AREA HISTORY:  Round Top, 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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ROUND TOP – Page 666

Round Top is an isolated peak in the extreme northern part of the township, and it may tell its 
own tale.  Tradition is very seldom history, but the story of Round Top is true.  “You come to 
me for history; ah! My dear sir, I am older than history, and I know it all; but I have never 
before spoken.  Away back in the dim mists of the past I was born, and being proud of my birth, 
I tossed my crest heavenward, 1,100 feet above the sea, and 600 feet above the plains 
immediately around me.  Such was my origin.  There was then a mighty convulsion of nature, and 
old mother earth shook from center to circumference.  This occurred before the wooded forests, 
the fowls of the air, the beasts of the sea, the untutored red man, or the adventurous Quaker 
settler, were present to witness the thrilling scene.  Hence, for thousands and tens of 
thousands of years, have I been a silent monitor, to guard the destiny of the surrounding 
country.  First to my fold came the birds and the beasts, and then a copper-colored people who 
built their temporary wigwams around my rocky base.  Centuries passed, and to my summit in 
1735, came a few white settlers from the East to gaze on the wooded plains below me, and select 
a spot for their future habitations.  The red man was still here, and for a time the scattered 
few of both races lived in harmony.  The one derived his subsistence from hunting and fishing, 
and the other by felling trees, clearing the land and tilling the soil.  There was a clash of 
arms between these people, and in 1755, America’s great philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, with 
four other whites, met representative Indian Chiefs, not far to the north, within my field of 
vision, to make a treaty of peace. But soon your own people passed by my side armed for a 
conflict with this tawny race.  Twenty-one years passed, and my new neighbors determined to 
govern themselves.  One year later and the noblest patriots the world has ever seen, came on 
horseback toward the town of York to make it the capital of the United States, and escape the 
imminent perils of an invading foreign foe.  I gazed down on them with intense interest, and 
welcomed them to my dominions, within which they remained for nine long months.  The fates were 
propitious and they returned to the city of brotherly love.

Thirty-seven years rolled by and I gazed in weird astonishment upon a motley group of 12,000 
citizen soldiers, from the east the west and the north, collecting at York by order of the 
State executive, to impede the progress of the same foreign enemy, whose unprincipled leader 
had already destroyed the capitol at Washington.  When near the Monumental City, he fell, an 
inglorious victim to the well-directed aim of two young men, and the gallant sons of toil who 
had gathered at York were sent home to their farms and work-shops.

Forty-nine years more of peace and prosperity reigned supreme; my dominions were changed from 
wooded forests to fertile fields of waving grain and golden corn.  The valleys smiled in vernal 
beauty, and the hillsides teemed with a busy people.  My joy was unbounded, when suddenly 
piercing through the mountain gaps far to the southwest, came an invading army 90,000 strong, 
marching with hostile intent toward my own beloved county seat.  I seemed to know them in their 
suits of grey, as they were not a foreign foe.  From the South, with hastening pace, came an 
equal number of boys in blue, eager for the coming fray, and within my own horizon there was a 
booming of cannon, a rattle of musketry and a clash of sabers, such as never before was equaled 
on the American continent.  It was a family quarrel, and the world looked on in silent wonder.  
It is all ended now, and our nation is at peace.  Within my circular horizon now are included 
parts of two States, and many counties in which live a thrifty and prosperous people and if I 
should ever speak again may my story be less thrilling.”

The golden orb of day was just setting behind the western hills, the canopy above was clothed 
in a roseate hue, the valleys below and all around were bathed in liquid light, the trees were 
covered with the changing foliage of variegated autumnal tints, and all nature smiled in 
radiant beauty, as we retraced our steps down the steep descent of the mountain on the occasion 
of a delightful visit October 24, 1884.