Tag: History

A Great Sickness at Harrisburg The Landis Mill Dam Incident

Yellow fever is one of those diseases that was of grave concern to our ancestors. About 1793, Philadelphia was experiencing an outbreak of the disease and when a febrious illness began to manifest in Harrisburg, there was great concern that it had reached them, too.1

Efforts were made to protect the town and its inhabitants—the posting of guards on the roads, turning away travelers, etc. But the general feeling amongst the town’s inhabitants was that the disease was caused by the stagnant waters behind a dam on Paxton Creek. The mill was owned by Peter, John and Abraham Landis.

Articles of agreement were written between John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, and the three Landis men on 16 April 1790. Harris granted them “a mill seat on the waters of Paxton Creek the race whereof to be taken out of the said creek at any place between the two bridges now erected over the same opposite Harrisburgh aforesaid and to be dug or carried through the land of the said John Harris.”2 The men paid £600, plus interest, and were required to provide a sufficient merchant mill within three years.

Then the sickness came.

On 5 May 1794, a meeting was held and a committee designed to meet with the Landis’ and offer them £2500 in exchange for the mill.3 They met with the men the next day. The Landis’ refused to sell.

By January 1795, the inhabitants were determined to take action. At a meeting on 16 January 1795, it was voted to pay the Landis’ £2600 for the mill, and that in case the Landis’ again refused to sell, they would “prostrate the dam erected… and pay our proportionate parts of all legal expenses and damages that may accrue on any suit or suits.”4 An assessment was made on all property in the borough in order to make up the amount of the offer.5 Amongst those assessed for property in town were John, Adam, and Christopher Hocker. A George Hocker—possibly their brother—was assessed as a single man, too.

Apparently, the Landis men were still not willing to sell and instead asked for £2000 for the water-rights alone. The committee apparently believed this was little more than extortion. They refused the counter-offer.

On Saturday, 18 April 1795, the committee and a number of inhabitants went to the dam and with four persons they had hired “opened the creek bed twelve feet wide.”6 This, for all intents and purposes, ruined the dam.

On 29 April 1795, with the dam all but destroyed and no other options, the Landis’ sold the mill property and equipment to a committee comprised of Stacy Potts, Moses Gilmore, William Grayson, Jacob Bucher, John Keen, John Dentzel and Alexander Berryhill.7

 The Landis Family

Peter, John, and Abraham Landis may have been, I believe, brothers and sons of Felix Landis.

Felix Landis of Derry Township died after writing his will on 25 Jan 1770.8 He left his property on Spring Creek to his two sons—Peter and Jacob. Peter, in particular, inherited that piece of the tract “whereupon the house and barn and mill is standing.” This indicates to me that the mill business was a family industry.

All three men were of Derry Township in 1790 when they purchased the water rights from John Harris.9 In 1795 when they sold out, Peter and Eva, his wife, were of Derry Township, John and Catharine, his wife, were of Londonderry Township, and Abraham and Barbara, his wife, were of Paxton Township.10

How Old Were They?

When judging a document to determine whether or not it applies to your ancestor, it’s always a good idea to keep in mind how old they were. If they weren’t old enough to buy land, then maybe that deed belongs to someone else.

But do you know how old they had to be?

Today, we need to be eighteen to vote or join the military, twenty-one (in most states) to drink alcohol legally, and sixteen in order to obtain a driver’s license. In colonial times, there were also age-based restrictions and they often varied from state to state.

If you’re researching in colonial Pennsylvania like me, you’re pretty lucky; it’s very clear cut. A person obtained legal age at 21. Before that they were required to have a guardian for their estate and that guardian was responsible for all legal actions on their behalf. Before the age of 14, the Orphans Court chose and appointed a guardian for a child. After the age of 14, a child could request a specific person to be appointed as their guardian by the court.

But what if you don’t know how old they were?

Knowing the age-based legal restrictions can help you to estimate a time frame for person’s birth. A child who requested a guardian would have to be between the ages of 14 and 21, giving you a seven year date range for their birth. A man who appears in a Pennsylvania tax list would have to be 21 years-old, giving you a year that he would’ve been born in or before.

For more information on this subject you can read “Legal Age in the Colonies” by Robert Baird or the series “How Old Did Folks Have to Be?” on the Legal Genealogist.

Building Bridges Between Genealogy and History (An NGS Video)

I love history. A great deal of my enjoyment of genealogy is my fascination with history, imagining people’s lives in other times. So, I enjoyed watching this video from the National Genealogical Society, featuring Robert Charles Anderson, FASG, director of the Great Migration Project, talking about his experience bringing the two disciplines together. I really like the idea of genealogy as history on the individual level.

Take a look at the video and see if you agree.