Strasburg Township

When I came to arrange some stray notes pertaining to the early settlement of the locality embraced within the limits of Strasburg Township as it was bounded one hundred and sixty-five years ago, I found a good many snags in my way. Some of the earliest settlers came from Strasburg on the Rhine, and the neighborhood came to be known as "New Strasburge " and was thus designatd in 1716 by the Assessors or Surveyors of Chester county. There were no definite bounds to the district, and it was not set apart as a township before the erection of Lancaster county, in 1729.
One of the London Land patents in this county contained 5,553 acres, and was surveyed in the year l716. According to Isaac Taylor's draft the southern line was bounded by "New Strasburge," and the landholders close to the line were Isaac LeFevre, who took up 300 acres the 15th Of 4 mo., 1713; Daniel Ferree, 600 acres, 4th of 8 mo., 1716; Philip Ferree, 300 acres, 24th of 6 mo., 1716, and Henry Carpenter, 1000 acres, 7 mo. 27th, 1718.

In these years the Constables returned them in the Conestoga assessment. in the year 1720 the Ferrees and LeFevers were returned in the Pequea assessment, which also included all the settlers along or near the head of Pequea creek. The settlement along the east branch of the Conestogae, now Caernarvon, was in the Conestogae rate. I find a number of titles of settlers in the year 1717 marked in "New Strasburge." There seems to be no record in Chester county of any township named "Strasburg." When Lancaster county was organized and divided into townships, in the summer of 1729 none was named "Strasburg." But I find its territory and that of Paradise were included within the bounds of Leacock; and after a diligent search among the records in Lancaster, I cannot find the date when Strasburg was erected, or taken from Leacock. This is a strange omission and has puzzled the local his- torian and surveyors of the county. I can only approximate to the date.

In the year 1730 a road was laid out from Samuel Taylor's mill in Strasburg township, to North East, in Maryland. This mill was probably on Big Beaver creek, above William Smith's mill, where the Zook's of our day have a fulling mill. Daniel Ferree and Isaac LeFever took out a patent for 2,000 acres of land in Strassburg township in 1733. In the year 1734 Casper Bowman took out a patent for land, and also Mathias Slaymaker took out a patent for 150 acres in the same township in the year 1735. I can only approximate the date of "New Strasburge" (being erected) into a township, which was probably in the early part of the year 1730.

The name "Strasburg" comes into land records as early as 1712, if not earlier. Copy of receipt for annual quit-rent for two thousand acres of land reads: "Recd, Philadelphia, 11:7:1712, of Maria Warenbaner,twenty shillings sterling, for one year's quit-rent of two thousand acres of land laid out to her at Strasburg, in this Province. (Signed) James Logan, Receiver."

This Maria Warenbauer was the widow of Daniel Ferree (Fiere). a silk weaver of Steinweller. After his death she had, according to an old French custom, again taken her maiden patronymic, Warenbauer. The Ferree family, in common with other Huguenot families, suffered by the repealing of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, in 1685, and eventually found refuge in England, ultimately, in 1709, reaching the British colonies. Her son, Daniel Ferree, and her son-in-law, Isaac Le Fevre (or Lefever), reached New York on January 1, 1709, but she, Maria Warenbauer (or Mary Ferree, as she is more often referred to in Lancaster county records), did not arrive, with her four younger children, until later in that year, perhaps not until 1710. It is believed that for a while the Ferree family resided in the Huguenot colony at Esopus, now Kingston, New York. But they were evidently soon in Pennsylvania, as is shown in Judge Landis's paper entitled "Madame Mary Ferree and the Huguenots of Lancaster County," published in 1917- He writes:

The minutes of the Land Conunissioners of the Province of Pennsylvania state that the late Commissioners, having granted ten thousand acres of land to the Patatines by their warrant dated 8 her (October), 1710, in pursuance thereof, there was laid out to Martin Kindig (besides the 2,ooo acres already confirmed to him and paid for) the like quantity Of 2,000 acres towards Susquehannah, of which Surveyor General has made a return. The said Martin, now appearing, desires the said land to be granted to Maria Warenbuer, widow, for whom the same was taken up or intended, and is to pay the consideration for it. All of the parties must have been present at Philadelphia before the Land Commissioners at this time,-that is, Martin Kendig, Mary Fiere, Daniel Ferree, her son, and Isaac LeFever, her son-in-law, for the record continues: "But, upon further consideration of the matter, it is agreed among themselves that the said land shall be confirmed to Daniel Ferree and IsaacLeFever, two of the said widow's sons, and the consideration money, viz.: L140, at L7 P. hund'd, by agreement, having been for some time due, but is now to be paid down in one sum 'tis agreed they shall pay only ten pounds for interest, that is L150 in the whole." These entries were made on September 10, 1712. The records, however, now in the office of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, show the following to be the exact situation: On October 10, 1710, John Rudolph Bundley, Martin Kindig, and other Germans made application for 10,000 acres to be laid out to them twenty miles easterly of Conestogae, near the head of Pequea creek. On the same day a warrant was secured by Martin Kendig (Kindig) for 2,000 acres and six per cent for roads and roadways." This was the tract he transferred to Daniel Ferree and Isaac LeFever, and for which a patent was issued to them on September 10, 1712. It is filed in Patent Book A, volume 4, page 3o3, and in part reads:

Whereas my late Commissioners of Property, by their warrant bearing date ye Tenth day of ye Eighth Month in ye year One thousand Seven Hundred and Tenn, granted unto John Rudolph Bundley and Martin Kindig & divers other Germans, late inhabitants in or near ye Palatinate of ye Rhine, Tenn thousand acres of land to be laid out to them on ye north side of a hill about twenty miles easterly of Conestogoe, near ye head of Pecque Creek, in this Province, by virtue of which warrant there was survey'd & subdivided at ye instance of ye sd Martin Kindig for ye use of Daniel Ferre & Isaac LeFevre, late of Steinweilter, in ye Palatinate of ye Rhine, a certain tract, situate and bounded as follows, viz: Beginning at the corner tree of another tract belonging to ye same grant, running by ye same south by east eight hundred & twenty perches to a corner markt tree, thence east by a line of markt trees four hundred & twenty-two perches to a corner tree in a certain tract of land, surveyed by Thomas Story, thence by ye sd Story's land and vacant land north by west eight hundred & twenty perches to a post,thence west by a line of markt trees four hundred & twenty perches to ye beginning, containing two thousand acres with allowance made for Roads & Highways, which ye sd Daniel Fierre & Isaac LeFevre requesting me to confirm to them by Patent. Know ye, that for and in consideration of, and so forth.

It seems to have been officially understood that Mary Ferree (Maria Warenbauer), the mother, was one of the parties of this transaction, and that the two parties named in the instrument should merely, for the present, hold the tract "in behalf of themselves and others, their kindred and relations, who had advanced part of the purchase money for the same." Madame Ferree (Warenbauer) was given receipt in November of the same year for the quit-rent on the tract, which receipt has already been quoted herein, because the name "Strasburg" appears therein. And, with the passing of some years, parts of the Ferree-Lefever tract were deeded to others of their family, and to Thomas Faulkner. The original patent was surrendered in 1735, and another then issued for 2,3oo acres, with allowances, it having been ascertained by a resurvey "that there was a considerable error in respect to the length and the quantity of land therein contained."

It does not seem possible to confidently state the year in which the Ferrees took up residence. They may have come in soon after leaving shipboard, and "squatted" on the land while negotiations were pending, in which case Daniel Ferree, the son, and Isaac LeFever, the son-in-law, would have settled in the year 1709. This is not corroborated by some other records, but it is the year stated by Jacob Hildebrand, in his "Reminiscences of Strasburg," published in 1896. He writes:

The first settlements were made in 1709 by the Swiss Mennonites on the banks of the Pequea Creek. The name Strasburg was no doubt brought with them from their native country, but in the organization of Lancaster county in 1729 and the division into townships there seemed to be a prejudice against the German Mennonites, and the name Strasburg was entirely ignored, and what is now known as Strasburg and Paradise townships was included within the boundaries of Leacock township, although at that time patent deeds had been granted to the first settlers for over 20,000 acres of land, and in the deeds is mentioned Strasburg, Chester county. I have never been able to find any legal or Court records showing when the boundaries of Strasburg Township were defined. It was only by common honesty and in justice to the first settlers that the name has been continued.

The first patent deeds are dated June 30th, A. D. 1711. The number of patent deeds for the whole township is forty-six and they contain over 14,000 acres. The names of the original patentees are Martin Kendig, John Kunk, Jacob Miller, Able Strettle, Isaac LeFever, Hans Howery, Daniel Ferree, Samuel Taylor, Jacob Groff, John Taylor, Thomas Smith, Henry Kendig, John Bowman, John Rush, John Herr, John Eckman, Isaac Whitelock, George Smith, Henry Stoner, Jacob Kendrick John Mosser, Jacob Eshleman, John Miller, John Breckbill, Benjamin Groff, James Scott, David Witmer, John Rubley, J. and M. Fouts, Francis Bowman, Conrad Hoak, John Neff, Samuel Peoples, Samuel Hathern, and Annie Neff.

Hans Graaf, who is looked upon as the original settler in Earl township, received a patent for one thousand acres of the "John Bundeley and Company" tract in 1716, but in the next year transferred the patent to Abraham Dubois, father-in-law of Philip Ferree. It adjoined the Ferree-Lefever tract on the east, and that of Herman Richman on the west. The Ferree-Lefever land bordered on what became the limits of the borough of Strasburg, and part of it has remained in the possession of descendants of Isaac Lefever, though the patronymic Ferree has now become almost extinct in Lancaster county. The old Ferree family graveyard is on the farm which for many recent decades has been in the possession of the Ranck family; it was the original Daniel Ferree tract, and the graveyard was laid out and walled around at a very early date in the northwest corner of the tract. Probably the first to be buried in that graveyard was Madame Ferree (Maria Warenbauer), who died in about January, l716, aged about sixty-three years. In 1797 the Ferree descendants executed an agreement to maintain this as the family graveyard, all descendants being by the instrument entitled to use the graveyard "at all times hereafter to bury their dead human bodies." The farm at that time, was in the possession of the Carpenter family, into which family Mary Ferree, daughter of Daniel Ferree, had married. The parties to the graveyard conveyance, in 1787, were John and Abraham Carpenter, Samuel Lefever, Joel Ferree, and Philip Ferree. More than a hundred years later, in 1896, a reunion of the Ferree family brought the matter of this graveyard under discussion, and a subscription was then made for its maintenance and improvement. Mrs. Landis, wife of Judge C. I. Landis, being a descendant of the Ferree family, through Philip Fiere, younger brother of Daniel Ferree, sons of Widow Maria Warenbauer, has since been trustee of the fund, and is using it to the best advantage for the purpose intended. The deed of conveyance of this burial-place is to be found recorded in Record Book TT, page 162, headed "For Graveyard known as Carpenter or Ferree Graveyard." There is nothing in the deed itself, however, by which it might be so designated, excepting insofar as the Carpenter family comes into the Ferree family.

Walter M. Franklin, in reviewing Strasburg history in 1901, wrote:

Among the early settlers in the Pequea Valley were Hans Mylin and his sons Martin and John; Martin Kendig, Hanns Herr, Ulrich Brackbill, and others, who selected a tract of 10,000 acres, for which they obtained a warrent October 10, 1710, which was subsequently divided among them by the Surveyor General, on April 27, 1711, and much of than same land is held by their descendants to this day. These early settlers were people of not only great sturdiness and thrift, but of high purpose and most estimable character.

Martin Mylin was a famous preacher and writer, and Hans Herr was their Bishop. The latter was chosen by lot to return to Europe to induce their relatives and others to come to the new country, but his flock were so reluctant to spare him that Martin Kendig, who was an influential leader among them, volunteered to go in his place and made the hard journey, bring back with him a considerable number of immigrants. Among those who sought the new land was Matthais Schleiermacher, a man of means and of great force of character, who came from Strasburg, in Alsace, in 1710, and took up a tract of a thousand acres; and tradition credits him with having given the township in which it lay the name of Strasburg, at first New Strasburg, which was carved out of Leacock in 1759, * * *

There were also among those who were attracted by the Swiss Mennonites a few French Huguenots, Daniel Ferree, Isaac LeFever and others, who bought a large portion of the tract originally taken up by the Swiss settlers.

Hildebrand writes that "the first house of any pretensions to be a roomy and comfortable dwelling was built by Martin Kendig in the year 1717, Out Of walnut logs and with a straw or thatched roof." There were of course many other log houses of earlier erection. Madame Ferree's few years of residence in Strasburg township were probably spent in a humbler cabin, and she had died before the Kendig house was raised. Judge Landis writes: "It has been asserted that Mary Fiere built her log house at a spring near the township bridge crossing the stream on the road to Intercourse. Were it not for the houses which obscure one's vision, this location would be easily within sight. This claim is not sustained by proof, but, like many other things, is established by family tradition. Nearby, the first white child, Daniel Lefever, the son of Isaac and Katharine Lefever, was born in 1713."

The more pretentious Kendig house, of 1717 construction, was situated about two hundred yards south from the Strasburg borough line." It was occupied as a farmhouse until 1941, when David Gyger erected a "fine large two-story brick house near the same place." The oldest of the colonial houses, or rather the houses of colonial times, standing in recent decades, in Strasburg township, was the original Eshleman homestead, a large frame two-story building erected certainly before the fifth decade of the eighteenth century. "An attachment was built to it in 1741." And some of the old mills are still standing.

Railroads--The first railroad project was one which should have given railway facilities in the very infancy of the "iron road." Unfortunately, however, twenty years were to pass between the year of obtaining charter to construct, and that of completing construction. Hildebrand writes:

"In the year 1832 a charter was obtained for the railroad from Strasburg to connect with the Pennsylvania railroad at Leaman Place. Work was soon after commenced, and the road was graded from Swan Hotel to within about one hundred yards of Leaman Place, but owing to the lack of funds was not completed until 1852." An interesting reference to the "Strasburg Branch Railroad" was discovered recently by William Frederic Worner, of Lancas- ter, in the files of Hazard's Register for 1835- On issue of June 6th, page 363, is given the information that: "This branch extends from the borough of Strasburg, Lancaster county, to the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad, near the water station at Lemon's, extent about four miles. The whole stock has been taken and the work, it is expected, will be put under contract without delay." The work of grading may have commenced in about 1835, but the capital and borrowing powers of the promoters had been exhausted before the last mile could be completed. Finally, "new life was infused into the enterprise," and the road was completed in 1851 or 1852. Ten years later, financial embarrassment delivered the road into the hands of the sheriff the sale by him bringing to the shareholders only seven dollars for each share of one hundred dollars. A syndicate of twenty-two Lancaster county men, headed by the Hon. Ferree Brinton, Henry Brackbil, Cyrus N. Herr and John F. Herr, purchased the property for thirteen thousand dollars. John F. Herr was manager of the road, and within the next three or four years he and Cyrus N. Herr acquired the stock-holding of every other partner. In 1866 the firm of Herr & Company was organized, a partnership of Cyrus N., John F. and A. M. Herr. They operated the railway in connection with a large flouring-mill which they erected at the railway station.

A few years later they added a planing-mill and a machine-shop, and were conducting the whole with profit. In January, 1871, however, fire destroyed the station and the mills, "destroying in one night upwards of fifty thousand dollars worth of property, from which loss the firm never recovered." The railway station, machine-shop, and planing-mill were rebuilt in the spring of 1871, and had it not been for the disastrous financial panic that gripped the nation in 1873 the enterprising Herrs may have recovered. It was not to be, however, and in i875 the members of the firm were compelled to make an assignment to Isaac Phenegar, who had been their bookkeeper. At the assignee's sale, the railway property was purchased by Thomas and Henry Baumgardner, of Lancaster, for $12,725, and leased to Isaac Phenegar, who operated it profitably.

The Lancaster and Quarryville railway, passing through the southwestern part of the township at Refton, was opened for travel on May 11, 1875. It is now part of the Pennsylvania railroad system. Trolley connection was afforded Strasburg about twenty years ago, when the line from Lancaster to Strasburg was opened. Interested and influential in bringing the trolley route to Strasburg were Amos Hollinger, the first president of the company. George W. Hensel, then cashier of the First National Bank of Strasburg, and Jacob L. Ranck, of Strasburg.

Strasburg Borough-Strasburg has been a settled place for almost two hundred years. It was not incorporated until 1816, but as a community center it seems to have had entity since the thirties of the previous century. Mr. H G. Book, in his review, states that: "The history of Strasburg owing to want of records previous to its incorporation must of necessity remain hidden beneath the veil of obscurity. Tradition tells us that the first dwelling in the town was built in or about the year 1733, by one Hoffman, and that it soon became a considerable village frequently passing under the name of Bettlehausen (beggar-houses)." It was a well patronized halting place in the days of the Conestoga wagon, and of the stage coach. One record reads: "Many years ago, when all the freighting between Philadelphia and the interior towns was done by Conestoga wagons, Strasburg was one of the principal stopping stations, and the town contained sometimes as many as eight or ten hotels, and about as many stores." BY 1791 Strasburg had advanced so far as to possess a Scientific Society of sufficient importance to draw to its meetings some of the leading citizens of Lancaster county. John Shippen delivered the opening address in 1791. And Strasburg also had a "Society Hall," which it is not thought could have been in the Washington House, though it may have been in the other principal hotel, the Golden Swan, owned by John Funck, for he was the librarian of the Strasburg Scientific Society, and in 1803, when the effects of the Society were advertised for sale, the place of sale was stated to be "at the House of Mr. John Funck." Landlord Funck late in life developed ability as a portrait painter. He painted a portrait of Bishop Francis Asbury, pioneer bishop of the Methodist Church in America. It is looked upon as his masterpiece. It was painted on a poplar board, in about 1813, probably upon the last visit of the Bishop to Strasburg. He had been coming to the village with comparative frequency since 1791. The portrait now hangs in the Asbury Memorial Hall of the American University at Washington, D. C. By the way, Bishop Asbury under date of July 28, 1799, wrote in his journal regarding Strasburg: "This place I judge contains between sixty and seventy houses." It was therefore, in those early Republican days a place of some importance; indeed, until the coming of the railways and the passing of the stages, Strasburg and West Chester were the two most important stopping places along the road between Philadelphia and Lancaster.

The incorporating act of the Assembly was dated March 13, 1816, and it defined the borough boundaries as follows:

Beginning at a stone, the corner of Widow Herr's land, thence along lands of George LeFever and John Howery south seventy-four degrees, west two hundred and six perches and eight-tenths of a perch to a stone; thence along lands of John Howery north sixteen degrees west forty-nine perches and a half perch to a stone; thence along lands of John Kindig, Widow Longenecker, Tobias Herr and Henry Breckbill south seventy-four degrees west two hundred and seventy-six perches and one-half to a post; thence along lands of John Kindig and John Breckbill south fifteen degrees and one-quarter of a degree east one hundred and thirty perches to a stone; thence along lands of Jacob Fritz and John Funk north seventy-four degrees, east two hundred and thirty-nine perches and one-third of a perch to a stone; thence along lands of said John Funk south seventeen degrees east thirty-nine perches and one-half of a perch to a stone; thence along Abraham Graff's land north seventy-five degrees and three-fourths of a degree cast two hundred and forty perches and one-half of a perch to a stone; thence along lands of Widow Herr north fifteen degrees west one hundred and twenty-nine perches and one-half of a perch to the place of beginning.

The first election was held at the public house of Thomas Crawford in said borough, on the first Tuesday in April, 1816; and then the following were elected to constitute the original borough council: James Whitehill, chief burgess; Jacob Miller, assistant burgess; Nathaniel W. Sample, Thomas Crawford, John Connolly, Robert Spencer, Peter Holl, Samuel Miller, and William Hauge, councilmen; John Markley, constable. At the first meeting George Hoffman was appointed treasurer and Martin Fouts clerk. The early council meetings were held at the public house of Thomas Crawford, on the northwest corner of Center Square.

The administration of the borough followed the customary course of civic government for eastern places of like size and importance. The lack of railway facilities has considerably hampered the expansion of the borough, and it was not until about 1873 that wooden pavements were prohibited by order of the Strasburg council. Substantial brick pavements took their place, but not until after some years of complete cessation of paving work.

Both Strasburg borough and township are slightly decadent in population. Strasburg township had a population of 1,748 in 1900, but its population in 1920 was only 1,466. Strasburg borough had 916 inhabitants in 1900 and only 853 in 1920. The borough, however, is a place of considerable business. There are three leaf-tobacco factories, and its retail establishments are operating on a larger scale than one would expect to find in a town of less than a thousand inhabitants. One of the most active service establishments is the First National Bank of Strasburg, which was organized in 1863 with John F. Herr president and Edward M. Eberman cashier. Its capital is $80,000, with surplus of about as much.

There was a time in the early provincial history when Strasburg had no churches, and went by the name of Hell Hole, for at that time it had become a comparatively well-populated, almost cosmopolitan, town, serving those who travelled along the highway, by Conestoga wagon or otherwise. Most of the residents were to some extent connected with the eight or ten public-houses, which offered "entertainment for man and beast," ostlers, stablemen, drovers, teamsters, or men who in other ways drew their living from the traffic along the highway. William Frederic Worner writes that this condition "attracted to the village a class of people uncouth in manners and speech," adding that the town was without a church or meeting-house even though a clergyman had resided within the boundaries since 1782. It seems that it was not until the Methodist church was built in about 1807 that Strasburg had its first church edifice. The community was not however without religious service or society for so long. Indeed, the records of the Lutheran Church society go back almost to the earliest days. All of the Strasburg churches are reviewed in the religious chapters.

It is claimed that the Pennsylvania Free School System had its inception in Strasburg. A petition in favor of general and free education was sent from Strasburg to the State Legislature in 1831, as the outcome of a discussion which began in the store of George Hoffman, and was continued in a public meeting held in the Jackson schoolhouse in Strasburg. Upon the subject, Mr. Jacob Hildebrand writes: