RiverRoots: Stories of the Conestoga River

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

Susquehanna NHA is pleased to introduce guest blog writer, photographer and author of The Conestoga River: A History, Donald Kautz. This is the second blog post in a four part series on the Conestoga River by Mr. Kautz.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Lancaster’s Historic Waterway

This is the second article in the series in which we are taking a journey through time on the historic waters of the Conestoga River. In the first article, I covered the conditions of the Conestoga prior to European settlement. We looked at how the Conestoga watershed looked very different than it does today. And we looked briefly at some of the early inhabitants of the area and how the river provided their sustenance.

In this installment, we will cover the colonial settlement era. We will look at how those settlers utilized the resources of the river for their sustenance and how farming and industry developed along the waterway, providing great prosperity to its new inhabitants.

Fur Trade

During the seventeenth century continuing into the eighteenth, the fur trade was big business among the Swedish, Dutch, French, and English traders. Many people wanted to get in on the action. There was intense competition between the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, each wanting to keep their ports busy.

The fur traders were an adventurous lot, rugged outdoorsmen who spent half their time bartering with the Natives in the wilderness and the other half bartering with the European settlers who wanted their goods. In many cases, the first white people with whom the natives came into close contact were the fur traders. The natives’ impression of white people was often formed by these encounters, for better or worse. During their work, the traders often learned the native languages and, in some cases, married native women. This made the traders valuable as interpreters when the colonial governments needed to hold conferences with the native tribes.

Two of these early traders who set up shop along the Conestoga were the Quaker Brothers, Edmund and John Cartlidge. Their trading post was at the mouth of the Conestoga, near the Susquehanna. The brothers got into some trouble in 1722 when they murdered a Seneca Indian. They were arrested and jailed in Philadelphia until they were eventually released at the urging of the Iroquois leadership.

Some other prominent fur traders in the area were Martin Chartier, who had a trading post at the mouth of the Pequea Creek and Ann Letort with her son James. Anne’s name is preserved in the village of Letort in Manor Township. Another famous French trader was Peter Bezaillion. Peter and his brother Richard operated a trading post near the mouth of the Conoy creek in 1721. He built a wagon road from this trading post on the Susquehanna to his headquarters in Compass. This road, called “Peter’s Road”, formed the northern boundaries of Manheim and Upper Leacock Townships. The road forded the Conestoga at the point where those two townships meet, just below the conjunction with the Cocalico Creek.

The Indians supplied the traders with animal pelts of various kinds, deer pelts for leather, and the furred animals like mink, otter, and the highly coveted beaver. In exchange for these items, the traders provided articles like glass beads, small brass bells on chains, copper kettles, finger rings, clay tobacco pipes, tobacco boxes, vermillion, iron hatchets and hoes, knives, fishhooks, pewter spoons, thimbles, mirrors, sheet copper for making arrow tips. Some of the more expensive items were flintlock rifles, bullet molds and lead, clothing known as “match coats”, the heavy cloth called “duffel”, and, of course, Jamaican rum.

These goods were carried over paths formed from a combination of water and overland trails. One such trail was the “Conestoga Path” that ran from the Susquehanna, up the Conestoga to the east branch. Then a short portage brought them to the French Creek which in turn led to the Schuylkill River and down to Philadelphia on the Delaware.

Mills

William Penn invited members of his own religious affiliation, the Quakers, and others who were experiencing religious persecution in Europe to settle in his colony. Among those immigrants were a group of anabaptists from Germany called “Mennonists”.  Seven Mennonist families settled in the Pequea Valley just south of the Conestoga in 1711. Another larger group of Mennonite families arrived six years later and purchased land adjacent to the first group. The Germans cleared the land and added to their farms a little more acreage each year. As the new settlers arrived, built their homes and cleared land for their farms, sawmills were in great demand to turn the native timber into lumber for building. As the farms became established, it soon became necessary to build mills to process the grain. Until the first mill was built on the Mill Stream, it was necessary to make a long arduous trip by wagon to the nearest mills on the Brandywine. The Pennsylvania proprietors, to encourage someone to build a mill in the Susquehanna watershed, offered a grant of 1,000 acres at a reduced rate if a mill was built on the property before May 1, 1714.

The earliest record of a mill in what would later become Lancaster County was built by a native of Saxony, Germany named Christopher Schlegel (Schleagel), who built a mill on the Mill Creek in about 1714. Schlegel requested a land grant, taking advantage of the discount offer, and James Logan’s surveyor Isaac Taylor marked out 700 acres for him along a tributary of the Conestoga Creek (later named the Mill Stream) not far from the land granted to the recent Mennonist settlers. Apparently, Schlegel did not like the land that Taylor surveyed for him and built his mill on a site about two miles away. On November 15, 1716, Schlegel sent a letter to the proprietors, asking to take up 1,000 acres around his mill “when the Indians leave”.

The Pennsylvania proprietors were apparently unimpressed, because on October 1, 1717, Edmund Cartlidge, the fur trader, purchased the land that Schlegel had chosen for himself, and ejected Schlegel from the property. Cartlidge then built his own mill on the property. The site of this mill was two miles south of Lancaster, north-east of Willow Street at the spot where Golf Road comes nearest to the Mill Creek. This would place it near to where Evan’s Candy is located today.

Lancaster County’s mills were an extremely important part of the commerce of the county in the early days. An 1840 census showed 383 mills in the county, which amounts to one mill for every two and a half square miles. They were hubs of the local economy. Thirty-seven of those were situated on the Conestoga.

Iron Furnaces and Forges

During the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, southeastern Pennsylvania was a major center of American iron production. The first furnaces were situated along waterways because they needed the waterpower to drive the forges and hammers. The Hammer Creek in Lancaster County was so named because of the sound of the hammers operating in the valley.

Peter Grubb built Hopewell Forge on the Hammer Creek in 1740. He built Cornwall Furnace a few years later. Cornwall is in Lebanon County today, but it was part of Lancaster County then. Grubb also built the Mount Hope Furnace on the Chiques Creek around 1784. Martic Forge opened around 1751 on the Pequea Creek. James Old opened Poole Forge on the Conestoga and Speedwell Forge on the Hammer Creek. The Spring Grove and Windsor forges were also operating on the Conestoga by the end of the 18^th century. In fact, in the early 1800s, the upper Conestoga was providing power for three forges, three grist mills, and a hemp mill.

Rifle Manufacturing

Lancaster County was also known for its rifle makers. Martin Meylin manufactured the famous Pennsylvania Rifle near Willow Street in 1745. The barrels were sometimes bored by hand, a long and arduous process, but production could be significantly improved if you could utilize waterpower. James Bryson operated a boring mill on the Mill Stream, not far from Meylin’s gun shop. According to tradition, this mill produced barrels for the Lancaster gunmaker, William Henry. This site was later converted to a grist mill by John Eshleman. Andreas Kauffman operated a boring mill on the Little Conestoga downstream from the Abbeyville/Maple Grove mill around 1770. Henry Leman built his boring mill on the Conestoga near Pinetown in 1834.

Conestoga Navigation Company

By the beginning of the 19^th century, Baltimore had become a ready market for agricultural goods and could be reached by natural and modified waterways, thereby reducing the traffic from Lancaster to Philadelphia.  In 1817, the State of New York began a major project to connect its eastern ports with Lake Erie in the west. That caused a stir in Pennsylvania, which then began a major push to build canals across the state, fueled by fears that New York would threaten commerce in Philadelphia. On March 27, 1824, Governor Andrew Shulze appointed the first three Pennsylvania canal commissioners and charged them with the task of finding a viable canal route connecting Lancaster and Chester Counties to Pittsburgh. The “canal fever” ran high among Pennsylvania business leaders during this time.

Lancaster’s leaders were in search of ways to improve the local economy. As a result, on May 15, 1824, at a public meeting in Lancaster, a committee was formed to petition the state legislature to grant rights to incorporate a company to make the waters of the Conestoga navigable. The petition was granted on March 3, 1825. This act provided for the “erection of the Conestogo Navigation Company and the construction of its plant.” Adam Reigart and others should have the power to make a navigation canal or slack-water navigation and towpath on and along the Conestoga River and to set up locks and dams fit for navigation. Landowners should be compensated for any damages caused by erecting the dams or by the swelling water. The company would be able to sell or rent surplus water for works.

In a slack-water system, dams were constructed at intervals across the width of the river. This resulted in the water piling up behind the dams to form “ponds.” The dams were spaced such that the water behind one dam would back up all the way to the next dam upstream. This usually amounted to several miles of navigable water wide enough for animal-powered packet boats to be pulled along the side while steam-powered craft could navigate the center of the channel. Locks were constructed as an integral part of each dam.

The Conestoga Navigation Company initially built nine locks and dams between Lancaster City and Safe Harbor. The company opened for business in the spring of 1829. Goods shipped on the canal could reach Baltimore weeks ahead of the overland route and with less damages in transit. Business improved each year until an ice flood in the winter of 1832 damaged many of the dams. The business did not recover from the blow. Edward Coleman bought the company at sheriff’s sale in 1833. Coleman rebuilt the locks and reduced the number of dams from nine to seven. After the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal opened in 1840, Coleman used a crib dam across the Susquehanna to produce enough draught such that canal boats could be towed from the mouth of the Conestoga to an entry port on the canal. The Conestoga Navigation operated until about 1856, when the railroads became the preferred method for transporting freight.

As we can see, Pennsylvania’s waterways served a prominent role in the development of the country. Such use of the waterways came with a cost, however. In the next article in this series, we will look at the Victorian Era, and how the rivers became centers of recreational activities.

The next article in this series will delve into Victorian Era progress of the Conestoga’s history. If you would like a copy of my book, you may order one on my website at www.donaldkautz.com.

Meet the Guest Writer Donald Kautz

I grew up and still live among the beautiful farmland and rolling hills of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I have been interested in photography my entire life (starting with a Kodak Brownie box camera) but have gotten more serious with the hobby after my three children have become adults. I am a retired software engineer which probably explains why I enjoy the technical aspects of digital photography post processing as much as capturing the images in the first place. I enjoy landscape photography and love to photograph scenes around Lancaster County, focusing on the Conestoga River and the remaining water-powered grist mills that may still be found around the county. I am interested in the history of Lancaster County and have written a book about the Conestoga River.

RiverRoots: Stories of the Conestoga River

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

Susquehanna NHA is pleased to introduce guest blog writer, photographer and author of The Conestoga River: A History, Donald Kautz. This is the first blog post in a four part series on the Conestoga River by Mr. Kautz.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Lancaster’s Historic Waterway

The Conestoga River meanders for sixty miles through the fertile farmlands of Lancaster County. From early Native American inhabitants to the European settlers who made the Conestoga Valley their home, the river has provided sustenance and transportation for generations. Victorian era resorts and hotels were built along the river, providing new recreational activities as steam power drove innovative forms of transportation and waterpower. As the region developed and the population grew, the river paid a heavy price in increased pollution from sewage runoff and industry. Conservation efforts toward the end of the twentieth century through the present day have restored the river’s beauty and recreational reputation.

This is the first article in a series of four which are taken from my book, “The Conestoga River: A History”. In these articles we will take a journey through time on the historic waters of the Conestoga River.

Conestoga Watershed

The Conestoga River is a 61.6-mile-long tributary of the Susquehanna River. It originates in Berks County but most of its length is in Lancaster County. It enters the Susquehanna at Safe Harbor just below the Safe Harbor dam. Originally known as the Conestogoe or Conestogo, its name is derived from the Iroquoian word “Kanastoge” meaning “place of the immersed pole”.

The Conestoga and its tributaries drain approximately 217 square miles. The principal tributaries of the Conestoga are Cedar Creek, Muddy Creek, Cocalico Creek, the Lititz Run, the Mill Creek, and the Little Conestoga. The Conestoga has an “inverted” profile, meaning that it starts out with a gentle slope and slope increases as it approaches its mouth. The Conestoga and its sister stream the Pequea Creek form a double watershed system. The Conestoga and Pequea with their tributaries drain most of Lancaster County.

The headwaters of the Conestoga are made up of two branches. The West branch begins in a pond on the edge of the Pennsylvania State Games Lands #52 north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, north-east of Morgantown. The East Branch begins somewhere just north of Elverson. The two branches join at a point along Mill Road just south of Morgantown.

Creek or River?

Before we go any further, we must ask the question, “Is the Conestoga a creek or is it a river?” People who grew up along its banks and fished or swam in its waters often prefer to call it the Conestoga Creek. Or simply, the “crick”. However, the signs along the major highways that cross the Conestoga label it the “Conestoga River”. And recently, the Conestoga was nominated for 2023 River of the Year by The Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers. So, which is it? A creek or a river?

(The River of the Year designation for 2023 was awarded to the North Branch of the Susquehanna.)

In 1824, Captain Ephraim Beach surveyed the Conestoga from Lancaster to Safe Harbor for the purpose of making the Conestoga navigable. Beach produced a map indicating the plans for a system of locks and canals that would enable canal boats to make the trip from Lancaster to the Susquehanna. This map may be viewed at the Lancaster Historical Society. The legend on that map calls it the “Conestogo River”. Of course, Captain Beach was promoting the Conestoga as a commercial waterway, so the river designation seemed more appropriate for that purpose.

In 1912, Frank R. Diffenderfer, who was an associate editor of the Lancaster New Era newspaper and one of the founders of the Lancaster Historical Society, wrote an impassioned plea on behalf of the Conestoga River. Here is an excerpt from his “Plea for the Conestoga River” that was read before the Lancaster Historical Society:

“One of the most beautiful streams in the world flows quietly through the green meadows and along the sunny braes of Lancaster County for a distance of more than sixty miles, draining a territory 315 square miles in area, affording endless themes of beauty to the brush of the painter and the fancy of the poet.”

“It is the Conestoga ‘Creek’ to most of our people ‘and it is nothing more’; yet it is a river, just as truly as are some of the most noted streams of the world which have been called rivers for thousands of years.”

“Our Conestoga has borne its present misnomer long enough. Let no member of this Society ever again speak or write about it as a ‘creek.’ Call it what it really is, and what it deserves to be called – The CONESTOGA RIVER.”

Earl F. Rebman, founder of the Conestoga Valley Association, fought for 28 years to fulfill Diffenderfer’s plea. Finally, in April of 1974, Rebman’s dream was fulfilled when the United States Board of Geographic Names approved the name “Conestoga River” for federal use. The main branch of the Conestoga including the East and West branches at its source were included in the approval. The Little Conestoga, however, remains a creek. (Lancaster New Era, April 24, 1974)

Presettlement Conditions

Prior to the arrival of European settlers in the 17^th century, the Conestoga Valley was much different than it is today. The valley was more like a swamp than the single channel that we know today. The valley was made up of numerous, interconnected streams that flowed around islands of vegetation. The system was resistant to flooding because the flood plains were broad and marshy, and the underlying soil was porous. The historic floodplain was full of vegetation with root systems that held the soils in place even during high water flow.

The area is part of the Pennsylvania Piedmont lowlands. This area was once covered with a shallow sea. Various species of shellfish lived and died in the sea, their discarded shells building up to create great sheets of limestone. Eventually tectonic forces pushed up to form the Appalachian Mountains. Over time, these mountains eroded forming deep, rich soil in the alluvial valleys. This, in turn, enabled great forests to grow and the forests provided the habitat for abundant wildlife. Bear, deer, elk, foxes, otters, raccoons, wildcats, wolves, and the much-coveted beaver all made their home in the forests and wetlands of the Conestoga Valley.

The Conestogas

The Susquehannock Indians appeared along the Susquehanna c1550 at about the time that an earlier group who are known as the Shenk’s Ferry people disappeared. It is unknown whether the earlier group died of an illness or if the Susquehannocks conquered or assimilated them. The Susquehannocks were mostly nomadic hunters and fisherman who would stay in one area only so long as the game and fish remained plentiful. They were not very friendly to members of other tribes and would regularly send out war parties to attack the hunters from other tribes who happened into their territory. By 1608, the Susquehannocks had a town and stockade fort on the shore of the Susquehanna at the foot of Turkey Hill.

In the summer of 1608, Captain John Smith encountered a hunting party of Susquehannocks at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. Captain Smith described them as more muscular and larger in stature than other natives that he had seen. Smith said, “They seemed like giants, and were the strangest people in all these countries, both in language and attire; their language well becomes their proportions, sounding ‘from them as a voice in a vault. The Susquehannocks were called “Minquas” (treacherous) by the Delaware (Lenape).

In the mid-1600s, pressure from the Dutch Trading Company forced the Senecas south into Susquehannock territory. This resulted in violent inter-tribal conflicts. The Senecas fought the Susquehannocks as far south as the Chesepeake Bay. The Susquehannocks pleaded for assistance from the English colonial settlements but did not receive the level of aid that they needed to ward off the Seneca attacks. By the late 17^th century, the ranks of the Susquehannocks were severely decimated and they no longer held the importance that they once commanded. Soon after this, the remnant left their fort on the river shore and moved to their town on Turkey Hill about four miles further up the hill. Once established at this new location they became known as the Conestogoes. Here William Penn granted them 500 acres of land that became known as “the manor”, today it is Penn Manor Township.

Fast forward a hundred years or so into the mid-18^th century and you find the European settlers engaging in their own inter-tribal conflicts. The English went to war with the French over territorial disputes. A few of the native peoples joined up with the French under the vague promise that they might be able to recover their land if the English were defeated. The Conestogoes had become extremely destitute by this time, many of them had little clothes to wear. They went from farm to farm begging for food or bartering for it with reed baskets and brooms. Alcoholism was rampant. When the white inhabitants of the upper Susquehanna, having fled their homes, came into Lancaster County and Philadelphia, the suspicions against the Conestogos grew with each new story of the atrocities that were committed upriver. The Conestogos at this time were afraid to leave the manor even to hunt for food.

The French and Indian war ended in 1758 but an uprising by chief Pontiac in 1763 caused animosities to rise again against the small tribe. On December 13, 1763, a company of men from Paxtang, Hanover, and Donegal headed to Conestoga Indian Town to destroy the place and its people. Early the next morning they attacked the town, killed, and scalped four men and two women and burned the town. A boy escaped and alerted the manager of the tragedy. The Lancaster authorities gathered up the remaining Conestogos (fourteen in number) and housed them in the city workhouse for their protection. But then on December 27, about fifty or sixty men armed with rifles and tomahawks appeared suddenly in the town about 2:00 in the afternoon, broke into the workhouse and killed the fourteen Conestogos in the courtyard behind the jail. The Conestogos are no more, but their memory remains in the river that bears their name.

The next article in this series will delve into the colonial settlement period of the Conestoga’s history. If you would like a copy of my book, you may order one on my website at www.donaldkautz.com.

Meet the Guest Writer Donald Kautz

I grew up and still live among the beautiful farmland and rolling hills of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I have been interested in photography my entire life (starting with a Kodak Brownie box camera) but have gotten more serious with the hobby after my three children have become adults. I am a retired software engineer which probably explains why I enjoy the technical aspects of digital photography post processing as much as capturing the images in the first place. I enjoy landscape photography and love to photograph scenes around Lancaster County, focusing on the Conestoga River and the remaining water-powered grist mills that may still be found around the county. I am interested in the history of Lancaster County and have written a book about the Conestoga River.

For Further Reading:

Brubaker, Jack, Massacre of the Conestogas, The History Press, 2010

Minderhout, David J., Native Americans in the Susquehanna River Valley, Past and Present, Bucknell University Press, 2013

Merrell, James H., Into the American Woods, W. W. Horton & Company, 1999

RiverRoots: Felling Penn’s Woods

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Long before canals or railroads, lumber rafts transported cut timber, coal, pig iron, and farm produce through Pennsylvania. The abundance of streams and rivers throughout the state brought the lumber industry to all regions of the Commonwealth. In the early 1800s, 2,500 to 3,000 arks and rafts traveled from upstate Pennsylvania from April through October. The Susquehanna River powered the lumber industry from the colonial era to the industrial revolution.

Felling Penn’s Woods

Trees covered more than 90% of Pennsylvania’s 28,692,480 acres when European settlers first laid eyes on Penn’s Woods. The white pines, oaks, and hemlocks were so tall and dense that Europeans thought that the forests were endless. The most sought-after timber was the Pennsylvania white pine. They were ideal for ships’ masts since those trees grew straight and resisted warping and wood rot. Nothing was more valuable than a blemish-free, 200-foot-tall white pine. They were so treasured that governments passed laws to protect them.

Pennsylvania provided the natural resources that fueled the country’s rapid expansion. In the 1680s, the sounds of axes and crosscut saws echoed across the forests of Pennsylvania as the colony’s first sawmills drove up the demand for lumber. Lumbermen felled trees along the Susquehanna River’s West and North Branches in the winter. The frozen ground provided a packed surface on which the logs could be more easily dragged by man or animal. Moving logs up and down mountains with primitive tools and methods was difficult and dangerous. It was not uncommon for heavy loads to skid out of control. Loggers made equipment like sleds and ox yokes onsite. The transport mode available to move the logs to market limited the amount of timber that lumbermen could harvest.

Once out of the woods, lumbermen hauled the logs to streams and rivers, where they stored the wood until the spring thaw. When the waterways flooded, the logs could float down to the sawmills. The same tributaries powered early sawmills by utilizing water wheels or elastic poles. When the water froze in winter, the sawmills couldn’t operate. Employment in the logging industry was as cyclical as the agricultural field. Winter was for felling trees, spring was for transporting logs, and summer and fall were for milling and finishing the lumber. This provided year-round employment for lumbermen.

White pine logs were very buoyant and, therefore, valued for rafts and boatmaking. They could float even while carrying a heavy load. Eastern hemlocks were also popular. Hemlock bark is rich in the tannic acid used in leather tanneries, and the wood was suitable lumber. Workers carefully bound white pine logs together with pliant hickory sticks, which left no marks or damage on the valuable wood. They squared off the timber with axes and fastened them together with oak or hickory pins into floating platforms. The log platforms ranged in length from 30-80 feet.

Most of the timber cut in Pennsylvania floated down waterways via rafts made of logs lashed together, with oars attached at either end. A crew used long oars, under the guidance of an experienced pilot, to maneuver down the winding tributaries that eventually flowed into the Susquehanna River.

Types of Rafts

Spar Raft: Made by lashing tall, straight tree trunks together. These rafts could be 80-100 feet long, and many still had bark attached.

Timber Raft: Made of squared or timbered logs that had been partially milled into square lumber, much the shape of a railroad tie.

Lumber Raft: This raft consisted of logs that had already been sawed into lumber at a sawmill and could be sold as ready-to-use lumber.

River Ark: These had flat bottoms and were constructed in such a manner as to allow the transport of cargo such as pig iron, coal, farm produce, and other commodities from northern Pennsylvania.

Running the River

The lumber industry depended on Pennsylvania’s three main river systems: the Delaware River in the east, the Susquehanna through the center, and the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, which converge to form the Ohio River, in the west. The Susquehanna River became a highway for timber rafts. By 1796, rafts from both the north and west branch were heading downstream in droves. The west branch was often seen jammed with thousands of floating platforms in the spring. Wood arks transporting cargo downstream from New York were much more common on the north branch.

It was not uncommon for these rafts and their crews to float 300 or more miles downriver. Some rafts passed the river towns heading to Havre de Grace or Port Deposit, and from there on to southern markets. Locally, workers offloaded cargo and disassembled rafts, then sold the logs to one of the many sawmills. Marietta, Columbia, Wrightsville, and Washington Boro were popular places to off-load timber rafts, because the river was more treacherous below Turkey Hill. These river towns grew into industrial towns along the Susquehanna River.

One newspaper from the mid-1800s reported, “if a person were to stand on the banks of the Susquehanna at Washington Boro, look north to Columbia, then south to Turkey Hill, they would see a river clogged with arks and rafts anchored and ready to offload their cargo.”

The swift and dangerous waters below Turkey Hill kept many vessels from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. Local newspapers published a few accounts describing the beauty and the dangers of rafting down the Susquehanna. Daily Evening Express published, “On a Raft” on April 29, 1867. The Intelligencer Lancaster published a story called “Journey Down the Susquehanna.” on August 18, 1875. Lancaster New Era shared on April 21, 1887, “Down the River on a Raft.” Despite the dangerous last leg of the journey, some men rode logs downriver to sell them for shipbuilding in the Chesapeake Bay.

The men who journeyed downriver on the fresh freshets of spring knew they were in for a daring adventure. Pennsylvania raftsmen were cowboys of the river. The rafting was risky and, by nature, rivermen were reckless. Raftsmen needed an abundance of determination, brawn, and skill to deliver timber to market in the early 1800s.

It took thousands of men, braving the icy waters, to keep the millions of board feet moving downstream. The noise of raftsmen mixed with melodies from banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas and filled the air during their rough journey downriver. When they arrived in southern Pennsylvania towns, they engaged in rowdy behavior. Drinking, gambling, and fighting were commonplace, as lumber payouts meant the local taverns would be busy.

At the peak of the rafting days, several hotels opened in the river towns of Marietta, Columbia, and Washington Boro. Of course, there were “parlor houses,” “bed-houses,” and “disorderly hotels” where the ladies offered companionship. Raftsman spent a night or two, then returned home. Some raftsman brought their horse for the return trip, but most returned on foot, walking hundreds of miles back upriver.

The period of 1750-1850 was the most active time of travel on the Susquehanna River. In the early 1800s, from April through October, 2,500 to 3,000 arks and rafts traveled from upstate Pennsylvania. They brought coal, lumber, pig iron, and farm produce of all varieties. The rafting industry reached its peak by 1840. The ever-expanding railroad soon put the local canals out of business.

The advent of steam power in the early 1800s rapidly expanded Pennsylvania’s lumber industry. However, the Williamsport boom really powered the industry. In the fall of 1849, construction began on the massive Williamsport boom. The boom was a series of piers anchored into the riverbed that caught the floating timber. Its purpose was to bring the sawmills to the logs rather than the logs to the mills. Steam sawmills lined the riverbanks near the boom to process the hundreds of thousands of logs it held more efficiently. Williamsport became a boom town for lumber as men made their fortunes and workers flooded North and West to clear the hills.

By the 1850s, the boom’s capacity increased to 300 million board feet to keep up with Pennsylvania’s burgeoning iron furnace production. Come springtime, there were so many logs packed into the boom that you could walk on them from one side of the Susquehanna to the other. Within a short time, Williamsport became known as the “lumber capital of the world” because of its thriving lumber industry. After the Civil War broke out in 1861, the nation needed more lumber than ever. According to the Bureau of the Census, lumber production in the United States grew from 3 hundred million board feet in 1799 to 8 billion board feet in 1859, and to more than 12 billion by 1869.

The boom kept the timber industry thriving on the Susquehanna for almost 70 years. By the late 1880s, geared steam engines revolutionized the Pennsylvania timber industry by giving logging companies access to vast stands of previously inaccessible old-growth forests. It was cheaper to bring logs to Williamsport by rail than by river. Timber barons built railroads into Pennsylvania’s northern woods and used portable sawmills to cut wood on-site and haul it directly to the market. With the railroad, loggers no longer had to wait until the spring thaw.

No longer dependent upon streams and rivers to float the logs to towns with mills, logging became a year-round operation. The more intensive logging accelerated the cutting of trees, leaving behind a scarred and barren landscape. Soon, little remained of the great forests of northern Pennsylvania. A flood in 1889 broke the Williamsport boom and washed masses of lumber down the river.

Rise of the Conservation Era

As Pennsylvania’s forests faded, so did the importance of the lumber industry in Williamsport. The collapse of the boom cemented its decline. When the boom broke, it set hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber loose on the Susquehanna. Temporary sawmills were set up along the riverbanks and most of the logs were recovered. In May 1908, the Susquehanna Boom Company disbanded. The following year, the boom was dismantled, ending the era of rafting on the Susquehanna River. The last commercial raft floated down the Susquehanna in 1917 and was sold to a mill in Marietta.

Each year between 1850 and 1890, about 2,500–3,000 rafts containing 150–200 million board feet of white pine traveled the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The Intelligencer published the following on June 14, 1833: “The industry quickly escalated over the next decades until the river became a super-highway of rafts. Between the 18th and 23rd of May in 1833, 2,688 arks and 3,480 rafts floated past Danville. That averages out to over 1000 rafts and arks per day or between 1 and 2 rafts every minute of the day. Their cargo was mostly grain and lumber.”

By the 1870s, Pennsylvania’s forests were disappearing. In 1885, Nebraska created Arbor Day as a day to plant trees to celebrate and safeguard forests. Other states followed, and the federal government recognized the need to protect and replenish the country’s wooded regions by the 1890s. It created the Division of Forestry, which established forest reserves around the country. The father of Pennsylvania forestry, Joseph T. Rothrock, became the state’s first forestry commissioner in 1895. Leaders in conservation like Governor Gifford Pinchot, Mira Dock, and J. Horace McFarland worked diligently to educate the public about forests.

By the 1920s, only twenty-five thousand acres of original forest remained. Since a majority of the old-growth forests in Pennsylvania were gone, the Commonwealth purchased thousands of acres of land from lumber companies and began to regulate and reforest the landscape. This gave birth to the modern conservation movement that continues to influence modern-day forestation practices. The Pennsylvania lumber industry continues to exist, but it utilizes new and improved technologies aim to balance the need for wood products with ecological needs.

Learn More
In commemoration of historic log rafting on the Susquehanna River, a group of individuals built a raft and floated down the River. On March 14, 1938, the “Last Raft” set off from Clearfield County for a historical re-enactment down the Susquehanna River. Throngs of people lined the riverbanks along the 200-mile route downriver. As the 112-foot raft passed under a railroad bridge in Muncy, it struck a pier and sank. Seven passengers drowned in the frigid water. Despite the tragedy, the raft journeyed on to Harrisburg, where it was sawed into timber and sold. Learn more about the story of the “Last Raft”.

Learn more about Pennsylvania’s Lumber Industry.

Sources

Brubaker, J. H. (2002). Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake. Pennsylvania State University Press.

Lauver, F. (2017, July 11). The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum preserves an industrial history. Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine.

Magee, D. F. (1920). Rafting on the Susquehanna. Lancaster County Historical Society.

Stranahan, S. Q. (1995). Susquehanna, River of Dreams. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

River Roots: Enola Low Grade

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Pennsylvania Railroad’s Enola Low Grade Line

As we celebrate the re-opening of the Martic Forge Trestle bridge, we look back at how the Enola Low Grade Rail Line came to exist and how it rocked the landscape. This engineering marvel was the dream of Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) President Alexander J. Cassatt. At the turn of the twentieth century, the PRR struggled to keep up with passenger and freight demands. He planned a new line to stretch from Trenton, New Jersey to Enola, Pennsylvania. Lancaster County sat at a crucial location along the route and the proposed line would avoid congested passenger service areas and carve across rural land in the county. The goal was a flat, straight corridor west to the Susquehanna and then north along its shore. The PRR deemed the new line as the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch but many referred to it as the A&S or the Enola Low Grade.

The goal was to keep the grade below one percent and no curve sharper than two degrees. The plan seemed simple until you consider the typography of the land. But the nearly 50-year-old railroad lines in Lancaster County had issues that could not have been easily fixed. For example, the railroad near Gap has significant speed-restricting curves. Steep grades outside of Mountville and Elizabethtown required helper engines. In Lancaster City, the bridge over the Conestoga River had only two tracks despite four lines running to it on both sites. The Atglen & Susquehanna Branch would stretch across southern Lancaster County and then north along the Susquehanna River to the Enola railroad yard. In the end, the line would be as long as the Panama Canal and cost nearly 20 million dollars and over 200 lives.

Noble Road Bridge

Rather than tell the story of constructing the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch, we will move through the line from Atglen to Enola discovering the most significant parts of the project. At Atglen, the new rail line came off the existing mainline at an existing curve. The first challenge was constructing a massive bridge over Noble Road and the East Branch of the Octorara Creek near Atglen. This 60-foot tall stone arch bridge stands at the line dividing Lancaster and Chester Counties. Millions of tons of earth were required to ascend to the bridge height on the easy, one-percent grade demanded by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The rail climbed for 5 miles westward from Atglen to the Low Grade’s highest point at Mars Hill Summit in Bart Township.

It is important to note that the PRR built this line for steam engines, which require water. So beyond a railroad track, the PRR built a water system alongside the A&S. In 1903, the Octorara Water Company formed from seven smaller, municipal water companies. Its only customer was the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad main line had four tracks that carried passenger and freight service. The A&S had two tracks for only freight traffic. Together, these tracks used more than 2 million gallons per day from the Octorara Water Company. Remanents from the adjacent water system can still be found today. 

Noble Road Arch bridge under construction Moore Memorial Library, Christiana, PA

A deep ribbon of fill created the low grade desired Moore Memorial Library, Christiana, PA

The Cuts

No section of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch showed PRR’s commitment to modifying the landscape than the stretch from Quarryville west through Providence Township. In these seven miles, the McManus Construction Company moved 1.3 million cubic yards of rock and earth to create seven cuts, as deep as ninety feet. 1.3 million cubic yards is an unimaginable amount of earth. It is equivalent to over 81,000 full dump trucks. If they leveled it to 3 feet high and 3 feet wide the dirt and soil removed would stretch east to west across Pennsylvania, twice. The digging took nearly a year to complete. The section also required twelve new road bridges and crossings over a dozen streams.

Compressed air drills, sunk pilot holes for dynamite blasting, and steam shovels removed debris in layers. It was piled directly next to the railway creating massive berms. A crew of nearly 300 men followed moving the debris out of the way. It is difficult to find information on the workers that took on these dangerous jobs. We know some were local whites and Blacks, primarily from obituaries and accident reports in the newspapers. Many immigrants also took jobs for the railroad. Newspaper reports mention Italians, Syrians, Germans, and Turks. One local worker remembered that they were taken directly from incoming boats to the job sites. Italian masons did much of the stonework on the two dozen bridges over and under the rails.

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

Kline Collection, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Steel Trestles: Martic Forge and Safe Harbor

Kline Collection, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

At the Martic Forge, the Pequea Creek sits in a deep ravine with impressive stone cliffs on either side. The PRR sought to span the 635 feet between the stone cliffs with a steel trestle bridge. The bridge had to straddle the creek as well as an existing trolley line (now River Road). In the end, the double-track bridge soared nearly 150 feet over the creek.

Just 3.5 miles passed the Marticville Trestle Bridge was another formidable gap at Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor is located at the confluence of the Conestoga and Susquehanna Rivers. The sheer cliffs along the river posed another arduous obstacle. Unlike the Marticville span, the PRR planned to span the gap below the ridgeline. Thousands of pounds of rock needed to be dynamited off the cliffs to create the wide and flat grade. The contractor H.S. Kerbaugh of Philadelphia was hired for the tremendous project. Kerbaugh had completed numerous projects for the Pennsylvania Railroad including the Rockville Bridge at Marysville in 1900. His job was to create two separate freight roads at a location where one barely fit. 

Nearly 3,000 men worked continuously with drills and explosives to the rock and loam in their way. They drilled hundreds of pilot holes, after which, they hand-passed dynamite up the cliffs. All the dynamite would be placed in the pilot holes and detonated at once. In just one month in 1905, they used 225 tons of explosives that removed over 240,000 cubic yards of material. This was, of course, dangerous work. The newspaper reported deaths regularly with headlines like “Awful Fate of Six Men,” “Four Men Torn to Shreds at Highville,” and “Two Men Burned to Death at Safe Harbor.” Columbian and avid railroad historian, Fred Abenschein, once explained “If you were a WASP, you got your name mentioned when you died. When others died, they were just numbers.” 

The Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge ended up being over 1,500 feet long and over 150 feet above the water. Over the river was a 300′ Pratt truss. Nine additional spans sat at the northern end with seventeen spans on the southern approach. Unexpectedly it also ended up being a dual bridge construction project. The Columbia Port Deposit Bridge over the Conestoga river at this location was washed away just as as trestle project began. Rather than rebuild it at the exact location, the PRR designed a unique two-line, two-level steel bridge. The Columbia & Port Deposit Line was carried over the river, while the Safe Harbor Trestle ran parallel nearly 100 feet higher.

Drilling pilot holes	Hand-passing dynamite up the cliffs
Images above courtesy of Columbia Historic Preservation Society

All that rock and loam debris had to fall somewhere and most ended up in the river. This affect wildlife as well as local residents. A court case from 1913 was found settling a dispute between some local residents and Kerbaugh Construction. The residents own some islands on the Susquehanna River near Safe Harbor totally 136 acres. About 80 acres of the islands were used for agriculture. The owners claimed all the blasting filled the river channel and made it impossible to get to their property. In the end, they owners were awarded about $8,000 for damages. There were no requirements made to clean up or clear the rock from the channel.

Kerbaugh’s Lake

Another massive landscape project happened north of Columbia near Chickies Rock. The rail line followed the shoreline of the river which hugged the massive cliffs. Although the land was flat, it had a curved profile along the cliffs. The PRR was uncompromising with its demands so tons of fill was brought in to build up a straight track through the river. In doing so, they cut off a 3/4 mile-long section of the river. The low-lying swamp that divided the PRR’s old railway with the new one was deemed Kerbaugh’s Lake. Kerbaugh was the primary contractor between Safe Harbor and York Haven. About thirty years later in 1936, the rail line at the lake was significantly damaged by flooding. After repairs, a plan to fill the lake began. By the end of World War II, the lake was gone. 

Juxtaposition of 1908 Topographic Map showing Kerbaugh’s Lake and 2022 Google Maps showing forested area.

Shock’s Mill Bridge

The Shock’s Mill Bridge was one of the first construction projects as part of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch in December 1902. By May of 1903, the construction crews were building one pier per week. About eighteen months later it was complete with 27 piers, and 28 arches, with the railway sitting 60 feet above the water. The intensity with which the project moved did have a cost; there were numerous injuries from premature explosions and at least one drowning. On the York side, the Northern Central Railroad had recently expanded tracks from Wago Junction to Enola Yard so PRR work in that region was nearly complete. Things were different across the river. The approach to the bridge from the Lancaster side needed to be more than a mile long. Fill had to be shipped in to raise the railroad tracks over 36 feet in height. The Vesta iron furnace in Marietta supplied cinders. The Lancaster approach cost over $200,000 more than the bridge cost.

After three long years, the A&S was opened on July 27, 1906. A dedication ceremony in the “the Deep Cut” near Quarryville was the location where about a hundred people watched local businessman George Hensel hammer the final spike. The Pennsylvania Railroad had realized their dream. They create a freight super highway across central Pennsylvania. The contribution of the Low Grade line to the growth of the Pennsylvania Railroad is incalculable. In 1938 the PRR transitions the line from steam to electric using power from the Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Dam. In 1941, the route carried an average of 2,220 railcars in each direction every day. For nearly 80 years, the rail line served the fuel and food demands of the eastern seaboard. The the last train came through the line in 1989. 

In the last 30 years, an amazing regional effort has reimagined the Enola Low Grade Line as a rail trail. Today, October 27, 2022, with the opening of the Martic Forge Trestle Bridge, there will be nineteen completed miles of trails. As you walk or ride between the Turkey Hill Trailhead and the town of Quarryville, take the time to imagine the back-breaking labor and undaunting vision that it took to create the corridor.

Learn More

Explore the Enola Low Grade Trail and the NW River Trail! Use the SNHA trail guide digitally or grab a paper version at Columbia Crossing River Trails Center. You can see all our Maps & Guides online. While you are on the trail, look for heritage panels along the way.

Visit the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. They have a collection of over 100 locomotives on display plus the history of railroad development in the state.

Sources

Abendschein, Frederic. “The Atglen & Susquehanna: Lancaster County’s Low Grade.” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 95 , no. 1 (1993): 2-19.

Brubaker, Jack. “Workin’ on the Railroad/ A century ago, a monumental task began along the Susquehanna River.” LancasterOnline. October 20, 2004.

“Enola Low Grade Trail – Safe Harbor Bridge,” BridgeHunter.com. Accessed October 22, 2022.

“Hershey v. H. S. Kerbaugh, Inc.” Case Law V|Lex. October 27, 2022.

LancasterOnline Archives 

“The Atglen & Susquehanna Low Grade,” Atglen Borough. Accessed October 27, 2022. (Amtrak 2011 Heritage Panels for the trail)

River Roots: 1863 Bridge Burning

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

In the Susquehanna River, between Columbia and Wrightsville, a row of piers stands vacant. For over a century, these piers held bridges that connected Lancaster and York Counties. The most famous of those bridges was the wooden covered bridge that was burned during the Civil War. The fire that consumed that bridge changed the course of history.

The Columbia Bank and Bridge Company financed its first bridge across the Susquehanna River in 1814, but ice lifted it from its piers and destroyed it in 1834. The Company knew that a replacement bridge needed to complement the new commercial growth. They chose a new location: just north of the present-day Route 462 bridge. The bridge design included double railroad tracks inside a covered structure. Two towpaths for moving canal boats across the Susquehanna. Thirty years after its completion, this bridge became a choke point in the Civil War.

In the late spring of 1863, the Confederate Army pushed north through the Shenandoah Valley to invade the Northern states. They reached Pennsylvania with orders to raid for much-needed supplies and then to beat the Army of the Potomac on their turf. General Robert E. Lee wrote:

[The Yankees will be] broken down with hunger and hard marching, strung out on a long line, and much demoralized when they come into Pennsylvania. I shall throw an overwhelming force on their advance, crush it, follow up the success, drive one corps back on another, and by successive repulses and surprises, before they can concentrate, create a panic and virtually destroy the army.[1]

Four Confederate Corps totaling over 70,000 men invaded Pennsylvania and spanned out across Franklin, Cumberland, Adams, and York Counties. Although Pennsylvania had raised an emergency militia, it was far smaller and poorly trained.

In late June, Major General Jubal Early’s Confederate division of nearly 12,000 men captured York city and demanded a ransom of supplies and money to outfit his troops. Early sent a brigade of men east under the leadership of Brigadier General John B. Gordon. After the war, Gordon wrote that his goal was to cross the Susquehanna River into Columbia, seize as many horses as possible, and move toward Harrisburg or Philadelphia. However, a contingent of Pennsylvania militiamen and local volunteers stopped Gordon in his tracks.

The Bottleneck

The bridge at Columbia had long been a bottleneck. It shared all the traffic across the river: rail, canal, wagon, pedestrian, carriage, horse, and livestock. The 40-foot wide and 5,620-foot-long bridge was essential to the commerce and prosperity of York and Lancaster Counties. There were only three bridges crossing the lower Susquehanna during the Civil War: The Camelback Bridge (Market Street) in Harrisburg, the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, and the Conowingo Bridge in Maryland. The Susquehanna River also had a significant current and flow in the lower section. With this knowledge, Union General Couch knew that the Susquehanna River would make a formidable defensive line.

Couch sent the 807-man 27^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, led by Colonel Jacob Frick, to defend the Columbia bridge. served as a lieutenant colonel at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He had been mustered out of the army in May of 1863, but he went to Harrisburg to serve when Confederate Army threatened Pennsylvania. Many of the men that he led were from Frick’s native Schuylkill County in and nearby Northampton, Huntingdon, and Berks counties. They arrived by train to Columbia on June 24^th, 1863, with orders to defend the fords and bridges across the Susquehanna River.

Citizens of York, Adams, Cumberland, and Franklin Counties rushed to move important property across the river to the safety of Lancaster. The turnpike up to the bridge in Wrightsville was lined with wagons, livestock, and horses. After a meeting between with Army and bridge company leaders, the company removed the tolls to allow for quicker movement of materials.[2] Mules and horses had always pulled freight through the bridge. Volunteers worked through the night to get all the wagons, livestock, and horses over to Lancaster County.

All that was left in Wrightsville were canal boats and locomotives. Canal boats in the Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal were pulled across the river and anchored on Columbia’s shore. Moving the locomotives was harder. Their funnel-shaped smokestacks wouldn’t fit through the bridge. Plus, there was always a fear that a spark from the engine would light the wooden bridge on fire. Railroad workers dismantled the locomotives and a team of ten mules slowly hauled the engines through. These were the first engines to ever cross the bridge. It took the better part of the day to move all the locomotives across the river to safety. In Columbia, they were coupled to waiting trains and pulled to Philadelphia.

Many people had also fled through the bridge to Columbia. In the western counties of Franklin, Adams, Cumberland, and York, many African Americans fled from the Confederate army through Columbia. They ran because the Confederates could claim they were fugitive slaves, regardless of whether or not they had ever been enslaved. Just three months earlier in March, the Confederate government issued orders that “fugitive slaves” should be rounded up and shipped south to special depots. The Confederates captured and enslaved hundreds of Black Pennsylvanians during this campaign.

In Columbia, Annie Welsh wrote, “…it was distressing to witness old and young, [B]lack and white, with all that they were able to move, and a great many with nothing but what they have on, come crowding through and into our town.”[3] Some individuals returned after the Gettysburg Campaign, but many others did not. The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania made an indelible mark on the makeup of South-Central Pennsylvania. Annie simply wrote, “People were leaving in all directions.”

Setting the Explosives

Union General Couch knew that his untested troops might be outnumbered and overpowered, so he developed an alternative defense. From Harrisburg, he directed troops to place combustible materials on the Camelback Bridge and the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. Early on Sunday morning Robert Crane, the superintendent for the Reading and Columbia Railroad, received orders to supervise the placement of explosives on the bridge at the first sight of Rebels. The goal was to drop the fourth span from Wrightsville. If the 200-foot tall span fell into the river, it would stop the Confederates cold. They would be forced to retreat to York. Frick and the railroad superintendent felt that the bridge span could have been easily rebuilt after the Confederates retreated.

In Wrightsville, Frick set a defense line on either side of the turnpike just west of town and used a horseshoe troop formation to defend the town and bridge. Four companies from Columbia, three white and one Black, joined his troops and brought the total to 175 men. A force of convalescent Union soldiers also joined Frick.  Columbia’s white companies left by Sunday, leaving only the 53 African American men with Frick’s militiamen. Frick was particularly concerned about the southern flank which had only 238 to cover a 1,200-yard line over the tough territory around Kreutz Creek. Frick believed that they could hold the bridge if the Rebels only sent a small raiding party.

Mid-afternoon, Confederate Brigadier General Gordon marched his mile-long column of men through Hallam. At the general store and post office in town, they seized 200 dozen eggs, 20 pairs of boots, 20 pairs of shoes, 25 yards of calico cloth, and 10 barrels of pickled mackerel. Most of Wrightsville’s horses had been moved across the Susquehanna, but the Confederates still found and grabbed as many as they could find.

Gordon headed up a high ridge to observe the Union position. He was relieved to see that there was no artillery supporting the defenses. Gordon decided to divide the brigade and attack both Union flanks in a classic military tactic called the pincer movement. As Gordon prepared for an attack, a local music instructor left Wrightsville for York after giving a lesson in town. He spotted the long column of Rebels in the distance, reversed course, and sped back to Wrightsville. He was escorted to Colonel Frick and asked to describe the nature and size of the approaching troops.

Frick quickly sent word of the advance to two men: General Couch in Harrisburg and Railroad Superintendent Robert Crane in Columbia. Crane had already rounded up a group of carpenters to help him prepare the bridge for demolition. Between 15 and 20 Columbians headed to the fourth span from Wrightsville, nearly 800 feet from land. Once there, Crane and his workers removed planking so that artillery, wagons, and cavalry couldn’t cross the bridge. The men bored holes into the timbers and filled them with gunpowder. They sawed the heavy timbers and removed the roof and sidewalls to weaken the span.

Battle to Burning

Calvary men traveling up the railroad line fired the first shots on the southern flank of Wrightsville. Just as firing intensified throughout the line, Colonel Frick was informed that a scout had reported that the Confederate troops advancing towards them included three brigades of infantry and one regiment of cavalry. Although that message was not true, it meant Frick anticipated his 900 men would be up against nearly 5,000. Fighting continued for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes. It was becoming clear that he could not hold off the Rebels’ consistent thrusts on both flanks. If he waited much longer, they would sweep behind him, gain the bridge, and cut off the retreat. Frick gave the signal for a retreat across the bridge to prevent a senseless slaughter.

On the fourth bridge span from Wrightsville, four men sat ready to light the fuses. Robert Crane signaled to John Denney, Jacob Rich, John Lockard, and an old Black man named Jacob Miller to light the fuses and run across the destructing bridge and back to Columbia. Denney had worked in the Henry Clay Furnace nearby and had considerable experience in blasting. They felt confident the charges would drop the span. However, Denney reported that it “scarcely shook the bridge.”[4] Although the explosion failed to drop the span, it did scare the Confederate company that had just reached the bridge entrance.

Frick again turned to Robert Crane and asked him to set fire to the span. Quickly, men dragged fuel, boards, and wood shavings to the span. They soaked the kindling and bridge floor with coal oil and kerosene. John Denney and his three companions threw torches and ran. By the time they exited the eastern edge of the bridge, a column of flame could be seen in the sky.

Confederate troops tried to extinguish the fire, but the wind from the east intensified the fire and it spread across the whole western end of the bridge. Gordon rode into Wrightsville and demanded buckets and pails from the residents of the town, but none could be found. He was left to sit on his horse at the riverbank and watch the span collapse. Major General Jubal Early arrived to find Gordon on the riverbank. After hearing the account of the day, Early, frustrated that his chance to cross into Lancaster County was thwarted, left the bridge to its fate and returned to York.

The fire raged through the night and sparks landed on Wrightsville homes, spreading the blaze. Gordon’s men stayed in Wrightsville and helped put out the fires. Miraculously, buckets, pails, and tubs came from their hiding places to fight the flames. The bucket brigade worked for hours. Although dozens of buildings suffered damage, most of them were salvageable.

Columbians tried to save the remaining half of the bridge. Men went into the bridge and removed floor planks and pulled support beams, but the effort was in vain. It was only when the span closest to Columbia caught fire that the local fire company was able to stop the flames. Annie Welsh wrote to her husband that it was, “a Magnificent but awful sight.” Each span burned for nearly half an hour before it fell into the river. The flames and smoke were clearly visible from Marietta. General Couch stated that, in Harrisburg, they watched the glowing night sky to the southeast. Some Gettysburg residents thought the red glow in the west was from the Confederates burning York City.

Double Back West

By 11:00 am the next day, nearly all of the Confederates had left Wrightsville. They had contemplated other options to cross the mighty Susquehanna River, but they had all been too dangerous with Union artillery sitting in Columbia. In York, Jubal Early’s plans to invade Harrisburg were officially ended when orders came from Robert E. Lee to join the rest of the army near South Mountain. Gordon’s brigade was exhausted from long marching, battle, and firefighting. They wearily arrived in Adams County on Tuesday night, June 30th. The next day, the Battle of Gettysburg began. Many of the men that sacked Wrightsville did not leave Pennsylvania, as over 500 men from Gordon’s brigade died in the battle.

Years later, Jubal Early complained that, had Gordon been able to take the bridge, his division could have cut off the Pennsylvania Railroad, marched on Lancaster, and then attacked Harrisburg. Early’s plan had been “entirely thwarted by the destruction of the bridge.” Columbians had mixed feelings. Some were proud the Union militia and volunteers had stopped the Confederate. Others were frustrated, saying that they would have rather seen Rebels in the town than the bridge burned. No matter your opinion, the flames over the Susquehanna that night changed the outcome of the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.

Learn More

Come to Riverfest! The last weekend in June each year, the river towns commemorate the burning of the bridge in a weekend-long heritage and recreation festival.

Visit Historic Wrightsville at the Burning Bridge Diorama.

Reach the book Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863 by Scott L. Mingus Sr., which is the most comprehensive account of the event.

Footnotes

[1] https://www.historynet.com/conquer-peace-lees-goals-gettysburg-campaign/

[2] https://collections.lancasterhistory.org/media/library/docs/edit_vol84no3pp135_154.pdf

[3] Flames Beyond Gettysburg, 223.

[4] Mingus, 261.

Sources

Guttman, John, and Scott L. Mingus Sr. “Stopped Cold by Fire.” America’s Civil War. May 2022.

McPherson, James M. “To Conquer A Peace: Lee’s Goals in the Gettysburg Campaign.” HistoryNet, September 3, 2018

McSherry, Patrick M. “Defense of Columbia, June 1863,” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Vol.84, no. 3 (1980), 135-154.

Nicholas, Rachael. “African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, June 1, 2020.

Mingus, Scott L. Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863. El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie, 2013.

All Weekend:

🔥Riverfest Antique Trail
Explore Riverfest Antique Trail and take a piece of history home! Find glassware, pottery, signs, silver, porcelain, military items, books, art, historical papers, furnishings from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and so much more, as you enjoy antique hunting through 300 years of history!
June 24-26 at Participating Stores

Friday:

🔥 Riverstown Fourth Friday!
Across Marietta, Columbia, and Wrightsville, our restaurants and businesses will be open late celebrating kick off to Riverfest weekend. Find flaming hot deals and firey dinner options!

Saturday:

Sunday: