Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital. According to the United States Census Bureau, Chambersburg's 2020 population was 21,903. When combined with the surrounding Greene, Hamilton, and Guilford Townships, the population of Greater Chambersburg is 66,340 people. The Chambersburg, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes surrounding Franklin County, and in 2010 included 149,618 people.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, Chambersburg Borough is the thirteenth-largest municipality in Pennsylvania and the largest borough as measured by fiscal size as of 2016. Chambersburg Borough is organized under the Pennsylvania Borough Code and is not a home-rule municipality.
Chambersburg's settlement began in 1730, when water mills were built at Conococheague Creek and Falling Spring Creek. The town developed on both sides of these creeks. Its history includes episodes relating to the French and Indian War, the Whiskey Rebellion, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and the Civil War. The borough was the only major northern community burned down by Confederate forces during the war. Residents charged the Confederates with war crimes.
Chambersburg is served by the Lincoln Highway, U.S. 30, between McConnellsburg and Gettysburg. U.S. 11, the Molly Pitcher Highway, passes through it between Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland. Interstate 81 skirts the borough to its east. The town lies approximately midpoint on US Route 30 between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The local topography reflects both flatter areas like Philadelphia and mountainous areas like Pittsburgh. Downtown Chambersburg has occasional events such as Food Truck Festival, Apple Fest, and Icefest.
History
European settlement
Native Americans living or hunting in the area during the 18th century included the six Iroquois tribes of a confederacy known as the Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, the Lenape, and the Shawnee. The Lenape lived mostly to the east, with the Iroquois to the north, and the Shawnee to the south. Their traders, hunters, and warriors traveled on the north-south route sometimes called the "Virginia path" through the Cumberland Valley, from New York through what became Carlisle and Shippensburg, then through what would become Hagerstown, Maryland, crossing the Potomac River into the Shenandoah Valley.Image:Kitfry-1-.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|1751 Fry-Jefferson map depicting 'The Great Waggon Road to Philadelphia'
Benjamin Chambers, a Scots-Irish immigrant, is credited with settling "Falling Spring" in 1730. He built a grist mill and saw mill by a then- waterfall where Falling Spring Creek joined Conococheague Creek. The creek provided power for the mills, and soon a settlement grew and became known as "Falling Spring".
On March 30, 1734, Chambers received a "Blunston license" for, from a representative of the Penn family. European settlement in the area remained of questionable legality until the treaty ending the French and Indian War in 1763, because not all Indian tribes with land claims had signed treaties with the British colonial government.
The Penn family encouraged settlement in the area in order to strengthen its case in a border dispute with the Maryland Colony, which had resulted in hostilities known as Cresap's War. This dispute was not settled until 1767, with the border survey that resulted in the Mason-Dixon line. Chambers traveled to England to testify in support of Penn's claims. To maintain peace with the Indians, Penn sometimes arranged for European settlers to be removed from nearby areas. In May 1750, Benjamin Chambers helped remove settlers from the nearby Burnt Cabins, named after an incident.
The area was first classified as part of Chester County, then Lancaster County. Then Lancaster County was split, with its western portion renamed as Cumberland County; finally another split established Franklin County in 1784..
The Great Wagon Road connecting Philadelphia with the Shenandoah Valley passed nearby. In 1744, the road was completed through Harris's Ferry, Carlisle, Shippensburg, and Chambersburg to the Potomac River. In 1748 a local militia was formed for protection against Indians, with Benjamin Chambers named as its colonel.
Chambersburg was still considered frontier during the French and Indian War. Benjamin Chambers built a private stone fort during the war, which was equipped with two 4-pounder cannons. Fighting and troop movements occurred nearby. The area's population dropped from about 3,000 in 1755 as the war began, to about 300 during the conflict. Most settlers did not return until after 1764.
Because Chambers's fort was otherwise lightly defended, officials attempted to remove the cannons to prevent them from being captured by Indians and used against other forts. However, the attempted removal failed. One of the cannons still remained in 1830, when it was fired to celebrate Independence Day that year.
The Forbes Road and other trails going to Fort Pitt passed nearby as well. The Forbes Road developed into part of the main road connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and much later into US 30. Chambersburg developed as a trading and transportation hub at the crossroads of Forbes Road and the Great Wagon Road.
Fighting continued in the area after the war. The Enoch Brown school massacre took place during Pontiac's War, when Native Americans were trying to expel European Americans from the area. The Black Boys rebelled against British troops stationed at Fort Loudon.
The town of Chambersburg was platted or laid out in 1764. Lots were advertised for sale on July 19 in The Pennsylvania Gazette, published by Benjamin Franklin.
The first settlers were Scots-Irish Presbyterians; German Protestants came soon afterward. Relatively few Quakers and English Protestants settled as far west as Chambersburg. However, blacks lived in Chambersburg almost from the settlement's beginning. Benjamin Chambers owned a black female slave sometime before the French and Indian War and twenty slaves were recorded as taxable property in 1786.
The earliest church was established by Scots-Irish Presbyterians in 1734. Chambers gave the congregation land in 1768, for an annual rent of only a single rose. Later, the First Lutheran Church and Zion Reformed Church both organized in 1780 under similar terms, so these three churches came to be known as the "Rose Rent Churches". A Catholic community organized in 1785. St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church dates its founding to members purchasing a log cabin from the expanding Catholic congregation in 1811, and the congregation continued and expanded through 1830. The Mt. Moriah First African Baptist Church dates to 1887. The Jewish cemetery dates back to 1840.
1775–1858
In June 1775, soon after the Battle of Lexington, local troops were raised to fight the British in the American Revolution under the command of Benjamin Chambers's eldest son Captain James Chambers, as part of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment. These troops were among the first non-New Englanders to join the siege of Boston, arriving on August 7, 1775. James Chambers fought for seven years during the revolution, reaching the rank of Colonel of Continental Army troops on September 26, 1776. His two brothers, William and Benjamin Jr., each served for much of the war and reached the rank of captain. James Chambers commanded local troops at the Battle of Long Island, and at White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He was part of the rear guard covering the retreat from Brooklyn, and was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine while facing Hessian troops under General Knuphausen at Chadds Ford.During the Whiskey Rebellion, local citizens raised a liberty pole in support of the rebels, and to protest conscription of soldiers to put down the rebellion. Nevertheless, these citizens were censured in a town meeting and removed the pole the next day. President George Washington, while leading United States troops against the rebels, came through town on the way from Carlisle to Bedford, staying overnight on October 12, 1794. According to tradition, Washington lodged with Dr. Robert Johnson, a surgeon in the Pennsylvania line during the Revolution. This march was one of only two times that a sitting president personally commanded the military in the field. After sending the troops toward Pittsburgh from Bedford under General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, Washington returned through Chambersburg sometime between October 21 and 26. Local tradition holds that Washington lodged at the Skinner Tavern in Horse Valley, some distance northwest of the town, for an evening; a letter to Alexander Hamilton written on October 26 references his forces "ascending the North Mountain from Skinners by a wrong road". James Chambers was appointed a Brigadier General of Militia during the Whiskey Rebellion.
Chambersburg was incorporated on March 21, 1803, and declared the County Seat when the State Assembly established a formal government. The first courthouse was John Jack's tavern on the Diamond in 1784, with a permanent courthouse built in 1793, and the first county jail built 1795. The "Old Jail" was built in 1818, survived the fire of 1864 and is the oldest jail building in Pennsylvania. It was originally used as the sheriff's residence and had the longest continuous use of any jail in the state, operating until 1971. Today the Old Jail is a museum and home to the Franklin County – Kittochtinny Historical Society. The county's gallows still stand in the jail's courtyard. From 1786 to 1879 there were five executions in Franklin County totaling six 6 felons – five for murder and one for rape.
Much of the town's growth was due to its position as a transportation center, first as the starting point on the Forbes Road to Pittsburgh. The U.S. Congress placed Chambersburg on the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh postal road in 1803. The road was rebuilt as the Chambersburg-Bedford Turnpike in 1811. The Cumberland Valley Railroad was built in 1837 and was the area's center of economic activity for nearly 100 years. Until the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line in 1854, the fastest route from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was by stagecoach from Pittsburgh to Chambersburg, and then by train to Philadelphia.