Suppose you find a dusty photo album in an attic.
Inside the snapshots tell the story of a family.
As you page through the album, you're traveling back through generations, a family at work,
at play, celebrating, even grieving.
And everything in the life of a family, of course, but these pictures speak to us about
the years past and the people who lived them.
This then is our album, a video album, showing snapshots from York County's past.
The photos speak about the people and the families who've lived before us on the west
bank of the Susquehanna and points west.
We can learn so many things from this rich heritage of ours, the history of those who've
lived here before us.
Their accomplishments, even the manner of their passing, can tell us much.
The first people who lived in this part of the country, along the Susquehanna in what
we call York County, Pennsylvania, were Native Americans.
The Susquehannocks, who came here about 1600, were a powerful people said to have been warlike.
In fact, when Captain John Smith explored here in 1608, he described them as giants.
He claimed that one warrior's calf measured 27 inches around.
The Susquehannocks left behind arrowheads, rock carvings, and other artifacts.
These have told us about their lives.
And gravesites have also told us that the Susquehannocks weren't really giants.
Many years after Captain Smith's explorations, European settlers arrived in the land of the
Susquehannocks.
In faraway England, King Charles II had granted to Quaker William Penn a large tract of land.
He named his new land Penn's Woods, or Pennsylvania.
Penn regarded his land as a haven for people who need freedom from religious persecution.
He welcomed new arrivals, but kept them from moving on to the land until they had purchased
it from the Susquehannocks.
This policy contributed to the relative peace between the Indians and their new neighbors.
Three groups of settlers came to the region.
The first were Germans, who were interested in farming.
They selected the fertile land located in the valley carved by the Crites, Codorus,
and Canawago creeks.
The central valley runs from the present-day town of Wrightsville through York to the Hanover
area.
A group of Scotch-Irish people arrived next.
They settled in the hilly, less fertile region in what is now southeastern York County.
The peace-loving Quakers gathered in a strip of settlements, crossing the uneven redlands
of northern York County.
But it was the arrival of a fourth group that brought trouble to Penn's Woods.
When a group of Roman Catholics from Maryland settled in what is now Long Level in York
County, they were regarded as squatters.
Without the permission of local officials, their leader, Thomas Cressop, built a plantation
or fort.
He called it Pleasant Gardens.
In the 1730s, war broke out between Cressop's group, the German settlers, and the local
officials.
During the conflict, Pleasant Gardens was burned.
Thomas Cressop was taken prisoner and sent to Philadelphia to face justice.
Real peace was not achieved in this region until the survey team of Mason and Dixon completed
their work.
The boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland was officially established in 1767.
The southern boundary for York County, which was established in 1749, stretches from the
Susquehanna River and the Mason-Dixon line toward Yellow Breeches Creek to the north
and the sun as it sets in the west over modern-day Adams County.
It's late in September, 1777.
The British have captured Philadelphia, the Continental Army is forced to flee, and so
are the delegates to the Continental Congress.
When the delegates arrived in York, they were tired, cold, and spattered with mud.
They hardly looked like the men in the portraits with which we're all so familiar.
York must have seemed like the edge of beyond to these men.
It was a frontier settlement on the border of civilization.
These were dark days for the patriot cause.
These are the times which try men's souls, said Thomas Paine.
The Continental Congress met daily during its nine-month stay in York and accomplished
much.
And it was at the Colonial Courthouse on York Center Square that the delegates voted to
send the Articles of Confederation to the governments of all 13 colonies.
The Articles provided for a plan to tie the colonies together into a group of independent
members of a central government.
It was in York as well that a conspiracy against General George Washington was played out.
The idea was to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates as the Commander-in-Chief of
the Continental Forces.
The plot, known as the Conway Cabal, was dissolved when a toast to General Washington was proposed
by General Marquis de Lafayette.
This was important because Lafayette represented France, and the delegates hoped that France
would become an ally in the war against the British.
With Lafayette's endorsement, the conspiracy against Washington was doomed.
Encouraging news soon reached the delegates.
The King of France had signed a treaty of alliance with the new United States.
Patriot sympathizers joined in celebration.
The courthouse bell rang.
Crowds cheered, and there was a new spirit of optimism among the delegates.
Finally, on June 20, 1778, messengers brought word that the British had evacuated Philadelphia.
The Continental Congress could return.
For nine months, York, Pennsylvania had been the capital of the United States.
The residents of this small frontier settlement had become part of events that will never
be forgotten.
Since the beginning, York County had an agricultural-based economy.
Farmers had staked out their acreage, and as the years passed, they grew prosperous,
tilling the rich limestone soil of the county's rolling countryside.
As the 1700s came to a close, children of these original settlers and newer immigrants
were increasingly developing trades.
Trades like ironmaking, carpentry, tanning, printing, and candle making.
One of the newcomers to York was William C. Goodridge, the son of a Maryland slave who
had become a trained barber.
The presence of barbers in York County tells us that some residents had disposable income.
The ability to pay someone to give them shaves and haircuts.
By the early 19th century, York was home to a growing middle class, and William Goodridge
had the foresight to grow with the times.
He began by offering more goods and services to his clientele, and before long, he needed
more room to house his growing business.
York's first skyscraper, a building of perhaps five stories, was built by Goodridge.
It housed his barber shop, newspaper distributorship, photography studio, and other retail shops.
Among his enterprises, Goodridge owned railway cars.
It's believed that he used them to transport runaway slaves as part of the Underground
Railroad.
His home here on York's East Philadelphia Street and other locations throughout the
county are thought to have been important links in the Underground network, helping
escaped slaves make their way to freedom in Canada.
Since he was a descendant of slaves, Goodridge was likely to be captured if the Confederate
Army reached York, but his business affairs continued as Confederates approached western
York County in late June 1863.
The Confederate Army, under the command of General Jubal Early, marched toward York.
When the town fathers met with the rebels west of Thomasville, they worked out a deal.
The Confederates would not burn the town if the citizens did not offer any resistance.
Upon arrival in York, however, General Early made further demands.
The town would not be set on fire if the citizens provided his army with $100,000 and immense
quantities of flour, sugar, coffee, molasses, salt, meat, food, hats, boots, and socks.
The citizens met the food and clothing demand, but raised only $28,000.
And less than a hundred years after the Continental Congress had met at the Old County Courthouse,
the American flag was taken down.
Meanwhile, General John B. Gordon's Confederate Brigade continued eastward to Wrightsville.
General Gordon intended to cross the mile-long bridge to the Lancaster County side of the
Susquehanna.
Union troops stationed at the bridge were outnumbered.
They were forced to retreat.
They tried to blow up one span of the bridge to prevent the rebels from crossing.
The bridge caught fire.
Suddenly, the homes and businesses nearby were in danger.
Confederate soldiers joined local men and women in forming a bucket brigade to douse
the flames.
Soon after, General Lee recalled his troops from York County.
A major battle was taking shape west of York in Gettysburg.
As the Confederate infantry was leaving, a short battle took place in Hanover.
Cavalry units of Confederate Cavalier Jeb Stuart and the Union's George Armstrong Custer
and other Yankee generals engaged in fighting which was to affect the outcome of the Battle
of Gettysburg.
Cavalry units are known as the eyes and ears of the commanding general.
So when Jeb Stuart's enormous cavalry was delayed by the action, General Lee was forced
to begin the battle at a disadvantage.
Aside from the Wrightsville Bridge, York County escaped major damage from the war, and it
became one of the few locations north of the Mason-Dixon line to have played a significant
role in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
At the time, however, some Countians were embarrassed that the Confederates did not
meet with more resistance.
That's why throughout its history, York has placed more emphasis on the county's role
in the Revolutionary War.
Cassandra Small lived in York through the dark days of York's occupation.
A portion of a letter she wrote during that time reads, it is a matter never to be forgotten.
It's 1887.
Times are changing.
Since before anyone can remember, farmers have sold their goods in outdoor market sheds.
But now, York is a bustling city.
The roads crowded with wagons, horses pulling trolley cars on rails through the town square.
And soon, electric trolley cars will connect the outlying communities with the county seat.
It's time to demolish the open-air markets.
According to a newspaper article of the time, the markets are not known for their beauty,
and townspeople have been objecting to the odors which have come from the old sheds.
On a June morning, about 20 men with mules and horses tear down the sheds.
Farmers can now do business in large covered markets.
At least 50% of the county's land would be used for agriculture for the next 100 years.
But the county is progressing.
Gone are the days, said the newspaper, that the York area can devote its very commercial
center to a retail trade in squalling hens, slobbering calves, and squealing pigs.
These are the years of major industrial development.
The growth of industry creates the need for more workers.
The county becomes the destination for people seeking opportunity.
And among these people are those from the Deep South, people of African-American descent
attracted by the prospect of employment.
They come by railroad, crossing the Mason-Dixon line, passing New Freedom, Glen Rock, traveling
through the Howard Tunnel.
Among these people are those from Bamberg, South Carolina.
Many Bambergers are the descendants of Isaac and Josephine Grayson Nimins.
Several of the Nimins' 14 children settled in York.
They were later joined by nieces and nephews.
The Bambergers are just part of thousands who arrive in York County between 1880 and
1930.
During this period, York's population grows four times larger.
The industrial growth, which attracts the Nimins family, beckons to others who are different
from the German, English, and Scots-Irish families which had dominated the county.
Their contributions and those of longtime county residents led to the success of companies
like P.H.
Gladfelter, York Manufacturing, which is now York International, A.B.
Farquhar, and others, manufacturing, farm machinery, safes, automobiles, wallpaper,
and dentures.
War
and once again, York County is doing its part.
So many of its men are facing the enemy abroad.
And on the home front, York County has developed what is known as the York Plan.
The York Plan functions as a guide for the county's war efforts.
Business leaders work to get government contracts for the manufacture of war equipment and supplies.
The people behind the plan have a slogan, to do what we can with what we have.
With so many of the county's men away from home, women take their places in the production
lines.
At home and overseas, the county throws all of its efforts into winning the war.
Off the coast of Greenland, the SS Dorchester is heading towards Russia.
Suddenly, the ship is hit by enemy torpedoes.
It's going down.
The ship's four chaplains, including York County's Rabbi Alexander Good, give their
life belts to others and go down with the ship.
The six Williams brothers all joined armed forces.
Less than two months before the end of the war, Private First Class Charles Williams
is killed in Italy.
York native Jacob L. Devers leads the allied invasion of southern France.
He returns home a four-star general.
Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday the 8th of
May.
York County families pay a terrible price in the war.
570 residents are killed before peace is declared in 1945.
A Springisbury township farm turns into the York plant of America's foremost manufacturer
of earth-moving equipment, Caterpillar.
Caterpillar changes York's industrial environment, pulling skilled workers from other manufacturers
and introducing a higher wage scale to the county marketplace.
Former soldiers are getting married and starting families.
They found work, but they need housing.
Soon, tracts of homes are built on much of the county's rich farmland.
That's because the city's population grows by more than 13 percent in just 10 years.
And with few building sites left in the city, developers create the suburbs.
Shopping centers soon follow.
The Caterpillar plant offers employment at good wages.
It also introduces outside ownership.
One-by-one, locally owned industries sell to companies with out-of-town headquarters.
In 1988, for example, the maker of York Peppermint Patties, York's trademark Cool Breeze candy,
sells out to Hershey Foods.
The candy-making operation is moved to Reading the next year.
A ship from China brings York to national attention.
The Golden Venture runs aground off the shore of New York.
The Chinese passengers jump into the water and try to reach the shore.
Immigration officials put the refugees in jail, sending them to detention centers in
various parts of the country.
154 are sent to York County Prison.
Their plight attracts the attention of the world and the sympathy of some York residents.
Many gather outside the prison for prayer sessions.
While the fate of the prisoners is debated, the men of the Golden Venture make colorful
sculptures out of magazine pages, bath tissue, hair, and other everyday objects.
Their artwork is well-publicized and quickly becomes popular.
At the same time, York County officials sign a multi-million dollar contract with the immigration
service to construct a new wing of the prison.
It can house up to 100 prisoners.
More than three years after the Golden Venture's grounding, President Clinton releases the
last of the prisoners.
Some stay in the York area, becoming part of the immigration that had begun back in
1728.
Well we've come to the end of our album.
We've looked back over 250 years of York County's rich, full history.
What will the next 250 years bring?
Will someone someday look back at the events of our time and the contributions we'll be
making?
Will the historians of tomorrow say that our best work is worthy of remembering?
Let's hope that when our achievements are judged, it will be said that we and our time
are never to be forgotten.
Thank you.