AREA HISTORY:  Historical Facts and Incidents, Warrington Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
_______________________________________________ 

History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
_______________________________________________

HISTORICAL FACTS AND INCIDENTS – Page 670

Among the first immigrants to Warrington was William Griffith, who “took up” land now owned by 
his descendants above Rossville.  Another immigrant at same time in 1736, obtained a warrant 
for the land now owned by Frank Elcock; a third located land near the Conewago.  They came from 
New Castle County, Del.

James Lenox, the first surveyor of this section, was an Englishmen, and owned large tracts of 
land which he disposed of to new settlers, as they arrived.

Tradition say the first Quaker settlers of this township crossed the Susquehanna at Wright’s 
Ferry, obtained permits for land, passed across the county, here and there meeting an 
occasional settler.  They came either on foot, or on pack horses, camped out, had with them 
rifles, and a few of the simpler agricultural implements.  They build cabins, cleared small 
tracts of land, sowed grain, went back to their former home to relate their experiences, and 
prepare to return the next summer, to reap the first harvest, some of them bringing with them 
young wives to share their experiences of backwoods life among the Indians who were their 
neighbors.

William Griffith, great-grandfather of James Griffith, of Warrington, died in the township at 
the age of one hundred and five, and his remains were interred in the Friends’ burying ground.  
He came to America with William Penn.  He often related the following interesting incident:

In 1736 and later, a party of Indians were neighbors to the early settlers about the site of 
Rossville.  Among those who had their wigwams near the site of Ross’ Tannery, was a very old 
Indian.  One day Griffith and his comrades saw the young Indians build a large fire and went to 
inquire for what purpose, as they were on friendly terms with them.  They were horrified with 
the response, saying, “Burn old man, no hunt, no fish, only eat, no longer good Indian.”  The 
kindly intervention of the friendly white finally caused them to desist from their cruel custom 
of burning the aged and infirm, which was not uncommon among our aborigines.

Many Indian darts and spears made of native blue stone or quartz, have been found in this 
locality.

A number of interesting Indian relics, arrow heads, spear points and hatchets, all of stone, 
have been found on the farm of Levi Spangler, along the Warrington side of the Conewago, below 
the stone bridge.  On both sides of the stream here, from Emig’s Mill to Kunkel’s Mill, is the 
fertile Conewago Valley, containing many beautiful and level tracts on which the Indians 
frequently encamped, and pursued their vocation of hunting and fishing.

William Griffith, son of the immigrant, was once lost in the dense woods surrounding Round Top 
Mountain, remained out over night, and died from the results of exposure and excitement.  His 
son, Abraham Griffith, could read and shoot squirrels at the age of ninety-five years, and died 
aged ninety-six.

The property near the foot of the mountain, now owned by John Krall, was once in possession of 
Gen. Henry Miller, of Revolutionary fame, whose biography appears elsewhere.  For half a 
century or more it was the site of one of the old-time taverns in which was introduced a 
“Franklin” stove, built in the fire-place, one of the first in that section.  Frederick Watt, 
father of Judge Watt, of Carlisle, once owned it.

James Mitchell, one of the first congressmen who represented York County, lived in Warrington 
on the State road, six miles southeast of Dillsburg.  He interested his neighbors by bringing 
home relics from Washington.  David Cadwalader, of Warrington, his nephew, owns the cane used 
by him when a representative in Congress.

By an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1784, the Conewago Creek was made a public 
highway as far up the stream as Emig’s Mills.

Street Hill is a singular geological formation of dolerite, extending northeast and southwest 
in Warrington, a short distance north of the Conewago.  The name was used as early as 1748 by a 
surveyor, who located a road across it toward York.  It is now locally known as “Straight Hill.

A level course of two miles in length in the east end of Warrington, on the road leading from 
the Newberry Friends’ Meeting House to the Warrington Meeting House, for a century past has 
been called the “Quaker Race-ground.”  The young members of the society on the way back and 
forth from attending their monthly meetings, used this inviting place to try the speed of their 
horses.

On the Hobaugh farm in Warrington, exists a singular geological feature of great interest, 
familiarly known in the vicinity as “Ship Rocks.”  They are dolerite rocks, about twelve in 
number, some of them of immense proportions.  The largest ones bear a striking resemblance to a 
sailing vessel, from which characteristic the name originated.  They lie entirely on the 
surface.  One of them, forty feet long, ten feet high and eight feet thick, lies beside a near 
neighbor of similar dimensions, from which it was evidently separated by a convulsion of nature 
during a remote period of the world’s history.  This cluster of surface rocks covers an area of 
half an acre.

Portions of the wooded tracts in the eastern part of Warrington are nearly covered with 
bowlders.

Fine specimens of copper ore have been found in Warrington, but not as yet in sufficient 
quantities to be profitably mined.

The cultivation of strawberries has become a profitable business in the eastern part of 
Warrington.  In 1884 F. S. Myers raised 4,000 boxes on two acres, and 2,000 boxes of 
raspberries on the same number of acres.  Frederick Myers raised 6,500 boxes of strawberries 
the same year; Benjamin Bailetts, 5,000; Jeremiah boring, a short distance east in Newberry, 
raised 8,000 boxes of strawberries in 1884.  The amount of 4,000 boxes of berries to the acre 
can be raised in a good season.  This fruit is sold in York and Harrisburg.

A court record directs the building of a wooden bridge over the Conewago Creek on the road to 
Carlisle from York in 1765.  The old stone bridge now there, was built between 1811 and 1814.  
It cost $4,000.  The contractor, tradition says, found he was going to lose money, hence he 
secured all the labor and material he could on credit.  When the bridge was completed, he 
disappeared with the money received from the county authorities, and did not pay his employes 
or any creditors.

A roof on the house of Levi Spangler near this bridge is still in good condition.  It was 
placed on the house in 1822.  The shingles then cost $5 per 1,000 and boards $7 per 1,000 feet.  
The same year was the great drought, when the Conewago was without water, and turnips were 
raised in its bed near the bridge.

The wooden bridge over the Conewago Creek at Kunkle’s Mill, at the northeast end of the 
township, did not yield its honored position to the flood of 1884.  It rests on two stone 
abutments, one at either end, and at a height of thirty feet above the water, spans the steam 
at a breadth of 100 yards.  A glen, south of this bridge in the Conewago Hills, is a romantic 
spot and worthy of visitation on account of the natural curiosities.  Down the stream a 
distance from this place, was the home of the noted “cancer doctors,” Bull and Anderson, who 
lived in Dover Township.  “Witches” reigned supreme in this region once upon a time, which no 
one but the noted doctor near York could drive away.  It is not known where they went, but they 
were driven away sure, and it is not many years since they were compelled to take their flight.  
“Pow-wowing” did it, and it requires nothing but a strained conscience and blind faith to 
believe in such a remedy or such a disease.

A short distance east of the base of Round Top, at a spot affording a most enchanting landscape 
view far to the south and west, on one quiet evening of June, 1866, immediately after a thunder 
shower, was committed the foulest murder known to the annals of York County.  The Squibb 
family, grandfather, grandmother and grandchild, each and all, were the victims.  There was no 
one left to tell the tale of that dreadful homicide.  The remains of the victims were interred 
in one common grave in the southwest corner of the historic burying ground adjoining the 
Friends’ Meeting House.  A neat but unpretentious head-stone marks the spot.

According to the religious principles of the Society of Friends, they were opposed to any kind 
of military display.  John Blackburn and John Pope, and many other early settlers of 
Warrington, were temporarily suspended from meeting in 1758 for “appearing in warlike manner, 
and going to fight the Indians” during the French and Indian war.  The militia law which 
compelled every voter between the ages of twenty-one and forty-five, to muster regularly, pay a 
fine or go to jail, was a cause of great annoyance to the ardent followers of the religion of 
the great founder of Pennsylvania.  A few even accepted the last remedy and went to jail, or 
allowed some personal property to be sold to pay the fine rather than submit to what they 
considered an unjust law.

The militia muster grounds were at Rossville.  Joseph Wright and John Koch were captains of two 
of these companies.

The “Warrington Rangers” was a volunteer company, started in 1829, commanded at different times 
by Capt. Black, Baily, James Griffith, Lesley Porter and Martin.  It existed for many years.

Hugh Morthland, of Warrington, a soldier of the One Hundred and Fifty-second Pennsylvania 
Regiment, was accidentally killed at Fortress Monroe in 1865, while firing a salute in honor of 
the fall of Richmond.

The township of Warrington in 1783, including Washington, had 173 houses, 11 mills, and 
contained a population of 1170.  The population of Warrington alone in 1880, was 1825.  The 
number of taxable inhabitants in 1883, was 610; valuation of real estate, $630,295.