FORMED August 9, 1749; named for the House of York, England. An agricultural region of great fertility. First authorized settlements were made in 1733. Before the white settlers came, the territory west of the Susquehanna River was hunting ground for the Conestoga Indians, a branch of the Mohawks, who migrated to New York State about 1750; also for the Susquehannocks and Conewagos, who had their village at present site of York Haven. When a treaty with the Indians at Albany, in 1736, gave Penn’s heirs right to the territory from west of the Susquehanna to the South Mountain, immigrants from Europe flocked into York County, in vast numbers, and proved a strong and influential part of the population. During the colonial period four companies of soldiers from this county assisted in driving the French and Indians from the western part of the province before 1758.
At beginning of the Revolutionary War it is said that the first military company from Pennsylvania that arrived at Washington’s headquarters, siege of Boston, in 1775, shortly after Battle of Bunker Hill, were from York County; this company, and one commanded by Captain Morgan of Virginia, were first American troops to use rifles; they became the terror of the British regulars, who still used the old-time flint musket. When the British attacked New York City and the Battle of Long Island followed, Pennsylvania troops camped at Perth Amboy; here two regiments from York County were formed out of the militia; and became a part of the Flying Camp, a body of ten thousand men from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, which joined Washington before the Battle of White Plains; they were also in the battles of Princeton and Trenton. Colonel Thomas Hartley, a member of York County bar, commanded a brigade under Washington at battles of Brandywine and Germantown; and after the Revolution he represented York County in Congress for twelve years; he was first member of the Pennsylvania bar to be admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. President Washington was entertained in his house in 1791, site marked by tablet.
Shortly before the Battle of Brandywine, September 27, 1777, the Continental Congress adjourned from Independence Hall to meet in Lancaster; they were there one day, then crossed the Susquehanna and made Yorktown the seat of government until June 27, 1778, when they returned to Philadelphia. Twenty-five Congressmen came on horseback over the old Monocacy Road, and took up quarters in the town and vicinity. The personnel of Congress was constantly changing; no less than sixty-four different members were present from first to last. The mansion, corner of Center Square, where the Colonial Hotel now stands, had been rented to General Roberdeau; quarters were found there for the leading Congressmen, Adams, Lee, Harrison, Laurens, and others. John Adams, in letters to his wife Abigail, complained of his straitened quarters, and the Dutch cooking. James Smith, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, gave his law office in Center Square to be used by the Committee of Foreign Affairs; and the Board of War.
The noted chest of papers, belonging to Congress, which John Adams declared “was worth more than Congress itself,” was kept by Thomas Paine at the Cooke’s House, a house of entertainment, still standing, in the bend of Codorus Creek, then away from town; here he wrote parts five and six of “The Crisis.” On September 30, 1777, with John Hancock as President of Congress, the first session was held in the brick court house, built, 1756; site marked by Yorktown Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution; soon after Congress assembled here, news was brought of the surrender of Burgoyne to General Gates, with six thousand British and Hessian troops, at Saratoga. A motion, made by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, to set apart a day for Thanksgiving was unanimously adopted; Thursday, December 18, 1777, was appointed, and a few days later this historic document was written, and sent by post riders to the governors of each of the thirteen original states; this was the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in America, in the sense of its observation, on the same date, by the thirteen states.
Soon after, General Lafayette arrived in Yorktown and was received in open session by Congress; the victory of General Gates had made him the hero of the hour; Washington had been defeated at Brandywine and Germantown, and gone into winter quarters at Valley Forge; knowing that a large number of the delegates in Congress at Yorktown favored a plan to displace him from the head of the army, and promote General Gates to that position, Washington never visited Congress here; he wrote a private letter to Robert Morris, saying, “If Congress adjourns, sine die, I wish it understood, I will oppose British invasion, in the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, rather than give up our cause for Independence, promulgated July 4, 1776”; this historic letter was read at an open meeting in Zion Reformed Church.
Congress called General Gates to York, and made him President of the Board of War; he gave a banquet at his headquarters; among the guests was Lafayette, twenty-one years of age; speeches were made favoring the promotion of Gates to position of general in chief of the army, when Lafayette arose and offered the following toast: “To General George Washington, head of the American Army; may he continue to hold that position until a Treaty of Peace is signed with England, acknowledging the freedom of this country, in whose cause I am listed for its defense.” It was this incident that caused the collapse of the Conway Cabal, instigated by General Conway, opponent of Washington and friend of Gates.
Lafayette visited York in 1825, then sixty-eight years old, and last surviving Major General of the Revolution; he stopped overnight at McGrath’s Hotel, on site of the Rupp Building, where a reception and banquet were given him; among the toasts was, “Lafayette, we love him as a man, hail him as a deliverer, revere him as a champion of freedom, and welcome him as a guest”; to which he responded, “The Town of York, the seat of our American Union in our most gloomy time; may her citizens enjoy a proportionate share of American prosperity.”
At request of Washington, Baron Steuben came to Yorktown early in 1778, and was immediately appointed to the rank of major-general; from here he went to Valley Forge and began to drill and discipline the Army, in the military tactics used by Frederick the Great. In May, 1778, a nephew of General Putnam, who crossed the Atlantic in the Mercury, a fast flying vessel of Congress, which landed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, brought a letter to Henry Laurens of South Carolina, President of Congress, from Benjamin Franklin, saying, “The King of France has resolved to send $600,000 in silver, an army and a fleet, to aid the Americans in their struggle for Liberty.” The Articles of Confederation were formed here, and adopted in Philadelphia the following June. Much Continental money was ordered by Congress, which was printed in a house, at the corner of Market and Beaver Streets, marked by tablet.
Penn Park has a soldiers’ monument, to men of York County in Civil War; this has been the scene of many military gatherings; several insubordinates of the Pennsylvania line were shot here, by order of General Wayne, before the forces under him marched to Virginia; and large hospitals were built here during the Civil War, when York County was the high-water mark of the Southern Confederacy. On June 28, 1863, General Jubal Early of Virginia, with 10,000 Confederate troops, took possession of York. John B. Gordon, leading a brigade of Georgia troops, was first to enter town; he marched on to Wrightsville with twenty-eight hundred men, where a skirmish took place, and when the bridge across the Susquehanna was burned by the Union forces on the Lancaster County side; Early remained in York two days, with four brigades, and received word to fall back immediately to Gettysburg. The first engagement took place in the streets of Hanover, between Confederate cavalry under Stuart, who were defeated by Union cavalry under Kilpatrick; they were prevented from reaching Gettysburg until evening of second day of battle, which probably turned the tide in favor of the Union; this event is commemorated in the Center Square by a statue, that ranks with the best Art in Pennsylvania, a cavalryman, bronze; sculptor, Cyrus E. Dallim, Boston.
York, county seat; population 47,512; is oldest town in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna; the general plan embraced streets forming perfect squares, with widened space in center of town, junction of Market and George Streets, for market purposes; these privileges are still used. Court house in east Market Street, classic; porch with granite Ionic columns; built, 1903; architect, J. A. Dempwolf; contains portraits of York County judges; Museum of York County Historical Society, open every afternoon except Sunday; has large collection of Indian implements, of war and peace; and etchings by Rosenthal. An annual art exhibition is held in York. Post Office, classic, Ionic. Among the many places of worship, several now standing were erected more than one hundred years ago, including St. John’s Episcopal, in which is tablet to Colonel Thomas Hartley. In burial ground of First Presbyterian Church is tomb of James Smith, the signer, who died, 1806; another