now, under German cultivation, the most beautiful and fertile section of the county."

CHAMBERSBURG, the seat of justice of Franklin county, is one of the most flourishing inland towns in the state. It is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Falling Spring and Conococheague creeks, 143 miles west of Philadelphia, 48 southwest of Harrisburg, and 77 northwest of Baltimore. The town was laid out in 1764, but remained a small village until after the peace of 1783, and the establishment of the county in 1784, since which it has enjoyed a progressive improvement. It contains at present about 600 houses, substantially, and many of them tastefully built; generally of brick or stone. The population within the borough limits in 1830, was 2,794, and in 1840, 3,239. Its public buildings are, a splendid new courthouse of brick, (erected in 1842,) with an Ionic colonnade in front, and surmounted by a beautiful cupola, a jail, eight churches, a spacious academy, a banking-house of a superior style of architecture, and a masonic hall of elegant structure. There are also several wellbuilt and well-kept hotels; and three weekly newspapers, two in English and one in German.

The water-power of the creeks which pass through the town drives two flour-mills, two fulling-mills, an immense straw-paper mill, a cotton and woollen manufactory, oil-mill, carding machines, and the machinery of Dunlap and Madeira's celebrated edge-tool factory. The water-power in, and within five miles of, Chambersburg is equal to the propelling 100 pair of stones, furnishing facilities for manufacturing purposes not surpassed by any in the state-except those at Beaver. The town is surrounded by a healthy country, of great fertility, and in a high state of cultivation and improvement. The Harrisburg and Pittsburg turnpike passes through the town, and is joined here by the turnpike from Gettysburg and York, and one from Baltimore. The Cumberland Valley railroad from Harrisburg terminates here; and the Franklin railroad, connecting with it, runs on through Greencastle to Hagerstown. The constant arrival of passengers by the railroad going west to Pittsburg by stage, or passing down by the same route, imparts animation to the place.

The annexed view shows the entrance to the diamond or public square, on approaching it from the north. The drug-store on the right is the first stone house erected in the place; beyond it are seen the stage-office, at Culbertson's hotel; and beyond that the bank, with a pleasant yard before it. On the left is another hotel. The tall steeple in the distance is that of the German Reformed church. The new courthouse is not seen, being to the left of the public square. The citizens of the town are noted for their intelligence and steady, industrious, moral, and religious habits, and are not deficient in enterprise.

"During the French war of 1755, the war of the revolution, and the intermediate Indian wars, Chambersburg was a small frontier village, almost the outpost of civilization. A considerable trade was carried on with the more remote settlements on the Pittsburg road, by means of pack-horses. In time of peace some traffic was carried on with the Indians. The vicinity of an Indian frontier is not the purest school of morals. The restraints of law and religion become relaxed. The laws of the provincial legislature were ill suited to the sudden and anomalous emergencies of frontier life, and the people were very apt to make a law

unto themselves, and institute a code of morals that would not be tolerated in better organized communities. The rigid discipline of the Scotch Presbyterians was introduced at a very early period into the Conococheague settlements, but it surpassed its powers to curb the wild and lawless spirit of the Indian traders and frontier-men. As a consequence of this state of things, the Conococheague towns were infested during the revolution with a band of desperate marauders and counterfeiters, who bid defiance to all laws. They had an organized line from Bucks county through Chester and the Cumberland valley, into Virginia. The Doanes of Bucks county, Fritz of Chester county, and the men of Conococheague, (whose names might be mentioned if it were thought necessary,) together with other confederates in Virginia and Carolina, drove a brisk trade during the revolution by stealing horses and cattle, and disposing of them to the British. When the British retired, they carried on an extensive trade among themselves, by stealing horses at the south; passing them along the line to the north where they could not be recognised, and exchanging them for others stolen at the north; thus at that early day anticipating the golden dreams of our modern financiers, by 'equalizing the exchanges.' The long narrow valleys and secluded coves behind the Blue mountain afforded a convenient route, and secure hiding-places. These were no shabby villains: they wore the finest dresses, sported the best horses, and could display more guineas and jewelry than any others in the settlement; and though the source of their sudden wealth was suspected, no one dared to prove it against them. When not engaged in the more important department of the trade, they resorted to counterfeiting continental money, and sauntering around the towns, where they would amuse themselves by putting tricks upon travellers. Wo betide the unlucky Doctor Syntax who in those days hitched his horse in the diamond after night. If fortunate enough to find him at all, he would have great difficulty in recognising him, with his mane, tail, and ears cropped, and possibly a little paint added by way of ornament. And equally unfortunate was any man who resisted or threatened to bring them to justice. barn or his crops would be destroyed by fire. They thus for a long time defied public sentiment by threats, or eluded justice by concealment. At last two of them near Chambersburg, meeting a man on the highway with a bottle which they presumed to be whiskey, demanded it of him; he gave it up without remark, and on tasting they found it to be yeast! They broke it over his head in a rage, and otherwise abused him. This led to their arrest, and the detection of other crimes; and they were hung at Carlisle. On being called out to execution, they refused to come; but a smoke of brimstone made in the cell brought them to speedy submission."

His

The following interesting details relating to the early history of Chambersburg, and the other Conococheague settlements, the compiler was kindly permitted to copy from a manuscript sketch, written in 1832, by the Hon. George Chambers.

James, Robert, Joseph, and Benjamin Chambers, four brothers, emigrated from the county of Antrim, in Ireland, to the province of Pennsylvania, between the years 1726 and 1730. They settled and built a mill shortly after, at the mouth of Fishing cr., now in Dauphin co., on the Susquehanna, and appropriated a tract of very fine land at that place, which was lately owned and occupied by Archibald McAlister; though the land-office of Pa. was not open for the sale of lands west of the Susquehanna, as they were not purchased of the Indians till Oct. 1736, yet

the proprietary offices and agents were disposed to encourage settlements west of that river with the consent of the Indians, who were conciliated by the settlers. These settlements were incited and recognised, though without official grants, in order to resist the encroachments of the Marylanders, on what was considered part of the province of Pa. This policy, and the fine country forming that part of the Kittatinny valley extending from the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Conodoguinet, along the waters of the beautiful Conococheague to the Potomac, induced men of enterprise to seek and locate desirable situations for water-works and farms in the valleys of those two streams and of Yellow Breeches creek. These adventurous brothers were among the first to explore and settle in this valley. James made a settlement at the head of Green Spring, near Newville, Cumberland; Robert at the head of Middle Spring, near Shippensburg; and Joseph and Benjamin at the confluence of Falling Spring and Conococheague creeks, where Chambersburg is situated. These settlements and locations were made about or before 1730. By an arrangement among the brothers, Joseph returned to their property at the mouth of Fishing cr., and Benjamin, the younger brother, improved his settlement at the Falling Spring. He built a hewed log-house, which he covered with lapped shingles, fastened by nails, a style of building out of the common mode of round logs and clapboard roofs secured by beams. Some time after, Benjamin being induced to visit the east side of the Susquehanna, left his house unoccupied for a short time, and on his return, he found it burned to ashes. This was afterwards ascertained to be the work of an unprincipled hunter, who was induced to do it for the sake of the nails, which at that day, in this wild region, were esteemed no ordinary prize.

Benjamin prosecuted anew his improvements, building houses, clearing lands, and soon after the commission from the proprietary government to Samuel Blunston, allowing licenses for the settlement of lands west of the Susquehanna, on 30th March, 1734, Benjamin obtained from Blunston a license authorizing and securing his settlement by a grant of four hundred acres of land at the Falling Spring's mouth on both sides of the Conococheague, for the conveniency of a grist-mill and plantation, then Lancaster county. Having acquired the art and business of a millwright, he built himself, immediately, a saw-mill at the mouth of Falling Spring. This was an important improvement to himself and others disposed to settle in the surrounding wilderness. In a few years after he erected a flouring-mill; an accommodation which contributed much to the comfort of the early settlers, and had considerable influence in inducing settlements in the vicinity.

Benjamin Chambers was about twenty-one years of age when he made his settlement on the Falling Spring. He had, when living east of the Susquehanna, been attracted to the spot by a description he received from a hunter, who had observed the fine waterfall in one of his excursions through the valley. He was the first white settler in what is now Franklin county. From his acquaintance with the art and business of a millwright, and the use and value of water-power, his attention was directed to advantageous situations for water-works. He married shortly after his settlement a Miss Patterson, residing near Lancaster, who was the mother of his eldest son James. He maintained a friendly intercourse with the Indians in his vicinity, who were attached to him; with them he traded, and had so much of their confidence and respect that they did not injure him or offer to molest him. On one occasion, being engaged in haymaking in his meadow below Chambersburg, where the foundry and brick-yards now are, he observed some Indians secretly stalking in the thickets around the meadow. Suspecting some mischievous design, he gave them a severe chase, in the night, with some dogs, across the creek and through the woods, to the great alarm of the Indians, who afterwards acknowledged they had gone to the meadow for the purpose of taking from Benjamin his watch, and carrying off a negro woman whom he owned; and who, they thought, would be useful to raise corn for them: but they declared that they would not have hurt the colonel.

He used his influence with his acquaintances to settle in his neighborhood, directing their attention to desirable and advantageous situations for farms. His first wife lived but a few years Some time afterwards he married a Miss Williams, the daughter of a Welsh clergyman, residing in Virginia. She was born in Wales, and brought over to this country when very young. By her he had seven children, viz.: Ruhannah, married to Dr. Colhoun-William, Benjamin-Jane, married to Adam Ross-Joseph, George-and Hetty, married to Wm. M. Brown, Esq. Col. Benjamin Chambers was commissioned a justice of the peace, and also a colonel of the militia under the royal government at an early period. As an arbitrator he settled many controversies between his neighbors, and from his reputation for judgment and integrity, he was appealed to for direction and advice by the early settlers. He gratuitously prescribed and administered medicine to many, and as there was no regular physician in the neighborhood, it is said he was called upon to bleed and extract teeth for the relief of his acquaintances.

During the controversy between Lord Baltimore and the Penns, relating to the boundary between the provinces, Benjamin Chambers, who will hereafter be designated as Col. Chambers, was prevailed on to visit England to assist by his knowledge and testimony in terminating this controversy, which was embarrassing and protracting the settlement of these provinces.

From England he visited Ireland, his native soil, and prevailed on a number of acquaintances to accompany him, with their families, and settle in his neighborhood, having afforded them