AREA HISTORY:  Jefferson Borough, 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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THE BOROUGH OF JEFFERSON – Page 701

In the year 1812, Frederick Kraft, a farmer, hotel keeper and store keeper, who 
owned a considerable tract of land in this township, conceived the idea of 
laying off a portion of it in lots.  He engaged John L. Hinkle, of Hanover, 
afterwards associate judge of York County, to make a survey and a draft or plan 
of ninety-four lots.  Judge Hinkle, who was a prominent local politician, and a 
great admirer of the “Sage of Monticello,” induced the founder to call his town 
Jefferson, in honor of the distinguished statesman who three years before had 
ended his second term as President of the United States.  The Kraft store and 
hotel had been in existence many years before the town was platted.  The house 
he occupied is still standing on the west side of Berlin Street, and is owned by 
Jacob Rennoll.  Kraft soon after built a house on the opposite side of the 
street, in which he moved his hotel and store.  Jacob Pitleger, an industrious 
blacksmith, was Kraft’s first neighbor, and built the second house, on the site 
where Amos Markel’s house now stands.  Amos Shearer next built a log house, of a 
convenient size, and began a store.  Jacob W. Wentz, for many years engaged in 
the store business in the same room after him, and during that time was elected 
recorder of deeds of York County.  Michael Miller, in 1815, built the first 
brick house in the town, on the northwest angle of the square.  It was a 
substantial building, and was used by him for about twenty years as a tavern.  
It is still standing, and used by G. F. Shive as a store and dwelling house.  
The bricks were burned from native clay, obtained near the site of the railroad 
station.  John Bair, during the early history of the village was a gunsmith.  In 
1815, John Dubbs began the tanning business, and in 1825 sold out to Henry 
Rebert, who at the age of seventy-eight is still engaged in the same business.  
His brother, William, has been associated with him.

Jenkins Carrothers was the name of an industrious and somewhat eccentric son of 
Erin, who early in life emigrated from the “Emerald Isle” to America, and about 
1816 located in Jefferson, coming from York.  He soon acquired a limited 
knowledge of the German dialect, as it was very essential to inhabitants of this 
locality then, as well as now.  He purchased the lot on the northwest angle of 
the Public Square.  On this spot he built a log house, and began to ply his 
trade of a hatter.  The old people now living remember him as a jolly, good 
natured personage, who assisted greatly to enliven the new town.  With the crude 
machinery, characteristic of the day he pursued his calling.  He made hats of 
fur, of wool and of straw, and regularly made trips to Baltimore and York to 
dispose of his merchandise, selling some, of course, to his friends and 
neighbors.  The comical side of this Irishman’s nature was shown on one 
occasion, in the autumn of 1828, during the political campaign preceding Andrew 
Jackson’s first election as President of the United States.  Carrothers had 
agreed with Henry Meyer to accompany him to a grove, a distance from the 
village, and obtain a tall hickory pole, with was to be planted in the square, 
with the American flag floating at its top, in honor of “Old Hickory.”  On the 
return from the woods, Carrothers proposed to sit astride the middle of the log, 
as they came into town, and interest the numerous spectators by cheering for the 
“hero of New Orleans.”  Meyer sat on his led horse and drove rapidly.  
Carrothers could not maintain his equilibrium, and much to his chagrin, he 
tumbled to the ground, greatly to the amusement of the jovial villagers and many 
others, who had gathered to witness the interesting ceremonies.  It was more 
than this quick-witted and hasty-tempered Irishman could endure.  The jeers of 
his comrades exasperated him.  He jumped to his feet, renounced his allegiance 
to the Democratic party, and then and there declared he would vote for Henry 
Clay for president.  He then became the original Whig of Codorus Township, and 
for many years was the only person in the district who voted that ticket.  So 
ardent a devotee of his party he became, that on the occasion of a subsequent 
presidential election, being sick himself, he sent his wife to the polls, three 
and a half miles away, with the request that the election officers should accept 
the vote in his name.  This was refused.  He then hired a man to take him to the 
polls, while lying in bed in an open wagon, so determined was he to cast his 
ballot.  After the campaign of 1840 he returned to his home from a trip to York, 
with the news of Gen. Harrison’s election as president of the United States.  He 
took a position in the center of the square, announced to the people the result 
of the election of the first Whig president, and then gave three enthusiastic 
cheers for “Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too.”  Soon after the inauguration he 
applied for the position of postmaster of his village, and secured it.  The 
house in which he lived is still in existence, though in a dilapidated 
condition.  The old people of the village have yet the tenderest recollection of 
Jenkins Carrothers, who died February 13, 1845, aged fifty years.