Why is lancaster called the red rose city

Late in , an eighteenth township was created: Cocalico, an Indian name. As settlements grew north and west of the organized part of Lancaster County, the local court approved new townships in what are today York, Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and Berks counties. Beginning in with the creation of York County, Lancaster was carved up to provide land for new counties.

Cumberland County was formed in , ending Lancaster County's farflung western territory; Berks' creation in further reduced Lancaster County and in the formation of Northumberland County took away the northern tip.

With the establishment of Dauphin County in , Lancaster County was cut down to its present size square miles except for a tiny sliver of land given up when Lebanon County was formed in Lancaster County was entitled to only four representatives in the Assembly, the three older counties being given six assemblymen each.

Initially, each election in the county was a contest between the Scots and the English Quakers, with new faces appearing only to be defeated the following year. By , however, troubles with the Indians tipped the balance in favor of the Scots at the expense of the pacifistic Quakers.

By , James Hamilton, proprietor of Lancaster town and son of the distinguished lawyer Andrew Hamilton, won a seat in the Assembly and became the political leader of the county. Virtually all political action centered in the Susquehanna Valley, with political fortunes rising or falling according to the manner in which frontier problems were solved.

As time went on Quaker power declined so much that the Friends were fortunate to capture even a single seat in the Assembly. In their stead were the Scots and later, the Germans, the first of whom was not elected until The many prosperous farmers, skilled mechanics and shopkeepers gave the county a decidedly "whiggish" character, expressed politically as a moderate and very pragmatic conservatism.

Lancaster County is in the Piedmont region with occasional ridges standing above the rolling hills and limestone plains, the largest of which forms the central part of the county and is drained by the Conestoga River and Pequea Creek.

The southern portion of the county rests in the Piedmont uplands which hold deposits of iron, nickel, copper, chrome and silver.

It is the easily-eroded limestone soil, however, that gives the county its reputation as the finest agricultural land east of the Mississippi River, and the best non-irrigated farmland in the nation. The best limestone soil, known as Hagerstown or Frederick loam, is the largest connected body of that rich limestone soil in Pennsylvania. As a result, more than seventy-five percent of Lancaster County is farmland, with the majority of farms being family owned.

Today, feed grains are most often cultivated, taking the place of leaf tobacco, once more extensively grown for cigars and chewing. In the past, the hard red Triassic rock or sandstone which extends across the northern portion of the county was used for millstones to grind the grain in the numerous grist mills located throughout the area. The area's first farmers were Indians who have inhabited the area at various times for the past 11, years.

By the time William Penn visited the Susquehanna valley in , he encountered remnants of the once powerful, Susquehannock tribe which had earlier been conquered by the Iroquois. Most of Lancaster County's Indians, however, were Conestogas, a tribe believed to have returned to southern Pennsylvania after regional tribal warfare ended.

William Penn generally maintained excellent relations with the Indians and was often called upon to referee disputes caused, when Indian traders allegedly engaged in questionable practices. Fur trading and land speculation were major economic features of life in early Pennsylvania.

With armies of immigrants swarming into southeastern Pennsylvania, the demand for real estate assumed a greater importance. After William Penn's death, his generosity to both European immigrants and American Indians proved a headache to the Quaker Assembly left to mediate between the two.

The tide of settlement was not to be stopped, however. As early as , a Scot had established himself in present-day Salisbury Township, and an English Quaker family was living in Little Britain Township. It was not until , however, that the first community within the present borders of the county was established.

In that year, a group of Swiss Mennonites--the families of Herr, Mylin and Kendig--built a settlement a few miles south-east of present-day Lancaster city. Two more years passed before the Scot Presbyterians arrived in two waves, one settling in the Donegal area of northwestern Lancaster County an d the other occupying land in the south. These Scots, often called the "Scotch-Irish," came from Ulster in Ireland after being "planted" there by the English in an attempt to subdue the Irish.

On the heels of the Scots came a small but influential group of English and Welsh families. The English tended to settle along a band running horizontally across the county between Salisbury Township and Wright's Ferry Columbia , including Lancaster village. Occupying lands in what later became Caernarvon, Brecknock and Lampeter townships, the Welsh often were found working in iron. By , the entire central portion of Lancaster County was rapidly filling with immigrants from the Rhineland as well, usually employed as farmers or skilled artisans.

When Lancaster County became a reality, it was already the most pluralistic and cosmopolitan place in the New World. Swiss and German Mennonites carried to the county the Anabaptist tradition, so named because the group did not practice infant baptism. Although the Mennonites have experienced numerous schisms "rotted wood never splits" is the laconic explanation , the majority of local members are affiliated with the Lancaster Mennonite Conference. The more liberal midwestern Mennonites also have representation in the county, as do the fundamentalist Evangelical Mennonites.

Today, much to their chagrin, the Amish Mennonites are the single greatest tourist attraction in Lancaster County. Philip Otterbein, a Reformed minister, and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite preacher, were caught up in the fervor of the spiritual awakening sweeping Lancaster County in the s, and around they established the United Brethren in Christ Church.

Numerous United Brethren groups flourished and came to be known by the locality in which they met. His son James was deeded acres of this land in , and designed the layout of the city in a plan of straight streets and rectangular property lots, that included what we all know as a 'town square,' known in those days as a 'center square.

Lancaster is the oldest inland city in the United States, and served as the capital city of Pennsylvania from until , until it was replaced by Harrisburg.

In , the town was known as 'Hickory Town;' Then after it was re-designed by James Hamilton, a prominent citizen named John Wright gave 'Hickory Town' the name 'Lancaster' after Lancaster, England where he used to live. The city became a borough in , a chartered city in , and surrendered its ancient city charter and became a Third Class City under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvanian May 27, in During the Revolutionary War, Lancaster was an important munitions center, the National Capital of the American Colonies on September 27, when the Continental Congress was fleeing British forces after their capture of Philadelphia.

The town was looted by the soldiers, who stabled their horses in the sanctuary of the Presbyterian Church, which had been built in , while in the area. Textiles have remained an important industry to the local economy.

The arrival of Scots-Irish settlers, mostly from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, ushered in an era of drastic change. The newcomers named the area for their homelands in England, the region of the famous House of Lancaster that opposed the House of York in the legendary War of the Roses. Today, the citizens of the city of Lancaster proudly claim the red rose, the traditional coat of arms of the House of Lancaster, as their emblem.

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