Iman family notes

"Historical papers and addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society"

April 3. 1908

Why was Postlethwaite’s chosen and then abandoned as the county seat of Lancaster County?

Minutes of the April Meeting, Lancaster Historical Society. Vol. XIL NO. 4; Lancaster, PA.

Giving an authentic sketch of the conditions as they appeared here before the scenes were changed by the first Europeans.

Also, brief sketches of the Susquehannock or Conestoga Indians, the Traders, Penn's Troubles, the Palatines, Councils held at the Indian Town of Conestoga, Beginning of Lancaster City, Conestoga Manor and the location and present owners of prominent places which were intimately associated with Postlethwaite's; adding a sketch of John Cartlege, the King's first magistrate of what is now Lancaster County.

Going from Millersville to Safe Harbor, one would little suspect that you pass through the main street of what was once the county seat of Lancaster county. There is nothing, whatever, to suggest to the traveler as he passes along the road, from George Fehl's corner to the hill at Rock Hill, that that section was ever anything else but a few excellent farms. Yet, we all know that less than two centuries ago it was the most prominent place in what is now Lancaster county. Historians call it Postlethwaite's', because John Postlethwaite had a tavern and a trading-post where George Fehl's house now stands, but, knowing this, one would naturally ask. why should he have located in such an out-of-the-way place? But, what is more surprising is that when Lancaster county was formed, in 1729, this place was of such prominence that it was selected for the county seat of Lancaster county. When that decision was made, John Postlethwaite hurriedly fitted his building for a temporary Court House, which is now George Fehl's dwelling house.

In this building the first sessions of Court were held. A prison was built, with a high wall, just west of what is now Hiram Warfel's dwelling, and our oldest residents still remember seeing portions of the wall along the south side of the road there. The ancient and massive arched walls on which Mr. Warfel's dwelling is built indicate that they were built at that early period, also, and were probably the dungeon part of the prison. Mr. Warfel tells us that at many places about his farm he finds old stone foundations of log buildings.

There are about thirty licensed public houses, such as Postlethwaite's, in this county at that time,^ but Postlethwaite's was of more prominence and commanded more license than any others. A place of such prominence may have had a church or a meeting house and a number of residents. It was probably laid out in streets and plots, as its competitors, Wright's Ferry and Lancaster, were. But, singular as it appears, that all this should have been located there, still more surprising is it that all should have so completely disappeared. It was these unusual conditions that have led the writer to investigate. We find the prominence of Postlethwaite's was due, first, to the Indian history surrounding it, and, secondly, to the first European settlements. In order to see why this site should have been a place of such prominence, one must see this section as it appeared at a much earlier period, and review it step by step.

Authentic Sketches of This Section Showing Its Appearance Before the Changes Caused by Europeans.

The first view we have of this beautiful and fertile section is when it was inhabited by the great tribe of Susquehannock Indians, who are thus described by Alsop in his quaint, but forcible, way, about 1660:"The Susquehannocks are a people looked upon by the Christian inhabitants as the most noble and heroic nation of Indians that dwell upon the confines of America; also, are so allowed and looked upon by the rest of the Indians, by submission and tributary acknowledgment, being a people cast into the mold of a most large and warlike deportment, the men being for the most part seven feet high in latitude and in magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch, their voice large and hollow, as if ascendinr out of a cave, their gait and behavior straight, stately and majestic, treading on the earth with as much pride, contempt and disdain as can be imagined from a creature derived from the same."

These statements are substantiated by Captain John Smith, who saw them at the head of the Chesapeake Bay fifty years before, and also by skeletons which have since been unearthed in this section. This section was then a veritable Indian paradise, with its great forests, its beautiful springs and streams, and with the Susquehanna River widening out almost into a lake, where grapes, nuts, fish and game were abundant, as Alsop again describes: "Fowls of all sorts and varieties dwell at their several times and seasons here, especially the turkey, whom 1 have seen in whole hundreds in flights in the woods. The Fawns, the geese and the ducks arrive in millions: multitudes about the middle of September and leave about the midst of March, and plenty of almost all sorts of fishes live and inhabit the several streams and rivers here, far beyond the apprehension or crediting of those who never saw the same."

About a century afterward, in 1763, the settlers here filed a petition complaining of the dams as destroying the former shad, salmon and rockfish* in the Conestoga, and the trout in its tributaries. Alsop continues: "The deer are mighty numerous in the woods, and are little or not at all affrighted by the face of man. They will stand almost until they be caught, being daily killed by the Indians and brought in to the English. There is such a glut of their flesh that it is rather denied than esteemed or desired."

Acrelius says of this section about 1750: "The soil, which is at some places 20' feet deep, is so strong and black, that it is not adapted to growing wheat, but suitable for growing maise and hemp." When the early explorers met the Indians they found them more agricultural than after their needs were supplied through the traffic with the traders, after which their clothing and their habits greatly changed. Their squaws rudely cultivated" corn, pumpkins, melons, tobacco, etc., all of which were unknown to Europeans before that period.

Capt Smith states about 1609: "The Indian Cabins are in the midst of fields or gardens, which are small plots of ground, some 20 acres, some 40 acres, some 100 ' acres, some 200, some more, some less." The early explorers and first settlers depended almost entirely upon the Indians for food. Smith again states: "I durst undertake to have corn enough from the savages, for 300 men, for a few trifles." Hudson's and Harriott's accounts also correspond to Smith's statement. When Gov. Calvert arrived in Maryland in 1634 the natives had such a store of corn that he traded 1,000' bushels of it and sent it to the colony in New England in exchange for other commodities.

The Fur Traffic.

But with the arrival of Europeans these scenes changed. European traders found it immensely profitable to exchange beads and other inexpensive articles for the valuable hides for which this section was then especially noted. William Claybone, an Englishman of a prominent family, who was granted a charter to trade with the Indians, and located on the Isle of Kent, at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, in 1621, was, perhaps, the most prominent trader among the Susquehannock Indians. In 1632, he exported beaver skins alone to the amount of forty thousand crowns in gold. The profit on them was estimated at thirty fold. He acquired an immense estate through this trade. The Dutch at New Amsterdam (now New York); the French Canadians along the St. Lawrence, and the Swedes along the Delaware, soon were in sharp competition for the Susquehannock trade. Among the animals then native 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 the beavers, of which no sign remains except the name of two of our streams. There was also a great traffic in bear, deer and elk skins, and Alsop, Lindstrom and the Indian pictures on the rocks at Safe Harbor tell us the " Buffalo was here also. Many of the trifling articles, as beads, ornaments, implements, clay pipes, etc., which those traders gave the Indians in exchange for their valuable peltry, have since been ploughed up at the various Indian village sites of our county, and are interesting and valuable assistants in determining the period when the village sites were inhabited, and to what class of traders the wares belonged.

Penn's Arrival.

When Wm. Penn arrived in 1682 game had already become reduced through this wholesale slaughter, yet the contest for the Susquehannock trade was still on between the French Canadians, the Dutch, the Swedes and the Marylanders. As there was great danger of these traders inciting the Indians to attack his little colony, he very wisely called the chiefs together, purchased their land and made a peace treaty with them, lest his colony might meet with the same fate that had befallen the Dutch colony at Schwanendal (now Lewes, Del.,) who were massacred fifty years before. Many obstacles confronted him, and perhaps his greatest disappointment was when he found that the 40th parallel (which by Lord Baltimore's charter' was clearly Maryland's northern boundary, and which Penn had actually agreed to, in 1680), did not give him a harbor on the Chesapeake Bay, and scarcely enough of one on the Delaware, and especially when he found that Crispin Bezar and Allen had located his "great town" just south of this line. This involved Penn and Lord Baltimore in a boundary dispute which not only occupied the proprietors of the two provinces, but caused endless trouble " between individuals, occupied the attention of the Privy Councils of at least three monarchs, and was, not adjusted until eighty years afterward in the establishment of the Mason and Dixon line. However, every effort was made to colonize his province. As the colonists were crowded in they pushed northward and westward toward the Susquehanna. The westward route they followed was an old Indian trail, long in use in the trade between the Dutch & New Amsterdam and the Susquehanock Indians. The first settlers along this route, through what is now Delaware and Chester counties, were English, Welsh an Scotch-Irish. There were many Quakers among them. These settlements were made principally between 1685 and 1700; very few went beyond the Brandywine, although some Indian traders, adventurers and land speculators were then already investigating the Susquehannock lands.

Derivations of the Word Conestoga, and the Compact Which Resulted in the Indian Reservation at Conestoga Manor.

In Penn's first treaty, at Shackamaxon, he had treated with the Susquheannock Indians for the Susquehanna lands, but not with the Five Nations of New York, to whom they were then tributary. The Susquehannocks ^'^ were not an Algonquin tribe, as the Delawares were, but were of the same linguistic stock as the Five Nations. The Dutch and Swedes called the Susquehannocks, Minques and several similar names. The Marylanders named them Susquehannocks or Susquehannas, and the French Canadians used their tribal name, Gandastogues,'^ meaning cabin-polemen, from Andasta, the peculiar cabin pole which they used In the construction of their cabins. They also often called the Andastas. The name by which they were known here, Conestagos, was merely a modification of Gandastoquis, the name by which the French Canadian traders knew them. In 1635 they could muster 1,300 warriors. They were bitter enemies of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, with whom they were at war about twenty-five years, from about 1650 to about 1675, until finally through the united efforts of the Five Nations they were reduced so much by war and smallpox that in 1675 they could muster only 300 warriors and were completely overthrown. They were then made tributary to the Five Nations, who claimed all the Susquehannas, or Conestogas' former land possessions. It can now be seen why it became necessary for Penn to make a second treaty for the Susquehanna lands. As Penn was then in England, he engaged his friend and agent. Col. Thomas Dougan, a former Governor of New York, to purchase the Susquehanna lands. After holding several councils with the Five Nations in New York, Governor Dougan finally succeeded in getting " "the river Susquehanna and all the islands therein, and all the land laying on both sides of the river, and next adjoining to the utmost confines of the lands which are, or formerly were, the right of the people called Susquehannas." This deed was conveyed to Penn, January 13, 1696, in consideration of 100 pounds sterling, and was confirmed by two Susquehanna chiefs, September, 1700. The remnant of the tribe remaining here did not approve of the above sale, so Penn, on his second arrival from England, sent for them, and held a council with them at Philadelphia, in 1701. At this council he told the Conestogas that he had been informed that they were sorry that he had purchased the Susquehanna lands from the Five Nations, whereupon he drew out a great roll of parchment and spread it out on the ground, saying to them that, although he had sent a great many goods in a vessel to New York for the land, it should be in common among them, that the Conestogas should enjoy the same privileges on the Susquehanna lands as the English. It is very probable that the Indian Reservation which was here in Manor was the result of this compact.

The First Routes to the Susquehanna Lands and Some Early Visits Here.

As already referred to at that period (1700), the main road westward from the little colony at Philadelphia was the Indian trail, leaving what is now Market street, passing through West Chester, Gap, the Long Lane, past Postlethwaite's, crossing the Conestoga at Rock Hill, passing over the hill, and crossing the Little Conestoga at Dentlinger's mill, then down the west side of the creek, and in the Indiantown Road to the Indiantown of Conestoga. It was probably along this road that trade was carried on more than half a century before Penn's arrival, between the Dutch at New Amsterdam and the Susquehannas, or Minquas, as they called them. There was another old trail from the Susquehanna lands down along the eastern shore of the river, and led to New Castle, on the Delaware, by way of Christina or Minqua creek, as the Swedes called it. Along this route trade was carried on between the Swedes and the Susquehannas, or Minquas, as they called them thirty years before Penn's arrival. It was along this route, known as the New Castle route, that James Logan, then Secretary of the Province, accompanied by two New Castle Sheriffs and ten others, made his first visit to Conestoga in 1705. During the same year the noted Quaker preacher, Thomas Chalkley, also visited here. At this time the French and Marylanders were inciting the Indians at Conestoga to make the Proprietaries trouble, and it required some effort to keep the links of friendship bright. In 1706 Governor Evans, with several members of his council, also went to Conestoga by the New Castle route. Before reaching Conestoga he stopped == at the Indian village of Pequan, which Rupp says was at the mouth of the Pequea creek, where the Indian-trader and interpreter, Martin Chartier, was located. Here Governor Evans met the chiefs of a number of tribes, the Nanticokes alone having seven towns. In 1707 Governor Evans again visited Conestoga with William Penn, Jr., evidently with the design of having a gay time, and by all accounts conducted themselves in a very unbecoming manner for such dignitaries.

Perm's Troubles and the Arrival of the Palatines.

Many trying conditions existed then. It was only with a great struggle that Penn and his heirs succeeded in retaining their rights to their province. Through the efforts of their enemies the governing of Penn's province was given to Governor Fletcher, of New York, who directed the administration from 1693 to 1695. Regaining his rights, Penn returned from England and personally administered from 1699 to 1701. Becoming involved in debt, in 1702 he returned to England and mortgaged his magnificent province for 6,600 pounds (about $30,000). After being harassed by his creditors for a number of years, he was imprisoned for his debts in 1708, and was confined in the Fleet Prison a long time. Meantime, the French claimed his province west of the Susquehanna, and the Marylanders claimed it to the fortieth parallel. Finally, when about completing arrangements to sell it to' Queen Ann, in 1712, for 12,000 pounds, he received an apoplectic stroke, which left him in a hopeless state of imbecility, until he died, in 1718. During all this period great efforts were made by his commissioners and representatives to colonize the province, not only with the purpose of deriving funds from the sale of land to meet his obligations, but to establish possession claims in his trouble with Lord Baltimore and the French. I briefly touch on Penn's trouble here and in England, because it was principally those which spurred on the great efforts made to colonize his province, by offering great inducements and distributing tracts, among which those of Falconer and Pastorious were most effective. This, in connection with the thirty years of civil and religious wars of Europe, resulted in the settlement of the Palatine colony here, which caused) the second stage of importance surrounding "the great Conestoga road," and Postlethwaite's. From the foregoing it must be inferred that the Indian trail leading from Philadelphia to Conestoga was used very little by Europeans before 1709, settlements having been made only as far as the Brandywine. About 1709, or a short time before, a number of Mennonite families, from the Palatinate, along the Rhine, went out this trail, beyond the English and Welsh settlements, and located just east of what is now Strasburg, in the Pequea Valley, where they purchased 10,000 acres of some of the choicest agricultural land in the province. This was the first permanent settlement in what is now Lancaster county. This colony, many of which were persecuted Swiss Mennonites, and French Huguenot families, was augmented and extended throughout the fertile limestone basin northward and westward until in 1717 it composed about 125 of those sturdy families who came from the garden spot of Europe, and have contributed so much toward making this the garden spot of the Union. It will be seen by looking over this list of names that the descendants of almost every one of these settlers still live in the same locality in which their forefathers settled in the wilderness almost two centuries ago. What this province then needed was not squatters and land speculators, but men who paid for the land and got down to work. This was what it had secured in these Palatines.

Important Official Events at the Indian Town of Conestoga.

After this colony had settled here the Conestoga trail became the popular route to the Susquehanna. In 1711 Governor Gookin came by this route and held a conference with the Conestoga Indians on June 18, asking them to protect the Palatine colony recently settled there. The Conestogas assured him "that they were safely seated," and never, as long as the Indians were here, was this colony molested. On the 22d of September of this same year the Tuscarora Indians, who were a related tribe to the Conestogas, massacred about 100 Palatine families who had settled near Roanoke, North Carolina. The year before Gov. Gookin went to Conestoga he sent Col. French and Henry Worley to deliver a message to the Conestoga Indians, and it may be of interest to know what the expenses of their trip were. The following items show them: To bread, 4s. 2d.; to meat, 12s.; to rum, 1 pound 10s.; to two men hire for baggage,='^4 pounds; to John, 1 pound 4s.; total, 8 pounds, 5s. 2d. ($44.21). The only way they could have traveled was by horseback, with pack horses, as at that period this road was still only an Indian trail.^^ In 1714 it was opened as a road to the Brandywine, and in 1718 it was opened from the Brandywine to Conestoga. It was called "The Great Conestoga Road," all of the present Lancaster county, except the northern and southern extremities, was called Conestoga, but at this period almost all of the Indians were located along the river between Turkey Hill and Bainbridge. Col. French was sent to. Conestoga, where he held a council and delivered a message from the Governor June 28, 1719, and on June 27, 1720, Secretary James Logan, "having had some business up the farther end of the Great Valley,"" held a council with the Indians at Conestoga.

The next notable event at Conestoga Indiantown was the visit of Governor Keith, in 1721. It appears at that time, as the settlers were crowding in, and as game was becoming scarcer, the Conestoga Indians extended their hunting trips down beyond the Potomac river, into territory claimed by the Indians of Virginia, which resulted in causing trouble, so Governor Keith first made a trip to the Governor of Virginia, and returned by way of Conestoga, where he held a council with the Indians July 6th and 8th, 1721. He also got consent of the Indians to survey a Manor of 10,000 acres, just across the river, in what is now York county. Governor Keith's object in locating it there was to gain possession rights in the boundary dispute. What an imposing sight it must have been, to have seen Governor Keith, with his seventy or eighty horsemen, many of them well armed, when they met the chiefs of the Conestogas and the deputies of the Five Nations!

Postlethwaite Becomes the County Seat of Lancaster County.

Soon after Governor Gordon's visit public sentiment demanded the organizing of this county. At that time this section was Conestoga township, Chester county, and the county seat was at what is now Chester, Delaware county, over seventy miles away. What now forms Lancaster county had about 2,000 taxpayers,^' whose petition was granted, and Lancaster county was formed. Postlethwaite's tavern and trading post was located adjacent to the Indian town of Conestoga, where all the Indian transactions of importance of the past occurred, and It was practically the termination of the "Great Conestoga Road," the only road then laid out from Philadelphia to the Palatine Colony, which was the very foundation and salvation of the province. It was then only natural that the beautifully located tract at Postlethwaite should be chosen as the site for the county seat, especially as this trading post and tavern was' more prominent, and was more patronized, than any of the thirty other" similar blouses then in the county. Consequently, the King's Magistrates John Wright, Tobias Hendricks, Andrew Cornish, Thomas Reed and Samuel Jones, met at Postlethwaite's in June, 1729. Bills of credit to the amount of 300 pounds were loaned*^ by Giovernor Gordon for building a prison and Court House at Postlethwaite's. Accordingly, the prison was completed and John Postlethwaite had made temporary accommodations in his house for court proceedings, where sessions were held, first Tuesday of August, 1729; first Tuesday of November, 1729; February 3, 1730; May 5, 1730, and*' August 4, 1730. At these five sessions sixty-four suits were entered and disposed of.

The Beginning of Lancaster City and the Removal of the County Seat, But suddenly there was a change in the situation of affairs. There were competitors in the field for the location of the county seat.

At Wright's Ferry, now Columbia, Sheriff Barber had taken up a tract of 1,000 acres in 1726, on part of which Magistrate, now President Judge, John Wright had also located. Judge Wright was also one of the four commissioners appointed to select a site for the county seat. These gentlemen were so confident of securing the county seat that they had already built a prison there, and Wright's ferry would probably have been chosen had it not been for the interference of Andrew Hamilton, an eminent Philadelphia lawyer, who was a former Attorney General of the province,^"* and his son. Col. James Hamilton, who was afterward a Lieutenant Governor'of the province. They saw the advantage of being in possession of a tract on which so prominent a town as this county seat would be located.

John Postlethwaite had the most prominent location, and was a very prominent man in the community. Sheriff Barber and the President Judge, John Wright, were plopuiar men of considerable political influence, but the Hamiltons were stars of greater magnitude, and the tract which the Hamiltons selected is the present site of Lancaster. This tract was fully four miles north of the "Great Conestoga Road" to Philadelphia, and fully five miles" south of the old Peter Bezellon road, which was laid out in 1726, and led from the early settlements of Paxton and Donegal to Philadelphia. This was the only other laid-out road from this section to Philadelphia. There is no evidence that there was even a prominent Indian trail there, and, strange to say, at the organization of the townships in 1730 Lancaster township was of so little importance, that, although supervisors, overseers of the poor and constables were appointed in the fourteen other townships of the county, the number in proportion to their prominence, Lancaster township was the only one" in which no officers were appointed. It was said George Gibson had a tavern there. We can not see that there would have been any inducement to have a tavern there before this period, nor did he have' a license at that period; neither does a Gibson deed appear until ten years afterward, when Gibson received^* lot 221, of Lancaster townstead, where he no doubt built his "Hickory Tree Tavern."

1740 was still a very early period, and Gibson's was probably the earliest tavern of prominence there, which was remembered by some elderly person long ago, who was n(ot there at the beginning. By the time the county was organized all the desirable tracts of land in "the great valley," as Logan terms it, were taken up, mostly by Palatines, who came to stay and refused to sell it. Roody Mayer (Rudolph Myers), ^= a Palatine, had settled on this tract as early as 1712, and Ellis and Evans clearly show us that at least a== portion, and probably all, of the tract on which Hamilton located his "Townstead " in 1730 was a portion of a tract of about 5,500 acres, warranted 1717, which had been taken up by twelve Palatine families, ten or more years before. That they paid for it is also shown by Surveyor General James Steel's postscript, "Thou need not insist on these men's bonds, because they are to pay down the money without delay. Some of them, however, neglected to take out their patents, which Hamilton took advantage of, claiming a portion of it by a title of an unlocated tract, granted in 1682, long before any settlers arrived here. This tract Col. James Hamilton submitted to the four commissioners who were appointed to select a site for the county seat. Three of them approved of this location. The fourth one did, for some unknown reason, not sign the certificate. When their report was submitted to Governor Gordon and his council the commissioners were asked in whom the title of the land rested. They replied that they had not investigated that matter. The report was not then approved, and the Governor sent for ex-Attorney General Hamilton (who was the father of Colonel James Hamilton) and requested him to make" a thorough investigation of the land in question. One week after the commissioners' report was filed, in March, 1730,Surveyor John Jones surveyed the land and laid out "Lancaster Townstead." They immediately set about to build a prison and a temporary place for the Court, which "were completed for the November, 1830, session of Court. The lots were sold and the town was boomed, just as Philadelphia was before and Yorktown afterward, and quite a few other towns since. The same year a petition was granted for a road sixty-six feet wide from Lancaster to Philadelphia. This is * what is now known as the "Old Road," although it was never opened its full width. As to Colonel Hamilton's pecuniary interests, it will be found that he reserved ground-rents on all the lots sold, and, by glancing over the journals of a few men who visited Lancaster at different periods, we can form some conception of why he was so much interested, which was at least partly the cause of the removal of the county seat from Postlethwaite's.

Witham Marshe, who visited Lancaster in 1744, states: "All the owners of lots and houses here pay ground-rents, greater or less, according to the grant of them by James Hamilton, Esq., who is the proprietor of the town." Governor Pownall, in 1778, states: "When Lancaster was laid out it was the desire of the proprietor to raise an annual revenue from the lots." How well Hamilton succeeded can be seen by the statement of Shopp, in 1783, who says: "Hamilton, a distinguished lawyer, used his influence to have the town of Lancaster located on land belonging to him, and his family still draw an annual income of one thousand pounds ($4,866) from ground rents." These Hamilton ground-rents have caused considerable trouble in the past, and some of them are being collected from," properties in Lancaster city to-day.

However, Col. Hamilton knew his position, and we see today how well he selected his location for the county seat. It will also be remembered that at the very time when Court was in session at Postletliwaite"s Thomas Cresap began building his fort, just across the Susquehanna, in defense of Lord Baltimore's northern boundary. When he considered. "Philadelphia - the finest city in Maryland," and as Penn's "great town" was in disputed territory, it is not likely that those in authority wished to risk another town location, as Postlethwaite's is about two miles south of the fortieth parallel, which passes through what is now Strasburg, Millersville and Washington Borough.

All subsequent councils between the Governors and the Indian chiefs and all else of importance were after this period done at Lancaster. As Lancaster grew and flourished, the Great Conestoga Road and Postlethwaite's lost prominence, until today the Great Conestoga Road is but an ordinary byroad, and little more than the sites of former places of prominence surrounding Postlethwaite's remain.

In conclusion, I believe it will interest many of us, although more particularly the citizens of Manor and Conestoga townships, to know the' locations and a few additional facts concerning some of the places and persons referred to in this paper.

Conestoga Manor.

After starting his "great town" of Philadelphia, one of the first things Penn did was to follow an old English institution of establishing manors. Lord Baltimore had done likewise in Maryland as early as 1636, but Lord Baltimore's manors had a court leet, and court baron, and were partly selfgoverning, had military power, and were partly designed as a military'' strength of his colony. Penn's manors were not designed that way, or, if so, through his financial troubles the design was not carried out. Penn's agents would select a choice tract of land, which, with a few exceptions, were surveyed and granted to either himself or his heirs, proprietaries, and after the land around these tracts was sold and settled these manors would be divided up and sold to the settlers, reserving quit-rents on them, which were used by Penn's commissioners to meet his obligations, and later for his heirs. In all, there were about 75 of these manors scattered about the State. Beginning near Philadelphia, they were established westward, as the frontier was extended. The eighth one selected was Conestoga Manor, whose boundary was the same as our present Manor township, except that its northern boundary was a straight line across the course where the present Charlestown road is now located. This is the road going eastward from Wertz's Hotel, at Washington Borough. Conestoga Manor was surveyed in 1717, and then divided up and sold to the settlers. At first the entire southwestern portion, known as Turkey Hill, was reserved for a reservation for the Conestoga Indians, which was finally reduced to 411 acres. On this reservation the Indian town of Conestoga was located.

Blue Rock.

While Postlethwaite's was practically the termination of the Great Conestoga Road, as before stated, the road led to the Indian town of Conrivei', northward past Blue Rock, then up the river. At Blue Rock the proprietaries reserved 3,000 acres for a time, probably for the location of Penn's "town on the Susquehanna," but it was afterward sold to settlers. The ferry crossing the river at this point was the most prominent along the Susquehanna before Wright's Ferry was established, being the one used by the Cartleges, James Patterson, Peter Chartier, and other Indian traders. No doubt Governor Keith crossed here on his return from Virginia in 1721. John Penn, a grandson of Wm. Penn, who made a tour through Eastern Pennsylvania, in 1788, made this note in his journal on April 15: "Prom Lancaster I rode alone over to Blue Rock. The road Conestoga, and from there the Indian trail led out to the Susquehanna wants frequent direction. I spent a great part of the day examining the grounds, not returning until dark. The consequence of this ride was the resolution I made of keeping or purchasing near 200 acres round a spot admirably calculated! for a county seat. It is the highest situation there, and commands the distant banks of the Susquehanna, and several islands, which might, many of them, be collected into one front prospect. The grounds behind and on each side fall finely, and may be seen from this spot, to the extent of the above number of acres, except in a few low places, in some of which a strong supply of water runs through excellent meadow lands, now perfectly green." Blue Rock is now almost forgotten. It is the point where the Blue Rock Road reaches the river. About a century ago an enterprising =' individual tried to boom a town there, and had received a charter for a bridge across the river.

The Locations of Cresap's Fort and the Indian Town of Conestoga, Where the Conestoga Indians Were Massacred. Just across the river,in York county, can be seen the massive walls of Thomas Cresap's fort, which he built in 1729. It is now the basement of the dwelling of B. C. Gnaw, and is durable enough to last at least another century. Cresap had been granted this tract, including a charter for Blue Rock Ferry, by Lord Baltimore, and bravely defended Maryland's northern boundary for seven years, when he was overpowered by the Pennsylvanians and taken in chains to Philadelphia and imprisoned. Going from Blue Rock back to Indian town, along the Indian trail, about one-half-mile southeast of Blue Rock, on the H. G. Wittmer farm, and westward to the river, we find, through the many Indian-trader articles found there, a recent Indian village site. Again, following the trail about two and one half miles eastward, we reach the Habecker mill farm, where the trader beads, clay pipes, etc., reveal another recent Indian village site. About one half mile east of the Habecker fann, at the neglected spring on the property of John Ehrhart, is still another recent Indian village site. It is highly probable that as recent as during Governor Gookin's visit, in 1711, when the Indians were still numerous, that they occupied the sites near the river. In the vicinity of the Habecker farm, and what is now locally known as Coffee street, also still known as Indian town, the last reservation of 414 acres was located. It is supposed that Captain Civility's cabin,"' in which Governor Keith first met the four Deputies of the Five Nations, was located near the spring where Isaiah Hess now lives. The last Indian cabin was standing on the opposite side of the road, just east of the run. It had been moved there from Ehrhart's spring, and was occupied by Isaac Koons, when Rupp visited it fifty years ago."" In a few bark-covered log-cabins of their own construction on the west side of Ehrhart's spring the last twenty Conestogas lived) six men, five women, six boys and three girls, the last^"" remnant of the once powerful and haughty Susquehannocks, the last of the Conestogas who protected our first settlers, and supplied them with their first food. They, in return, lost their hunting grounds, leaving them little more than miserable beggars, trying to eke out an existence by making and selling baskets and hickory brooms, and while thus engaged, on December 14 and 27, 1763, were cruelly massacred by the pale faces whom they nursed and befriended.

A very rare tract, written and printed by Franklin in 1764, states that Shehaes, one of the slain, had assisted in the second treaty of Wm. Penn, in 1701, and narrates the massacre as the most horrible that was ever heard of, and was perpetrated by a mob of Presbyterian settlers, calling themselves "The Paxton Boys," led on by Rev. Mr. Elder, persuading themselves that they were doing God's work.

About one-half-mile southeast of Ehrhart's spring, now the estate of the late Daniel L. Shank, was the home of John Cartlege. The old log house, a building about twenty feet square, which Rupp also visited, was located near the southeast corner of the present dwelling. In that house Logan met the Indian chiefs in 1720, and there Governor Keith held his notable two-day council with them in 1722. After John Cartlege's death, Magistrate Andrew Cornish 'married Cartlege's widow and also lived at the Cartlege home, when in 1728 Governor Gordon held a council with the chiefs in the same house. John Cartlege was no doubt the most prominent man In this section at that period, and the first living in what is now Lancaster county who held an official position. He was a son of Edward Cartlege, a prominent Quaker from Ridings, County of Darby, England, who located at what is now Darby, Delaware county, Pa., in 1683, where John Cartlege was born, March 5, 1684, and married Elizabeth Bartram (an aunt of John Bartram, the botanist). He moved to Conestoga about 1712, where he bought 300 acres of land, and in 1616 was given'^ 200 acres additional for pasture for a period of fourteen years, in consideration of the good service he had done among the new settlers of these parts, as well as among the Indians. He was a licensed Indian trader, was an interpreter of the Delaware tongue, was an Indian agent for the Proprietaries and was appointed" His Majesty's Magistrate July 4, 1718. He was a prominent Quaker, as were also his descendants, two generations after him. The unfortunate occurrence which resulted in his imprisonment, which I have already related, preyed on his mind to such a degree that he died about 1726. The Shenk farm is a portion of the above tract of land. The venerable Joseph Wright, who is now over eighty-two years old, is John Cartlege's great-great-grandson, and still lives on a portion of the Cartlege tract. Mr. Thomas Wright, of Millersville, is a great-great-great-grandson. To these gentlemen I am indebted for some of the above information.

The Postlethwaite's Grave Yard and Cartlege's Grave.

About one-fourth-mile west of George Fehl's home (where the first sessions of Court were held), just west of the line fence between Adam Murry and Hiram Warfel, in the corner of Mr. Warfel's field, on the north side of the road, the old Postlethwaite's grave yard was located; it was about fifty feet square. Mr. Jacob Fehl, who, if still living, would now be about 120 years old, and whose ancestors lived at Postlethwaite's several generations before he did, always staunchly maintained that the grave of the first Judge of Lancaster county was there. And Mr. Warfel states that some years ago some of the members of the Lancaster Bar were making an effort to place a monument there. This grave yard must have been more than a family grave yard, as is shown by the fact that it is positively known that Wm. Wright was buried there. Wm. Wright was married to John Cartlege's daughter, and owned and lived on the old Cartlege property. There was no grave yard on the Cartlege property then, but after Wright's death, in 1756, this property was divided between his four sons, each locating on a portion. Each one of the four tracts was then provided with a family grave yard. The widowed mother lived with her son, Thomas, at the old Cartlege home many years, and died in 1815, at the age of ninety-six years. Although her husband, Wm. Wright, was buried at Postlethwaite's," by this time that place had so completely lost its former prominence that she desired that her remains should be interred in her son Thomas' family grave yard, and where her inscribed tombstone can be seen, just west of the buildings on the Shenk farm. The above seems to prove that before the family grave yards were placed' on the Cartlege property Postlethwaite's was their grave yard, and it is only natural that the English-speaking community would have placed a public burying ground there at a prospective town site, which was their custom. There may also have been a meeting house there. It is not positively known where John Cartlege's grave is, but from the above one would naturally conclude that his remains and also those of his widow and her second husband, Magistrate Andrew Cornish, were placed in the Postlethwaite's grave yard. John Wright was President Judge when five of the King's Magistrates presided at the first Court, held at Postlethwaite's," and is considered the first Judge of Lancaster county. Whether John Cartlege was known as Judge, Justice or Magistrate we don’t know, but, as he received his appointment as the King's Magistrate ten years before John Wright settled at Wright's Ferry, there is no doubt it was he to whom Mr. Fehl's tradition refers.

About twenty-eight years ago a former owner of the Warfel property removed the tombstones and ploughed up the Postlethwaite's graveyard. Old residents state that there were at least half a dozen inscribed tombstones there, and also a number of uninscribed, older ones. There was one unusually large, roughly-dressed limestone among the older ones. It is not positively known if it bears an inscription or not, but this stone most likely marked John Cartlege's grave. It can be found walled into a pigsty nearby. All the Mennonite and Quaker graves in this section of that early period are marked by rough stones, without inscriptions, and very few bear inscriptions before 1750. Very likely that was the case with the older graves there. These uninscribed tombstones only assist in concealing, instead of revealing, much of the past which we would like to know.

Minutes of the April Meeting.

Lancaster, Pa., April 3, 1908.

The Lancaster County Historical Society held its regular monthly meeting this (Friday) evening in its quarters in the Smith Library Building, on North Duke street, there being a very good attendance of members.

President Steinman was in the chair, and a majority of the officers were present.

The names of Henry N. Howell, of this city, and Ira R. Kraybill, of Mt. Joy, were presented for membership, and, under the rules, the applications will be acted upon at the next meeting.

Librarian Sener announced a number of valuable donations to the Society since the last meeting, as follows:

Report of Lancaster Board of Health 1907; History of England, The Peruvian Princess, an old novel, Corderie Colloquiorune, 1762, Pocl<;et Hymn book of 1800, Map oi Pennsylvania, Mrs. Mary Bair; two local view post cards, D. B. Landis; Twenty-first Annual Report U. S. Inter-State Commerce Commission; Report of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1907; Proceedings Philosophical Society, No. 187; Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1907; Carnegie Library Bulletin, Penna-German Magazine, Linden Hall Echo, Bulletin N. Y. Public Library, and Bulletin N. Y. State Library for March, 1908; postal card of Genl. John A. Sutter, from E. E. Habecker; Henry Clay medal from H. B. Vondersmith, pamphlet on Mt. Vernon, Vir., from E. W. Shippen, Meadville, Pa. Tribute to Old Lancaster (purchased).

Mr. George H. Ranck, formerly the owner and publisher of The New Holland Clarion, presented to the Society a complete file of that newspaper from its first issue in 1873 until 1903, thirty volumes in all. This, we believe, is the only complete file of this paper in existence, and is the Society's only file of a county newspaper and is an acquisition of unusual value.

The thanks of the Society were extended to the donors.

The essayist of the evening was Mr. David H. Landis, of Windom, who read a very entertaining paper on the subject, "Why "Was Postlethwaite's Chosen and Then \ba.ndoned as the County Seat of kiancaster County?"' Postlethwaite's was one of the earliest taverns and trading posts in Lancaster county, being located at what is now Rock Hill, in Manor township. It was one of the principal points along the famous Conestoga Indian trail, the main route in those early days from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna River. Mr. Landis dwelt at length on the Susquehanna or Conestoga Indians and the developments which led up to the determination to make Postlethwaite the county seat.Through the efforts, however, of Andrew Hamilton, who laid out the town of Lancaster, and from the fact that at that time Lancaster was a settlement of considerable size, the location of the county seat was changed. The paper showed much research and is a valuable addition to the Society's work.

Attention was called to the fact next year will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the first settlers locating in Lancaster county and the suggestion was made that the event should be appropriately observed.

----The paper brought forth some interesting discussions, which were participated in by Dr. Joseph H. Dubbs, F. R. Diffenderffer, S. M. Sener, President Steinman, H. Frank Eshleman, Esq., and others.

The thanks of the Society were extended to Mr. Landis and the paper was ordered to be printed in the pamphlet.

After the close of the regular meeting, the Executive Committee held the usual monthly session, at which some unfinished business was concluded, and new topics taken up, which will be laid before the Society at its next monthly meeting.

Note that John Warfel was the purchaser of the Long Lane property of the Christian Eyman estate in 1835