On Left: Our Ancestors.aaTIMELINE OF OUR FAMILY HISTORY AND YORK, YORK COUNTY, PENNAaaOn Right, the history of York the city

Caspar Spengler  immigrated in 1727 from Germany & within 2 years  " located with the "Permission of the State Proprietaries of the Province," and in virtue of the right of "Squatter Sovereignty" 711 acres of lime-stone land about one and a half miles east of that portion of the banks of the"Katores" on which York-Town was thirteen years later laid out. The plantation began at the northern range of hills and extended across what was later designated as the "Great Road" leading from York-Town to Lancaster.,,,A few years after Caspar's occupation of his first plantation the notorious Col. Thomas Cressap and others, under authority from theGovernor of Maryland, and in virtue of an alleged patent to the latter from the King of Great Britain, assumed the right to oust by force the German settlers west of the Susquehanna with the purpose of occupying these fertile lands themselves. For years an armed conflict was  waged. The invaders were finally ejected and peace restored. In an indictment found against these encroachers mention is made of the lands in  the "quiet and possession" of Caspar Spengler." 1 See Springettsbury Manor page and Cressups War  1754 The Spanglers listed in the 1754 survey as bordering the 13 year old town of York are not our directs, although Jonas SPANGLER , our direct, lived VERY close to it being found as an original warrantee of the The Manor of Springettsbury aaa aaaa aaa aaa aaaaaa   aaaaa aaa 1818-Michael Bentz  marries  Annie Quickel  in York , York County [Christ Lutheran Church, York, York, Penna Records]  1823-Michael Bentz is of York Borough in 1823 when he settles his father's estate    Michael Bentz and wife Annie Quickel Bentz  are found in census of York [South Ward of Borough] York, Penna 1830 and fully enumerated 1850. He would die there 1858, she 1882. aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa Dtr Mary Elizabeth Bentz is born 1834 to  Michael and Annie Quickel Bentz aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaaaaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaaaaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaaaaaa aaaa aaaaaaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa Mary Elizabeth Bentz marries  William Henry Stair Oct 1853, St Johns Episcopal Church, York, York Co., Pa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa 1856: Anna Kate STAIR "Annie" is born in York , YorkCo 1856 1858: Michael BENTZ Annie's grandfather, dies in in his home in York  , York Co aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaaaaa aaa aaa aaaaaa aaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaaaaaaaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaa aaaaaaaaa 1876: Anna Kate "Annie" Stair, dtr of Mary Eliz Bentz, marries and goes to Adams County , the home of her groom aaa aa aaaaa  1882:aa  Michael Bentz's widow Anna Quickel Bentz "Annie"  dies York 1882.  Her daughter : Mary Elizabeth Bentz Stair Leber remains  living in York, York Co with her 2nd husband aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa 1911 Mary Elizabeth Bentz Stair Leber's 2nd husband dies,  she resides with him in the 1910 York , York  census aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa Mary  aaaaaaaa 1916 Mary Elizabeth Bentz Stair Leber dies in Adams Co, at home of her daughter aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaa

1729 The first European Settler The first White Settler of what will become the town of York settles on his plantation of 711 acres there. He is our forebear Caspar Spengler  . He bought a second plantation later.  1741 The town of York is conceived   lots 230 feet long and 65 feet wide  are sold to persons willing to erect   on it, 'a substantial dwelling of 16 feet square at least'. 1749 The town in size  63 log houses and two churches were standing in the town There was but one room with a fire place and hearth in the town, all the houses being accommodated with Dutch Stoves1 1754 Town Grows "there were 210 dwelling houses, of which three were of brick and two of stone. The Court House was of brick and unfinished, and the Prison, on the northeast corner of George and King streets, was of stone. The former was finished in 1756"1...Markets were established in 1755 one on Wednesday and one on Saturday. .1 1783-  there were 293 houses, 866 male and 913 female inhabitants, or a population of 1779, with 38 negro slaves."1  1816 Wooden pipes reach York . Codorus polluted from human settlement.     Running spring water reaches York in wooden pipes. Settlement along Codorus Creek apparently is making its flow unfit for human use. 1832 German, snow and meteors York County German publications urge  Lutheran pastors to learn the English language. In a reverse twist several years later those wishing for financial support to study for Lutheran pastorates are expected to learn German.  Heavy snow, measuring a yard deep, disables the gathering of wood to warm York residents. George Loucks, a distillery owner, hoards 200 cords of wood, saying he needs it to power his still. York's chief burgess requisitions the wood anyway and  hauls it to those in need. Loucks later receives payment. the brightest-on-recordexhibition of the Leonid meteor shower causing residents to fall to their knees in prayer takes place . 1834 Public Schools and German Resistance due to threat to culture Of York County's 29 districts, only seven vote in favor of public schools. Yorkwasted no time, opening its first public elementary school in 1834. Pennsylvania. Germans reject a system considered a threat to their culture. It is assumed that the primary language of instruction in public education would be English. But these  districts slowly reverse themselves as years pass. 1837 the newspapers take a stand on runaway wife advertisements "Wives did not always stay with their husbands "until death us do part" in the late 18th and 19th centuries. When they do leave their husbands' "bed and board," it is  customary for the men to warn the public. They pay for county newspaper advertisements warning against granting their wives credit on their accounts. William Adams takes the matter farther, saying in an ad that readers "are hereby discharged from harboring the said Agness at their peril." In 1837, a York  newspaper tells of The Wheeling (W.Va.) Times decision to cease running such ads   because in most cases the husband is out for revenge because of some "fancied injury." The newspaper reasons that the spouse generally provides no bed for her  "and none but the ditch for himself." As to the board, it's often a piece of wood laid  upon the back and shoulders, an apparent reference to abuse or the hard life of toil  facing many women. The newspaper must be convinced that the ad would be justified and "then only when the fee is paid at the time of insertion." " 1838 Railraod Balt to York  " The first railroad train arrives in York from Baltimore. Artist Lewis Miller captures  the scene, showing a crowd awaiting a locomotive pulling two cars crowded with passengers. The Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad trains follow the path of the future Northern Central Railroad. The rail connection with Baltimore allows farmers and other producers in the county to more easily reach a southern port. Indeed, it  helps strengthen the orientation of area producers toward southern markets. " 1847 Telegraph and Jews the telegraph arrived in York, the first Jews arrive to the town, 1849 Gas Street lamps and Skyscrapers the gas company provides men to light street lamps so that residents are no longer need their candles and coal lamps to find their  way outside the first six-story building in York, fronting the square is built 1863 Rebs in York and the Ransom for safety Thousands of infantrymen in Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army march unimpeded into York as the citizenry, decked in its Sunday best, is on its way to church. Soldiers take down the American flag from the Centre Square, the site where the now-demolished Colonial Courthouse housed the Continental Congress less   than 100 years before. Earlier, York's fathers had met the rebels west of Thomasville and made what they considered a binding deal: York would offer no resistance if the Confederates would   not set their town on fire. Now in town, Jubal A. Early, the commanding general, takes advantage of this deal. The town will be spared, he says, if townspeople pay $100,000 and fork over immense quantities of flower, sugar, coffee, molasses, salt, meat, food, hats, boots and socks. York meets the food and clothing demands, but raises only $28,000....As the Confederate infantry withdraws, Union and Confederate cavalry fight saber to saber on Hanover's streets. The clash includes two flamboyant generals -- Confederate cavalier Jeb Stuart against the Union's boy general, George Armstrong Custer. See 1883 entry where Jubal Early tries to collect the remainder.  1865: The Lincoln Death Train Arrives in York , the demands of mayor to residents Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passes through the county on its way to Springfield,                        Ill. To prepare for its stop in York, Chief Burgess David Small issues an order that calls for: 1. All businesses to close after 4 p.m. on April 21 and remain closed ... as long as the body was in the state. 2. Military and citizens to assemble in York's Centre Square with the procession to march to the North Duke Street rail station. 3. The formation of a line at the station, extending toward Baltimore. "During the passing of the train the line will remain uncovered (with hats off)," the order stated. 4. Citizens to take their flags and "drapery of mourning" to Water Street for  suspension along the buildings on the railroad line. 5. The tolling of bells while the body was within the borough limits. 6. For Col. J.A. Stahle to act as chief marshal. Carrolus A. Miller, a Hanover native, pilots the train between Washington and Baltimore but is not at the helm when the train rides the Northern Central Railroad into York. The train arrives late and stays about 10 minutes. Some prominent York  women are admitted to the funeral car. Aquilla Howard, a well-regarded black  citizen, bears a wreath of flowers on behalf of York. 1869 York Native and Booth's escape The government grants a York native a pardon after he serves about four years of hard labor in Florida's Fort Jefferson for a role in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Actor John Wilkes Booth asked Ned Spangler, an acquaintance  and stagehand at Ford's Theatre, to hold his horse for a few minutes. 1882  Isaac Rudisill of the Pennsylvania Telephone Company published its lists of phone: there are phones in five banks, three hotels and six residences. C.F.  Black, J.S. Black, A.B. Farquhar, J.K. Gross, I. Rudisill and M. Schall own the  private phones. The county jail, the courthouse, The Daily newspaper, and York police headquarters also are connected to the exchange system. 1883: In Boston  Conf Jubal Early demands York's money Jubal A. Early, the Confederate Army general whose troops occupied York in 1863, tells the Boston Globe that York owes him money. York raised only $72, 000 of the $100, 000 requisition levied, and York still owed him $28, 000, Early contended. To  this, The York Gazette countered that the amount of money and goods provided to Early actually was $48, 000, and folks in York are eager to have him settle his debt 1885-1894 Electric comes to york  In 1887, the City of York awarded a contract to the Edison Companyfor 145 street lamps. By 1894, numerous homes in York are using incandescent light. Downtown stores are replacing their older arc lights, powered by a dangerous voltage, with incandescent lighting. 1887 York a city, no longer a borough York becomes a city, 100 years after its incorporation as a borough. A mayor  replaces the chief burgess as the new city's top position 1888 Fairground moved out of city York fair is moved from the city [near East King  and South Queen streets] to outside The York Fair moves to its present-day site, west of York 1891  Due to a warm spring and lack of ice, icebox sales rise.  The Kings Mill Road company supplied ice for home iceboxes until affordable refrigerators made gains in the 1930s. Neuman made its last delivery to an icebox in  1978 1894 Sunday paper produced, its response The first Sunday Paper is printed, it  meets insurmountable opposition and is closed in 1909 Pastors mount pulpits to decry publication of the county's first Sunday paper. ... "All  Sunday desecration is planned by Satan," the Rev. Charles A. Oliver of York's  Westminster Presbyterian Church proclaimed. "He planned the Sunday newspaper   and inspired it. His ways are cunning and many men who think they are doing good  are being duped by his Satanic majesty." The York Gazette discontinued its Sunday   edition in 1909. County homes were without a locally oriented Sunday paper until  Lancaster Newspapers Inc. began publishing the York Sunday News in 1948. 1898 Former Hanoverian writes Madame Butterfly Madame Butterly published by a longtime Hanover Resident , now a lawyer in Philly. It was made into an opera by Puccini, and  later became a Broadway musical.  The first of what would become the Bon Ton stores opens in York. The York store would have the first escalator in 1956.  1913 The Lincoln Highway goes through York  The major east-west road through the county becomes known as the LincolnHighway. It is part of the 3,300-mile roadway running from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The county portion follows the path of the Monocacy Road, an18th-century road that followed an early Indian trail. Today, Lincoln Highway is   known as old Route 30 or Route 462. 1914 suffragists tour the county Anna Dill Gamble agrees to lead the fight to persuade political leaders and other  men to support the right of women to vote. "... I congratulate you all on the fine  spirit with which the skirmish line of your forces presses forward. ... To me it looks  as irresistible as that force of which it was once said, 'You might as well attempt to   dam the Nile with bulrushes,'"  Men in the county defeat the  suffrage amendment by an 11,284 to 5,103 vote. "I saw scores of men taken into the  polls and voted like sheep," Gamble commented. "If all these men couldn't read and write, then the male illiteracy in York must be enormous. They had better let some women in who won't need so much assistance." The Nile, indeed, could not be  dammed, and American women voted for the first time five years later."

Sources:
1.  Edward W. Spangler, The Annals of the Families of Caspar, Henry, Baltzer and George Spengler, York, Pennsylvania: The York Daily Publishing Co.,
1896., p 16-23, 333-4

2. The York Daily Record [YDR] , which provides wonderful detail on  York County Penna, has numerous pages dedicated to its history. in much more deatil than here extracted.
 
 

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