AREA HISTORY:  George Washington, Fairview Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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A VISIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON – Page 642

In the afternoon of October 3, 1794, President Washington, accompanied by a 
portion of his cabinet, arrived in Harrisburg on his way to quell the Whisky 
Insurrection in the western part of Pennsylvania.  In the evening he was 
presented with the address of the burgesses, and to which he replied the next 
morning.  On the 4th he went to Carlisle, and reviewed the troops there.  He 
passed on through Shippensburg and Hagerstown, Md.  At Fort Cumberland he 
reviewed the Virginia and Maryland troops, arrived at Bedford, Penn., and 
remained until October 21.  By that time the trouble had ended without 
bloodshed, and he returned.  Coming down the Cumberland Valley, he remained over 
night, October 24, at Shippensburg, and on the night of the 25th, which was 
Saturday, he was the guest of Gen. Michael Simpson, who then owned what is now 
known as the Haldeman property.  This place was chronologically known in early 
days as Chambers’, Chesney’s, and Simpson’s ferry property, and was on the route 
of much travel from Philadelphia and Lancaster to Carlisle and points south and 
west.  Whether Washington spent a quiet Sunday there, can not be definitely 
stated.  It is very probably that he did, as he arrived in Philadelphia on the 
following Tuesday afternoon.  There is no record that he spent Sunday at any 
intervening point between the ferry and Philadelphia, which was then the capital 
of the United States.