Pennsylvania State...
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Pennsylvania Counties
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Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Lancaster
Year Organized: 1729
Square Miles: 949 |
Court House: 50 North Duke Street
County Courthouse
Lancaster, PA 17602-2829
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
named for Lancashire, England.
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
Created on May 10, 1729 from part of
Chester County and named for Lancashire, England. Lancaster, the county seat,
also named for its English counterpart, was laid out in 1730. It was chartered
as a borough on May 1, 1742 and as a city on March 10, 1818.
The area was rapidly settled after 1709 by a mix of peoples: Swiss Mennonites,
Huguenots, Scotch-Irish, English, Welsh, and Rhineland Germans. This was the
first new county since the original three of 1682. Its rich limestone soil meant
farming had to prosper. Coupled with the charitable humanitarianism of its
religious values there developed a tradition that the poor could find
opportunity here—"the buttermilk way." Before 1776, Lancaster was the largest
inland city in Britain's American colonies. The decade 1800–1810 was stagnant,
but then new enterprises began: gristmills, limeburning, and iron. A turnpike
linked Lancaster to Philadelphia in 1800, and the Columbia and Philadelphia
Railroad opened in 1834. The Conestoga Slackwater Canal facilitated trade with
Baltimore. In the late nineteenth century there was a manufacturing take off
including: cigars, cotton and silk cloth, beer, stoves, watches and clocks, and
farm tools. The county ceasedmanufacturing iron. In this century, Armstrong
Cork, R.C.A., Raybestos, Sperry-Rand, and Kerr Glass Company prospered, and some
of the garments industry continues. Always Pennsylvania's most prolific
agricultural county, two-thirds of Lancaster County is farmland; animal products
make up over 90 percent of farm cash receipts. Only the high prices paid for
Chester County's mushrooms compete with the cash returns from Lancaster's
harvests.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
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- Adamstown |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Akron |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Bart |
township |
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- Brecknock |
township |
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- Brownstown |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Buck |
township |
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- Caernarvon |
township |
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- Christiana |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Clay |
township |
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- Colerain |
township |
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- Columbia |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Conestoga |
township |
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- Conoy |
township |
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- Denver |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Drumore |
township |
|
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- Earl |
township |
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- East Cocalico |
township |
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- East Donegal |
township |
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- East Drumore |
township |
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- East Earl |
township |
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- East Hempfield |
township |
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- East Lampeter |
township |
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- East Petersburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Eden |
township |
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- Elizabethtown |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Ephrata |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Fulton |
township |
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- Lancaster
(County
Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Leacock |
township |
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- Lititz |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Little Britain |
township |
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- Manheim |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Marietta |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Martic |
township |
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- Millersville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Mount Joy |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Mountville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- New Holland |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Oregon |
township |
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- Paradise |
township |
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- Peach Bottom |
township |
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- Pequea |
township |
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- Providence |
township |
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- Quarryville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Rapho |
township |
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- Roseville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Sadsbury |
township |
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- Silver Spring |
township |
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- Stevens |
township |
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- Strasburg |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Terre Hill |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Upper Leacock |
township |
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- Warwick |
township |
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- West Cocalico |
township |
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- West Donegal |
township |
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- West Earl |
township |
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- West Hempfield |
township |
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- West Lampeter |
township |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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Penn Foster High School
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