Columbia Pennsylvania History

Columbia, borough, is situated on the left bank of the Susquehanna, 28 miles below Harrisburg, and 11 miles west of Lancaster. A part of the town occupies the slope of a hill, which rises gently from the river, and the business part of the town lies along the level bank of the river. The scenery from the hills in the vicinity is magnificent. The broad river, studded with numerous islands and rocks, crossed by a long and splendid bridge, and bounded on every side by lofty hills, presents one of the finest landscapes in Pennsylvania.

The public buildings here are Catholic, Presbyterian, two Methodist and Baptist churches, a Quaker meeting-house, a town hall, a lyceum hall, and a bank. There are also several very extensive forwarding warehouses, boatyards, and machine-shops, connected with the public works. The junction here of the state railroad from Philadelphia with the main line of canal, with the railroad to York and the Tide-water canal to Maryland, renders Columbia a busy place. The main current of travelers which formerly passed through here has been diverted by the construction of the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad; but the emigrant travel still goes by way of Columbia. The borough was incorporated 25th February, 1814. Population in 1830, 2,046; in 1840, 2,719.

The bridge across the Susquehanna, constructed on the Burr plan, and resting on stone piers, is 5,690 feet, or more than a mile long. It cost $231,771, and was erected by a company in 1814, the state being a stockholder to the amount of $90,000. The whole capital of the company was $419,400, of which a portion has been employed in banking. The structure was greatly injured by the freshet of 1832, the ice having been piled even upon the roof of the bridge, and nearly one half the structure was swept away. It was repaired and again passable in 1834.

The Columbia and Philadelphia railroad, 81 6-10 miles long, was commenced in 1829. In April, 1834, a single track was completed throughout, and in October, 1834, both tracks were opened for public use. Major John Wilson had charge of the work until his death, in 1833, when he was succeeded by Edward F. Gay, Esq. The total cost, when it was opened for use in 1834, was $3,754,577.20; and afterwards additional work was done, and alterations made, increasing the cost to a total of $4,296,796.92. One of the alterations was to dispense with the inclined plane first constructed at Columbia, of 1,800 feet in length, and 90 feet in height. A more circuitous route for about six miles was completed in 1839, with a grade of 35 feet per mile, by which Columbia is reached without a plane. A similar change is contemplated at Philadelphia, but has not yet been adopted.

The following reminiscences are selected from an article in the Columbia Spy for 1832, derived from a respectable lady of the society of Friends. The article, and another of similar import, may be found more at length in the ninth volume of Hazard’s Register:—

About the year 1726 or 7, Robert Barber, of Chester, came to the eastern banks of the Susquehanna and took up 1,000 acres of land, bounded on the north-west by the Chicques hills, and to the southwest by what was afterwards called Patton’s hill. About 500 acres of this land are embraced in what is now Columbia. At that time, the noble river, pursuing its undisturbed course in solitude, or ruffled only by the light canoe of the Indian—the shore covered with lofty trees—must have presented a grand and imposing sight. The land was purchased of Jeremiah Langhorne, the agent of the proprietors.

After the purchase, Mr. Barber returned to Chester, and in 1728, he, with Samuel Blunston and John Wright, together with their families, left their homes in that place, and came to settle on the land which had been taken up the year before. These persons were members of the society of Friends. This journey was thought a very great undertaking; the country was uninhabited except by the Indians, who had their cabins in many places.

Samuel Blunston was the most wealthy of the three; he took 500 acres of the land next to the upper hills, and built where S. B. Heise now lives. The old house was pulled down some years since, to make room for the building which is now standing; the brick part of the building was afterwards built by him. His wife was a widow of the name of Bilton; her first husband kept a ferry over the Schuylkill. S. Blunston had no children; his estate went to two nieces, and is now held by the Bithels, their descendants.

John Wright took 250 acres of the land, and built his house where E. Wright and sisters now live; the house has been much repaired and altered, but a part of it remains as originally constructed. He came from Manchester, in England, among the early settlers of the province—was a preacher of the society of Friends, and for many years judge of the court. His speech to the grand jury may be seen in Proud’s History of Pennsylvania. He kept a store in Chester. He had two sons and three daughters. John, the eldest, kept the ferry on the west side of the Susquehanna, and built the ferry-house there. Susanna, the eldest of the daughters, did not leave England till some time after her father. She was a person of great note in this place; her education was superior to most of her day. She was consulted in all difficult matters—did all the writings necessary in the place—was charitable to the poor, and gave medicine gratis to all the neighborhood. She defended the cause of the Indians who were murdered by the Paxton Boys, and wrote in answer to a clergyman of Lancaster, who took the opposite side. Samuel Blunston left all his estate to her during her life, and at his death she and all the family removed to his house. She lived to a great age; and died as she had lived, in the principles of Friends. Patience, another daughter of John Wright, was married to Richard Lowden—the present John L. Wright is their descendant by his mother. Elizabeth, daughter of John Wright, married Samuel Taylor, who was the owner of a large tract of land near where Strasburg now stands; he sold his property there, and once owned what is now called Wrightsville. The Wrights in this place at the present time are the descendants of James Wright, the youngest son of John.

Robert Barber kept the 250 acres next, the lower hills; he came from Yorkshire, in England. He had followed the sea for some years, and had been a prisoner in France. He married Hannah Tidmarsh, in Chester or Philadelphia; she also came from England. Her father came to America some time before the rest of the family, and was accidentally shot by an Indian before her arrival. R. Barber settled further from the river than the others. He built the brick house now occupied by J. Hinkle. He was sheriff of the county, and in consequence of the intention to make this place the seat of justice, a prison was built near his house. It was a strong-looking log building, and was pulled down not many years since. In this prison, James, afterwards Lord Altham, was confined, having run away from his master.¹ R. Barber had several children; the eldest son, John, was killed by the Indians, near where Pittsburg now stands; he had gone thither to trade in fur, or what was then called trapping. His other sons settled on the land, but it is now owned by the Stricklers, except about 60 acres, which was the share of the second son, Robert. He married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Taylor, and had ten children; but at this time they are all gone, except one son and two daughters; the daughters live on the place, in the house which their father built 67 years ago. The old house was a few steps below the present mansion. In those days pine boards were little used; the joists, window and door frames were of oak. What little pine there is in the building was got out of logs picked up in the river, and sawed at a mill of Nathaniel Barber’s, on what was called Barber’s run, the same stream which Strickler’s large mill is on. Samuel Barber, another brother, had a fulling-mill on this stream.

The land back from the river was mostly settled by the Germans—the Forreys, Stricklers, Shirks, Garbers, &c. Their first purchases were from an old woman of the name of Mary Ditcher, who used to go through the country making what was then called improvements. These improvements consisted in piling a few sticks together, setting them on fire, and hanging a pot over; this was considered a first right; if they could then pay for the land, they had the privilege of keeping it. This Mary Ditcher appears to have been a singular person. She used to wander through the woods in a sheepskin dress, leading an old horse, her only property, with her knitting in her hand. The township in which Columbia is situated was called Hempfield, from the great quantities of hemp which were raised in it. Manor township, below this, was so called from the circumstance that the land in it was reserved for the proprietor.

Arthur Annesley (Lord Altham) married Mary Sheffield, natural daughter of the Earl of Buckingham. By her, in the year 1715, he had a son, James, the subject of this memoir. In the next year the parents had some differences, which terminated in a separation. The father, contrary to the wish of the mother, took exclusive possession of his son James, and manifested much fondness for him, until the year 1722, when he formed some intimacy with Miss Gregory; and about the same time his wife died. Miss G., expecting now to become his wife, exerted herself greatly to alienate his affections from his son, by insinuating that he was not his proper child; she succeeded to get him placed from home, at a school in Dublin. In November, 1727, Lord Altham died; and his brother Richard, wishing to possess the estate and title, took measures to get rid of his nephew James, by having him enticed on board an American vessel, which sailed from Dublin in April, 1728. He was landed at Philadelphia, then in his thirteenth year, and sold as a redemptioner! and actually served out 12 years in rough labor, until a seeming accident, in the year 1740, brought him to such acquaintance as led, in the next year, to his return home. The case was this: Two Irishmen, John and William Broders, travelling the Lancaster road, in the year 1740, stopped at the house near the 40 mile stone, where James was in service with an old German. These countrymen, entering into conversation, perceived they were severally from Dunmaine, in the county of Wexford, and that James Annesley was the son of Arthur. The two Broders volunteered to go back to Ireland, and to testify to the discovery they had made, and actually kept their word at the trial which afterwards occurred. James subsequently stated his case to Robert Ellis, Esq., of Philadelphia, who, compassionating his case, procured a passage for him to Admiral Vernon, then in the West Indies, by whom he was afterwards landed in England. But shortly after his arrival at London, James unfortunately killed a man, for which he had to stand a trial; and then Lord Altham, the unnatural uncle, exerted himself to have him convicted: but he was nevertheless acquitted as innocent. An action was brought against the uncle, and went to trial in November, 1743, and the verdict was given in favor of James, our redemptioner. The uncle appealed to the House of Lords; and while the case was pending, James died, leaving the uncle in quiet possession of his ill-gotten estate, showing, however, while he lived, which was not long, the spectacle of a finished villain, even in an Irish nobleman.

Some Irish families, of the name of Patton, settled on lands adjoining the lower part of Columbia. They gave the name to the hill, and to the current below the mouth of the run, which is well known by the name of Patton’s current. Tradition says that there was a great slaughter of the Indians at that place in the early settlement of the country, by a party of whites, led on by a person of the name of Bell. Our informant remembers seeing many places there, said to be the graves of the Indians who were killed in the battle; it was believed that a piece of cannon lay sunk in the current. To their last days, the Indians in this vicinity had a great dread of the name of Bell.

Below this, the settlers were principally Germans; the Stehmans, Kauffmans, Rupleys, Herrs, &c., were among the first. The township above, called Donegal, was settled by the Irish—the Andersons, Cooks, Tates, Kays, &c. Anderson’s ferry is well known where Marietta now stands.

Sixty years ago, where the gravel appears in low water, opposite the Miss Barbers‘, there was an island with large trees. Large buttonwood and other trees grew at the water’s edge; many of them were torn away by the ice. The first shad caught here with a seine was somewhere between 1760 and 65, at the east end of the river, just below the old ferry course.

The ferry across the Susquehanna at this place appears to have been early set up. At first it was necessarily very imperfect. Two large canoes lashed together were used to take over a wagon, which first had to be unloaded. In 1750, it rented for £100 per annum, with the ground allotted to it. The ferry course was a little below the bridge. Sixty years ago the idea of a bridge across the Susquehanna was laughed at.

Where the row of houses now stands on Water-street, below the turnpike, was what was called the bank, where the young people used to congregate for play. On it was a thicket of bushes, wild plum and mulberry trees, grape-vines, strawberries, and wild flowers. The school-house was where E. Wright and sisters now live.

The stone house now occupied by John L. Wright, was built some time between 1740 and 50; also the little stone mill on Shawnee run. They were built by James Wright, father of the present James and William Wright. There was flour made at this mill for the use of Braddock’s army; it was packed in small casks made for the purpose, and carried on pack-horses. It was taken to what was then called Raystown. There were a few small buildings scattered through the neighborhood, built mostly by persons who had served a time with the first settlers, as a compensation to them for paying their passage over to this country, they being themselves unable to pay. Many of them had come from Germany. One of the first of this kind of buildings now stands in the upper end of the town, and is occupied by Peter Mays. Adjoining this building, at the end towards the river, stood the first place for public worship in the town. It was a small squared log building; the logs are now in an outbuilding of Wm. Wright. Robert Barber, now in his 82d year, remembers attending meeting there. Catharine Peyton and Mary Pearly, public Friends from Ireland, held meetings there; they travelled the country on horseback. Before this building was erected, the meetings were held in private houses. At length, on account of the discipline not being properly attended to, it was altogether put down by the monthly meeting at Sadsbury. Some years since, however, they requested and obtained permission to hold meetings here again; they then built the present brick meeting-house.

Source

Day, Sherman, Historical collections of the State of Pennsylvania : containing a copious selection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its history and antiquities, both general and local, with topographical descriptions of every county and all the larger towns in the state, Philadelphia : George W. Gorton, 1843.

1. He came to this country in 1728, when quite young, and served his time as James Annesley with a tanner, on the Lancaster road. From some cause he ran away from his master; he was caught and confined in the prison in this place. He was considered a great singer, and the neighbors frequently visited the prison-house for the purpose of listening to him. The events of his life furnished the ground-work for Roderick Random, and the popular novel of Florence McCarthy. The facts concerning this singular case are taken from the evidence given on the trial, and may be depended on as authentic. [↩]