Quarryville

“The village of Quarryville is the most important and populous town in the county south of Strasburg. Situated mostly in Eden township, but partly in Drumore, and bordering on Providence, it marks the limit of the limestone lands southward in the county even more distinctly than the point at which, in the earlier settlement of the county, the German met the Scotch-Irish and Quaker elements of its citizenship. It is in the bowl-shaped valley in which this village lies, between “Stony Hill”, a western spur of the Mine Ridge, and a lower chestnut-covered ridge south of Quarryville, that the limestone is cut off.”

Thus begins the section appropriately entitled “Quarryville” in the History of Lancaster County (or, the entire title: History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men) written by Franklin Ellis and Samuel Evans and published in 1883. I had seen and read sections of this locally famous (well, maybe not too famous) history online in various locations and found it to be a fascinating glimpse into what the Solanco area looked like about 150 years ago. Interestingly, I happened to find an original copy of this selfsame tome about a year ago at a mid-county church that I had been working for. I flipped through the 127 year old pages with caution and speed trying to find any passage about localities with which I might be familiar; this is a historian’s gold mine I thought.

And indeed it is. A quick reading of the above passage will lend insight into the naming of a couple Quarryville roads. History, as I am finding more and more, is important for, among other reasons, giving us insight into who and why we are what we are. Maybe more on this at a different time, but for now, it will suffice to say that I will be digging into and sharing more from Ellis’ and Evans’ book in the future as I continue to explore the area.

I was able to make some images of sections of the book with my digital camera and have posted some below. While I think that digital cameras could be used to make really good images of text I did not have the ideal setup: hence the mediocre image (for reading at least).

Enjoy.