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A history of the origin of LebanonCounty and its municipalitiesBy SCOTT S. DOWNS

Publisher, @scottsdowns

ORIGINS OFLEBANON COUNTY

The history of LebanonCounty is a rich one, dat-ing back to 1682 when Wil-liam Penn establishedthe Province of Pennsylvania,comprised of three counties:Bucks, Philadelphia and Ches-ter. From Chester County,Lancaster County was formedin 1729, followed by DauphinCounty from Lancaster in 1785.

Though part of Chester,and then Lancaster and laterDauphin, the land that was tobecome Lebanon County was

originally owned by the LenniLenape Indians, also known asthe Delawares. At one time,the tribe inhabited nearly all ofeastern Pennsylvania and por-tions of New Jersey, New York,Connecticut and Delaware.Sometime during 1732, the landwas purchased from the tribe byThomas Penn, son of William.

By the early 1800s, feelingtoo removed from distant seatsof government and seekinggreater control over their ownlocal affairs, residents of An-nville, Bethel, East Hanover,Londonderry, Heidelberg andLebanon townships petitionedfor a new county to be created.According to research by BrianKissler, archivist at the Leba-non County Historical Society,several petitions for a newcounty were rejected includ-ing one requesting to name thearea Hamilton County and an-other proposing Jonestown asthe county seat.

In 1810, a petition was pre-sented which included the sug-gestion that the town of Leba-non be made the county seat.The township had originallydrawn its name from HebrewLebanon; the populous cedar

trees likely reminding the ar-eas strongly religious settlersof the Biblical Cedars of Leba-non.

Three years later, with ap-proval from the Senate andHouse of Representatives,on February 16, 1813, Gover-nor Simon Synder signed into

law An Act erecting parts ofDauphin and Lancaster Coun-ties into a separate county tobe called Lebanon. The Actmade Lebanon the 47th countyin Pennsylvania.

The Act covered many of theitems needed to begin the newcounty, including setting thephysical boundaries, electionof county commissioners andother officers of the county,election of a senator and threerepresentatives to serve jointlywith Dauphin County in Har-risburg, establishment of the

court system, taxation, erec-tion of a jail and courthouse,handling of prisoners, electionof members to Congress jointlywith Lancaster and Dauphincounties, and the handling ofthe poor.

Lebanon was categorized asa 6th class county with a length

and breadth of 17 miles and anarea of 288 square miles. Coun-ty boundaries were located andaccording to Grittinger and Wit-mores Lebanon County High-lights, over the next two years,bills were filed for surveys tobe made by representatives ofDauphin, Lancaster and Leba-non counties, and then furtherbills for surveying townshiplines and annexing to LebanonCounty part of the townships ofMt. Joy, Rapho, Warwick, Eliza-beth, and Cocalico, LancasterCounty, and part of West Ha-

nover, Dauphin County, to theiradjoining townships.These townships and the

dates they were originallycreated are: Lebanon 1729,Bethel 1730, Londonderry

1768, Annville 1799, EastHanover and Heidelberg

1813. Today, Lebanon County

has a total of 18 Townships, 7Boroughs, and Lebanon City.

LANDSCAPE OFLEBANON COUNTY

To better understand ourcountys origins, we must firstunderstand its landscape. Anexcerpt taken from ShermansDays 1843 History of Pennsylva-nia appears in Florence ClintsLebanon County PennsylvaniaArea Key and offers a fine de-scription of what early settlerslooked upon.

To say that Lebanon co. isincluded in the great Kittatinny

valley, is tantamount to sayingthat its surface is composed oundulating slate and limestone

lands, abounding in every el-ement of fertility. Large andcommodious houses of stone,in delightful situations, with or-namental trees and smiling gar-dens; stone barns of immensesize; pure water flowing fromadjoining hills through verdantfields, or gushing from artificialfountains for convenient use

combine elements of substan-tial comfort and improvementthat cannot be surpassed in anycountry.

On either side of the valleyrise the lofty mountains of sand-stone which enclose the co. onthe northwest and southeast.The Kittatinny mountain cross-es the northwestern end of theco., the Second mountain, par-allel to it, being the boundary.On the southeastern boundaryare the Conewago hills. Thesemountains, too rugged and pre-cipitous for agricultural pur-poses generally, are lined withdense forests, which serve toreduce the excellent iron oresfound among their strata.

In his 1875 County Atlas ofLebanon Pennsylvania, F.W.Beers paints a picture that iseven more vivid.

The County of Lebanon has

been called, not inappropri-ately, the Garden Spot of Penn-sylvania; and surely no one whohas ever passed through it canwonder at the designation. Ly-ing between the far-famed BlueMountain on the North, and the

Township timelineTownship Incorporated

Lebanon* 1729 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

Bethel 1730 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

Heidelberg 1757 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

Londonderry 1768 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

East Hanover 1785 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

Annville** 1799 / February 16, 1813 (Lebanon County)

Jackson Circa 1820

Swatara 1822

North Lebanon March 18, 1840

South Lebanon March 18, 1840

Union September 26, 1842

Millcreek February 26, 1844

North Annville July 30, 1845

South Annville July 30, 1845

Cold Spring November 3, 1853

West Lebanon March 13, 1888

North Cornwall March 13, 1893

West Cornwall March 13, 1893

South Londonderry March 16, 1894

North Londonderry March 16, 1894

Annville** 1908

*Lebanon Township became a borough in 1821 and a city in 1885.**The old Annville Township was divided into North and South AnnvilleTownships in 1845, ceasing to exist for 63 years until a new ( the present)Annville Township was formed in 1908.

Thomas Smiths 1816 map of Lebanon County helped disprove a longstanding theory that Jackson and Swatara townships were part of Lebanon County when itwas created in 1813. Neither township appears on the map. Further research established that Jackson (circa 1820) and Swatara (1822) were later additions.

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Lebanon County Bicentennial

See LEBANON, page 2

Bicentennialcoverage and

acknowledgments

By SCOTT S. DOWNS

Publisher, @scottsdowns

2013 is a milestone yearas Lebanon County cele-brates its Bicentennial. OnFeb. 16, a Bicentennial Cel-ebration, presented by theLebanon County Historical

Society and the LebanonCounty commissioners, willtake place from 11 a.m. to 5p.m. at the Lebanon ValleyExpo Center. During thecourse of the year, a num-ber of other organizations

will present a variety ofevents to further recognizethe countys 200-year anni-

versary. That informationcan be found on the Histori-cal Societys website, www.lchsociety.org.

Having been involvedon the Bicentennial Plan-ning Committee for manymonths, I felt it impor-tant for the Lebanon Daily

News to contribute to ourcommunitys celebration,

too. Based on the keen in-terest our readers showedfor last years coverage ofthe newpapers 140th an-niversary, and after muchconsideration and discus-sion, we decide to work in a

similar fashion.Throughout the year, we

will publish a host of sto-ries that share many differ-ent aspects of our countyshistory. Potential topics in-clude Government, Indus-

try, Sports, Parks & Recre-

ation, Agriculture, Religion,Education, Newspapers,Architecture, Transporta-tion, Military, and Arts &Entertainment.

Today is the first install-

ment of our Bicentennialseries, focusing on LebanonCountys origins and the sixmunicipalities Lebanon,Bethel, Londonderry, An-nville, East Hanover andHeidelberg that com-

prised it in 1813.I would like to acknowl-

edge the outstanding con-tributions that have already

been made to our Bicen-tennial series, and thisfirst story, by Don Rhoads,

vice president and ar-chives chairman, and BrianKissler, archivist, at theLebanon County HistoricalSociety.

Don is a volunteer withthe Historical Society, hav-

ing been a part of the orga-nization for almost threedecades. Additionally, heis an accomplished Leba-non County historian andauthor. The work he hasdone with Gladys B. Sow-

ers and the writing theyvepublished was invaluableto the research that I did forthis todays article. Don hasalso been extremely gener-ous with his ideas, guidanceand time.

Brian spent considerabletime assisting with my re-search, identifying and lo-cating several books, docu-ments and graphics fromthe Historical Societysarchives. He, too, is an ac-

complished writer whosework is valuable to the story

we share.I hope you will enjoy to-days coverage. I encourageeveryone to visit the Histor-ical Society to learn more

about Lebanon Countyshistory, and come join thecelebration on Feb. 16.

300 Schneider DriveLebanon, PA 17046

301 E. Evergreen Rd.Lebanon, PA 17042

653 E. Lincoln Ave.Myerstown, PA 17067

www.lebanonfcu.org55R55mgm7hmh7hhgf

Lebanon FederalCredit Union

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Going Strong Since1969