St. Patrick’s Procathedral; architect, George I. Lovatt; Renaissance; main altar, marble, is reproduction of Bernini’s altar in St. Peter’s, Rome. In Grace Protestant Episcopal Church is a painting by E. Irving Couse, “Adoration by the Shepherds.” Soldiers’ Monument, State and Second Streets, “To the Soldiers of Dauphin County, in 1861-65; erected by their fellow citizens in 1869.” Bronze tablet in west wall of the Camp Curtin School House, corner of Sixth and Woodbine Streets; commemorating site of old Camp Curtin, 1861-65; placed in 1911, by Keystone Chapter, United States Daughters of 1812. Memorial Market Street entrance to the City of Harrisburg; eastern approach to new bridge, formerly the old “Camel Back,” includes two columns from the old burned state capitol, and commemorative bronze tablets, designed by A. Sterling Calder; architect, Albert Kelsey; presented by the Henry McCormick Estate under auspices of the Harrisburg Civic Club; erected and dedicated in 1906.
Hershey, the chocolate town, a model village, out of which daily roll fifteen cars loaded with candies and chocolate; in 1915 Dunkards came from all over the United States to the annual conference of the “Church of the Brethren,” held in convention hall which seats six thousand, built for them by M. S. Hershey, largest meeting in the history of their church.
The Susquehanna River, one mile wide here, is spanned by three other bridges; Mulberry Street viaduct is said to be largest reinforced concrete bridge in the world, designed and erected by James H. Fuertes; stone arch bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Rockville, said to be the largest four-track stone bridge in the world. Historic buildings; residence of William Maclay, first United States Senator from Pennsylvania, built in 1791; original building intact, with large wing added; on upper river front above South Street, used later by the Harrisburg Academy. Old Derry Church, Derry Township, a Presbyterian settlement since 1724, first log church built in 1732; present stone building on first site, built, 1883; has burial ground of much historic interest; Old Hanover Church, Presbyterian, eleven miles from Harrisburg, first log church built on Bow Creek in 1735; present building closed; the ancient burial ground is chief point of interest. Old Paxtang Church, Presbyterian, three miles east of Harrisburg, first log church said to have been built in 1716, with burial ground; present stone building built, 1740. Bronze gate and tablet at Paxtang Cemetery is memorial to soldiers of the French and Indian War and the Revolution; dedicated in 1906 by Harrisburg Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Fort Hunter, five miles from Harrisburg on Fort Hunter and Fishing Creek Road, was laid out about 1760, on a high bluff facing the Susquehanna River, colonial house, built in 1814 by Colonel Archibald McAllister, is on foundations of an English blockhouse known as Hunter’s Fort.
XVII
LUZERNE COUNTY
FORMED September 25, 1786; named in honor of Anne Cæsar, Chevalier de la Luzerne, minister from France to the United States 1779-83. Ranks third in number of inhabitants of Pennsylvania counties. Along either bank of the Susquehanna, a broad and shallow river, lie rich, fertile, alluvial bottom lands, mostly well cultivated; bounding them are ranges of hills and mountains 1200-1600 feet above sea level; other mountains in the northwest of the county attain an altitude of 2200 feet. In the northeast lies the historic Wyoming Valley, Indian name, Maughwauwama, or large plains, a long, oval basin from Campbell’s Ledge to Nanticoke Falls, some sixteen miles in length, with an average breadth of three miles.
Luzerne County lies within the limits of the Connecticut Charter, granted in 1662, and within the limits of the Pennsylvania Charter granted in 1681; this double ownership caused much contention in later years, finally the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut was victorious; settlers now came rapidly, and by 1778 were distributed in several villages, with schools, churches, and all the characteristics of New England orderliness and thrift, enthusiasm and devoted patriotism. The British leader, Colonel John Butler, saw that this settlement was exposed in position, and that they had sent the
Luzerne County