AREA HISTORY: Wrightsville, York County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis Copyright 2005. 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. _______________________________________________ THE BOROUGH OF WRIGHTSVILLE* – Page 595 WRIGHT’S FERRY was one of the first ferries on the Susquehanna, and for many years the most important one over the lower part of the stream. In 1726 Robert Barber, Samuel Blunston and John Wright, Quakers, came from Chester County and settled upon the east bank of the river, where Columbia now stands. Wright took up 250 acres lying south of Walnut Street in Columbia, and Blunston, 500 acres north of that street. In two or three years after their arrival, John Wright took up several hundred acres of land on the west bank of the river, extending from the creek up to John Hendricks’ land, about 200 yards above the bridge. Although the Proprietaries of the province prohibited any settlement west of the river, and refused to issue a license to any one except John Wright and John and James Hendricks, several families from Chester County settled in Conojohela (now called Canodocholy) Valley, four miles lower down the river, who were removed in 1730. A number of German families came over the river and settled in the valley. These settlements having been planted west of the river it was with great difficulty others were restrained from joining them.** John Wright saw the necessity of establishing a ferry and applied for a patent, but on account of the opposition of a rival application at the larger settlement in Conestoga Manor, four miles below Wright’s, he did not procure his patent until 1733. Immediately thereafter John Wright and Samuel Blunston petitioned the court to appoint viewers to lay out a public road from the ferry at the foot of Walnut Street, in Columbia, to the borough of Lancaster, which road was laid out and confirmed by the court in 1734. John Wright, Jr., son of John Wright, removed to the west side of the river and erected a ferry house at the foot of Hellam Street. He received a license to keep a public house for the years 1736-37-38- 39, and, in 1739, a public road was laid out from his ferry, extending thirty- four miles, and connecting with the Monocacy road in Maryland, and from thence to the Potomac at the base of the great Virginia Valley. In the year 1729, Joshua Minshall, John and James Hendricks, Quakers, came from the east side of the river. John Hendricks received a license for 350 acres of land extending along the river above John Wright’s and Minshall settled about a mile and a half back from the river on the land now owned by John Strickler and George D. Ebert. John Wright, Jr., was quite a prominent man. He was elected a member of the Assembly for York County at the first election after the erection of the county in 1749, and annually re-elected until and including 1759. He died about the year 1763. Wright’s Ferry, during and after the Revolutionary war was well known throughout the entire country, being the principal thoroughfare over the Susquehanna, and from the celebrity gained in this way, became one of the points name for the National Capital. Mr. Parton in his “Life of Jefferson,” gives an interesting account of the proceedings of Congress on this subject, while sitting in New York, in 1789 and 1790. Condensing his language, he says: “A ring loomed up dimly upon the imagination of members, supposed to have been formed ‘out of doors,’ in order to fix the Capital at Wright’s Ferry, on the Susquehanna. The members from New England and New York agreed in preferring it, as the point nearest the center of population, wealth and convenience; and for many days it seemed to have a better chance than any of the other place proposed – Harrisburg, Baltimore, New York, Germantown and Philadelphia. But Wright’s Ferry lost its chance through the opposition of the southern members and the ring rumor was the ass jaw-bone which they used to kill the project. The members from New England and New York denied the offensive charge, and contended that Wright had fixed his ferry at the point which would be the center of population for ages to come. With regard to the country west of the Ohio – an unmeasurable wilderness – Fisher Ames was of the opinion (and it was everybody’s opinion) that it was perfectly romantic to allow it any weight in the decision at all. When it will be settled, or how it will be possible to govern it, said he, is past calculation.” Southern gentlemen, on the other hand, denied the centrality of Wright and maintained that the shores of the noble Potomac presented the genuine center to the nation’s choice. And so the debate went on day after day. The Susquehanna*** men triumphed in the House, but the senate sent back the bill with Susquehanna stricken out and Germantown inserted. The House would not accept the amendment, and the session ended before the place had been agreed upon. The subject being resumed in the spring of 1790, it was again productive of heat and recrimination; again the South was outvoted and the Potomac rejected by a small majority. Baffled in the House, Southern men renewed their efforts over Mr. Jefferson’s wine and hickory-nuts in Maiden Lane. It was agreed at length that for the next ten years the seat of government should be Philadelphia, and finally, near Georgetown.” * By W. W. Moore, Esq. ** For a history of the troubles of early settlers see article on that subject, pp 47-73. *** According to the speeches in Benton’s “Debates of Congress” the east side of the Susquehanna was designated as the proposed site of the Capital. (Ed.)