AREA HISTORY: History of Adams County, Chapter XLVI, Adams County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/adams/ _______________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886 _______________________________________________ Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 341-344 CHAPTER XLVI. TYRONE TOWNSHIP. Tyrone runs south from the north line of the county to Conowago Creek, bounded on the west by Menallen, Butler and Straban Townships, and on the east by Huntington and Reading, being very irregular in form. Bermudian Creek marks its northeastern boundary from the line of Cumberland County to the angle on the Trimmer farm. A number of miniature streams flow from the east into this creek. Conowago Creek runs along its southwestern line, while one of the main feeders of this creek forms its southeastern line, dividing it from Reading. A few small streams run west and south from the water-shed. The elevation at Heidlersburg above the Atlantic is 541 feet. The township contains a large area of fine arable land, which has yielded plentifully for over a century. There are outcrops of quartzite, rose-tinted, with curious fracture, coarse ingrained trap, blue and white streaked slate-rock trap, ferruginous cross-grained trap near Idaville. In June, 1872, the Cranberry Valley iron ore beds were discovered on Emanuel Spangler’s farm. The last stone bridge built in the county, if we except railroad bridges, was that at McKnight’s Ford on the Harrisburg road crossing of the Conowago. This was constructed in 1823 by David Diehl at a cost of $1,950, and is still standing on what is known as the Dr. W. R. Stewart farm. In 1850 John F. Felty erected a wooden bridge over the Great Conowago, on the Harrisburg road, for $483. In 1859 J. M. Pittenturf erected a wooden bridge over a branch of the Great Conowago on the Gettysburg and Harrisburg road for $247. In 1868 J. M. Pittenturf and brother erected a covered wooden bridge over the Conowago at Snyder’s Ford, on Hunterstown and York Springs road, for $2,797. The number of tax payers in Tyrone Township (1886) is 323; value of real estate, $360,808; number of horses, etc., 334; number of cows, etc., 341; value of moneys at interest, $46,124; value of trades and professions, $5,865; number of carriages, 156; number of gold watches, 4; of silver watches, 1; of acres of timbered land, 1,976. The population of Tyrone in 1800 was 512; in 1810, 648; in 1820, 840-418 males, 417 females and 5 free colored; in 1830, 817; in 1840, 757; in 1850, 891; in 1860, 960; in 1870, 1,009 (4 colored), and in 1880, 985. The assessment of Tyrone for 1801 was made by Peter Ferree, assisted by Nathaniel McGrew and Frederick Shull. The total value was placed at $83,432, and the tax levy of 21 cents per $100 collected by John King and Thomas Hammond. Leonard Apley, shoe-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $225 Nicholas Anthony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,285 John Brougher, executor of George . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,440 John Brougher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 Jacob Bream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860 Henry Bream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,208 Executors of Alexander Brown* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,616 Samuel Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 John Bacom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785 Conrad Chronister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712 John Cooley, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Abram Cline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Anton Cline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771 Henry Crishamor, not taxed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Delap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,889 John Delap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 John Dodds, deceased . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938 John Duffield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,274 Martin Detrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,092 Michael Detrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,278 Daniel Deardorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,652 John Doran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Elliott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,942 Peter Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,808 Jacob Fidler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,760 Conrad Fidler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586 Peter Fidler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,257 Philip Fissle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873 George Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,300 Henry Fissle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 696 Abram Fletcher, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Thomas Hammond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 Christian Hostetter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681 Jacob Hofsinger, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Hugh Johnston, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Johnston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John King† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,994 Hugh King† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,666 John Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Nicholas Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633 Conrad Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 James McKnight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,167 William Mealy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,738 Alex McGrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,793 George Meals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827 Finley McGrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,061 Nathaniel McGrew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 James McCreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Jacob Myers, mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,368 Peter McGrew, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adam John Miller, shoe-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Muntorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Ludwick Mull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 James Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,610 Jonathan Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,831 Jonathan Neely, stiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 John Nickle, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Samuel Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Widow Jackson Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Henry Nelaugh, shoe-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,568 John Owens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,557 Thomas Porter, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 John Reed, deceased . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700 Windle Rockey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Jacob Roudabush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Anthony Switzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948 William Smith, shoe-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rudolph Spangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,504 Rudolph Spangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 Peter Spangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758 Peter Spangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960 Jonas Spangler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 David Stuart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,618 John Shutrom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 William Sterner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Peter Studebaker, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 John Snarr, nailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Sriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786 Frederick Shull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,901 Samuel Thomas, tanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Mathias Taughinbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 David Trimmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,488 The Overseers of the Poor for and in behalf of township, 139 acres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Philip Venis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Samuel Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,690 Joseph Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Robert Wray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,219 Robert Wray, unseated lands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 John White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,184 Nathan Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,314 Nicholas Wertz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626 James Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,790 Thomas Wear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 William Walker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,656 John Wiland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 John Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 * One slave. † Two slaves. Single freeman; John Apley, blacksmith; Henry Cline, blacksmith; John Dodds, David Copperstone; Nicholas Taughinbaugh, sadler; Samuel Duffield, William McGrew, James McKnight, John McKnight, Patrick McLee, William Morris, Joseph Neely; Joseph Neelaugh, shoe-maker; Joseph Porter, John Smetts; Peter Thomas, tanner; John Van Dike, William Walker, Andrew Walker, Robert Walker, James Walker, James Wray, and James, son of Samuel Walker. James Bracken, of Tyrone Township, was ordered to surrender to a justice of the peace by the board of attainder in 1778. On November 22, 1834, a meeting of the people of Tyrone was held at the house of Col. Baltzer Snyder to consider the common school system as established by the Legislature April 11, 1834. James McKnight presided with Jacob Fidler; secretary, Jacob Bream; John Duffield, Col. B. Snyder, J. S. Neely and Peter Fidler were appointed to draft resolutions. These resolutions denounced the act as aiming to rob the farmers, and asked for its repeal. J. L. Neely voted against its adoption in convention of November 4. Adams was one of the fifteen counties which rejected the law. Lake B. Ferree, of Heidlersburg, was the only soldier from Tyrone who reported to the call for troops in April, 1861. He was mustered in with Company E, Second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. In July, 1869, a volunteer militia company was organized at Heidlersburg, under the name “Tyrone Zouaves,” with J. C. Pittenturf, caprain. The old Jacob Myers’ fulling and grist-mill, in Tyrone Township, located on the Madam Steele property (purchased by her from the Penns in 1749), was built by Peter Brough, from whom Jacob Myers purchased it in 1794. This was in the Myers family until 1880, when H. J. Myers, the present railroad agent at New Oxford, sold it to the Holtz brothers. HEIDLERSBURG. This place, known in early years as Starrytown, was founded in 1812, by John Heidler. He offered a bonus to the first house-builder on the site, which was won by Michael Starry, who erected the first building here that year. Neither Starry nor Heidler were among the first settlers; neither were here in 1801; but owing to their enterprises of 1812, their names have ever since been identified with the history of this part of the township. The old fashioned hotels are named the “Farmers and Drovers” and “Travelers Rest.” The little hamlet claims the regulation complement of merchants and tradesman, but varies somewhat from places of this class in the volume of trade done. In Marcy, 1861, Peter Yeatts was appointed postmaster. In 1834 the total receipts for stamps at this office amounted to $20.34, and the stipend of the office about $2 for the year ending March 31, 1884. J. F. Houck has served in this office for a number of years. CHURCHES. The Evangelical Lutheran Society of Heidlersburg is almost contemporary with the society of the Pines Church, attending services at York Springs. In early years Messrs. Raymond, Hensh, Herbst and Weyl preached here. In 1844 Rev. Jacob Ulrich held services in the old school building, and services continued here at intervals until 1861, when Rev. Peter Raby and the society erected the present house of worship. The United Brethren in Christ organized a society here in 1840 in the old school building, and still continue to worship there. MISCELLANEOUS. Gardner’s Station is a modern railroad town on the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad just south of Idaville. It is the shipping point for the northern settlements of Huntington and Tyrone Townships.