Conestoga Crossroads, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1730-1790 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES Edited by Edwin B. Bronner Conestoga Crossroads, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1730-1790. By Jerome H. Wood, Jr. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1979. 305 pages. Illustrations, bibliographical essay, index. $8.50. With the 250th celebration for Lancaster city in 1980, it is most appropriate that a solid, scholarly book about the first sixty years be published. Jerome H. Wood, Jr., has given us a clear line and excellent research in this volume. He began in 1730 by explaining the reason for the location of Lancaster, without navigable waters and far inland from Philadelphia. He concludes this book in 1789 with the debate about making Lancaster the capital of the United States. He provides a well-ordered plot of the town and notes the steady increase of the population. A borough was created in 1742 and power was distributed among prosperous merchants, manufacturers, lawyers and doctors. Few men took part in voting, but the poor who did cast ballots indicated that the citizens were willing to continue the wealthy burgesses. From its beginning, Lancaster took an active part in the wars. Indian treaties were made there, and during the French and Indian War and the War of Independence mercantile goods and munitions were produced. Even when no war was fought in the county, the city had a thriving business in providing goods for the wealthy farming area and for Western traders. Philadelphia merchants often formed Lancaster partnerships. Manufacturing began almost as soon as the founding of the city and increased steadily. From its beginning, Lancaster had an ethnic rivalry, for the population included Germans, English, Irish, Jews and Negroes. Since the Germans and English were the major part of the population, they were the major competition. Each group kept its language, its social meetings and its religious affiliations, for churches reflected ethnic feelings. Among the church groups were Lutherans, Anglicans, Reforms, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Moravians, Quakers and Jews. Lancastrians were busy in manufacturing and trading, but they also had "a desire to be knowing and useful." Schoolhouses were begun almost as early as houses and continued during the eighteenth century to offer grade schools, academies and Franklin and Marshall College. Many of the wealthy men collected libraries in their homes, but they also created the Juliana Library Company, which is still a free public library in the city. Many printers published books. Professor Wood concluded that "By 1790, Lancaster was, next to Philadelphia, the most important intellectual center in Pennsylvania." There is one error and several caveats as to emphasis in die book. On page 102, Professor Wood describes a transaction from Hopewell Furnace to a Lancaster businessman in 1769. Hopewell Furnace was not built until 1771. On page 141, he gives the correct date for Hopewell Forge. Casper Shaffer and William Bausman, both members of the Revolutionary Com58 BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES59 mittee, were mentioned only in incidental references in the book. And the Presbyterians were credited only as having the first building and the first minister in a long chapter dealing with the churches. None of those was serious, and they in no way decrease the value of Professor Wood's book. Millersville State CollegeJoseph E. Walker Christians in the American Revolution. By Mark A. Noll. Washington, D.C.: Christian University Press. 1977. 195 pp. $4.95. The first chapter traces the history of Christianity in the American colonies before 1775, laying stress especially on the Great Awakening. Chapters follow on the patriotic, reforming, loyalist, and pacifist responses to the Revolution. The patriotic response was that of the overwhelming majority of ministers, especially in New England, who in many cases virtually identified the Revolution with Christianity. Reformers were for the Revolution, but they hoped that it would separate church and state and end slavery. There were numerous loyalists in all the denominations, though most notably the Anglicans. For the pacifist response the author had to look mainly outside New England, though Anglican rector John Sayre of Fairfield, Connecticut, would not "take up any arms at all" (p. 146). The historical backgrounds of the Mennonites, Quakers, Moravians, and Brethren are presented, with the religious basis of their pacifism and their wartime experiences. For the Quakers, Noll...