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~Contents~


Excerpted from The People of Bowmansville, Charles D. Spotts, Community Historians Annual, Number 9

To
The 18th Century Pioneers
Christian Good
Jacob Good
John Musselman
* * * * *
[Note:the researcher is a descendant of both Good pioneers]
***************

THE OLDEST INHABITANT OF THE BOWMANSVILLE AREA


The story of Bowmansville begins with the fossil of a small dinosaur which lived in this area at least 200 million years ago.

"In 1956 a small reptile skeleton was discovered by Norman Waltz in the Brunswick formation, near Bowmansville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Mr. Waltz very wisely,presented the specimen to the North Museum of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. A photograph of the specimen was sent by John W. Price, Sr., curator of the North Museum, to the United States National Museum, where the picture was identified by David Dunkle as very probably indicating a skeleton of Hypsognathus fenneri. Subsequently Dr. Price submitted the specimen to the present writer for study, the results of which "have,classified the specimen as belonging to a new species, Sphodrosaurus pennsylvanicus."

The name for this new genus, Sphodrosaurus, means literally a "robust lizard," because of the toughness of the skeleton. Although it was less than a foot long and resembled a frog it was actually a lizard.

Dr. John Price, of the North Museum is tremendously excited about this fossil of one of the early inhabitants of Brecknock Township. It is a Triassic dinosaur. This is the only fossil of this species ever to be found.

The quarry, now abandoned, where Norman Waltz found this fossil is situated about two miles east of Bowmansville, north of the road which ascends Yellow Hill. Dr. Price reports that "The quarry ... occurs in the baked portion of the Brunswick Shale; a large diabase intrusion to the east was the source of heat that baked the shale. Scattered about the quarry are rounded masses of hornfels; the spheroidal weathering caused by exfoliation of thin layers gives these objects a concretionary aspect. The quarry contains a grey shale of the Brunswick Formation, Newark Series, Upper Triassic."

CHAPTER ONE
Mennonite Pioneers

Although the year 1970 represents the sesquicentennial of the founding of the village of Bowmansville, Mennonite immigrants came into the area much earlier.

Robert Warburton, a Welshman, received the first warrant for 177 acres of land within Brecknock Township, January 9, 1737, but there is no evidence that he ever settled on the land. This tract was later transferred to William Morris, who purchased extensive tracts from the Penns.

This monograph is limited to the history of that part of Brecknock Township in which the village of Bowmansville is Iocated. which was first settled by Mennonites from the Palatinate and Switzerland.

The first settlers in the Bowrnansville area arrived in Philadelphia on the Ship Samuel, from Rotterdam, but last from Cowes in Great Britain. Professor William John Hinke'-s list of Pennsylvania German Pioneers includes among those on board the Ship Samuel, "Jacob Guth (20) and his wife Susanna (20), and John Mosiman (25) and his wife Anna (20)." Jacob's brother, Christian Guth, does not appear on any of the ship lists, but this is not unusual; many lists are not complete. Since Christian and his wife came with his brother, Jacob, and his brother-in-law, John Mosiman, into Brecknock Township six years later, we can assume that he, and perhaps his wife, were on the Ship Samuel, when it arrived on August 11, 1732, the year that George Washington was born.

In the list of the signers of the oath of allegiance Guth is spelled "Gut"; and Mosiman, is spelled "Muselman". Guth eventually became "Good"; and Mosiman became "Musselman". These three couples-Jacob and Susanna Good, Christian Good and his wife, John and Anna Musselman, first settled near Weaverland; and later, in 1738, moved into Brecknock Township in the area where Bow- mansville is now located.

Christian Good settled on the south fork of the mid-branch of the Muddy Creek, at the southern edge of the village of Bowmansville. Here he erected the first grist mill in the area. The first building may have been a combination of mill and dwelling, as well as the building in which the first Mennonite church services in the area were held.

Christian Good was married twice, reared a family of 17 children, 6 sons and 11 daughters-a good-sized family in any century. His will dated August 11, 1757, appointed his eldest son, Jacob, as one of the executors. Many of his descendents have remained in the Bowmansville area.

The land that was granted to Christian Good lay east of the Muddy Creek and included most of what is the present village of Bowmansville. The tract of about four hundred acres ran due east and west to the Muddy Creek. On this land a dam was built, with a mill race, to supply water, with which to operate the mill. The dam was some distance east of the mill.

A deed of December 4, 1784, contains a most interesting reference to the mill race, which by this time belonged to someone else's property. "Jacob Good assigns all the water (in Muddy Creek) which runs in the water race through the said Jacob Good's land to carry the water on to the said John Good's mill." Permission is given to John Good "to pass and repass a foot path up and down on the banks of the said race or water course to see whether there in any need for cleaning and repairing the said race or whatever necessities there is a wanting and to make the said water race as broad and as wide as he pleases and occasion require the water in the said mill to throw mud and earth of repairing and cleaning of the said race on the shore or bank thereof and to go with a wagon and horses up and down by and on the bank where the water breaks out to haul stones or anything there to prevent the water from breaking over the bank of said water race and to do as little damage with the wagon and horses on the premises of the said Jacob Good as possible and the said Jacob Good his heirs Executors administrators or assigns must find a man yearly and every year just one day for to help to clean said water race or to pay the price of two shillings and six pence hard money yearly and every year hereafter."
The present mill was built in 1850 by Henry Von Neida, father of Adam Von Neida, who operated the mill when I was a boy. many times I took roasted corn to this mill in order to have corn meal ground. Mush was our stable winter breakfast. I also took weekly trips to this mill for 'chop' for the hogs, and for the horse feed for our speedy black horse. The cedar log which became the mantle for the fireplace in our summer cabin, east of Bowmansville, was sawed at the Von Neida saw mill.

This mill property is now owned by the Stewart Keans, a young couple from Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Keans own 33 acres, including the dam, the mill race and a stone house. Both the mill and the house have been beautifully restored. On route 625 the traveler drives between the mill and the house as he enters Bowmansville; the mill is on the right side when travelling north.

Jacob Good, Christian's brother, received a warrant for a tract of 628 acres, west of the Muddy Creek, adjoining the land, later settled by Casper Messner, on the south. He erected a house on the right bank of the stream, a short distance above the confluence of the two forks of the mid branch of the Muddy Creek. In building this first house Jacob Good was assisted by the Zimmermans from Weaverland, with whom he had become acquainted during the six years that he lived in that area.

The Jacob Goods thought that they were the only settlers west of the Muddy Creek until "one day, while he was wandering through the woods some distance from his house he heard the clarion call of a rooster ... The country was a wilderness, one vast forest, inhabited by wild beasts and Indians. As yet there were no roads, no houses, gardens, fields or orchards."

I passed the location of Jacob Good's house when I walked from our home on Water Street to the White Oak one-room school, where I began my teaching career 53 years ago. An 18th century stone house stands at this place, now occupied by the family of John and Mrs. Hoover, with 13 children. The Hoovers are members of the Reidenbach Mennonite Church. To reach their house one must drive over a one-way bridge, crossing the Muddy Creek.

Jacob Good, son of the first Jacob, moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where his descendents still live. Jacob was rnarried twice; his descendents by his first wife continue to live in the area. Peter, Jacob's only other child, with his family moved to Cumberland County.

The brother-in-law of the Good brothers, John Musselman, located on a tract about one mile north of the Good mill, along the north branch of the Muddy Creek. John and Anna Musselman were Mrs. Spotts' paternal ancestor's. I therefore have the distinction of having married a descendent of one of the first three settlers in the Bowmansville area. The Musselman's have remained in this area for 232 years. One of Mrs. Spotts' sisters still lives in Bowmansville.

The 1750 Tax Returns for Brecknock Township include John Mosseman with 50 acres of land, 2 cows, and 1 horse. In the Returns for 1757 he is listed as Hans Musselman, with 100 acres, 3 cows and 4 horses. By 1758 he reports 300 acres (35 cleared). From the Tax Returns I was able to get considerable information about Mrs. Spotts' ancestor, John Musselman. He must have prospered as indicated by the fact that he was able to add 250 acres to his holdings from 1750-1758. He was the Tax Collector for Brecknock Township in 1761. Since his name does not appear on Tax Returns after 1762, we can assume that he died some time during the latter part of 1762, at the age of 55.

The widow of Christian Burkholder left Switzerland in 1755 with her six children, emigrated to the Bowmansville area. The third son of Mrs. Burkholder was Ulrich(February, 1750-September 10, 1804). He was only 5 years old when he arrived in America.

Ulrich married Ann (?) and remained on the farm on which his mother settled in 1755. One of his sons, Christian (born February 3, 1783) married Elizabeth Bauman. During 1816 they accompanied the group of Brecknock Township farmers who migrated to Ontario, Canada. He conveyed his possessions and family in a heavily loaded wagon drawn by five horses and made the journey overland. He paid $1200 for 100 acres, 25 of which were cleared, on which stood a small house and a log barn.

Christian's father Ulrich, remained on the family farm and later became a minister in the Bowmansville Mennonite Church, having been ordained in 1785. In the 1783 Brecknock Township Tax Assessor's List he is described as a "smith", owning 100 acres, 3 houses, I barn, 2 horses and 9 horned cattle.

The Burkholder tract of 130 acres was located about one-half mile east of where the village now stands, between the Christian Good and John Musselman tracts. The buildings, at first a log house and a log barn, were reached by a long lane.

Later, Francis Diller, another Mennonite, erected the first distillery in the area, about one mile north of John Musselman's farm, on what became the John Frees farm. During 1790 the Dillers moved to near Newville, in Cumberland County. Their house, in Cumberland County, was used as a meeting house until 1820, when the Diller Mennonite Church was built.

The reader should not be surprised that the first distillery in the Bowmansville area was started by a Mennonite farmer. I am quite certain that the Swiss Mennonites had a distillery at Schaefferstown long before Francis Diller settled in Brecknock Township. The immigrants who came from Germany and Switzerland between 1683 and 1873 had no scruples against moderate drinking and many of them brought with them experience and skills in the distilling of alcoholic liquor.

Abraham Overholt, who was during his whole lifetime (d. 1870) an active member of the Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Congregation, and served at different times as a trustee there, and whose brother was a Mennonite minister and Bishop, established at Broadford, nearby, in 1810, a distillery which has developed into a major industry now a part of the Schenley Distilleries Corporation, which still sells a whiskey labelled "Old Overholt," with a picture of Abraham on the label."

Other 18th century farmers who lived in the Bowmansville area included:"
Name.................................Acres................Cows..............Horses
George Brandle .................................. 50 ..................... 2....................1
George Heft ........................................ 50 ..................... 2................... 1
Abraham Kern...................................... 50.......................1....................1
Philip Steffe.......................................... 50 ......................2 ...................1
Philip Stover (poor).................................25.......................1.....................1
Jacob Beam (able) Andrew Surtzer....... 50 ......................1.....................1
Adam Beam (blacksmith)
Casper Messner (able) ........................ 50...................... 2....................2
Jacob Oberholtzer................................ 50

Harry Schweitzer is a descendent of Jacob Oberholtzer, and lived for some years on the Oberholtzer farm. He has a deed dated 1762, when the farm was transferred to Samuel Oberholtzer.

John Seibert appears, for the first time, in the 1751 Tax Returns. John Dice appears first in 1759.

The 1790 (First Census of the United States) includes the following heads of families who lived in the Bowmansville area: four Messners - Michael, Christian, Philip, and Christian, Jr.; three Beams-Peter, Adam, and John; four Goods-Christian, Abraham, Jacob, and John; four Kerns-Ifenry, George, Christ, and Peter; Jacob Becker, Jacob Breidenstine, John Stover, Philip and George Steffy, Ulrich and John Burkholder, Mathias Musselman (preacher), Christ Heft, John Bowman, and Jacob Fonnada. Not all of these were Mennonites.

The Lancaster County poet, Lloyd Mifflin has immortalized the Mennonite immigrants of Lancaster County and other places in his poem, "The Pioneer of Peace: The Mennonite Farmer."

"Like some great patriarch of old he stands
Among the sheaves-far from the town's embroil-
Bearded and grey, true sovereign of the soil;
A later Boaz, at whose wise commands
The harvest turns to gold, Lord of wide lands,
Mellowed by cycles of unending moil,
He typifies the dignity of toil,
As earth attests the power of his hands.

Driven by persecution to our shore,
A man of peace and Christian tolerance rare,
With tranquil faith he thro' life's tumult goes,
Nor ever turns the needy from his door.
While t-hro' the years of patient work did prosper
He makes the valleys blossom as the rose."
Norwood August 1910

CHAPTER TWOO
Reformed and Lutheran Settlers

On September 11, 1729, the Ship Allen brought from Cowes on the Isle of Wright, England, five persons, whose name on the Captain's list is spelled "Snyder"; on the Oath of Allegiance list, "Schneider," and on the Oath of Abjuration list, "Schneder." The names are Christian, Jacob, and Mathias; Magdelin and Susanah. Apparently two of the men were married. It is believed that the home of the Schneders was in Switzerland, near the boundary line of Baden and Wurtemburg. After landing at Philadelphia they soon started for (Weberthal) Weaverland, where their friends, George, Henry and Jacob Weber had preceded them by several years. The Schneders were followers of Zwingli, but the Webers were Mennonites.

Of the three Schneders, Christian remained in Weaverland and became the progenitor, among many others, of the late Aaron W. Snader, Esquire, once member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Mathias and Jacob went northeast and took up, by patent, 250 acres of land about where Center Church now stands, two miles south of Bowmansville. Jacob also purchased land from William Morris, the Welshman who received one of the first warrants for land within Brecknock Township.

The first Jacob had a son Jacob, born March 8, 1735, less than six years after his parents had landed in the New World. He settled at a splendid spring of water, and in 1770, the date being plainly marked on the west gable, he built the very substantial house, which still stands near Center Church, remodeled and somewhat enlarged. Its walls are two feet thick. It contained an enormous fireplace. Before he died in 1829, 94 years old, he had become possessed of some 1000 acres of land. He is buried a few rods in from the gate of the Center Church graveyard, alongside of his small daughter, Elisabet, who died in 1777.

The early history of Center Reformed Church is, in a sense, the history of the Schneder family. It was originally called Center Church because it is centrally located in respect to the four congre- gations from which its early membership was chiefly drawn- New Holland Zeltenreich's(1732) and Muddy Creek(1730) in Lancaster County; and Allegheny (1767) and Forest (Plow-1780) in Berks County. Burials were made in a stony tract on the Jacob Schneder farm before the Center Congregation was organized. Jacob Schneder's daughter Elizabet, who died in 1777, was probably not the first to be buried in this tract, although the beginnings of this congregation seems to coincide with this burial.' At first a small rough building was used for Services. At least eight generations of Schneders are buried in this cemetery, which was one time a part of Jacob Schneder's farm. The name St. John's was given to the congregation in 1872.

We don't know how many children Jacob Schnader had, but there is a tradition that he built, or helped his children build, four large stone houses, three of which still remain as notable landmarks: the one known as the Schweitzer house,"' along Route 625, and on which is located one of the few sulpher springs to be found in Lancaster County; the Stauffer house, built for his son Christian, in 1795; and the Joel Eshelman house, restored some years ago by the late Dr. John Wenger of Terre Hill. In addition, he purchased for his son, Baltzer, what was long known as the Christian Pleam place, near the White Oak School, the place on which Casper Messner had built a stone mansion. Baltzer moved here April 10, 1796, having lived in Franklin County for several years, and occu- pied this place until 1826, when he built the stone house that still stands on the former Bender farm. He sold the first farm to Christian Pleam, who died in the old house March 13, 1877. Like his father, Baltzer Schneder lived a long life (1765-1853), being 87 years old when he died.

The above Baltzer, the third generation, was the father of 13 children. Mrs. Spotts has a pink plate which was used in the home of the 3rd generation of the Schneder family.

Amos, the eleventh child of Baltzer and Barbara (Kitzmiller) Schneder, was born on New Year's Day, 1807 at the old Baltzer Schneder homestead, and lived to be 91. Mrs. Spotts has a blue cup and saucer which was used in the home of Amos Schneder.

Baltzer the second, the only son of Amos was born on September 25, 1831. He was reared on his father's farm, and in his youth he learned the shoemaker trade. He was also, for some time, the mail carrier between Bowmansville and Blue Ball. On January 13, 1853, he married Elizabeth Bowman, daughter of Martin and Mary Bowman. The home of her parents was the second stone house erected in the village, built by her father in 1830. After his marriage, Baltzer built the brick house next south of the Bowman house. There he started business as a shoemaker, but the confined life of this trade injured his health. He purchased the farm which had been established by his grandfather Baltzer. He labored long and hard, and lived to be 91, as had his father. I remember this Baltzer Schneder very well. As a boy I was impressed by his smile and his piety. His German prayers, at night, could be heard in adjacent rooms.

Baltzer Schneder's three sons graduated from Franklin and Marshall College. David (Davis) graduated with the Class of 1880, from the Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1883, served as pastor of the Reformed Church in Marietta from 1885 to 1887, Professor of Systematic Theology North Japan College, Sendai, from 1887 to 1901, President of North Japan College from 1901 to 1936, decorated Fourth Order of Rising Sun Japan in 1916, Third Order of Sacred Treasure 1924, received a medal from the Imperial Edu- cation Association of Japan in 1918 and in 1933. Many people in Japan associated Dr. David Schneder with the village of Bowmansville. I remember occasions when he introduced Japanese friends to the Bowmansville Reformed Church. As a boy, Dr. Schneder's composure and sense of dedication made a great impression on me, but I had difficulty imagining where Japan was. During the Spring of 1925, Dr. Schneder invited me to join the faculty of North Japan College, which invitation I declined in favor of becoming the fourth Pastor of St. Peter's Reformed Church, Lancaster.'

Baltzer Schneder's second son, Charles, graduated from Franklin and Marshall in 1885 and from the Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1888. He served as pastor of St. John's Reformed Church in Shamokin, one of the largest congregations in the denomination, from 1891 until 1931; he served as President of the Board of visitors of the seminary from 1925 to 1931. Charles Schneder had only one child, the late Ifon. William A. Schneder, one-time Deputy Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a long- time benefactor and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College.

Baltzer Schneder's third son, Amos, graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1900, became a family physician, practicing medicine for many years.

It is amazing that Baltzer Schneder, a hard-working Pennsylvania German fariner, wanted to and was able to send his three sons through college and graduate school. It is a high tribute to his industry, but especially, to his sense of values.

His three sons began their professional careers by teaching in the one-room, rural White Oak School, which was located about a mile from their home, between their father's farm and the village of Bowmansville. The writer began his teaching career in the same rural school.

When the second Baltzer Schneder married Elizabeth Bowman, January 13, 1853, Mrs. Spotts' Bowman ancestors were united with the Schneders. Elizabeth Bowman was a great-great grand daughter of Wendell Bowman,[the researcher is a double descendant of Wendell and a quadruple descendant of the earliest Bowman of record;Uly Bowman 1369-1425] Mrs. Spotts' immigrant ancestor, who came to Germantown, probably in 1706. As a result of the above union "Bill" Schneder became Mrs. Spotts' second cousin, and by marriage I became part of the most famous family in the history of the Bowmansville area. How fortunate can one man be.

Amos Schneder's daughter, Mary, married Christian Burkhart, Mrs. Spotts' maternal grandfather. Thus the web of interfamily relationship grows. Mrs. Spotts is, therefore, a descendent of Wendell Bowman, John Musselman, Jacob Schneider, and probably the first Burkhart, all early 18th century German-Swiss immigrants, whose descendents became pioneers in the Bowmansville area. Her genealogical story is the story of Bowmansville.

Francis Eckert settled south of the Jacob Good tract, but his land soon passed to Casper (Mason) Messner, who received a warrant June 15, 1748, for 270 acres, although his family may have lived on this tract prior to the warrant. About 1760, Casper Messner "built a two-story stone house, with a high-peaked roof, resting on extraordinary heavy framework, the main rafters of which are over a foot thick, covered with red tile. The house contained leaden window sashes, the panes being 4x6 inches, most unusual for this area. A large thatched-roof barn was built in 1786. Visitors came from far to see the splendor of this mansion and its large barn. 1112 The Messner family cemetery, still standing, is on this tract. When I was a boy descendents of Casper Messner were still living on this farm. They were members of Center Lutheran Church.

Jacob Boehmm a Swiss follower of Ulrich Zwingli, immigrated in 1743, coming to Brecknock Township in 1748. He received a warrant for 52 acres and 109 perches on May 3, 1748. In 1750 he owned one horse, one cow, two sheep. His farm was located aboutone and one-half miles south of the village. "Before the Revolution a descendent, John Boehm began to erect a two-story stone mansion on this farm, the building of which was interrupted by the war. The house was peculiar in its arrangement. The kitchen, with a large fireplace, was built in front of the main building and attached to it. Fireplaces, for burning wood, were arranged on each side of the house." This house, although altered, is still standing.

Mrs. Spotts' father's sister's family, the John Hornings lived on the next farm for many years. She remembers the original 18th century log house, which was built over a spring and was still standing when she was a small girl.

About two miles east of the first three settlers, Herinan Deis settled. This tract was later taken over by the Kern family. The name was originally Gellner. Rupp Gellner was one of the 16th century Anabaptists of the Lower Rhine. who, dissatisfied with the doctrine and life of these brethren, went to Moravia to join the Hutterian Brethren. Jacob Kern arrived in America on the Ship Saint Andrew, September 9, 1749. By this time, the Kerns had become followers of Zwingli.

Mrs. Spotts' grandmother was Mary Kern (1851-1910), the daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Musser) Kern. She was born on the Kern homestead, a descendent of the original Jacob Kern. Her parents later moved to the village. This connection with the Gellner or Kern family is further evidence of my wife's many deep roots in the history of Bowmansville and the vicinity. Her father was active in the Kern Reunion during the second quarter of the present century. The 1750 Tax Returns includes Abraham Kern, with 50 acres, 1 cow, 1 horse.

CHAPTER THREE
A Mennonite Congregation Emerges

The first settlers in the Bowmansville area were Mennonites. Within fourteen years there were enough Mennonite farmers in the area to organize a congregation in 1752, which worshipped in Christian Good's home at the mill. The first minister was Christian Bauman (1724-1796), son of Wendell Bauman (1681-1735). He was born near Willow Street on the original Bauman tract, got the wanderlust, settled in the Allegheny Valley in Berks County, four miles northeast of Bowmansville. The Gottes Acker (burial place) for these farmers was established halfway between Christian Good's mill and the crossroads, which had been laid out prior to 1762. The Pine Grove church was built west of this burial place. The oldest remaining marker is dated 1767, but there is no doubt that burials were made here much earlier. One of the oldest sandstone markers has this simple inscription "P M 1772". Could this have been a Musser" or a "Musselman"?

About forty years after the Mennonite congregation was organized the first stone meeting house was built in 1794 on the southwest corner of thecrossroads, which later became the village square. Part of the foundation of this stone building can still be seen. It was the only house of any kind in the village for 26 years and the first house of worship in Brecknock Township. During the first 38 winters it was used as a community schoolhouse.

During 1875, a new meeting house was built about a mile south of the village, which by that time had probably become too worldly a village for the location of an Anabaptist Church. In 1921, a third and larger building was erected on the same location as the second church. This congregation belongs to the Lancaster Mennonite Conference.

During 1851, a division occurred over the free school system which left the congregation in a weakened condition. The next year Bishop Jacob Moseman (1795-1876) came from Trappstadt, Bavaria, Germany, to America, settled in Lancaster and served in this congregation. During 1855 he with his family moved to the Bowrnansville area. His sermons were short, earnest, and convincing. The congregation took on new life near the close of his ministry. He ordained Benjamin Horning (1827-1903) as his successor. Horning was one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of his day.

White Oak school, where I began to teach in the Fall of 1917, is located within a quarter of a mile of the present Mennonite Church. Most of my pupils came from families affiliated with this Congregation. Many of these Mennonite farmers brought their horses to my father's blacksmith shop. In addition to marrying a descendent of the early Mennonite settlers, I also developed my biceps by helping to shoe Mennonite horses and mules the latter of which was more fun. You can predict what an ornery mule will do, but an ornery horse is unpredictable. The only time I ever got kicked while working in my father's blacksmith shop, was by a Mennonite horse, not a mule.

During the 18th century there was no town called Bowmansville; only a dozen or more Mennonite farmers living on the surrounding acres which had been cleared by their ancestors, who began arriving by 1738. During the early decades of the 19th century several of these farmers joined the Mennonite migration to Canada, including several Bowman families. They thought that the soil had become worn out. Even with irrigation ditches, remains of which can still be seen, it was difficult to produce good hay crops in the meadows along the streams. Clover and the use of lime was unknown until about the middle of the 19th century. Irrigation determined the farmer's success on the poor red, fast depleting soil of this area. The census of the early 1800's reflect a decrease in the farm population, as the younger people moved into other counties of Pennsylvania and to Canada, where they could clear rich virgin soil.

In the meanwhile, Jacob, the fourth son of the pioneer, Wendell Bauman, (1707) was no longer satisfied to remain at home, among the Mennonites of the Pequea area. In 1737, he emigrated 35 miles to the northeastern part of Lancaster County, and first located at or near what is now Bowmansville. "But his Indian guide, being superstitious informed him that it was unlucky to settle where the water runs toward sunset, and persuaded him to cross the hills to where the water runs toward sunrise. He finally located in the Allegheny Valley, now Berks County," about four miles north of Bowmansville. Incidently, the hills on the boundary between Lancaster and Berks County in this area form the watershed between the valleys of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. If Jacob Bauman would have settled on his first chosen site he would have been the first settler in the Bowmansville area. The following year, 1738, he was followed by his brothers, Christian (1724-1796) and Peter. Soon after Jacob's arrival, he built the first saw mill in Allegheny Valley. The next year Christian built the first grist mill, and about the same time Peter built a hemp mill.

Christian Bowman had a son Christian (1753-1809), who operated the grist mill which his father had built. This Christian had a son, Samuel Bowman, born in the Allegheny Valley in 1789, who became the founder of Bowinansville.

CHAPTER FOUR
Samuel Bowman, The Founder

While Samuel Bowman was building, what was to be the first house in the village of Bowmansville, he encountered difficulty in digging a well, at which time (August 29, 1819) he wrote the following letter to Mr. John Schnader, a schoolteacher, the original copy of which still exists. "Leisure time is very scarce with me, at present. In one sense I might say that times, with me, have changed for the worse. I formerly used to work as much as I pleased, and to quit whenever I thought proper; then I could devote many hours to the muses and the study of useful sciences, (how's that for the interests of an early 19th century Mennonite!) but now I am nearly forced to labor hard every day. You know well enough what produced this change. (I don't! I do know that by this time he was married and had children). I am at present digging a well on the lot where I intend to build a house on next summer. I have sank it already to the depth of 28 feet, and have to sink it deeper, as it is so hard at the bottom, as if art and nature had been combining their power in forming it, and to make it impenetrable to human skill and force.

"It is my intention to keep school again at the meeting house (which stood a short distance west from where he was digging the well), but when I shall begin, is not yet determined, but probably in the latter end of October, or the beginning of November and to continue as usually till Christmas or New Year (what a long school term!).

"I have nothing else to communicate at present, my fingers are stiff and tremulous, and my head dull and heavy. (the effects of digging in hard, red, Brecknock Township sub-soil)."

I have quoted from this letter in order that you might have a look into the mind of Mrs. Spotts' great-great-great-grandfather, as he was about to build the first house in Bowmansville, the house in which she was to spend part of her childhood and early youth, and in the parlor of which I courted her exactly 100 years after Samuel Bowman wrote this letter.

The story-and-one-half stone house was completed during 1820, and Bowmansville was founded. A year ago was the sesqui-centennial of the digging of the well.

Fortunately, we know a great deal about the man from whose letter of 1819 I quoted above. In Volume 1, 1896, of the records of the Lancaster County Historical Society can be found an important paper which was read by the Honorable A. G. Seyfret, a native of Bowmansville whose brother was the village postmaster when I was a boy. Although Mr. Seyfret had never known Samuel Bowman, he informs us that most of the information in this paper was received from John B. Good, who built the fourth house in the village, and who knew Samuel Bowman more intimately than anyone else. "When Samuel was a small boy on his father's farm in the Allegheny Valley his mother noticed that he was different from all the other,children, as a result of which she predicted that he would either become a dull man or an unusual man. Little did she realize then that her second prediction would prove to be the true one.

"Even as a child, he had a natural fondness for learning, and he soon made such progress that he far outstripped all his schoolmates in the little country log school house.

"Although there were no English schools in the area and Pennsylvania German was spoken exclusively in his home, he studiously applied himself to the study of English. Because of his progress in the rural school, his parents enrolled him in a special school in Churchtown where he learned to converse in English. Here he studied surveying, which he afterward practiced extensively and successfully for many years, and in which he attained much skill and accuracy. His clear head and logical mind were eminently fitted for practical geometry. His love of justice and equity, and his high character for honesty and uprightness of purpose all combined to make him afterwards the most successful surveyor in the northeastern end of the County. In his library were found some of the best classi- cal authors in the English language, (a most remarkable collection for a Pennsylvania German Mennonite farmer's son during the first half of the 19th century).

"From 1815 to 1820 he taught school during the winter months. Surveying, scrivener and ordinary labor took up the rest of his time. As a teacher he acquired a wonderful reputation among his neighbors for the great amount of knowledge he possessed and was es- pecially famous for his success in keeping good order and governing his school.

"His life was one of constant and unremitting toil of mind and body. He was a man of great power and worth, the ideal leader and advisor around whom his neighbors flocked for advice; the center of a community he founded."

During the year following the letter about digging the well Samuel Bowman built on the southeast corner of the crossroads, a one and one-half story house which was arranged for keeping a country store. It remained a country store until Mrs. Spotts mother, in 1947, after 38 years behind the counter, finally closed the store, which had been in the same family for 127 years. Samuel Bowman was succeeded by his son-in-law, Jonas Musselman. The buildings, is presently owned by the American Youth Hostels. The original one and one-half story building grew in three directions, east, south, and up, until it is now the largest building in the village. Samuel Bowman was appointed Justice of the Peace, December 10, 1823, three years after he built the first house.

1. Daniel Rupp published his history of Lancaster County in 1844. It is quite significant that subscribers from Brecknock Township included: Samuel Bowman-the founder of the village; his cousin, Daniel Bowman; Daniel Palm, the village blacksmith, whose shop my father bought sixty years later, Isaac Messner; Christian Schneder, Jr., and William Schneder.

Samuel Bowman, the village founder, died during the winter of 1857, and was buried in the Pine Grove Church Cemetery, south of the village.

His is the largest tombstone in the graveyard. On it is the following memorial:
"In memory of
Samuel Bowman
Was born December 1, 1789
Died, January 19, 1857
Aged 67 years, 1 month and 18 days"

Although A. G. Seyfret records this, the last sixteen words are not on the tombstone. Mr. F. G. Musser, writing in "The Examiner" during 1908 enu- merates the leading men in Bowmansville at about the time Samuel Bowman died.

"Daniel Palm, John A. Seitzinger, Samuel Lessley and John Renninger hammered out the horseshoes, wrought iron nails, and tired the wagon wheels.
"J. Musselman & Son and Richard Davis kept the stores of General Merchandise, and it is a fact that it was the custom at that time for people to deal at these stores on credit terms, from one first of April to the next, except such farm produce as the merchant would accept weekly in exchange for household necessities. Every first day of April the patrons were expected to settle up their accounts, which they invariably did, but usually at the same time started a new account to run another year.

"Elias Leinbach was the clockmaker, and a great genius he was at it, as can be attested by taking a look at the huge eight-day clocks constructed by him.
"Rev. S. K. Boyer, Lutheran; Rev. Daniel Hertz, German Reformed, Rev. Jacob Moseman, and Rev. Samuel Good, Mennonite, attended to the spiritual wants of the people.

"Dr. Samuel Martin attended to the sick and afflicted. Though not a graduate of any medical institution, and having an extremely limited education, he nevertheless had an immense practice. "Cyrus Messner made the coffins for the dead and buried them."

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the village contained the following ten houses, built in the order in which they are listed: (1) The Musselman store, (2) Martin Bowman (brother of Samuel) Ist house south of the store, built in 1830, (3) Daniel Bowman (farm dwellings) a short distance west of the main street, (4) John B. Good, a nephew of Samuel Bowman, the northeast corner, where my stepmother's parents lived, built in 1847, (5) Peter B. Good, the northwest corner, which became the village tavern, built in 1851.. (6) a brick house north of John B. Good's, where Edwin Kern lived when I was a boy, (7) the brick house west of the Hotel, on Water Street, erected by Jonas Musselman, and first occupied by his son, Israel, Mrs. Spotts' great grandfather, (8) brick house on the southwest corner of the square, occupied by Benjamin Lausch, the village shoemaker, and his son, Reuben, the village tinsmith. This building was later enlarged. Reuben Lausch illuminated the homes with the first coal-oil lamps. (9) the Jacob Hoover stone house, which was occupied by Michael Witmer, a butcher, when I was a boy. (10) the brick house south of the Hoover house, occupied by John M. Weaver. This is the house in which Mrs. Spotts was born. In 1832 a stone school house was built on the southwest comer of the square.

During these first two decades the village was known as Buckstettle or Bucktown. A mile southeast of the village lived an old bachelor, Samuel Good. He was an eccentric old hermit, the first of a series who lived in this area. His chief delight was in a flock of sheep, but he had a singular hatred for any sheep which was unfortunate as to have black wool. One morning he was amazed to find a black buck among his sheep. He accused certain ones from the village of having perpetrated the joke, and from that morning on he called the village Bucktown, or in the dialect Buckstettle.

In 1837, the Federal Government decided to locate a post offi-ce in the village of Bucktown. The post office was opened in Bowman's store. Samuel Bowman was appointed postmaster, the only office, outside of Justice of the Peace, he would accept. The new post office was named Bowmansville, which name it continues to have. The original mail boxes are still in the rear of the first building, which Bowman built seventeen years before the post office was established.

As the village grew one of the eyesores to many of the people was the Mennonite stone meeting house which stood on the south- west corner of the square since it was erected in 1794. The building stood back from the street quite a distance. In front of it were hitching posts and a small shed. The meeting house itself was old and was not kept in repair.

From 1870 to 1880 the village enjoyed a building boom and the real estate became too valuable for space taken by the hitching posts in front of the meeting house. Under protest the old stone meeting house was removed and a new one was erected a mile south of the village during 1875. Even the hitching posts and the old shed were never sufficient to accomodate all the teams that gathered when, the former Prussian Lutheran, Jacob Moseman's turn came to preach. It must have been quite a sight, during the pre-Civil War days, when Moseman preached. Mennonite families from far and near gathered at the village square. Members of other denominations would miss their own ser- vices and admiring friends of Weaverland came to hear the dis- course of Father Moseman. All the hitching posts were used, the shed was over-flowing, neighboring hitching posts were probably borrowed. There was, no doubt, only standing room in the old meeting house.

The Musselman family has, in their possession, a deed, dated May 25, 1826, which describes the purchase of one acre and sixty-five perches by Samuel Bowman form Daniel and Elizabeth Bowman for $67.27. Elizabeth, Daniel Bownman's wife, apparently couldn't write for "her mark" appears in the middle of her name, which was probably written by John Ziemer, the Justice of the Peace. This parcel of land surrounded the plot on which Samuel Bowman had erected the first house six years earlier. The Mennonite Meeting House on the Square is mentioned in this deed.

The Brecknock Township Tax lists for the period of 15 years before the beginning of the Civil War report that Samuel Bowman owned 29 acres, valued at $1015; one horse at $50; and three cows at $24.

Jonas Musselman, Samuel Bowman's son-in-law, had a brother John Musselman. In 1847, their father Christian was a tenant on his son John's farm. At this time both brothers were farmers; Jonas having 80 acres, valued at $1200; John 110 acres, valued at $1650. John owned 4 horses and 5 cows, which was an unusually large number for any farmer in this area. Jonas sold his farm in 1850, and moved to the home of his father-in-law. By 1852, Jonas is listed as a merchant; the next year his real estate is listed as "morgen", about two acres, the amount of land that a farmer could plow in the morn- ing. By 1853, the Tax list describes Samuel Bowman as an "Old Gentleman." In 1857 Joseph Musselman, a son of John Musselman, is listed as a "Tailor", he lived to be only 23. By this time Jonas' son Israel is listed as "merchant" having succeeded his father. The 1860 Tax list includes Jacob Musselman, another son of John as a "Laborer" living on his father's property.

BOWMAN GENEALOGY
First Generation

Wendel (Bauman) Bowman ( -1745)
May have been in Germantown as early as 1706, settled with other Swiss Mennonites in the Pequea colony 1710. His only daughter, Anna, was married to John (Weber) Weaver, the pioneer of Weaverland, where the Good brothers Christian and Jacob, and their brother-in-law John Musselman, lived from 1732 until 1738, before coming to Brecknock Township.

Second Generation

Christian Bowman (1724-1796)
Settled in Allegheny Valley in Berks County, 1737, where he built a grist mill.

Third Generation

Christian Bowman (1753-1809)
He operated his father's grist mill.
Fourth Generation

Samuel Bowman (1789-1857)
Founder of Bowmansville

Fifth Generation

Mrs. Jonas (Lavina Bowman) Musselman (1816-1861)

Sixth Generation

Israel B. Musselman (1835-1911)

Seventh Generation

Theodore Musselman (1856-1943)

Eighth Generation

Wayne K. Musselman (1873-1938)

Ninth Generation

Mrs. Charles (Lucy Musselman) Spotts (1899- )

CHAPTER FIVE
The School Fight Produces A New Mennonite Congregation

Brecknock Township was one of the last to adopt the public school idea. A small private school house was erected in 1832 on the southwest corner of the square. This school had been operating a long time before Samuel Bowman started the village. It remained the only school in the neighborhood. Mr. A. G. Seyfret attended this school before the Civil War, after it had become a public school. He reports that here "he started on the royal road of learn- ing, with a Webster Primer to read, and a corn stalk pen holder to write. During the four months the school was open, big and little boys and girls crowded the old stone house, at least part of the term, to suffocation. Now any of us survived the floggings, the overheated air, and dust, is a mystery to me."

Among those who went to the 'pay' school at Bowmansville before the free schools were established were Baltzer Schneder and the girl whom he later married. Their son, the Reverend Charles B. Schneder, sent the following letter to the Hon. A. G. Seyfret.

"Last week during a brief visit home, my father submitted your letter to me in which you request information in reference to the introduction of free schools in Brecknock. He also requested me to write and give such information as they were able to give. Mother's mind is clearer on the subject than father's. They remember attending the first free school that was opened in a house still standing in Bowmansville. They do not remember the date. The teacher was Mr. Samuel Hertz, son of the Reformed pastor, Daniel Hertz, who lived near Ephrata, and preached at Center, Muddy Creek, Reamstown and other churches. There was very decided opposition to free schools, based very largely on the fear of increased taxes. Among the strongest opponents were Isaac Kessler John Weis, Michael Weis, William Schnader, my grandfather (should be grand-uncle), Amos Schnader, and others. Among the supporters were Adam Seitsinger, Daniel Sensenig, Daniel Bowman, Moses Bowman, and his brother, Isaac Bowman, known as "Der gla Isaac," and others.

"On January 8, 1850, the school and anti-school men met in Bowmansville at the school house under great excitement and anger. The parties were hostile to each other. Blows were threatened; the children fled from the school because the free school teacher was thrown out and the anti-school men locked the door and went home elated for this in their opinion was the end of the free schools in Brecknock.

"Mr. Sensenig and his friends brought a criminal prosecution against the rioters. Dozens of the antis were arrested and hailed before the criminal court in Lancaster.... They were to remain three days and then were allowed to go home by a compromise effected in which all the costs had to be paid by the anti-school men.

"The case was arbitrated at New Holland on the 7th of August, 1851. The verdict was "no cause for action", but the end was not yet. Elias Leinbach, the plaintiff now experienced the uncertainties of the law and had to pay the costs. His sons came to his rescue or he would have been committed to prison.

"This was not the end, for the promises were broken when they got back to their homes where they seemed to have more courage than at the county seat. A bitter resentment existed against the leader, Daniel Sensenig. He was not only relentlessly ostracized in business and social intercourse, but their hate and vengeance went beyond that and he was sued for damages and malicious prosecution.

"Some may wonder what part did Samuel Bowman, the most learned man in the community, take in this bitter controversy. He was entirely neutral, said not a word for either party, but since he was well educated they took it for granted that he was in sympathy With the free school people-many of his customers left him. A .man who in the first half of the 19th century could read Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer in this community was no,ordinary man. He had to pay a price for his intelligence and his knowledge when the school issue became bitter."

When the Pine Grove Mennonite Church celebrated its 100th Anniversary the program included the following paragraphs.

"When court day arrived, Brecknock Township sent a larger delegation to the criminal court of the county than had ever been witnessed. The day was inclement with snow and sleet overhead and frozen snow and ice underfoot. The defendants made their way - a distance of more than twenty miles-on foot. Among them were some of the sires and grandsires of the neighborhood. Most of the "schoolmen" of the vicinity were subpoened as witnesses on the part of the Commonwealth. These traveled in carriages. On the road the carriages were said to have been neither pleasant nor cordial.

"The next important step for the (school) men involved was to find a new Church home. After visiting some of the new (Mennonite) churches in Montgomery County, they invited some of the ministers to the Bowrnansville Community to preach for them in their homes. They soon had overflowing meetings and were much encouraged. In 1852 a General Conference Mennonite Congregation was organized and regular services were held in the various homes."

Every time I pass the Pine Grove Church I am reminded of the courage of the liberal Mennonites of Bowmansville who supported the free school system, for which they were virtually forced to leave the Old Mennonite Church. I am also proud of the fact that two of Mrs. Spotts' ancestors were numbered among these few liberal-minded Pennsylvania-German Mennonites of over a century ago.

The ecumenical spirit of the Pine Grove Mennonite Congregation is reflected in the fact that members of the Lutheran and Reformed faiths shared in the organization of the Bowmansville Union Sunday School in 1862. It met at the Pine Grove Church every Sunday afternoon during the summer months. This was the first Sunday School organized in the Bowmansville area. S. G. Seyfret was one of its organizers. A quarter of a century later, when the St. Paul's Union (Lutheran and Reformed) Sunday School was organized, he was elected the first Superintendent. Mr. Seyfret was still Superintendent when I was attending this Sunday School thirty years later. In 1922, he was given an honor medal by the Pennsyl- vania State Sabbath School Association, in recognition of his fifty years as a Sunday School officer and teacher.

Samuel G. Seyfret was born September 14, 1844. He was educated in the public schools of Berks and Lancaster County, and at the Frederick Institute, one of the old time private academies in Montgomery County. He taught school until he was married to Maria Burkholder in 1872. For forty years he conducted a general store in the village under the name of S. G. Seyfret and Company.

In 1896 Mr. Seyfret was appointed postmaster of Bowmansville, and continued as such up to the time of his death. He was the son of Benjamin and Mary Seyfret of Bowmansville.

Seventeen years after A. G. Seyfret read a paper on Samuel Bowman to the Lancaster County Historical Society, Mr. Seyfret, now the American Consul to Canada, wrote an article which was published in the L.C.H.S., Vol. 12, June, 1911, under the caption, "Bowmansville," in which he speaks of Bowmansville as the "Capitol of Brecknock Township."

Mr. Seyfret recalls the summer of 1858, when the Donatis great comet was the startling object in the sky. Comets at that time created a good deal of consternation among the average people. He reports that "the older people would sit in the open air night after night to view the celestial visitor, and predict all sorts of dire calamities to happen, for which the comet was responsible. The violent agitation of slavery at the time gave many who were newspaper read- ers like my father, a subject to make war certain with all its horrors as the logical outcome of the Comet's visit."

By this time Samuel Bowman had died and was buried in the winter of 1856-1857 in the Mennonite Cemetery at the southern end of the village.

In 1861, a large pole, surmounted by a frame was put up on the corner of the Lausch tin shop; a bell was hung in the frame. For many years the shoemaker or the tinsmith rang the bell morning, noon and night, and also, at the death of any one in the entire neighborhood. At the tolling of the bell for someone's funeral it broke. A second bell was bought, but broke while being hung into place. A third bell was purchased and placed into a new frame at the rear of the old Bowman (later Musselman) store, where the custom of ringing the meal time hour, three times a day was still practiced when I was growing up in Bowmansville more than fifty years ago. This bell is now housed in a small tower on the roof of the Bowmansville fire house.

No township in Lancaster County witnessed such exciting times as Brecknock did during the Civil War period. The area was strongly for slavery. Many of the farmers were densely illiterate and had no concept of the principle that was at stake. But the inhabitants of the village were all loyal to the Union cause.

Mr. Seyfret reports that "during the exciting days of the Civil War the Musselman store room was the headquarters for those who gathered there night after night to hear the latest news from the front and discuss it.

"In the outlying districts there were many enemies in the rear, who were openly opposed to the war for the preservation of the Union." The Knights of the Golden Circle," or better known in the North as "Copper Heads" were in a majority in the township and across the Berks County line disloyalty was rampant, drafts were resisted, the enrolling officers shot, election riots, andintimidation of the non-resident or conscientious voter from going to the election were frequent occurences.

"The Silver Hill rebels, who lived several miles southeast of the village, were a terror to all law abiding people.

"On one occasion Philip Huber, a Knight of the Golden Circle and several hundred of his followers from Berks County gathered at the village square, followed by much intense excitement. A short tii-ne later Huber. was evicted from a neighboring village.

"In the village the Union cause prevailed. Following the firing upon Fort Sumter by the Confederates a large flag pole was erected on the village green, and the Union Flag floated from it every day during the war."

The first political meeting ever held in the village was in the Fall of 1860; it was also the first time a brass band had ever come to that locality. It was a Lincoln meeting. A delegation of Republicans, headed by the New Holland Brass Band, came by way of Terre Hill and the Dry Tavern (now called Fivepointville) on a Saturday afternoon. The speaking was from the porch of Squire John B. Good's house, successor to Samuel Bowman as Justice of the Peace; the same house in which my stepmother's father, Frank Stover, had his office as Justice of the Peace. An unusually large crowd had assembled.

The village had no more loyal or intelligent citizen than Daniel Bowman, who,operated a farm west of the town. He was an old man, by the outbreak of the Civil War, and fond of reading. His country club hours at the Musselman store were in the afternoon. He seldom came for the night sessions unless some extraordinary news was at hand to be discussed in the evening. Daniel Bowman was the oracle of the village club. He hadmore time to read than anyone else, and hence knew more news to tell. He was a kindly disposed old gentleman, and "we boys," Mr. Seyfret reports, "often imposed on his good nature and his fine apple orchard." A member of this self-constituted club for the preservation of the country by debating the stirring events around the stove of the village store, who came six nights in the week, summer and winter, walking more than two miles through the meadows on which he traveled the darkest nights as safely as one walks in the electric lighted city streets now, was Joseph Good.

That store room, operated by Mrs. Spotts' great-great-grand-father, was the concentrated centre of the village intellectual club. It was not only'the loafing place, but here met the ideal rural man to man to seek and commune with his fellow man on the great historical drama of the age.

The Old Order or Wisler Mennonite Church was formed during 1893 as a result of the attempt to organize a Sunday School in the Lichty's Lancaster Conference Mennonite Church. Out of this grew the organization of the Bowmansville Old Order or Jonnie Martin Mennonite Congregation.

During 1927 this group split over the use of automobiles. Those who favored the use of cars, under the leadership of Moses Horning, formed the Weaverland Conference, known as the Horning Mennonites or "Black Bumper" Mennonites because all the chromium on their cars must be painted black. The meeting house, one mile south of Bowmansville is used alternately by the Old Order or "Buggy" Mennonites and the Horning Mennonites.

Industries Fifty Years Ago
When the Centennial was observed in 1920 there were two lodges, Washington Camp, No. 207, P.O.S. of A. and Camp No. 35, P.O. of A. Sixty years ago the P.O. of A. lodge elected the following officers: "Past President, Kathryn S. Kern; President, Katie Kern; Vice-President, Annie Hoshauer; Assistant Vice-President, Lizzie Kramer; Recording Secretary, Elizabeth Seyfret; Assistant Recording Secretary and Financial Secretary, Jane Brendle; Treasurer, W. K. Musselman; Con., Susan Good; Asst. Con., Annie E. Ziegler; Guar- dian, Mary Musselman; Sentinel, Jane Musselman; Chaplain and Orator, Eliza Brendle; Trustee, Katie Kern."

"There were three large cigar factories, one managed by Imhof and Company, the General Cigar Company, and the Davis Oberholtzer Company. There were three stores managed by S. G. Seyfret, W. K. Musselman, and Harvey Weinhold; a barber shop by Harry B. Wise; two restaurants by John B. Wise and Elmer Lane. There is also a hosiery mill run by Mr. Seidel; a shoe store in charge of S. G. Good; a saddler shop by J. L. Burkhart; a bakery run by Harry Harting; and an undertaking establishment by G. L. Bowman. Abraham Musselman has a marble shop, J. E. Spotts a blacksmith shop, a mill is run by Henry von Neida, and a garage in charge of Howard Beam are included among the business places. (James Good operated a Watch Repair Shop and a Jewelry Store.) Herbert Kern, Harry Bender, Edwin Kern, Michael Witmer, Charles Walter and Charles Snader are in the butchering business and attend the Reading Markets."

Harry Wise, the barber, is the only one still in business as we approach the Sesqui-Centennial. Time does take its toll.

CHAPTER SIX
The Yellow Hill Community
(Brushtown)

When I was a boy, growing up in Bowmansville, there was a path that came down through the fields from the top of Yellow Hill, situated about two miles east of the village. Yellow Hill is a ridge which separates Lancaster and Berks Counties, reaching an elevation pf about one thousand feet. On this ridge, and in the valley be- tween it and the next ridge, Laurel Hill, men have attempted to settle, without success, for more than a century. The early settlers spoke of this area as "Die Schweitz."

In W. K. Musselman's scrapbook I found a clipping from a Lancaster newspaper, dated April 23, 1933, under the title, "Rotting Dwellings Only Evidence of Remote Village," from which I have taken the following quotations:

"Men, since the country was settled have skirted the ridge, for in this final stronghold, nature suddenly becomes vicious and vindictive and tragedy has befallen every enterprise undertaken on its slopes.

"Brush Town, a little community of nearly a score of log cabins has long since fallen the victim of the encroaching vines and brambles which find a sanctuary here. Its houses are today littered masses of ruins, their walls squeezed in by the undergrowth and their crumbling foundations concealed by dense masses of vines and creepers."

The map of Brecknock Township in Bridgens' Atlas of Lancaster County, published in 1864, shows nine houses along this ridge, making it one of the most thickly populated areas in the entire township, with the exception of the three villages, Bowmansville, Muddy Creek (now Fivepointville), and Red Run. At one time this community consisted of a store and about a dozen houses. These original settlers were a rough, isolated people, who hunted, trapped, raised vegetables and small patches of grain in a few small clearings, and were not adverse to stealing articles from the farms down in the valleys of the Muddy Creek and the Conestoga. No outsiders ventured into this area at night.

Leisure time was spent in making and playing crude musical instruments. On still, warm summer evenings it was a pleasure to listen to the music which floated down into the farms of the surrounding valley.

The clipping referred to above reports: "Only one person ever finished his life on its forbidden ground. The original promoter of Brush Town was its last and only permanent resident, and when he died, in 1893, friends from other and more habitable sections came to his little cabin and carried his remains to Chumhtown for burial.

"Robert Springer, venerable colored slave, who died at the age of 105, was not a man without vision. Long before the Civil War or before Abraham Lincoln had stricken slavery from the list of things legal, he was inspired to liberate and to aid his people. He visioned a colored community on the deserted ridge and actually established it, but he reckoned without his people and without the crushing influence of the ridge itself.

"Springer, who is said to have been born in New Castle, Delaware, in 1788, came to the vicinity of Churchtown soon after his master had liberated him to fight in the War of 1812. When the war was ended, Springer, a free man, decided to return to Pennsylvania where he would not again be placed in bondage.

"However, community life did not appeal to him and he sought out the wild ridge to make his home. A broken Conestoga wagon, deserted earlier by some other hapless individual who paid the price for venturing into the reserved area, furnished his first home and he lived there apparently quite contented until the plight of other members of his race began to be the source of study with him.

"From the time he came to the ridge until he was about 40, he watched with aching heart the little processions of colored people which wound their way with appalling frequency to the lonely retreat. Something in their slow, defeated pace, or in the low, mournful music they sang, or something about the limp, awkward bundles they brought with them, stirred in him a desire to elevate his people and raise them to new standards.

"The cemetery of the slaves was located on the ridge not far from where he had taken up his abode and he watched these little funeral processions for a number of years before the idea of Brush Town was conceived.

"Springer picked the site for the town and Wd out its one street. He built his own little cabin and then invited other members of his race to come there and live with him and help him raise a new town and a new order of civilization."

Robert Springer's dream never came true. The ground was poor, the brambles persistent, and the children deserted to find their homes in more hospitable surroundings. Springer, alone, remained, watching his little domain tumbling down about him.

His funeral was conducted from a church in Churchtown and was attended by more than 1,000 persons. No one, white or colored, who ever lived in the vicinity attracted so many mourners in death. A tombstone, marking his grave, bears the simple inscription, "Robert Springer-Died March 16, 1893 Aged 105 years."

A score of years later a Negro family found its way to the forgotten row; and made its home in one of the abandoned cabins. The following year a white family followed their example and the odd group began their segregated existence together. By the time I was a boy about eight or ten families lived on this ridge, members of whom used the path referred to above to do their shopping in the two stores of Bowmansville. Because all of the families, but one, were black, it was referred to as "Nigger Hill." Members of this later community were frequently the objects of search by officers of the law.

The seventh United States Census for 1850 lists twenty-four 'black' people living in the Bowmansville area, as follows:
Name Age Color Occupation
Isaac Coleman................. 46...................."b"............. Basketmaker
Margaret Coleman.............35....................."m"
Lusta Coleman................. 19....................."m"
Isaac Coleman...................15....................."m"
Dennis Coleman.................12....................."m"
Abraham Coleman..............5/12..................."m"
Aaron Coleman...................2/12...................."m"
Rachel Green.......................54......................"b"
Jeremiah Green....................31......................"b"
Sarah Green.........................18 ....................."b"
Amanda Green......................16......................"b"
William Green....................... 11....................."b"
George Green........................29......................"b"........... Collier
Caroline Green...................... 27......................"b"
Catherine Green.....................10......................"b"
Eliza Green.............................9......................."b"
Samuel Green.........................7........................"b"
George Green..........................5........................"b"
Sarah Green............................2........................"b"
Jeremiah Atlee...................... 79........................"b".......... None
Charles Anderson...................40 ......................."b".......... Laborer
Margaret Anderson..................12 ......................"b"
Sally Jones............................ 50...................... "b"
under "colors the "b" represents black and the "m" mulatto


In newspaper accounts Yellow Hill is frequently erroneously referred to as the Welsh Mountains. Actually Laurel Hill, Turkey Hill and the Conestoga Valley separate Yellow Hill from the Welsh Mountains, a distance of tenmiles. However, during the period from 1850 to 1930 the black inhabitants of Yellow Hill were in constant contact with the black people of the Welsh Mountain area, including considerable traveling back and forth.

Because of their practice of occasionally raiding chicken houses, smokehouses, and horse stables they were frequently prosecuted by law-enforcing officers. My father was a constable for a number of years. I can remember during my boyhood days some of these people were kept in our house overnight in order to transport them to the Lancaster jail by trolley car from Terre Hill. They were not professional criminals in the strict sense, only petty thieves.

On the other hand, some of the men were respectable citizens who worked on neighboring farms or helped in preparing wood to burn charcoal. Several of the men worked in one of the village cigar factories, included Ephraim Dennis.

At the bottom of this ridge we bought 18 acres in the early 1930's, on which I erected a Sears Roebuck log house on the bank of the branch of the Muddy Creek. Here our family spent many restful summers. On about an acre of cleared ground we raised vegetables. A spring several hundred yards above the house furnished our drinking water, which runs through iron pipes, by gravity, to the back door. On the front porch I studied and wrote papers for graduate courses which I was taking at the University of Pennsylvania at that time. Not a single inch of public road touches these 18 acres; here we were completely isolated until Daniel O'Hagan, a former government employee, bought an adjacent piece of woodland, on which he built a two story hand-hewn log -house, where he now lives with his wife and two small children.

When we spent our summers in this isolated spot one of our local visitors was John Lorah, a hairy faced old hermit with sharp blue eyes. I was teaching Biology at the time and had brought out an embalmed fetal pig in order to dissect it in preparation for a course in Mammalian Anatomy. After I was finished with it I threw it in a trash barrel. While we were away over a weekend, John came down to visit us and found the remains of the fetal pig in the trash barrel. You can imagine the strange stories that began to circulate about the professor's activities back in the hill.

CHAPTER SEVEN
~ The Musselman Family

John Musselman was one of the first three men to settle in the Bowmansville area, arriving with his two brothers-in-law during 1738. His grandson, Christian Musselman (1779-1855) and wife Judith, built the second house in 1813 on the farm where his grand- father had settled in 1738. This house is still standing; one of my paternal uncles lived there several decades ago. Older persons in the neighborhood remember the original log house.

Christian Musselman had three children-Jonas (1808-1868), Mrs. Spotts' ancestor; John M., Sr. (1806-1868); and Mrs. J. Adam Kessler. The family records include a small notebook, which contains the appraisement of John M. Musselman's estate, made August 4, 1868. One of the appraisers was his nephew, J. B. Musselman, who was now operating the village store. John M. Musselman's appraised estate amounted to $3007.47, including one mare, $100; one buggy, $90; one wagon, $50; wheelwright tools, $63.72; spokes and rims, $58; paint and brushes, $14.60; and one cow, $30. This list would indicate that he operated a small wheelwright shop. The Musselman Store Ledger confirms this. As late as 1867, he bought nails, paint, wagon boxes, spokes, canvass, fringe and tape. The 1864 map indicates that he lived on the family farm with his sons, John and Jacob. His son John probably continued as wheelwright. The Ledger reports him purchasing, after his father's death, wagon boxes, nails, putty, sandpaper, linseed oil, rims, lamp black, glue, hubs, spokes, saw file, amounting to $150.96.

Mrs. Spotts' great grandfather, J. B. Musselman took over the store upon the death of his father, Jonas, in 1862. The Ledger, with which he began to keep records, is still in excellent condition, with beautiful well-preserved handwriting,in black ink, with an alphabetic index of all customers. The following items culled from this Ledger of more than one hundred years ago illustrates the wide variety of items stocked in a country General Merchandise Store, as well as the prices that prevailed at the beginning of the Civil War.

Sample Purchases Made in the Musselman Store
(August, 1862-Dec. 1867)

1. Hardware
Shovels and files .................................................. $ 3.03
Saw setter ............................................................ 1.47
Knobs and auger .................................................. 1.60
Varnish and oil .................................................... 3.22
Screws and bolts .................................................. 2.68
Pine boards ............................................................ .69
Linseed oil and lead ............................................ .77
Wagon boxes .......................................................... .99
Hogshead ................................................................ .75
Wood saw .............................................................. .87
Scythe .................................................................... .90
8 bolts .................................................................... .24
Iron and steel .................. ..................................... 16.54
Chains .................................................................... .75
Glass and putty ...................................................... 5.44
Keg nails .............................................................. 4.00
Wagon bows .......................................................... 2.25
Chrome green ...................................................... .25
Hub bands ........................ ..................................... 2.70
Horse shoes .......................................................... 2.85

II.Groceries
Molasses .................................................................. .22
Mackerel ................................................................ .39
Pepper .................................................................... .10
Smoking tobacco .................................................. .60
Sack salt ................................................................ 5.00
Cinnamon and pepper .......................................... .20
Fish oil .................................................................. .37
Bacon ...................................................................... 1.80
I lb. sugar ............................................................ .10
1 lb. butter ............................................................ .15
Veal ................................................................36
Corn Meal ............................... ............................... .56
Saffron .................................................................. .10

III. Farm Supplies
Clover seed ............................................................ $ 1.39
Fly net for a horse ..................... ........................ 3.47
Phosphate .............................................................. 10.32
Halter .................................................................... 1.00
Bag bone dust ........................................................ 5.16
Wagon .................................................................... 27.50
Butter Churn . ...................................................... 6.00

IV. Dry Goods and Clothing
Spats ................................. .....: .............................. .95
Woolen yarn .......................................................... .17
Velvet .................................................................... 2.96
Oil cloth and twine .............................................. 7.08
Camaze lace .......................................................... 2.30
Black ticking .......................................................... 1.34
Shoes ...................................................................... 1.37
Cap .......................................................................... .80
Pants and buttons ................................................ 2.70
Shawl and linen .................................................. 3.64
Cotton flannel ...................................................... .17
Muslin .................................................................... 1.86
Pants ...................................................................... 2.40
Hoop skirt .............................................................. .47
Stocking yarn ............. .......................................... 1.00
Wool ............................ ......................................... 1.40
Woolen yarn .......................................................... 1.87
Pantstuff ................................................................ 1.45
Gum shoes .............................................................. 2.00
Woolen coat .......................................................... 4.00
Thread .................................................................. .10
Ticking ................ ................................................. .51
Slouch hat .............................................................. 1.00
Bonnet .................................................................... .68
Suspenders ............................................................ 1.00
Cassimer ................................................................ 2.00
Gingham ................................................................. 1.73
Shrouding .............................................................. 3.75
Straw hat .............................................................. .22
Shoe soles .............................................................. .22

V. Furniture, etc.
Two chairs ............................................................ 2.12
Cupboard ............................... ................................ 8.00
Coffee mill ............................................................ 1.67
Pitcher and bowl .................................................. .43
Looking glass ........................................................ 1.06


(1) Sample Purchases Made in the Musselman Store
(December 21, 1876-December 9, 1881)
Ledger kept by D. D. Shiffer
1. Hardware
(2) 12 lbs. broomwire ....... ...... 2.16
(3) 40 lbs. steel .................. 3.20
Window glass .............. 2.24
1 lb. paint ...................... .06
1 knife ........................... .25
(3) 1 lb. horseshoe nails ............. .28
(3) 62 lbs. forged iron ....... 3.92
3 1/2 lbs. rope ................ .55
9 ft. fuse ........................ .09
(3) 1 lb. borax .................... .25
Hitching strap .............. .30
2 harness snaps ......... .10
Axle grease .................. .20
Buggy harness .......... 18.00
1 bucket ......................... .28
(4) 2 lbs. rock powder.................. .32
(5) Horse powder ......................... .40
(6) 2 bags bone dust .................... 4.00
No. 3 plough ................... 8.50
(7) White wash brush ................... .25
Hinges and latches ................... 2.00
Machine shuttle ............. 1.25
Basket ............................. .50
1 qt. linseed oil ............. .27
1 horse blanket ............. 1.65
1 band saw .................... 3.85
Curry comb ..................... .20
Halter .................................. 1.00
(8) Sewing Machine ............ 30.00
Umbrella ........................... 1.75
Window shade ................ .10
2 Crocks ............................ .97

II. Dry Goods and Clothing
2 rolls cotton ........................... .16
1 1/2 yds. veiling ............... .90
Breast pen ....................... .25
Handkerchief ................... .18
3/4 yds. stuffing .............. .31
4 yds. cassmere .................... 3.00
Shirt bosom .......................... .30
1 3/4 yds. Italian cloth .............. .70
1 1/2 yds. sleeve lining .............. .30
1 skein silk ....................... .05
8 yds. alpaca ..................... 2.00
1 fat ................................... .75
1/2 sheet bonnet board .............. .03
woolen jacket ................... 1.25
(9) 3 yds. shrouding................ 2.25
2 3/4 yds. tweed ................... .86
2 1/2 yds. lace ..................... .55
(9) crepe veil ...................... 4.50
7 yds. embroidery ........... 1.26
12 yds. dress goods ................... 3.50
(10) 1 whale bone .................. .06
3 1/2 yds. cheviot muslin .............. .43
(11) wick yarn .......................... .05
Thimble ....................................... .03
Shoe laces ............................... .02
Pr. gum shoes .............. .80
1 spool Patten thread .................. .45
1/4 yd. flannel ..................... .07
(12) 1/2 yd. velvit ................... .63
woolen skirt ................................. 1.37
1 spool silk ................................... .10
shawl ....................................... 1.00
(13) 21 lbs. carpet chain ................ 5.25
3 yds. muslin .............................. .30
2 yOs. calico .......................... .25
Pin's and needles ........................... .04
Pr. boots ....................................... 3.85
2 1/2 yds. gingham .......................... .31
2 dog buttons ................................. .16
Red shirt ................................. 1.37
(14) Suspenders .......................... .35
Drawers and hose ...................... .75
4 yds. cotton flannel ........................ .50
Cravat ........................................ .25
Cap ............................................ 1.00
4 yds. Jean ....................................... 1.80
2 yds. panting ................................. .50

III. Groceries
2 lbs. sugar .................................... .22
Slate pencil .................................... .01
1/2 bn. salt ................................... .30
2 7/ 8 lb. butter ........................... .80
Almanac .................................... .08
1/2 qt. molasses ............................ .10
1/4 lb. tobacco ................................ .20
qt. coal oil ........................................ .10
Cloves ............................................ .05
(15) Box Essence (of peppermint) ........ .05
500 cigars ........................................ 6.00
1/4 lb. pepper ................................... .10
(16) Assofoetide .............................. .04
Alspice ............................................... .10
23 lbs. chicken ................................. 1.84
Bible ................................................... 5.25
Tooth brush ..................................... .10
Snuff and candy ............................ .15
(17) Book on Mensuration ...................... 1.25
4 lbs. raisins .................................... .50
Luk ..................................................... .02
Bees wax ......................................... .04
1/4 lb. figs ........................................... .05
1 orange ........................................... .03
Rice .................................................... .50
1 oz. cinnamon ............................... .06
2 lbs. roasted coffee ...................... .64
1/4 lb. baking soda ......................... .05
(18) Violin string ............................... .23
Broom ................................................ .35
Globe ................................................. .08
Bottle castor oil ................................ .12
1 doz. cups and saucers........................ .80
1/2 doz. glasses ................................ .30
2 boxes shoe black .......................... .20
Stove polish ....................................... .08
Box crayons ..................................... .20
2 boxes matches ............................... .05
3 bushel vats ....................................... 1.05
Nut megs ............................................. .05
2 qts. sperm oil (for candle) ......................... .56
1 lb. tallow .............................................. .08
1 doz. eggs ............................................ .14
Minute book .......................................... 1.00
Bottle perfume ..................................... .22
Glassware ............................................. .18
(19) Box collars ................................... .22
(20) Blue vitriol ...................................... .03
24 lbs. bacon ....................................... 1.98


Notes on Ledger Items

(1) prices have decreased since close of Civil War
(2) sold to the broommaker in the village
(3) sold to the village blacksmith
(4 probably dynamite
(5) a medicinal product
(6) a fertilizer
(7) most people white-washed their fences, outbuildings, etc.
(8) three sewing-machines were sold during one month
(9) a funeral item
(10) used in corsets
(11) most people used kerosene lamps, but a few still made their own candles
(12) notice spelling "velvit"
(13) used in weaving carpets during the Civil War period suspenders sold for $1.00
(14) a volatile oil
(15) a medicinal item to be tied around the neck
(17) A book on principles of measuring (18) D. B. Shiffer, who kept the ledger, played a violin. The item occurs several times
(19) celluloid collars, usually a dozen in a box
(20) a chemical used in dyeing and printing calico

There must have been many blacksmiths in the vicinity. The following six appear in the 1862-1868 Ledger: Jacob Beam, Henry Caffery, Samuel Hollinger, Daniel Palm, J. A. Seitzinger (who purchased over $1,000 of iron and steel during six years), and John Del Zell.

Products used in the Barter System

The Ledgers indicate that the following items were accepted in payment for purchases made at the Musselman store: butter, eggs, hames strap, tallow, segars, flax seed, lard, oats, shoulder of pork, chickens, chestnuts, bacon, veal, pork, beef, calf skin ($1.50), halter straps ($2.19), leather ($5.41), fly nets ($6.00), keg ($1.00), shellbarks ($8.75), brooms ($5.15), baskets, postage stamps ($1.00), black cherries, axe handles, and rakes. Credit was also given for hauling coal ($2.00), plowing, weaving for Sarah, hauling wood, "History of Civil War", May 6, 1863 ($2.75), threshing ($.90), wool carding ($5.64), lock repairing ($.25), and horseshoeing ($.75). The Ledger indicates that James Zell, owing a bill "left for unknown parts."; also that Isaac Coleman, who received credit for baskets ($1.24) was "colored," probably lived in Brush Town.

Funeral Expenses in 1878

One of the record books also contains a list of the expenses for the funeral of Jacob Beam (J. B. Musselman's father-in-law), who was a blacksmith. The 1862 Ledger reports that he made numerous purchases of iron, steel, nails, horse shoe nails, and tools. The entry which follows is dated November 25, 1878:
2 1/2 yds. shrouding .......... $ 1.00
1/8 yd. fine muslin......... ........ .09
2 lbs. dried corn ........... .20
1 spool -thread ................ .38
Funeral notice ................ 1.50
apples ................................ .24
2 1/2 lb. dried peaches .... .20
3 qts. vinegar ................ .40
1 pr. hose ......................... .18
2 lbs. coffee ...................... .40
15 lbs. raisins ................ 1.50
Beef ................................ 16.00
lce .................................... 1.25
Doctor's bill .................... 38.75
Coffin ............................. 16.00
1 qt. syrup ...................... .18
.......................................... $67.35

This record would indicate that an undertaker was not yet available; that the body was prepared for burial by members of the family; that some craftsman in the village made the coffin; and that a meal was served after the funeral.

In addition to operating the village store J.B. Musselman, Mrs. Spotts' great-grandfather, served as the financial agent for the com- munity. The Orphan's Court of Lancaster County appointed him to serve as Guardian for minors in the community. The notebook in which he kept records of this responsibility is still available, indicating that he served as Guardian for at least, five minors: Lavina Slate, to whom he paid $1555.56 on April 7, 1880; Andrew M. and Lavina Gottschall, heirs of Jacob H. Gottschall (of Montgomery County) 26 to whom he paid $1504.66 to each on April 10, 1872 and April 1, 1877 (when they became twenty-one); Susanna Kessler, to whom he paid $379.98 during 1876; and Henry B. Von Nieda, to whom he released real estate on May 3, 1884.

Previously he had served in 1859 as Executor for the estate of his cousin Joseph M. Musselman, (1836-1859) whose widow, Mary Jane Musselman appears in the ledger for purchases made during January, 1866. She may have died soon afterwards.

Those who left the area kept in touch with J. B. Musselman. I have in my files the original copy of a letter which was sent to him from Leavenworth City, Kansas Territory, June 10, 1856. Leavenworth is in northeast Kansas, on the Missouri River, with a population of about 25,000.
Leavenworth City, K. T., June 10/56
Dear Friend
Sir


It is a long time ago that I bade adieu to you and my friends around there though the time may come that I shall be there again. I would like to see you and converse with you and I would like to see you come out here very much and this country. It is principally Settled By the Indians now But there is Emigrants coming to this place Every day and Settle out on Claims and the Indians will have to lieve, and the purtiest cuntry here that Ever a man laid eyes on. and our town is now about 2 years old and counts about four hundred Houses and five thousand Inhabitants and it growing fast every day futher I will tell you not to forget to answer this letter as soon as this reaches your hands give me a full History of all the news in your town and country. and Please give my love and best wishes to your Sister Lucy & also to your younger Sister and let me know how they are getting allong. So much from your sincere friend in Haste, answer Soon
A. H. Jacoby


Genealogy of the Musselman Family
First Generation (Pioneers)

Hans (John) Musselman (1709-1762 [?])
Anna Musselman (1712- ), immigrated 1732,Came to Brecknock Township 1738

Second Generation

Andrew Musselman (He appears in the Tax Returns from 1775 to 1785, listed as owning 100 acres, presumably part of the grant to his father.)

Third Generation

(1)Matthais Musselman (1763-1805) owned 190 acres, including a log house and stone barn, probably the buildings created by his grandfather
(2)Elizabeth Musselman (1770-1830)
(3) Christian Musselman (1779-1855)
Judith Musselman

Christian probably took over the ancestral farm following his brother Matthais' death in 1805. Christian erected the present house in 1813.

Fourth Generation

(1)John M. Musselman (1806-1868)
(2)Nancy (Musser) Musselman (1809-1889)
(3)Mrs. J. Adam Kessler Jonas Musselman (1808-1862)
Lavina (Bowman) Musselman (1816-1861)

Fifth Generation(through Jonas)

(1)Lucy Musselman (1834-1925)
(a) Jacob Gottshall
(b) Isaac Kline
(2) Israel B. Musselman (1835-1911)
Sarah (Beam) Musselman (1834-1912)
Eliza (Musselman) Beam (1842-1927)
Isaac Beam (1836-1918)

Sixth Generation (through Israel)

(1) Theodore Musselman (1856-1943)
(a) Mary (Kern) Musselman (1851-1910)
(b) Anna (Zeigler) Musselman (1865-1933)
(2)St. James Musselman (1862-1874)
(3)Lizzie (Musselman) Oberhaltzer (1868-1942)
Davis Oberholtzer (1860-1935)

Seventh Generation (through Theodore)

Wayne K. Musselman (1873-1938)
Mary Jane (Burkhart) Musselman (1875-1955)
Ella (Musselman) Horning (1876-1964)
John Horning (1878-1958)

Eighth Generation (through Wayne)
(1) Lucy (Musselman) Spotts (1899- )
Charles D. Spotts (1899- )
(2) Mary (Musselman) Witwer (1902- )
Earl Witwer (1897- )
(3) Carl Musselman (1907- )
Myrtle (Stork) Musselman (1908- )
(4) Ruth (Musselman) Whiteside (1909- )
Paul Whiteside (1901-1970)


CHAPTER EIGHT Rocks
In The Bowmansville Hills

A discussion of the Civil War period would not be complete without references to two natural wonders' in the vicinity of Bowmansville; Devil's Hole and Rock Cellar.

Devil's Hole

Devil's Hole is a large pile of huge iron stone boulders (igneous diabase) on the north side of the Yellow Hill ridge, not far from our acres of woodland. During my childhood and youth the young 'crowd' of Bowmansville frequently hiked to this natural wonder on a Sunday afternoon. Here the magnetic needle, attracted by ferriginous znatter in the earth deviates, in some places, 10-12 degrees from its true position.

During the Civil War period draft dodgers and bounty jumpers; and, later, horse thieves, murderers, moonshiners, and chicken thieves found almost perfect protection under this pile of boulders. Those who know the secret entrances can find two large dry rooms under these rocks. Both rooms are approximately square and high enough to walk around in comfort. Many fleeing from the law found safety here. Once inside, such persons were almost unassailable. If the secret openings were discovered one had to enter headfirst, which made it possible for anyone inside to dispose of the intruder quickly. Much folklore has grown around Devil's Hole. Some of the stories are incredible. But the truth is that countless men did escape the clutches of the law by hiding in Devil's Hole. It is now accessible to those who stop at the Oak Creek Camp, but few of these summer campers realize the exciting story of those who found safety inside this pile of 'iron' stone boulders.

Rock Cellar

Several miles southeast of Bowmansville, on the south end of Silver Hill is a rock formation known as Rock Cellar, a large cave inside a huge boulder. The mouth of the cave is three feet wide and four feet high. Inside is a room, completely surrounded by solid rock, ten feet wide, fifteen feet long, and eight feet high. Drafted militia men hid here during the Revolutionary War period, one was a cooper who followed his trade inside Rock Cellar. Mr. C. G. Burkhart reported to Professor Alfred Shoemaker that a colored family with four children, by the name of Johnson, lived in Rock Cellar about 1875.

Devil's Hole and Rock Cellar represent the southern edge of what is known to geologists as the Triassic Lowland belt, north of the limestone


About two miles south of the village of Bowmansville, on the top of Turkey Hill, can be found the remaining evidence of a millstone industry which was practiced during the 19th century. The last among a long line of stone cutters were William Weinhold and his partner, Sam Reifsnyder.


Mrs. William K. Wise, daughter of William Weinhold, in an interview with a Sunday News reporter in 1962, reported:

"Father spent most of his time cutting millstones on Turkey Hill. He started when he was 22, and stopped in 1918. Toward the last he was cutting mostly hammermill stones, which are smaller than the old-time grist mill stones.

"The older type might measure six or seven feet in diameter, and weigh a couple of tons."

Mrs. Wise reffnembers the painstaking work of hand-drilling holes in the rocks, splitting them down, rounding them off, cutting holes in the middle, and finally dressing the stones in the geometrical pattern grooves which make possible the grinding of the grain by the rubbing of the upper against the nether millstone.

These rocks are sedimentary, having been formed at ocean-bottom level and later lifted above sea level by geological upheavals. It is a conglomerate rock, favored by most millers.

CHAPTER NINE
The 1884 Robbery

In the ancient world time was measured in relation to great events. When the prophet Isaiah remembered his great religious experience in the Temple, he recalled that it occurred "in the year that King Uzziah died." Everyone knew when that was. We still do this. Only recently I read a reference to an event, which was reported to have occurred shortly after the great Blizzard, which referred to the blizzard of February 11-14, 1899, during which Mrs. Spotts was born.

For many years events in Bowmansville were described as having been so many years before or after the Great Robbery, which everyone knew occurred in 1884. One of the business places in the village at that time was the D. B. Shiffer Jewelry Store and Watch Repair Shop located about two blocks south of Bowrnan's store. On the morning of Saturday, November 29, 1884, it was discovered that the store had been robbed during the night.

A safe, in which thirty new and 22 repair watches were kept, was gone. When the word got around the entire neighborhood was aroused. A posse of the Horse Thieves Detectives Association of Bowmansville--Goodville-Honeybrook was quickly organized. Within a short time the empty safe was found near the Pine Grove Church. A broadside announcing the robbery was sent all over the County. Within several days George Lippencott was captured in Columbia. In his possession he had a satchel which contained many of the stolen watches. Lippencott was a member of Abe Buzzard's gang. Lippencott and Buzzard were arrested and sentenced to a jail term. One of Mr. Shiffer's daughters, Annie Kready, died a short time ago. She had a complete file of newspaper articles, photographs, and correspondence describing this episode. Her file includes cards from a Mr. Supplee, a Quaker from near Honeybrook, who at first defended Abe Buzzard, and tried to reform him; but later gave up. Abe was an evangelist whose weakness was chickens. He spent more than forty years in jail, made up of many short term sentences.

The Sunday News of February 22, 1959, carried a story written by Mrs. Anna F. Kready, Mr. Schiffer's daughter, under the caption: "Eyewitness Tells How 'Buzzard Boys' Robbed Her Father's Store in 1884." She was nearly 4 years old at the time of the robbery.

A press correspondent who accompanied the posse, wrote:"The whole region, so long terrorized by depradations of the thieving gang, is intensely excited, and there is a settled determination to take the outlaws, dead or alive. The feeling of alarm is intensified (by recent robberies) and there is constant fear that the desperadoes may take some shocking revenge upon the outraged communities (because of Horse Detective Association activities).

"Several miles from the favorite Buzzard haunt stands a Methodist Church, where the pastor started revival meetings a week ago but the people are afra-id to leave their homes, lest they be robbed or burned, or their teams be stolen while at church. Some pastors of Valley churches have called upon their people to rid themselves of these terrorists "by some concerted action."

Excerpts from a Lancaster newspaper of December 1, 1884 report: "Early this morning the Honeybrook-Goodville-Bowmansville Horse Thief Detective Association, with 50 Brecknock Township farmers, all mounted and armed, resumed search in the Welsh Mountains for the Buzzard band of thieves. They intend to keep up the search until the outlaws are either captured or driven out . . . Three teams stolen from farmers to convey the Buzzard's booty, were found, only slightly damaged ... When Joe Buzzard was captured, he was found hiding in a swamp, with three others of the gang, among them Abe Buzzard himself." (The three later got away).

During the course of the investigations, it was learned that Abe had tried to rob the J. B. Musselman general store the night of November 28. The pet dog in the store raised such a racket that the marauders evidently decided that "Discretion is the better part of valor." However, a fruitless trip was unthinkable. The weather was ideal for housebreakers-a stormy, blustery night, when shutters banged, and windows rattled. Just a block away wa.c the Shiffer Jewelry Store.

CHAPTER TEN
St. Paul's Lutheran and Reformed Church

I am certain that there was no connection between the famous Robbery of 1884 and the founding of the Bowmansville Lutheran and Reformed Church two years later.
German Lutheran and Reformed farmers came into this area during the middle of the 18th century. For over one hundred years they worshipped with the congregation of St. John's (Center), the earliest records of which date back to 1777. Muddy Creek (which originated about 1730-1732); and Allegheny (Berks County).

Through the untiring efforts of the Reverend Stephen Schweitzer, who was born in Germany, April 15, 1842, a series of meetings were held. At the March 1, 1886 meeting a building committee was selected. Several weeks later land was surveyed, along a cowpath, completely surrounded by farmland. Sometime later a four-foot boardwalk was constructed from the main street to the building lot. Finally Church Street was opened. Officers for the two congrega- tions were elected at a meeting held May 25, 1886. They were installed by the pastors, Stephen Schweitzer (Reformed) and John Umbenden (Lutheran).

While the church was being built a well was also dug. The Ephrata Review of November 2, 1886 reports: "While Mr. Isaac Bordenhart was being left down in the well, which is being dug on the new church property for the purpose of commencing the well, both cranks broke, letting him down rather suddenly. He fell a distance of about 15 feet but was not hurt." I remember this gentleman very well.

The dedication took place on Saturday and Sunday, November 27 and 28, 1886. At least three thousand persons attended the services. The records indicate that "The Reverend William Gottshall, a progressive Mennonite, presided at the organ during all the services. The term "progressive" refers to the General Conference Mennonite Church, with which the Pine Grove Church was affiliated.

The offerings amounted to $977.00. Rudy Brossman, the joint treasurer, having so many pennies he didn't know what to do, so his wife said, "put them in the half-bushel." This he did and in this manner took them to the bank, thus came the saying, "Rudy Brossman brought a half-bushel of peies to bank."

I was confirmed by Pastor Benjamin G. Welder, pastor of the Lutheran Congregation, who served it from 1886 to 1921, a total of 35 years. Mrs. Spotts was confirmed by Pastor Jarius A. Wickert of the Reformed Congregation, who served from 1895 to 1915, a total of twenty years.

The first annual picnic was held on Saturday, August 6, 1887 in the Bender's grove, three-quarters of a mile west of the village, where the picnics were still held when I was a boy.

At approximately 9:00 a.m. the townspeople gathered at St. Paul's Church, where a parade formed. The procession, led by the band, marched through the town, down Water Street, where we lived, to the picnic site. There was an abundance of food of every description. After the noon meat was eaten, games were played, including a cakewalk, hymns were sung, and a speaker appeared on the platform. This annual Sunday School picnic was truly a holiday in my young life. As I recalled I was given 10 cents spending money, with which one could do considerable buying in those days.

The first Teacher Training class graduated October 22, 1916. Mr. S. G. Seyfret was the teacher. We used Charles A. Oliver's Preparation for Teaching, a copy of which I still have in my library. Both Mrs. Spotts and I were in the class. The course consisted of 10 lessons. We were given a final examination. If we passed, we re- ceived diplomas. This diploma is the largest one I ever received during my academic career.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
A Famous Printing Press

During 1876, Franklin S. Stover, a farmer living a short distance south of Bowmansville bought a printing press, which he oper- ated in his home. Several years later the family moved to Bowmansville into the house on the northeast corner of the village Square. This house had been built by John B. Good, who served as Justice of the Peace until he moved to Lancaster about 1860. Soon after moving to the village Mr. Stover was appointed Justice of the Peace, which office he held until his death.

About 1905 his daughter Lizzie, became old enough to operate her father's printing press, which was housed in a room on the second floor. During the next forty years Lizzie Stover printed the notices of auction sales, picnics, and other public events around Bowmansville. Following my mother's death, my father married Lizzie Stover in 1910. Many times I helped her operate the old press, which remained in her father's home. After her,mother's death in 1945, her father's old house and print shop had to be sold to settle the estate.

Edward S. Smith, a printer from the city of Reading, bought the press and two years later sold it to the John Wanamaker store in Philadelphia, The store presented it to the Lincoln Free Press Memorial Association in 1953. This Association is located in Vincennes, Indiana. In a letter to Lizzie Spotts, dated February 7, 1955, the Executive Secretary reports:
"Your press is in Indiana at Vincennes in the Memorial where there is no reason to believe it will not remain as long as our civilization lasts." This press, which my stepmother operated for forty years, was built by Adam Ramage in Philadelphia during the period 1807- 1817. Ramage was a Scotch cabinetmaker who came to Philadelphia in 1800 or before. He introduced improvements in the earlier wooden presses by increasing the diameter of the screw so that more pressure with less effort could be applied to the platen through the lever. The frame of this press is made of solid mahogany.

Today there are only seven known Ramage presses remaining. Most are in Museums. One is in the Landis Farm Museum. Nothing is known about the Bowmansville press from the time it was built until Frank Stover acquired it in 1876.

I have visited the Printing Memorial in Vincennes, and have seen my stepmother's press in its place of honor. In a sense, it was she who really put Bowmansville "on the map." When her possessions were sold, following her death, I bought a box of what appeared to be junk. I knew that in this box were several wooden blocks of farm animals, which were used to print farm sale announcements. I remember playing with these soon after Lizzie Stover became my stepmother. Someday, they will probably be sent to Vincennes to join the printing press on which they were used.

The following is the text of the Legend on Old Printing Press at Vincennes:
"This old printing press was made by Adam Ramage during the period 1807-1817. It is said to be an outstanding example of sturdiness in an early nineteenth century printing press retained down through the years.

"Ramage was a Scotch cabinetmaker who came to Philadelphia in 1800 or earlier. He made his press frames of solid mahogany. He introduced improvements in earlier wooden presses by increasing the diameter of the screw so that more pressure with less effort could be applied through the lever to the platen. He also substituted iron for stone in the bed.

"Ramage presses were highly esteemed by small publishers. They were more portable than iron presses. They had more resilience in operation and were easier to repair. Improved iron presses of the middle 1830s gradually superseded wooden presses.

"Ramage was a director of the Franklin Technical Institute, Philadelphia. He was born in 1772 and died in Philadelphia in 1850.


"From time of manufacture, nothing of its ownership, use, or location is known of this press until 1876, when it caffne into the possession of F. S. Stover, Bowmansville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. "Stover was a one-time school teacher, and was also a farmer.

He never printed a newspaper. He picked up the art of printing sales posters and hand-bills. In this he was assisted by his daughter Elizabeth, who learned to set type at an early age. After her father's death, she operated the press for twenty years until 1945, when she retired and sold it to Printer Edward S. Smith, Reading, Pennsylvania.

"Elizabeth A. Spotts imprinted her sales bills, "LIZZIE A. SPOTTS, PRINTERESS." Thus she stands in line of many printers on the distaff side-Ann Franklin, the wife of James Franklin of Newport; Dinah Nuthead and Anne Catherine Green of Maryland; Elizabeth Timothy of Charleston; Sarah Goddard of Rhode Island, and Mrs. John Peter Zenger of New York, who were never daunted when it became their lot to carry on.

"In 1947 the press was sold by Printer Smith to the John Wanamaker Store, Philadelphia, which made a gift of it to this memorial in 1953.

"Elihu Stout is credited with having used several Ramage presses during his printing career in Vincennes extending from 1804 to 1845."

During many years my stepmother sent in the local news to the Lancaster and Reading daily papers and to the weekly papers published in the County, for which she received free copies. Our home was always well-supplied with newspapers.

She also kept a record of all deaths and burials in the community. Included in her records were the following notebooks: (1) Interments made in the Bowmansville Union Cemetery before 1896 (the cemetery was organized in 1886)-forty entries, some had been previously buried in other cemeteries; recopy from previous notebooks (1896-1966); (2) Interments made in the Mennonite Burial Grounds 1896-1908; Interments at other places 1899-1909; Interments made in the Pine Grove Mennonite Burial Grounds 1897- 1908; Interments made at the Martin Mennonite Meeting House 1906-1908; snow and rain accounts 1900-1906. (3) Interments made since 1909 (picture of Hon. William J. Bryan (Democratic nominee for president on cover).; Interments made at other places 1909-1924; (4) Interments made at other places 1925-1933; (5) Interments starting 1934; (6) Interments starting 1949. When I recently went through these records again I began to realize the concern my stepmother had for keeping records for posterity (a concern which entirely few people exercise), and that, for her, this rather tedious chore was really a labor of love. During her last years she was afflicted with palsy. As a result her last entries, made when she was almost ninety years old, reflect the uneasiness of her hands. Before that her handwriting was beautiful. One of her last entries was that of the interment of her own brother, Isaac Stover, whose death came two years before hers.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Hosteling Comes to Bowmansville

It is peculiarly appropriate that in Bowmansville, a typical Pennsylvania German community there should be a Youth Hostel, inasmuch as hosteling was started by Richard Schirrman, a school teacher who lived in Westfalen, Germany. In 1910, this son of the same German stock from which the Bowmans (Bauman), Weavers (Weber), Beams (Boehm), Mussers (Moser), Schweitzers, Goods (Guth), and Musselmans (Moseman) of Bowmansville came, first un- dertook to fulfill a dream he had long cherished-a dream to make a finer world for youth. It grew from his association with his pupils in school-he hiked with them, lived with them, talked with them. So he conceived the Youth Hostel idea which has since spread over Europe and America.

In the United States the movement was initiated by Isabel and Monroe Smith, who opened the first American Youth Hostel in 1934. Mrs. Spotts and I visited the Smiths and this Hostel in 1940. Before this the late Henry M. Woolman, who lived on a farm in Valley Forge, and who had frequently ridden the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and North Carolina, began to develop the Horse-Shoe Trail, which now starts at Valley Forge and follows the ridges for 110 miles to Rattling Run Gap, north of Harrisburg, where it joins the Appalachian Trail. Through the efforts of Mr. Woolman, by that time President of the Horse Shoe Trail Club, the Bowmansville Youth Hostel was opened in the autumn of 1937. During the first three years a total of 489 hostelers stayed overnight. The Hostel is located in the store which Samuel Bowman built in 1820. We visited it on one of our Field Trips several years ago. Mrs. Spotts' mother was the first House Mother, serving for ten years until she moved away from the store. I was the first chairman of the Hostel Committee. I prepared the manuscript for a small pamphlet, Bowmansville Youth Hostel and Traits, which was published by the Pennsylvania Writer's Project, part of the Works Projects Administration (WPA), in 1940. The Hostel including the entire store property is now owned by the American Youth Hostels, Inc., with Mrs. Margaret M. Stanley in charge. During the past 32 years thousands of hostelers, from many foreign countries and practically every state in the Union, have spent, at least one over. night in Bowmansville. During the 1968-1969 season 2023 over. nights were registered. These hikers, bicyclists, and horse-back riders have carried the fame of Bowmansville all over the United States and into many foreign countries.

A recent issue of Hosteling Along, published by the Phila. Council of the American Youth Hostels (Oct. 19, 1969), spoke of the Bowmansville Hostel as one of the most popular Hostels in America.

Our grandson, Ricky Bare and 1, began to hike the Horseshoe Trail two summers ago. In four and one-half days of hiking we have covered 65 miles of the Trail, an average of 14 miles a day. On one hot day last August we hiked almost 20 miles, carrying packs. We are planning to hike the entire Trail.

During the year which ended Oct. 1, 1969, 2023 overnight hostlers stayed in the Bowmansville Hostel, representing 977 bikers, 242 hikers, 22 horseback riders, and 767 others (who came by car or bus). These 2000 persons represented 18 diffenrent states, Puerto Rico, Australia, France, and South Africa.

These 2000 persons were not Tourists, looking for elegant Motels. They were mostly young people, looking for adventure, and willing to stay overnight using the much more primitive accomodations of a Youth Hostel. They probably have fonder memories of Lancaster County than the average out-of-state, opulent tourist.

About seven years ago Mr. Norman Weber began the development of Oak Creek Camp about two miles east of Bowmansville. At present there are 300 camp sites. At least 10,000 different persons camped here during the 1969 season. The writer and two of his grandchildren camped there one night several years ago. From the camp it is only a short walk to the Devil's Hole described in chapter eight.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A Twentieth Century Pioneer

In a previous section reference was made to Brushtown, an at- tempt to create a Negro community in the wilderness area of Yel- low Hill during the second half of the 19th century. That effort failed.

Eleven years ago, Daniel O'Hagan, a native of Washington, D. C. and a former government employee, being fed up with the noise and fumes and the crowds of New York City, left urban civilization to carve out a new life for himself and his family in the woodlands near Bowmansville. He bought a tract of land adjoining our 18 acres of woodland one mile east of Bowmansville, at the foot of Yellow Hill, isolated fr(nn modern civilization, although the Pennsylvania Turnpike is less than a mile away.

Mr. O'Hagan built a two story hand-hewn log house, cleared a small parcel of land for a garden, dug a 34 foot hand-dug well, (but it was necessary to drill deeper), built a small log workshop, started several hives of bees, and keeps two goats to supply milk.

Here, in a pioneer setting, Mr. and Mrs. O'Hagan and their two children have escaped the stress of urban life. Mr. O'Hagan first came to Bowmansville to participate in a work camp. He was in search for freedom. After some time in Bowmansville he decided that this was the place where he wanted to live in orderto get away from "mental indigestion," and to live close to nature because "it is one of the best medicines for mind and body."

We visit the O'Hagans quite frequently. We find them to be perceptive, aware of what is happening throughout the world; unusually healthy; most friendly and congenial; and above all, very exciting people. Bowmansville is fortunate in having such a family in its vicinity.

It's a long way from John Musselman, Mrs. Spotts' paternal ancestor who built a log cabin in the forests along Muddy Creek, at the northern edge of Bowmansville, in 1738; to Daniel O'Hagan, who built a log cabin in the forests, also close to a branch of the Muddy Creek, one mile east of Bowmansville, 225 years later. Maybe history does repeat itself; rather, people may discover that we haven't really made much progrgss.in two and one-fourth centuries.


Resources
Edwin H. Colbert, "A New Triassic Procolophonid from Pennsylvania" in American Museum Novitates, published by the American Museum of Natural History, N. Y. Number 2022, November 29, 1960, p. 2.
John W. Price, Sr., A New Locality For Upper Triassic Vertebrate Fossils in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the North Museum, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Reprinted from Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, pp. 167-168, Vol. XXX, 1956).
A microfilm copy of this will can be found in the Fackenthal Library at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During the 16th century the family name was Nieda, which became Von Nieda when an early ancestor, who saved the life of an Archduke in Austria, for which he was knighted, which gave him the right to use "Von" before his name. This information was secured from Mr. Richard Willis Von Nieda, Reading, Pennsylvania.
In the 1750 Tax Returns for Brecknock Township there appears the name of Jacob Fanneda (Miller). This name appears in the Tax Lists until 1783, where it is spelt Voneta.
The 1790 Census includes the name Jacob Fonnada as a head of a family in Brecknock Township. Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County, Everts and Peck, Philadelphia, 1883, p. 674. The original Tax Returns can be found in the archives of the Lancaster County Historical Society. This information appears in the Mennonite Encyclopedia, Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1955, p. 37.
Tax Returns for 1750.
Proceedings of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Vol. XIV, p. 236, (Hereafter, the reference will be LCHS). 'The writer recently visited this house. In spite of alterations the west Fireplace was still standing. The fireplace has a beautiful hand-carved mantel.
"Information about the early generations of the Schneder family can be found in a small pamphlet by the late Reverend Charles B. Schneder, The Schneder Family, prepared for the Family Reunion, September 15, 1929, 37 pages. The writer has a copy in his files.
"Ellis and Evans, ibid., p. 675.
"Jacob L. Beam, "A History of the Beam Family," Lancaster New Era, September 25, 1919 (a clipping found in W. K. Musselman's scrapbook.)
"The Schneder Family, ibid., p. 35.
'The original letter is in the hands of one of Mrs. Spotts' cousins.
'LCHS, ibid., Vol. 1, 1896, p. 133-135.
"LCHS, ibid.
'The Examiner, 1908.
"The Lancaster Intelligencer, December 20, 1920, p. 11.
W. K. Musselman's scrapbook.
"LCHS, Vol. 12, June, 1911, p. 1.
'The Terre Hill Times, January 15, 1909, p. 1.
"Lancaster Examiner-New Era, February 17, 1923, p. 1.
'Taken from W. K. Musselman's scrapbook. J. B. Musselman's given name was actually Israel, but during most of his life he used the initials J. B.
"The presence of the names from Montgomery County was probably because the Reverend Moses Gottshall of Montgomery County served as pastor of the Pine Grove Mennonite Church, of which J. B. Musselman was a member.

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