Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-03
E'1r,1tt1g Gl1at


townships over the dividing line of
those districts and reference of the
matter to the courts of Dauphin
county a few days ago, call to mind
the fact that these two townships.
known colloquially as the Hanoyers,
have had an interesting history from
the earliest settlement of what is
now the capital county. Although
rural entirely, the Hanover district,
as II was long called, was settled be-
fore John Harris got his ferry grant
from the Penns and Conrad Weiser
and the Fishers planned to make
Mlddletown the metropolis of the
lower reaches of the Susquehanna
Named in honor of the reigning
house of England, which bore a dis
tinctly German name. the Hanover
section was settled almost entirely
by Scotch Irish and the early DAYS
OF it's civilized life were marked by
constant Indian raids and some re-
prlsals from sturdy pioneers which
made the redskins dread the very
name of HanoVermen. The legends
of those early settlements have come
down through Il number of families
which have figured in the history of
Dauphin county, the Simontons, the
SnodgrasSes, the Wilson's, the Wall
homes in that section and fought
Indians or emissaries of those they
deemed oppressers when necessity
arose. The Scotch-Irish took re-
llgion and culture into the wilder
ness of this county just as they did
INTO Northampton, Washington and
other Pennsylvania counties, as Han
| over church and McClure's Academy
attest in the annals of this commun-
ig, tV,fn -
OF great historic interest as the
story of the settlement of the Han
overs has not been put into more
convenient form for reference or in
deed for general reading, because
there is nothing more inspiring than
| the story of how the frontier was
held right in our own county.
The section now known by the
iianovers of Dauphin and Lebanon
counties was originally part of
Derry township in Lancaster county.
Derry township was one of three
formed in 1929 and some call it the
premier district of this county. The
other two were Paxton and Lebanon.
The three of them were all in Lam
caster county and now comprise n
great part of Dauphin and Lebanon
as known for the last century. Derry
| IO"hSil SCtlllS 10 nave included
everything within the present limits
of this county which Paxton did not.
Harrisburg and Steelton are in what
used to be called PaXtang or Pesh-
/ tank, or something like that, but
winch some authorities believe was
| really Paxton. About 1856 years ago
! there arose complaint from settlers
living north of the Swatara which
led to petitions to the court at Lam
caster for the formation of a new
township, the ancestors of a number
I of Harrisburg families being sgners
for that division. The matter dragged
along for couple ofyears and there
must have been many visits paid on
| horseback to the county seat before
it was arranged. There was some
rivalry between Derry and Paxton
men and the Hanover people were
occasionally accused of taking part
I in it, The court order establishing
Hanover township was dated 1888,
when part of what is now in Lebanon
county's eastern end was made
Bethel township. Hanover township
lasted in this form until early in \
1875, the year Dauphin county was
erected out of Lancaster comprising
the present Dauphin and Lebanon
counties. Then the Hanover district
was divided into East and West by
what was called the West Branch of
! Priests Run, which is believed TO be
| Raccoon creek. A curious fact was
| that the township does not seem to
| have. had any northern boundary
| and the question whether the First
/ or Second mountain was the line got
| into the courts, and not until years
afterwards, in fact about 100 years
ago when Rush township was
| marked out, was the northern line
definitely established.
! When Lebanon county was erected
! in 1873 there was also u dispute over
| the Hanovers. Raccoon creek was
made Il county boundary line. but it
took an official commission. which
| was named the next year, to estab-
| lish the line between the two coun-
| ties. But this did not end it either,
and finally in 1921 the Legislature
! passed Il law that the certain part
| known as East Hanover should be-
! long to Lebanon county. 1t also
sliced off u part of West Hanover
and some of Londonderry, inciden-
i tally. Ienceforth, Dauphin had one
| Hanover and Lebanon had one, as
/ the names of townships to-day in
| dicate. Twenty years afterwards a
new movement for division began, in
| the Dauphin Hanover, and by one
| of those omnibus acts which Legis-
| latures of years gone by were so
! fond of passing and which can be
| found by wading through some 60
sections of an act of March 4, 1912,
! Hanover township was divided as
we know it now. South and East
| Hanover were formed out of what
| was commonly known as West Han
over to distinguish it from its sister,
! which had become a part of the
! Lebanon family.
! 1t is the report of the officials
named by the Dauphin county court
| almost eighty years ago that will
! have to be referred to by the liti-
| gants i'm this latest action the sec
| ond to be handled by the court in
recent years. as those familiar with
the long controversy over Lykens
| Valley township lines will recall.
This report was filed in the office
| of the prothonotary in March, 1912,
and mentions the lands of the Fox,
| Grubb. Simonton, McCord, McFad-
| den and other families, some of
which were inherited from men who
blazed a way into the wilderness and
| who helped form the Hanover AS
sociators and make one of the bright
pages of Central PENNSYLVANIA his
| tory
| When Hanover is mentioned the
| loyal Dauphin countian should re-
call June 4, 1874, two years before