•tm1mH1Im1Im1Im1Im1Im~1Im1Im~~~l!m~~~•1Im~mHl!mmH~~~~~~m•l!m~l!m~. * * HISTORY of NEWVILLE * * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-----~~i Dear countrymen, what' er is left to us Of ancient heritage, Of manners, speech, of humours, polity, The limited horizon of our Htage- Old love, hope, fear, All this I fain would fix upon the page. -THOMAS EDWARD BROWN * * *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-~~- * * * * * * THE OLD LAUGHLIN MILL I 7 6 2 * * * *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~· ~ffiB~~mBmBmBmBffiB~~mBffiBmBlmlffiBmBffiBffiBffiB~ffiBFimffiBffiBII@~~~ffiH * * * * ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The members of the Publication Committee acknowledge their debt to Border Life by J. Pritt, Report of the Commission to locate the site of the Frt'ntier Forts of Pennsylvania, Churches of the Valley by the Rev. Alfred Nevin, History of Pennsylvania by Samuel S. Bates, Notes of Dr. James Scouller, Address on the Presbyterians of the Cumberland Val­ ley by Dr. E, Erskine, History of the Cum-­ berland Valley by Dr. George P. Donehoo, Notes of Mr. John M. Reed, History of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church by Mr. Gilbert E. Swope, Boyhood Memories of Mr. William McCandlish. ~~~ffiB~ffiB~ffiB~mBffiB~~ffiBffiB~~ffiB~~~~ffiBffiBffiB~~~~** * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * * FOREWORD When I used to go to Newville as a boy it was a strange experience. It was generally in tho early summer after school was out and the town by then was warm and sleepy and powdered with lime-stone dust from the streets. No dust, tho11gh, was inside the houses of my relatives and their friends. Everything was immaculate and the rocking chairs and horsehair sofas and sedate family portraits gleamed in a rich simplicity that even then I felt to be in better taste than the more ornate and heavily self conscious houses of Har­ risburg. There waR a fine traditior. of good housekeeping nnd good food and a deep interest in such matters so •hat while there was 'help' the houoe was not turned over to servants as it often was at home. The woman of the house kept charge herself and the house was better for it. But tlicse women and their men and the youngsters who were my cousins were sometimes confusing to my mind. In some ways I liked them better than the people at home, they were easier in their fashions, more truly friendly, more alive. But if easier in their fashions they were stricter in their notion~ of the proprieties and they were mor~ concerned about other folks affairs, in­ cluding mine, than I was used to. They knew more about m~ before I landed than most people did at home and what they didn't know they were going to find out. Maybe they cared more, though I am not sure of that. By now I've had experience of life in small towns and big towns and in cities and the country and I don't know which has the biggest advantages or drawbacks .. But I am sure that it takes more quality in a man or woman to stay generous and big in a small town than anywhere else, In the country you can stay away from people; in the bigger places you can ignore them. But in a small town you have to take people as they are, and be taken on the same terms. A lot of people are made petty or mean or pusillanimous by thnt close con~Jlct but when you run into those who are not you have about the best men and women this country has produced, able to live close to people of all sorts and still remain kindly and frnnk and independent, their attitude to man­ kind based, not on sentiment or theory, but on knowledge; their independence not on avoiding the herd with its blind prejudices but on resisting it. The small town is the easiest place for smaH people to live in but the hardest for big people and, I believe, the best, In this country of ours there is much to enrage and shame us and more that we can believe in and love and I think that the people who understand and feel this most deeply and clearly are those who have had a Newville somewhere in their lives. JAMES BOYD. * * @~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i * * C"oming Back I daresay if I were to tell, What I do miss or here or there, In this old town I love so well- What shrill of laughter down the air I Each door was wide and painted white; And every day its plate ,,f brass, A small maid servant polished bl'ight, Until it shone like any glass. Each Covenanter name stood plain, A mellow mouthful yet pricked through With fighting yesters, heard again Like clash of spears across the dew. A hundred things and more are gone In this old town where' er I pass; But most of all, fr1>m dawn to dawn, I miss the little plates of brass. -LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I-IISTORY OF NEWVILLE Newville face of the valley, presenting to the eye all .. Perhaps there are those here today who along, a varying aspect of extended forests would like to know just where and what this with here and there intervening patches of Cumberland Valley is. ror:ks, the changing drapery of floating mtsts, the fleeing shadows of ever passing clouds, J answer, that it is a part of that extended and all the diversified hues of spring, sum­ valley which lies between two chains of that mer and autumn foliage. To the dweJlers in great Appalachian range of h i I 1 s Jl n d the valley it is ever a most pleasing object of mountains which runs in a northeasterly and sight and very restful and grateful to the eye. southwesterly direction across the eastern half The South Mountain, which runs along of this continent and which is from twelve to the other side, elopes more graduaJly into the twenty miles in width the whole length of it. valley than the North and is broken into knobs Starting out from the southern part of the State and spurs with deep intervening recesses, and of Vermont, under different names at differ­ is alike an object pleasant to behold. ent stages of its progress, it runs down through eaJJtern New York, crossing the Hudson at The surface of the valley itself is varied by Newburg: coming on thr1_;ugh Pennsylvania, it hills, plains and dales, and is noted for the crosses the Delaware at Easton, the Susque­ fertility of its so~I, for its numerous great and hanna tlt Harrisburg and the Potomac at eve• flowing springs, and itsi clear running Harper"s Ferry; and running on down through streams, for its abundant crops of grain and Virginia, it crosses the Jamee River at Lynch­ its pure and bracing atmosphere. In all these burg and then runs around through Tennessee respects it is perhaps unsurpassed by any other and on down into Alabama. valley of equal extent in any part of the American continent. Now, that part of this extended valley Attractive as this vall.ey thus is, its settle­ which is called Cumberland Valley, is that ment was delayed by reason of the Indian part which lies between the Susquehanna and claim lo it, which was not purchased until the the Potomac rivers and takP-s its name from year I 7 36 and also somewl.at by reason of Cumberland County, the first county organiz­ the controversy pending between the two ed in it, and which name was taken from a Provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland in county in the North of England, bordering on relation to the boundary line between them Scotland. which was not adjusted until I 7 3 7, nor con­ By many it has been much regretted that firmed by Manon and Dixon's survey until it had not been allowed to retain its original 1763." Indian name, that of the Kittatinny Valley, It is not definitely known when man first the valley of endless mountains. occupied the beautiful stretches of the Cum­ berland Valley, the name by which that valley Its Scenery, Soil and Climate is now known. The wilderness and winding From the Susquehanna to the Potomac, streams of water lured the Indians. Game the Kittatinny, or the North Mountain, as it is was abundant and numerous hiding places commonly called, Hf ts up its long and almost and a net work of trails gave traders and level line of summit to the height of from squatters an outlet to the Potomac, the Ohio seven to twelve hundred feet above the sur- and the Susquehanna rivers where rude river • I 7 9 0 150 th ANNIVERSARY craft enabled them to· dispose of their furs carried on trade with the Shawnees. Dr. and other spoils. The Warrior Trail, the George P, Donahue says-..In the 'Extract of War Trail and the Great Trail of the Indians Conrad Weiser's Journal' August 1748 among in I 735 were followed by the Grent Wagon the places and distances noted from Croghan' s Road. This road ran from Harris' Ferry, now (Sterrett's Gap) iE the home of Robert Dun­ Harrisburg, through Silver Spring, lo the ning near the present town of Newville. The north of Carlisle crossing the Big Spring into distance 20 miles." ''Peter Chartier also was Newville, continuing west in a straight line lo a keen, resourceful French Swiss trader with the outskirts of the town, then turning south, the Indians and received his appointment to 1unning back of what is now the United Pres­ this post from the court &l Lan~aster. He byterian Church, on to the Big Spring and married a Shawnee 6quaw and was noted for following the course of the stream to its head his just and honest dealings with the Indians." and the town of Springfield, and continuing on Another trail crossed at McFarlane's Gap, for through the valley to the Potomac River.