372 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



the Episcopal church. A neat marble slab on the pavement marks the spot whei-e his-- 

 remains were deposited." 



Peter Scliaub, of Lancaster county, setting forth to the Assembly, that when the 

 forces under Col. Dunbar were at Lancaster, on their way to Philadelphia, a consider- 

 able number of horses and cattle belonging to them were put into his meadow, and 

 kept there for two days, whereby the greatest part of the grass was destroyed, required 

 compensation for damages sustained; Jacob Myers and others valued the damages at 

 £11. 7s. The Assembly considered the petition, September 19th 1755. John Brubaker 

 presented a similar petition; his damages were £8. 6s. 



Col. Dunbar was an officer under Edward Bvaddock, who met with a fatal reproof, 

 July 9th, 1755, near Pittsburgh, for his overweening confldence and reckless temerity. 

 — Rwpp- 



In 1758, the freemen of the county, by reason of the badness of the roads to Phila- 

 delphia, in spring and fall, pray to be excused from attendance there in the Supreme 

 Court, and request a county coiu't in lieu thereof. 



Li 1759, owing to the distracted state of the country by Indian cruelties and French 

 hostilities, a barrack was erected in Lancaster, containing 500 men, for the security of 

 the country, Mr. Bausman, barrack-master. 



In 1760, statistics of Lancaster county — 436,346 aci'es of land, 5,635 taxables, each 

 taxed £1.3s. Total tax £6,178.10s. 



In 1763, a petition by settlers on the Conestoga, complains of its dams, as destroying 

 the former fishery of shad, salmon and rock-fish, which were before in abundance, 

 Avhile the tributary streams had plenty of trout. 



In 1763 the house of correction was erected. The famous massacre of Indians by 

 the Paxton Boys, wliicli took place this year, is fully described in a former part of this, 

 volume, i^Sges 179 sq. 



In 1764, the Rev. Mr. Barton, Rector of St. James' Church, describes Lancaster as a 

 very respectable and wealthy place, containing 600 houses. He reports also that a 

 German surgeon married then about 300 couples a year, worth to him £150. 



In 1765 the Presbyterians ei-ected a lai'ge meeting house. Building Committee: 

 AVilliam Montgomery, John Craig, James Davis. 



In 1783-1784 Johann David Schopf, who had been Commissioner of the Margrave of 

 Brandenburg during the Revolution, undertook a journey through the Middle and 

 Southern States and the Bahamas, and published an account of his travels at Erlangen 

 in 1788. From that rare and able book I have translated the following account of 

 Lancaster, which Avill doubtless be perused with great interest: 



"Among the interior cities of all North America, Lancaster is the most important. 

 Although hardly eighty years old, it has already 900 houses. Its rapid growth cannot 

 be ascribed to the nearness of a river, for the Susquehanna flows 10 miles to the South, 

 and the small Conestoga 2 miles to the East. This town was originally designed to 

 have been located on the Susquehanna, and a wooden Court House and jail had actu- 

 ally been erected near Wright's Ferry, but Hamilton, a distinguished lawyer, used his 

 influence to have the town located on land- belonging to him. His family still retain 

 the proprietory rights, and draw an annual income of at least £1,000 sterling from 

 ground-rents. These ground-rents are unequal, according as the respective lots were 

 taken up at an earlier or later period, or are situated in different parts of the town; for 

 the lots taken up at the first beginning of the place pay least; but with the gradual 

 growth of the town tlie price of the lots was raised. The town is laid out with regu- 

 larity; the Court House here, also, is in the centre at the intersection of two of the 

 main streets, which detracts considerably from its appearance. It is said that not more 

 than fifty English families dwell here; all the rest are Germans; but the English lan- 

 guage, though not dominant, is the language of the courts. The inhabitants follow 

 agricultural, industrial and commercial pursuits. The commerce, however, is not very 



