page_title: Palmyra, Pennsylvania
section_title: Since the Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Palmyra, Pennsylvania / History / Since the Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Palmyra First Evangelical Church 55 W Main St, Palmyra, Pennsylvania 17078 palmyrafirstec.org
context_page_description: Palmyra is a borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Lebanon, Pennsylvania Metropolitan statistical area. The population was 7,320 at the 2010 census.
context_section_description: Palmyra continued to grow steadily through the 19th & 20th Centuries. By 1845, the settlement consisted of 160 people in about 20 dwellings. By 1875, the population had increased to 500 people in about 100 dwellings. By 1890, the population had skyrocketed in just fifteen years to 1,760 people. And by 1960, the population had reached 7,000.
  With the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861 to the Confederate Army, President Abraham Lincoln called on volunteers to preserve the Union. About 78 men from the Palmyra area answered the President's call, and donned the blue uniforms of the Union.
  After the Civil War concluded in 1865, a variety of new businesses were established to better serve the Palmyra area. A large grain warehouse, a slaughterhouse and lumber mill were some of the first industries developed in Palmyra. The town's first newspaper was printed in 1878 and was titled “The Londonderry Gazette”. The Palmyra Bank opened in 1887. The first of several shoe factories opened in 1888. A knitting mill, paper box factory, gas and fuel company, bakery, bottling works, and a feed mill was also open in Palmyra around the start of the 20th century. The growth of Milton S. Hershey’s chocolate company in nearby Derry also encouraged people to move to the Palmyra area.
  In 1899, the Lebanon Valley Street Railway Company was formed to provide transit across the length of Lebanon County. The trolley line reached Palmyra in 1904. By this time, the Hershey Trolley Company had also formed, and soon thereafter connected to the Lebanon Valley Line at the square in Palmyra. This trolley connected lasted until 1933, when the Lebanon Valley system switched to bus services. By 1946, the Hershey Line also folded.
  The Landis Shoe Company Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
caption: First Evangelical Church
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A1200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery 6.0.6001.18000", "Image DateTime": "2011:12:05 07:31:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2374", "Image XPKeywords": "[49, 0, 50, 0, 48, 0, 52, 0, 49, 0, 49, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9002", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4207", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity and Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:12:04 16:49:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:12:04 16:49:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2112", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2816", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2816", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2112", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8816", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2816000/243", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1056000/91", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "60"}