AREA HISTORY:  Borough of York, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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BOROUGH OF YORK – Page 513

THE town of York, having now within its recently extended limits a population of nearly 20,000, 
never in its history of 145 years, has developed so rapidly as during the last decade.  Its 
growth has been slow and sure like that of the century plant and it existed for nearly 100 
years without being specially known as a manufacturing place.  Since 1850 it has rapidly grown 
in importance and influence.  Its manufacturing industries have steadily increased and 
developed; new ones were started; until now the full force of its life is plainly observable to 
the admiring gaze of the oldest inhabitants, who remember it as a small inland borough, 
populated by a staid and conservative people.  It was known half a century ago, mostly on 
account of its historic associations, and the rich agricultural land that surrounds it, the 
latter of which greatly contributes to its wealth and influence.  The dwelling houses, until 
within a recent date, showed few signs of improved architecture.  The town was laid out and 
build after the style of the old English city, after which it was named.  This was done at a 
time when its founders never dreamed of the advancement in civilization, now known to the 
enlightened world, to which our American people have contributed so much.  Could those sturdy 
settlers who, coming from a foreign land and were first to populate “ye town on the Codorus,” 
now look upon the industry and energy that have asserted their power, in the rumble of 
ponderous machinery, the whistle of the high-spirited iron horse, the hum and whir of revolving 
wheels, the stately magnificence of some of the public institutions, and the improvements in 
modes of life and living, they would feel gratified that their children’s grandchildren are so 
bountifully favored in this land of freedom and independence, of which they were the hardy 
pioneers.

Great events have transpired in the world’s history since the founding of York.  Once was our 
town threatened by hostile Indians, and twice by the invasion of a foreign foe, coming from our 
mother county.  During the Revolution our streets were trod and the old court house occupied by 
the noblest patriots the history of mankind has ever known.  Every intelligent reader knows the 
personnel of the Continental Congress which sat in York during nine months of the darkest 
period of that great struggle, deliberating upon momentous questions that afterward proved to 
be the foundation stones upon which our constitution, the Magna Charta of American freedom, 
rests.

In 1814, thousands of Pennsylvania soldiers and militia rendezvoused at York, ready to march at 
any minute to Baltimore to impede the progress of an invading English foe, who, under a bold 
and unprincipled leader, had devastated the national Capital, and were then threatening our 
neighboring city.  By the skillful soldiery of the American patriots then in that city, some of 
whom went from York, the British were defeated, their commander killed, and the soldiers at 
York sent home.  The second war with Great Britain soon afterward ended.

On June 28, 1863, York was invaded and occupied for about two days by a real enemy but not a 
foreign foe.  Nearly 20,000 of our fellow countrymen, valiant soldiers too as they were 
Americans, were our uninvited quests, and trod our streets with more authority than any of our 
citizens.  Tens of thousands of brave boys went through York on their way “to the front” during 
the four long years of that direful war, and our public common was used for a government 
hospital.  The blessings of peace have changed all these conditions, and now North and South 
are joined together for the common good of the whole country, and England, proud of her great 
offspring, recognized the United States, in many respects the greatest nation on the face of 
the globe.