AREA HISTORY:  Freystown, 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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THE VILLAGE OF FREYSTOWN – Page 608

Freystown, now East York, is situated in this township, adjoining York.  It was named Freystown 
in honor of Godfrey Frey, who laid out part of the town, about 1814.  The principal highways 
are East Market Street, of York extended, Low and East Philadelphia extended.  The town is 
about one mile in length and one-half mile in width.  The first house was built over 100 years 
ago, and was known as “The Fort.”  It was a two story stone building, thirty-six feet square, 
with an arched cellar under the whole building.  The lot of ground, upon which this house was 
erected, was surrounded with large sycamore trees.  The property was at one time owned by Rev. 
Dr. Cathcart, and then by Thomas C. Hambly, and next by Henry Kauffelt, from whom it was 
bought, in 1867, by C. H. Fry, who tore out the arched cellar.  The property is now owned by 
John Miller.  The first engine house, a one-story frame building, stood between Hartman’s hotel 
and George W. Sheffer’s store, and where the pump on the street now stands.  It was bought by 
Henry Wolhoff, who sold it to John Ness, whose widow now uses it as a summer kitchen.  The lot 
on which the present engine house, a brick building, stands, was bought from John Sleeger by 
Daniel Loucks, president of the fire company, in 1857, and the company was named, “The Good 
Will Fire Company No. 1.”  The implements and machinery used to outen a fire were a hand 
engine, leather buckets and ladders.  The hand engine was made by Morris Gardner.  The members 
of this company were called by the nickname of “Rats,” and afterward “Hornets.”  They 
participated in extinguishing some of the large fires in years gone by, such as the Luttman 
Hotel fire, Motter’s fire, west of the bridge, at which they were second to throw water.  This 
company was organized December, 1839.  The first president was Jacob Neff; secretary, Christian 
Sheffer, and treasurer, Michael Boeckel.  The officers at present are Emanuel Frey, president; 
Marcellus Fried, vice-president; C. A. Boyer, secretary, and John Miller, treasurer.  Number of 
members at present, thirty-two.

The Spring Garden Band was first called “The Spring Garden Silver Cornet Band.”  It was 
organized in 1855, with William Frey, president; Emanuel Boeckel, secretary, and John Miller, 
treasurer.  The band enlisted, during the late war, with the Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania 
Volunteers.  The present officers are E. D. Zeigler, president; L. T. Deininger, A. A. Wasson, 
Jacob Hose, Elias Eyster, Grier Hersh, and B. C. Pentz, vice-presidents; John Miller, 
treasurer; Cal. A. Boyer, secretary; Emanuel Kissinger, leader; L. H. Grenewald, drum major.

The Spring Garden Relief Association was incorporated December 12, 1866, organized January 1, 
1867.  The officers are William Frey, president; Ed Blauser, vice-president; John Miller; 
treasurer, and Emanuel Frey, secretary.  Membership is ninety-five.

The Lutheran Church is a brick building on East Market Street.  The land was donated for the 
same by Daniel Loucks.  He stipulated in the deed of conveyance that the church was only to be 
used by the Lutherans.  The membership is 90; Sunday-school, 150 pupils.  Bethany Chapel, a 
union meeting house, is on Low Street, and has a membership of probably 50, and a school of 
perhaps 100.  Ridge Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church is a frame building, and is located on
corner of East Philadelphia Street and Ridge Avenue.  It was built in 1882, and has a 
membership of about 60, and Sunday-school of about 140 pupils.  The present minister of the 
Lutheran Church is Rev. M. J. Alleman, and of the Methodist Church, Rev. O. S. Metzler.  
Bethany Chapel has no regular preacher.  There are three good brick schoolhouses in the place; 
in one of the building there are four schools; two in the second and one in the third.  There 
are seven schools of about 50 pupils each.  The population of the town is about ?????.  In 1865 
the population was only about 500; the greatest increase has been in the last seven years.  The 
town has eleven stores, including one drug store and one hotel.  The manufactures are Billmyer 
& Small’s Passenger Car Shops, which are the largest in the State of that particular kind of 
shop; York Paint Manufactory, and Sash Factory.  There are a great many persons living in 
Freystown who are more than seventy-five years old.

The basket-making business is a great industry on Low Street, as nearly every house of the 
fifty-five along this street, on both sides, is a basket manufactory, employing from five to 
ten hands.  This street is known through all York County, and at a great many places outside of 
the county, as “Bull Frog Alley.”  This name was given to it about sixty years ago, by one John 
Frey, who, with his father, lived in a small, one-story frame house – the only one then on the 
street.  The adjoining land then was swampy and marshy, and contained a large number of frogs, 
so that they kept up a continual noise during the evening and night, and John Frey above 
mentioned, a boy of about twelve years of age, claimed that he could not sleep on account of 
the croaking of the frogs, and that he wanted to move out of that “Bull Frog Alley.”  This 
incident gave to Low Street that name, by which it is best known ever since.  The industry of 
basket-making on this street yearly amounts to considerable money.  The manager of one of these 
shops reports that he sold in 1884, of his own manufacture, $3,000 worth of baskets.  In 1880 
he sold $5,000 worth.  These basket-makers are nearly all German, and are industrious and 
prosperous.  Those people in Low Street who do not follow the basket-making business, are 
called gypsies, and have their winter residence on this street, but as soon as spring comes, 
they pull out with horse and wagon, and roam over the country, the men trading horses and the 
women telling fortunes, returning in the fall with greatly replenished purses.