (27)his magnificent prov-ince for 6,600 pounds (about $30,000).After being harassed by his creditorsfor a number of years, he was impris-oned for his debts in 1708, and wasconfined in the Fleet Prison" a longtime. Meantime, the French claimedhis province ( 29)west of the Susquehan-na, and the Marylanders claimed it tothe fortieth parallel. Finally, whenabout completing arrangements tosell it to Queen Ann, in 1712, for12,000 pounds, he received an apoplec-tic stroke, which left him in a hope-less state of imbecility, until he died,in 1718. During all this period greatefforts were made by his com-missioners and representativesto colonize the province, notonly with the purpose of derivingfunds from the sale of land to meethis obligations, but to establish pos-session claims in his trouble withLord Baltimore and the French. Ibriefly touch on Penn's trouble hereand in England, because it was prin-cipally those which spurred on thegreat efforts made to colonize hisprovince, by offering great induce-ments and distributing tracts , amongwhich those of Falconer and " Pasto-rious were most effective. This, in

(27)Dr. Archer's Dismemberment ofMaryland, pp. 90 and 98.

(28)Appleton's Encyclopaedia, Penn.(29)Mull's Map, 1720.

³ºPennypacker's Settlements of Ger-mantown.

connection with the thirty years ofcivil and religious wars of Europe, re-sulted in the settlement of the Pala-tine colony here, which caused the sec-ond stage of importance surrounding"the great Conestoga road," and Pos-tlethwaite's. From the foregoing itmust be inferred that the Indian trailleading from Philadelphia to Cones-toga was used very little byEuropeans before 1709, settlementshaving been made only as far as theBrandywine. About 1709, or a shorttime before, a number of Mennonite"families, from the Palatinate, alongthe Rhine, went out this trail, beyondthe English and Welsh settlements,and located just east of what is nowStrasburg, in the Pequea Valley,where they purchased 10,000 acres ofsome of the choicest agricultural landin the province. This was the firstpermanent settlement in what is nowLancaster county. This colony,many of which were perse-cuted Swiss Mennonites, andFrench Huguenot families, wasaugmented and extended throughoutthe fertile limestone basin northwardand westward until in 1717 it com-posed about 125³² of those sturdy fam-ilies who came from the garden spotof Europe, and have contributed somuch toward 33 making this the gar-den spot of the Union. It will be seenby looking over this list of names thatthe descendants of almost every oneof these settlers still live in the samelocality in which their forefathers set-tled in the wilderness almost two cen-turies ago. What this province then

³¹Day's Historical Collections . p. 392;Rupp's History of Lancaster County.part 2, chapter 1; Diffenderfer's Ger-man Exodus, 1709.

"Second Pennsylvania Archives, vol7, p. 114; Rupp's History of LancasterCounty, pp. 117-118.³³Kuhn's German and Swiss Settle-ments of Pennsylvania, p. 85.

needed was not squatters and landspeculators, but men who paid for theland and got down to work. This waswhat it had secured in these Pala-tines.

Important Official Events at the In-dian Town of Conestoga.

After this colony had settled herethe Conestoga trail became the popu-lar route to the Susquehanna. In 1711Governor Gookin came by this routeand held a conference with the Con-estoga Indians on June 18, askingthem to protect the Palatine colonyrecently settled tnere. The Cones-togas assured him "that they weresafely" seated," and never, as longas the Indians were here, was thiscolony . molested. On the 22d of Sep-tember of this same year the Tusca-rora Indians, who were a related tribeto the Conestogas, massacred about100 Palatine families who had set-tled near Roanoke, North Carolina.The year before Gov. Gookin went toConestoga he sent Col. French andHenry Worley to deliver a message tothe Conestoga Indians, and it may beof interest to know what the expensesof their trip were. The following itemsshow them: To bread, 4s. 2d.; tomeat, 12s.; to rum, 1 pound 10s.; totwo men hire for baggage,"® 4 pounds;to John, 1 pound 4s.; total, 8 pounds,5s. 2d. ($44.21). The only way theycould have traveled was by horseback,with pack horses, as at that periodthis road was still only an Indiantrail." In 1714 it was opened as aroad to the Brandywine, and in 1718it was opened from the Brandywineto Conestoga. It was called "The

(34)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. pp. 87-88; Rupp's Thirty ThousandNames, p. x.

(35)Day's Historical Collections, p. 392.)36)Day's Historical Collections, p. 391.

Great Conestoga Road," all of thepresent Lancaster county, except thenorthern and southern extremities,was called Conestoga, but at thisperiod almost all of the Indians werelocated along the river betweenTurkey Hill and Bainbridge. Col.French was sent to Conestoga, wherehe held a council and delivered a mes-sage from the Governor June 28, 1719,and on June 27, 1720, Secretary JamesLogan, "having had some business upthe farther end of the Great Valley,""held a council with the Indians atConestoga.

The next notable event at ConestogaIndiantown was the visit of GovernorKeith, in 1721. It appears at thattime, as the settlers were crowdingin, and as game was becoming scarcer,the Conestoga Indians extended theirhunting trips down beyond the Poto-mac river," into territory claimed bythe Indians of Virginia, which result-ed in causing trouble, so GovernorKeith first made a trip to the Gov-ernor of Virginia, and returned byway of Conestoga, where he held acouncil with the Indians July 6th and8th, 1721. He also got consent of theIndians to survey a Manor of 10,000acres, just across the river, in what isnow York county. Governor Keith'sobject in locating it there was to gainpossession rights in the boundarydispute. What an imposing sight itmust have been, to have seen Gov-ernor Keith, with his seventy oreighty horsemen, many of them wellarmed, when they met the chiefs ofthe Conestogas and the deputies ofthe Five Nations!

(37)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. pp. 137-143.

(38)Carter and Glossbrenner's Historyof York County, pp. 12 to 19.

The First Indian K i lled by an Eng-lishman of Penns Province.

The Cartleges.

Both James Logan and GovernorKeith made their headquarters andheld the councils with the Indians atthe home of John Cartlege," who wasno doubt the most prominent personliving in what is now Lancastercounty at that period. John Cartlegewas an Indian trader, an interpreterfor the Delaware tribe, was the Pro-prietary's Indian Agent, and at thattime the only one and the first" of theKing's Magistrates in what is nowLancaster county, having receivedhis appointment July 4, 1718. In thespring of 1722, while John and his

brother, Edmond Cartlege, were on atrading trip near Patowmeck, a dis-pute arose between them and an in-toxicated Indian about rum.(41) TheIndian was very angry and hastilytook his gun to kill the Cartleges.They, in defense, seized the Indian,and in the struggle the Indian washurt so badly that he died the nextday. This was the first Indian killed(42)by an Englishman of Penn's province.Occurring at this turbulent period,this caused so great an excitementthat the next day- Governor Keithsent Secretary Logan and Col. Frenchto Conestoga to investigate the affair,and,although their sympathy was withthe Cartleges, for fear the Indiansmight become aroused they took bothJohn and Edmond Cartlege to Phila-delphia and imprisoned them, but

(39)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. pp. 143-160.(40)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. p. 119; Second Pennsylvania Ar-chives, vol. xix, p. 644.

(41)Proud's History of Pennsylvania,vol. 2, pp. 145-147; Fourth Pennsyl-vania Archives, vol. 1, pp. 404-406.(42)Proud's History of Pennsylvania,vol. 2, p. 146.

they were finally released, throughthe intercession of the Indians them-selves. This unfortunate affairpreyed so much on John Cartlege'smind, however, that he died a fewyears after he had returned to hishome, about 1726. In 1728 sometrouble arose between the Shawaneeand Conestoga Indians, which result-ed in two Conestogas being killed.Wm. Wright,' a son-in-law of JohnCartlege, acquainted Governor Gor-don with the facts of the case, and thenext notable event in this section wasGovernor Gordon's trip by way ofthe "Great Conestoga Road," with anumber of members of his council anddivers other gentlemen, making theirheadquarters at the home of Magis-trate Andrew Cornish, who had mar-ried John Cartlege's widow " andlived at the old Cartlege home. Theyreached Conestoga May 22, 1728, andafter holding" a two-days' council re-turned to Philadelphia.

Postlethwaite Becomes the CountySeat of Lancaster County.

Soon after Governor Gordon's visitpublic sentiment demanded the or-ganizing of this county. At that timethis section was Conestoga township,Chester county, and the county seatwas at what is now Chester, Delawarecounty, over seventy miles away.What now forms Lancaster countyhad about 2,000 taxpayers," whosepetition was granted, and Lancastercounty was formed. Postlethwaite'stavern and trading post was located

(43)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty , p. 198.(44)From an old document in JamesLogan's handwriting, in possession ofThomas Wright.(45)Rupp's History of Lancaster County, pp. 199 and 206.(46)Proud's History of Pennsylvania.vol. 2, p. 276; Mombert's History ofLancaster County, p. 370.

adjacent to the Indian town of Con-estoga, where all the Indian trans-actions of importance of the past oc-curred, and it was practically the ter-mination of the "Great ConestogaRoad," the only road then laid outfrom Philadelphia to the PalatineColony, which was the very founda-tion and salvation of the province. Itwas then only natural that the beauti-fully located tract at Postlethwaiteshould be chosen as the site for thecounty seat, especially as this trading-post and tavern was more prominent,and was more patronized, than any ofthe thirty other" similar houses thenin the county. Consequently, theKing's Magistrates, John Wright, To-bias Hendricks, Andrew Cornish,Thomas Reed and Samuel Jones, metat Postlethwaite's in June, 1729. Billsof credit to the amount of 300 poundswere loaned(48) by Governor Gordon forbuilding a prison and Court House atPostlethwaite's. Accordingly, theprison was completed and John Pos-tlethwaite had made temporary ac-commodations in his house for courtproceedings, where sessions wereheld, first Tuesday of August, 1729;first Tuesday of November, 1729;February 3, 1730; May 5, 1730, and"August 4, 1730. At these five sessionssixty-four suits were entered and dis-posed of.

The Beginning of Lancaster City andthe Removal of the County Seat.But suddenly there was a change in

the situation of affairs. There werecompetitors in the field for the loca-

(47)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, p. 255.

(48)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, p. 254; Hazard's Register, vol. 8, p.60.

(49)Lancaster County Historical So-ciety Publications, vol. x . No. 11, pp.416-430.

tion of the county seat. At Wright'sFerry, now Columbia, Sheriff Barberhad taken up a tract of 1,000 acres in1726, on part of which Magistrate, nowPresident Judge, John Wright had alsolocated. Judge Wright was also oneof the four commissioners appointedto select a site for the county seat.These gentlemen were so confident ofsecuring the county seat that theyhad already built a prison there, andWright's ferry would probably havebeen chosen had it not been for theinterference of Andrew Hamilton, aneminent Philadelphia lawyer, whowas a former Attorney General of theprovince," and his son, Col. JamesHamilton, who was afterward a Lieu-tenant Governor of the province. Theysaw the advantage of being in posses-sion of a tract on which so prominenta town as this county seat would belocated. John Postlethwaite had themost prominent location, and was avery prominent man in the com-munity. Sheriff Barber and the Presi-dent Judge, John Wright, were plopu-lar men of considerable political in-fluence , but the Hamiltons were starsof greater magnitude, and the tractwhich the Hamiltons selected is thepresent site of Lancaster. This tractwas fully four miles north ofthe "Great Conestoga. Road" to.Philadelphia, and fully five miles"south of the old Peter Bezellon road,which was laid out in 1726, and ledfrom the early settlements of Paxtonand Donegal to Philadelphia. Thiswas the only other laid-out road fromthis section to Philadelphia. There isno evidence that there was even a

(50)Mombert's History of LancasterCounty, pp. 362 and 372: Proud's His-tory of Pennsylvania, vol. 2, p. 231 , andnote. p .219: p. 216.

"Ellis and Evans' History of Lan-caster County. p. 311: H. F.

Eshleman's Map of Early Roads.

prominent Indian trail there, and,strange to say, at the organization ofthe townships in 1730 Lancaster town-ship was of so little importance, that,although supervisors, overseers of thepoor and constables were appointedin the fourteen other townships of thecounty, the number in proportion totheir prominence, Lancaster townshipwas the only one u2 in which no officerswere appointed. It was said GeorgeGibson had a tavern there. We cannot see that there would have beenany inducement to have a tavernthere before this period, nor did hehave" a license at that period; neitherdoes a Gibson deed appear until tenyears afterward, when Gibson re-ceived" lot 221, of Lancaster town-stead, where he no doubt built his"Hickory Tree Tavern." 1740 wasstill a very early period, and Gibson'swas probably the earliest tavern ofprominence there, which was remem-bered by some elderly person longago, who was not there at the begin-ning. By the time the county was or-ganized all the desirable tracts of landin "the great valley," as Logan termsit, were taken up, mostly by Palatines,who came to stay and refused to sellit. Roody Mayer (Rudolph Myers),"a Palatine, had settled on this tract asearly as 1712, and Ellis and Evansclearly show us that at least a" por-tion, and probably all, of the tract onwhich Hamilton located his"Townstead " in 1730 wasa portion of a tract ofabout 5,500 acres, warranted 1717,which had been taken up by twelve

(52)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. p 353.

"Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. p. 255.

(54)May's Historical Collections , n. 397.Lancaster County Historical Society

Publications, vol. ix. No. 6. p. 160."Ellis and Evans' History of Lan-

caster, pp. 359, 360. 361.

Palatine families, ten or more yearsbefore. That they paid for it is alsoshown by Surveyor General JamesSteel's postscript, "Thou need not in-sist on these men's bonds, becausethey are to pay down the money with-out delay. Some of them, however,neglected to take out their patents,which Hamilton took advantage of,claiming a portion of it by a title ofan unlocated tract, granted in 1682,long before any settlers arrived here.This tract. Col. James Hamilton sub-mitted to the four commissioners whowere appointed to select a site forthe county seat. Three of them ap-proved of this location. The fourthone did, for some unknown reason,not sign the certificate. When theirreport was submitted to GovernorGordon and his council the commis-sioners were asked in whom the titleof the land rested. They replied thatthey had not investigated that matter.The report was not then approved,and the Governor sent for ex-AttorneyGeneral Hamilton (who was the fatherof Colonel James Hamilton) and re-quested him to make(57) a thorough in-vestigation of the land in question.One week after the commissioners' re-port was filed,in March, 1730, SurveyorJohn Jones surveyed the land and laidout "Lancaster Townstead." They im-mediately set about to build a prisonand a temporary place for the Court,which were completed for the Novem-ber, 1830, session of Court. The lotswere sold and the town was boomed,just as Philadelphia was before andYorktown afterward, and quite a fewother towns since. The same year apetition was granted for a road sixty-six feet wide from Lancaster to Phila-

(67)Mombert's History of LancasterCounty, p. 368; Ellis and Evans' His-tory of Lancaster County, pp. 359, 360,361.

delphia. This is(58) what is now knownas the "Old Road," although it wasnever opened its full width. As toColonel Hamilton's pecuniary inter-ests, it will be found that he reservedground-rents on all the lots sold, and,by glancing over the journals of a fewmen who visited Lancaster at differ-ent periods, we can form some con-ception of why he was so much inter-ested, which was at least partly thecause of the removal of the countyseat from Postlethwaite's.

Witham Marshe, who visited (59)Lancaster in 1744,states: "All the own-ers of lots and houses here payground-rents, greater or less, accord-ing to the grant of them by JamesHamilton, Esq., who is the proprietorof the town." Governor Pownall, in1778, states: "When Lancaster waslaid out it was the desire of the pro-prietor to raise an annual revenuefrom the lots." How well Hamiltonsucceeded can be seen by the state-ment of Shopp, in 1783, who says:"Hamilton, a distinguished lawyer,used his influence " to have the townof Lancaster located on land belong-ing to him, and his family still drawan annual income of one thousandpounds ($4,866) from ground rents."These Hamilton ground-rents havecaused considerable trouble in thepast, and some of them are being col-lected from CI properties in Lancas-ter city to-day.

However, Col. Hamilton knew hisposition, and we see to-day how wellhe selected his location for the countyseat. It will also be rememberedthat at the very time when Court was

"Ellis and Evans' History of Lan-caster County, pp. 307, 308.

Lancaster County Historical So-ciety Publications , vol. ix, No. 7, p. 230.(60)Mombert's History of LancasterCounty, pp. 371-372.

(61)Ellis and Evans' History of Lan-caster County, p. 368.

in session at Postlethwaite's ThomasCresap began building his fort, justacross the Susquehanna, in defenseof Lord Baltimore's northern bound-ary. When he considered "Philadel-phia" the finest city in Maryland,"and as Penn's "great town" was indisputed territory, it is not likely thatthose in authority wished to risk an-other town location, as Postlethwaite'sis about two miles south of the fortiethparallel, which passes through" what

is now Strasburg, Millersville andWashington Borough.

All subsequent councils between theGovernors and the Indian chiefs andall else of importance were after thisperiod done at Lancaster. As Lan-caster grew and flourished, the GreatConestoga Road and Postlethwaite'slost prominence, until today the GreatConestoga Road is but an ordinarybyroad, and little more than the sitesof former places of prominence sur-rounding Postlethwaite's remain.

In conclusion, I believe it will inter-est many of us, although more par-ticularly the citizens of Manor andConestoga townships, to know thelocations and a few additional factsconcerning some of the places andpersons referred to in this paper.

Conestoga Manor.

After starting his "great town" ofPhiladelphia, one of the first thingsPenn did was to follow an old Englishinstitution of establishing manors.Lord Baltimore had done likewise inMaryland as early as 1636, but LordBaltimore's manors had a court leet,and court baron, and were partly self-governing, had military power, and

Archer's Dismemberment ofMaryland, p. 134.(63)United States Geological SurveyTopographical Map of Lancaster Quad-rangle, 1904.

were partly designed as a military"strength of his colony. Penn's manorswere not designed that way, or, if so,through his financial troubles thedesign was not carried out. Penn'sagents would select a choice tract ofland, which, with a few exceptions,were surveyed and granted toeither himself or his heirs, proprie-taries, and after the land around thesetracts was sold and settled thesemanors would be divided up and soldto the settlers," reserving quit-rentson them, which were used by Penn'scommissioners to meet his obligations,and later for his heirs. In all, therewere about 75 of these manors scat-tered about the State. Beginningnear Philadelphia, they were estab-lished westward, as the frontier wasextended. The eighth one selectedwas Conestoga Manor,whose boundarywas the same as our present Manortownship, except that its northernboundary was a straight line acrossthe course where the present Charles-town road is now located. This is theroad going eastward from Wertz'sHotel, at Washington Borough. Con-estoga Manor was surveyed in 1717,and then divided up and sold to thesettlers. At first the entire south-western portion, known as TurkeyHill, was reserved for a reserva-tion for the Conestoga Indians, whichwas finally reduced to 414 acres. Onthis reservation the Indian town ofCcnestoga was located.

Blue Rock.While Postlethwaite's was practic-

ally the termination of the GreatConestoga Road, as before stated, theroad led to the Indian town of Con-

(64)Fisk's Old Virginia and Her Neigh-bors. vol. 2. pp. 131. 132.

',Tbird Pennsylvania Archives . vol.iv, map 11

river, northward past Blue Rock, thenup the river. At Blue Rock the pro-prietaries reserved 3,000 acres for atime, probably for the location ofPenn's "town on the Susquehanna,"but it was afterward sold to settlers.The ferry crossing the river at thispoint was the most prominent alongthe Susquehanna before Wright'sFerry was established, being the oneused by the Cartleges, James Patter-son, Peter Chartier, and other Indiantraders. No doubt Governor Keithcrossed here on his return from Vir-ginia in 1721. John Penn, a grandsonof Wm. Penn, who made a tourthrough Eastern Pennsylvania, in1788, made this note in his journal onApril 15: "From Lancaster I rodealone over to Blue Rock. The road(66)estoga, and from there the Indian

led out to the Susquehannawants frequent direction. I spent agreat part of the day examining thegrounds, not returning until dark.The consequence of this ride was theresolution I made of keeping or pur-chasing near 200 acres round a spotadmirably calculated for a countyseat. It is the highest situation there,and commands the distant banks ofthe Susquehanna, and several islands,which might, many of them, be col-lected into one front prospect. Thegrounds behind and on each side fallfinely, and may be seen from thisspot, to the extent of the above num-ber of acres, except in a few lowplaces, in some of which a strong sup-ply of water runs through excellentmeadow lands, now perfectly green."

Blue Rock is now almost forgotten.It is the point where the Blue RockRoad reaches the river. About a cen-tury ago an enterprising° individual

"Jobn Penn's Journal.(67)Ellis and Evans' History of Lan-caster County, p. 96.

tried to boom a town there, and hadreceived a charter for a bridge acrossthe river.

The Locations of Cresap's Fort andthe Indian Town of Conestoga,Where the Conestoga Indians

Were Massacred.

Just across the river,in York county,can be seen the massive walls ofThomas Cresap's fort, which he builtin 1729. It is now the basement ofthe dwelling of B. C. Gnaw, and is dur-able enough to last at least anothercentury. Cresap had been granted thistract, including a charter for BlueRock Ferry, by Lord Baltimore, andbravely defended Maryland's north-ern boundary for seven years, whenhe was overpowered by the Pennsyl-vanians and taken in chains to Phila-delphia and imprisoned. Going fromBlue Rock back to Indian town, alongthe Indian trail, about one-half-milesoutheast of Blue Rock, on the H. G.Wittmer farm, and westward to theriver, we find, through the many In-dian-trader articles found there, a re-cent Indian village site. Again, fol-lowing the trail about two and one-half miles eastward, we reach theHabecker mill farm, where the traderbeads, clay pipes, etc., reveal anotherrecent Indian village site. About one-half mile east of the Habecker farm,at the neglected spring on the prop-erty of John Ehrhart, is still anotherrecent Indian village site. It is high-ly probable that as recent as duringGovernor Gookin's visit, in 1711, whenthe Indians were still numerous, thatthey occupied the sites near the river.In the vicinity of the Habecker farm,and what is now locally known asCoffee street, also still known as In-dian town, the last reservation of 414acres was located. It is supposed

that Captain Civility's cabin," inwhich Governor Keith first met the

four Deputies of the Five Nations,was located near the spring whereIsaiah Hess now lives. The last In-dian cabin was standing on the oppo-site side of the road, just east of therun. It had been moved there fromEhrhart's spring, and was occupied byIsaac Koons, when Rupp visited itfifty years ago." In a few bark-cover-ed log-cabins of their own construc-tion on the west side of Ehrhart'sspring the last twenty Conestogaslived---six men, five women, six boysand three girls, the last (70)remnant

of the once powerful and haughtySusquehannocks, the last of the Con-estogas who protected our first set-tlers, and supplied them with theirfirst food. They, in return, lost theirhunting grounds, leaving them littlemore than miserable beggars, tryingto eke out an existence by makingand selling baskets and hickorybrooms, and while thus engaged, onDecember 14 and 27, 1763, werecruelly massacred by the pale faceswhom they nursed and befriended.

A very rare tract, written and print-ed by Franklin in 1764, states thatShehaes, one of the slain, had as-sisted in the second treaty of Wm.Penn, in 1701, and narrates the mas-sacre as the most horrible that wasever heard of, and was perpetratedby a mob of Presbyterian settlers, call-ing themselves "The Paxton Boys,"led on by Rev. Mr. Elder, persuadingthemselves that they were doingGod's work.

(68)Rupn's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. p. 155.(69)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. n. 356.(70)Mombert's History of Lancaster -County, pp. 183-184.

John Cartlege, the King's First Magis-trate.

About one-half-mile southeast ofEhrhart's spring, now the estate ofthe late Daniel L. Shank, was thehome of John Cartlege. The old loghouse, a building about twenty feet"square, which Rupp also visited, waslocated near the southeast corner ofthe present dwelling. In that houseLogan met the Indian chiefs in 1720,and there Governor Keith held hisnotable two-day council with them in1722. After John Cartlege's death,Magistrate Andrew Cornish" marriedCartlege's widow and also lived at theCartlege home, when in 1728 GovernorGordon held a council (73)with the chiefsin the same house. John Cartlege wasno doubt the most prominent man inthis section at that period, and thefirst living in what is now Lancastercounty who held an official position.He was a son of Edward Cartlege, aprominent Quaker from Ridings,County of Darby, England, who locat-ed at what is now Darby, Delawarecounty, Pa., in 1683, where John Cart-lege was born, March 5, 1684, and mar-ried EIizabeth Bartram (an aunt ofJohn Bartram, the botanist). Hemoved to Conestoga about 1712, wherehe bought 300 acres of land, and in1616 was given" 200 acres additionalfor pasture for a period of fourteenyears, in consideration of the goodservice he had done among the newsettlers of these parts, as well asamong the Indians. He was a licensedIndian trader, was an interpreter of

(71)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty , p. 199.

"From an old document in JamesLogan's handwriting, in possessionThomas Wrigbt.'(73)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty, p. 199.

"Pennsylvania Arcbives, vol. xix, pp.644 and 569.

the Delaware tongue, was an Indianagent for the Proprietaries and wasappointed" His Majesty's MagistrateJuly 4, 1718. He was a prominentQuaker, as were also his descendants,two generations after him. The un-fortunate occurrence which resultedin his imprisonment, which I have al-ready related, preyed on his mind tosuch a degree that he died about 1726.

The Shenk farm is a portion of theabove tract of land. The venerableJoseph Wright, who is now overeighty-two years old,is John Cartlege'sgreat-great-grandson, and still lives ona portion of the Cartlege tract. Mr.Thomas Wright, of Millersville, is agreat-great--great-grandson. To thesegentlemen I am indebted for some ofthe above information.

The Postlethwaite's Grave Yard andCartlege's Grave.

About one-fourth-mile west of GeorgeFehl's home (where the first sessions

of Couert were held), just west of theline fence between Adam Murry andHiram Warfel, in the corner of Mr.Warfel's field, on the north side ofthe road, the old Postlethwaite's graveyard was located; it was about fifty<- feet square. Mr. Jacob Fehl, who, ifstill living, would now be about 120years old, and whose ancestors livedat Postlethwaite's several generationsbefore he did," always staunchlymaintained that the grave of the firstJudge of Lancaster county was there.And Mr. Warfel states that someyears ago some of the members ofthe Lancaster Dar were making aneffcrt to place a monument there. Thisgrave yard must have been more

(75)Rupp's History of Lancaster Coun-ty. p. 119.

"'Jobn R. Witmer, Hiram Warfel andotbers.

than a family grave yard, as

is shown by the fact that

it is positively known that Wm.Wright was buried there. Wm. Wrightwas married to John Cartlege's daugh-ter, and owned and lived on the oldCartlege property. There was nograve yard on the Cartlege propertythen, but after Wright's death, in 1756,this property was divided between hisfour sons, each locating on a portion.Each one of the four tracts was thenprovided with a family grave yard.The widowed mother lived with herson, Thomas, at the old Cartlege homemany years, and died in 1815, at theage of ninety-six years. Althoughher husband, Wm. Wright, was buriedat Postlethwaite's(77) by this time thatplace had so completely lost its formerprominence that she desired that herremains should be interred in her sonThomas' family grave yard, and whereher inscribed tombstone can be seen,just west of the buildings on theShenk farm. The above seems toprove that before the family graveyards were placed' on the Cartlegeproperty Postlethwaite's was theirgrave yard, and it is only naturalthat the English-speaking communitywould have placed a public burying-ground there at a prospective townsite, which was their custom. Theremay also have been a meeting housethere. It is not positively knownwhere John Cartlege's graveis, but from the above onewould naturally conclude thathis remains and also those of hiswidow and her second husband, Mag-istrate Andrew Cornish, were placedin the Postlethwaite's grave yard. JohnWright was President Judge whenfive of the King's Magistrates presided

"Thomas Wright's grand-aunt, whowas at his funeral.

at the first Court, held at Postle-thwaite's, and is considered the firstJudge of Lancaster county. WhetherJohn Cartlege was known as Judge,Justice or Magistrate we don't know,but, as he received his appointment asthe King's Magistrate ten years be-fore John Wright settled at Wright'sFerry, there is no doubt it was he towhom Mr. Fehl's tradition refers.

About twenty-eight years ago afor-mer owner of the Warfel property re-moved the tombstones and ploughedup the Postlethwaite's graveyard. Oldresidents state that there were atleast half a dozen inscribed tomb-stones there, and also a number of un-inscribed, older ones. There was oneunusually large, roughly-dressed lime-stone among the older ones. It is notpositively known if it bears an inscrip-tion or not, but this stone most likelymarked John Cartlege's grave. It canbe found walled

into a pisty nearby. All the Mennonite and Quakergraves in this section of that early pe-riod are marked by rough stones,without inscriptions, and very fewbear inscriptions before 1750. Verylikely that was the case with the oldergraves there. These uninscribedtombstones only assist in concealing,instead of revealing, much of the pastwhich we would like to know.

file:///Volumes/LCHS%3BLCHSFS01/OCR%20Journal%20Project/PDF%20Biblio%20Info/Pwebrecon.cgi.txt

Author: Landis, David H., 1864-

Title: Why was Postlethwaite's chosen and then abandoned as the county seat of Lancaster County? / by D. H. Landis.

Primary Material: Book

Subject(s): Postlethwaite, John. Postlethwaite Tavern (Conestoga Township, Pa.) Susquehanna Indians. Lancaster County (Pa.)--History--17th century.

Publisher: Lancaster, Pa. : Lancaster County Historical Society, 1908

Description: [137]-167 p. ; 23 cm.

Series: Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society ; v. 12, no. 5

Call Number: 974.9 L245 v.12Location: LCHSJL -- Journal Article (reading room)

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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Institution NameInstitution AddressInstitution Phone NumberInstitution E-mail Address

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