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 resources contributions to our nation’s heritage.

In Lancaster and York counties, the struggle for American independence was shaped by local leaders, citizen militias, and community actions. Their decisions and wartime experiences forged enduring Revolutionary legacies along the Susquehanna River.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Lancaster and York were home to agriculturally-minded Germans, Scots-Irish, and peace-loving Quakers. Their distance from the violence of war made them key locations as a major supply center for goods the Continental army needed. They were also a safe haven for Congress to meet and make decisions that would shape the new nation.

In June 1774, the seeds of independence were being sown in the colonies. The Committee of Correspondence, led by members of what would become the Continental Congress, sent letters to each of the colonies asking for their support. Lancaster townsfolk and local officials held a meeting in the courthouse and formed a committee in alliance with Philadelphia. York County would do the same.

Three weeks later, towns across Pennsylvania sent representatives to a meeting in Philadelphia. There, they discussed how the colonies should react to England’s imposed taxes and blockade in Boston. York, Lancaster, and nine other county committees across Pennsylvania made a resolution. They would not import or export any English-made products. Tensions heightened over the next few months as England sent British troops to the New England colonies. War would soon come to the colonies.

Military Service in War

In 1775, men from York and Lancaster formed the 1st Pennsylvania regiment of militia, known as the Pennsylvania riflemen. A troop of 100 men from York County, called the York County Rile Company volunteered and traveled to Boston to support the newly formed Continental Army. Over the course of the war, over 4,000 men from York and almost 12,000 men from Lancaster, risked their lives. Edward Hand who

Capt. Jacob Dritt

was from Lancaster, served as Adjutant General of the Continental army under George Washington .

In April of 1776, British troops left Boston and brought the war to New York. George Washington called for additional militia regiments to defend the port city. Many men from York, Lancaster, and surrounding counties answered the call. This included Jacob Dritt, owner of the historic property that would become the Zimmerman Center for Heritage.

The New York campaign was a devastating defeat for the Continental Army. They were outnumbered by the opposing British and Hessian troops. Over 4,000 men were captured, including Jacob Dritt.

Declaration of Independence

In July 1776, copies of the Declaration of Independence were sent from Philadelphia. The local sheriff read The Declaration in Lancaster on the steps of the courthouse. Cheers and celebratory gunfire answered from the crowd. In York, James Smith, signer of the Declaration and York native, read the Declaration to a crowd of 400 townspeople and 4 militia companies. They threw their hats in the air in celebration.

Prisoners of War

During the war, British prisoners of war from the Battles of Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown, marched to Lancaster. They were to be housed in the military barracks at the corner of Duke and Walnut streets. These buildings housed thousands of captured British and Hessian soldiers during the war. Many prisoners chose to work in Lancaster’s iron foundries and other industries, during their imprisonment. Today the buildings no longer stand but a historic marker can be found on North Duke Street. By 1781, overcrowding of the prisoner of war camp resulted in the creation of Camp Security across the river in York county.

Gunpowder magazines to store guns and ammunition for the Continental army were across the street from the POW camp in Lancaster. They were managed by John Hubley, Commissary of Supplies. Lancaster-made Conestoga wagons transported supplies of rifles, ammunition, cannonballs, as well as shoes to the army.

Taverns

Taverns, such as the Grape in Lancaster and the Golden Plough Tavern in York, were meeting locations for leaders of the Revolution. Taverns were important places to gather. They were a social space for the colonies, and places to share news about the war, discuss politics, and provide a hot meal for Revolutionary leaders. Today the Golden Plough Tavern in York and the adjacent Gates House, are preserved and managed by York History Center.

The tavern house was rented in 1778 by General Horatio Gates. Gates briefly served as President of the Board of War in charge of managing the miliary affairs of the Continental Army. He also led the army to victory at the Battle of Saratoga. General Gates had ambitions of replacing George Washington as leader of the army. Unfortunately for him, it was in Plough Tavern where his dream ended. There, the famed Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette made a toast to George Washington recognizing him as the army’s commander.

Matias Stough, owner of the Swan Tavern in Lancaster, eventually sold his business to further support the Patriot cause. He served as an agent in charge of purchasing cattle, grain, and beer for the Continental army.

Signers of the Declaration from York and Lancaster

James Smith

James Smith of York and George Ross of Lancaster were among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Irish lawyer, James Smith served as a member of Congress until his health declined after the war. He is known for reading the Declaration aloud to York county citizens on the steps of the county courthouse when it was first declared. He owned Codorus Furnace and made cannonballs for the Patriot cause. Today he is buried in the church yard of the First Presbyterian Church of York.

George Ross

George Ross of Lancaster served as a member of Congress, Inspector of Military Supplies, and colonel in the Continental Army. He was an uncle to Betsy Ross, whose family history claims he along with George Washington asked her to sew the first official flag of the United States. Today there is a plaque in Lancaster marking the location where his house once stood on present day East Ross street.

Phillip Livingston, a delegate from New York, passed away while Congress was staying in York. He is buried in York County’s Prospect Hill cemetery.

Hospitals

After the Battle of Brandywine, Ephrata and Lititz in Lancaster opened hospitals to treat Continental soldiers. Wagons of almost 1,000 wounded or sick soldiers were sent to the Moravian community of Lititz and housed in the Brother’s House. The Ephrata Cloister treated about 500 soldiers, more than half of whom lost their lives and are buried nearby.

Capitol for a Day

In September of 1777, Congress received word in Philadelphia that the British defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of Brandywine and headed straight for the Colonial capitol. Members of Congress had much to fear, including the potential of being hanged for treason against Britain if captured by their troops. 700 wagons of Patriots and the Continental Congress travelled through Trenton, Easton, Bethlehem, and Reading. They arrived in Lancaster 8 days later on September 27th.

The signed Declaration of Independence, records of Congress, and the Liberty Bell made the journey with the nation’s leaders. The Liberty Bell only made part of the trip to Lancaster. It was instead hidden in a church in Allentown when the wagon carrying it was damaged and could not be repaired.

Lancaster was now the nation’s capitol, housing the Revolutionary leaders, founding documents, and a large number of Patriots who fled from Philadelphia. That day Congress held a meeting in the courthouse located in Penn Square. During the meeting delegates received an update on the military efforts in New York. There they also read a letter from George Washington requesting additional supplies. The meeting ended with a decision that Lancaster was not equipped to house the large number of Patriot refugees and Congress. They decided to move westward across the over-a-mile-wide Susquehanna River to the small town of York. This would put further distance and a natural barrier between the founders and the British army.

Move to York County

Families in York opened their homes to members of the Continental Congress. Women in town, such as Caroline Hartley, whose husband was serving in the war, took on the household management, housed, fed, and gave company to the members of Congress who were far away from their own families. Twenty-six members of Congress stayed in York, including the well-known figures John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. The 271 days that the founders stayed in York were marked with both hardship and triumph.

York Co Court House
York County Court House

York County’s courthouse was the site where Congress met daily. It was there they drafted and eventually adopted the Articles of Confederation. The Articles would serve as the first Constitution providing a plan to unite all 13 colonies under their leadership. Congress had to send the document across the Susquehanna to Francis Bailey to be printed in his print shop in Lancaster.

The first time the words “United States of America” were written publicly was in this founding document. A copy of the document was sent to each colony to be voted on by the local government, and almost four years later, it would be approved by each colony. It served as the framework for the nation’s government until it was replaced by the Constitution after the war.

Heated debates and news that would change the course of the war were shared within the four walls of York County’s courthouse. While in the York, Congress received word of the first decisive Patriot victory against the British at the Battle of Saratoga. The news uplifted the spirits of the delegates who had left Philadelphia to find safety in the rural town more than 100 miles away. In May, news arrived that King Louis XVI of France, convinced by Benjamin Franklin’s portrayal of the Patriot’s cause. He signed a Treaty of Alliance with the colonies and France would join their fight for independence against Britain.

Eventually Halls & Sellers printing press was shipped to York, printing 10 million dollars in paper money for the colonies along with Congress’s publications.

In June 1778, the Continental Army took control of Philadelphia back from the British. Congress packed up their belongings and founding documents and left the town of York that had housed them for those uncertain 9 months. Congress traveled once again across the Susquehanna on Wright’s Ferry. They journeyed back through Lancaster and South Central Pennsylvania, to the city of Philadelphia.

The war continued for another five years, having a lasting impact on the lives of people in the colonies and on the nation’s history. York and Lancaster’s role in the Revolution as a safe haven for the Continental Congress cemented their notoriety in American history.