History of the Townships
Sadsbury, Bart, and Eden
Sadsbury Township (1691):
“Old Sadsbury was the first organized and the first settled of any township in Lancaster County. It was originally a part of Sadsbury, Chester County, and after the erection of Lancaster County, it extended from the main branch of the Octarara, at the Chester County line, to Quarryville and Camargo, beyond the headwaters of the Big Beaver. It then included what is now Sadsbury, Bart and Eden Townships.”1
Bart Township (1744):
“Bart ranks among the important townships of Lancaster County, not only for its advancement in agricultural standing, and its moral and material progress, but also for the observance of religious duties by its people, and for its valuable iron and nickel mines. It was a part of old Sadsbury until the year 1744. The citizens of Sadsbury having petitioned for a division of the township, the court, at the November session of 1743, appointed Calvin Cooper, George Leonard, Sr., James Wilson, Samuel Ramsey, Robert Wilson, and James Miller (citizens of that township) to divide the same, but the division was not fully accomplished until the Spring of 1744, the eastern part retaining the name of Sadsbury, and the western part to be called Bart.
The township was divided in 1854. the eastern part retained the name of Bart, and the western section was named Eden, after the name of the old furnace at Mount Eden.”2
Eden Township (1855):
“The township of Eden was taken from Bart, and legally organized into a separate township in 1855, with boundaries as follows: North by Strasburg, northeast by Paradise, east by Bart, southeast by Coleraine, and southwest by Drumore, west by Providence. The township, according to the census of 1860, contained a population of 982. of which 90 were colored. In1870 the number of inhabitants has increased to 1075—1034 native born, and 41 foreign; 1020 white, and 55 colored. The principal stream is Beaver Creek, which affords the motive-power for the various mills along its banks, and also forms an important feature in the raising of stock and other agricultural products. The most important village in Eden is QUARRYVILLE, a village of about 200 inhabitants, noted principally for the amount and quality of the stone quarried there and manufactured into lime. There are forty lime-kilns in the place, producing annually 500,000 barrels of lime, and employing one hundred men. The general business of the village is represented by one large general store—which transacts a large trade in the place and also in the surrounding country,--two blacksmith shops, two tailor stores, one tinsmith, one wagon and carriage shop, two harness shops, one cigar manufacturer, two shoe stores, three hotels, and one restaurant. It is also a post-town, George W. Hensel being the present Postmaster. The Franklin Telegraph Company does business here. It is the southern terminus of the Lancaster and Quarryville Railroad, which has just been completed. With the increasing facilities for easy transportation of the vast amount of lime made here, and the products of the surrounding country, Quarryville gives great promise of ultimate importance and success.
There is a small settlement around May and Camargo post-offices, which are the only post-offices or settlements besides Quarryville in Eden Township. Martin M. Mowrer is Postmaster at Camargo, and J. H. Gilbert at May.
There are large beds of iron ore in Eden Township, and mines have been opened and operated about two miles north, and also two miles west of Quarryville.
The land is generally high and rolling, except in the valley or basin extending across the township, where it is level and remarkably fertile. Most of the soil is rich limestone, and very productive. All of the cereals and many varieties of fruits are produced abundantly. In fine, the name “Eden” is very appropriate, both as regards the picturesqueness of the landscapes and the agricultural importance of the township.
Among those of the prominent farmers of the township whose practical knowledge and agricultural ability entitles them to a complimentary notice, are Henry Keen, Sr., James Creswell, Jacob M. Eckman, Robert Hamill, James, Issac, and Robert Montgomery, Jacob and Gilbert Bushong, James Risk, Jacob Myers, William Dungan, and others.
There are in Eden three grist and two saw mills, five hotels, five common schools. It is in area one of the smallest townships in the County, but proportionally it ranks among the first. In 1874 there were 247 taxables; values of real and personal property, $499,854. The general importance and prosperity of the township is rapidly increasing.”3
Quarryville Borough (1892):
“Quarryville was officially chartered as a borough in 1892 but its origins go back as far as 1775 when Martin Barr acquired a tract of land which covered some 2,000 acres and grain from that farm went into a distillery on his property. The town was officially named Quarryville in 1837and the first post office was opened in 1849.
Before 1837 the area was known as Barr’s Quarries. Abram Barr, Martin’s son, is reported to be the first to take limestone from the area in 1820 and the early settlement was due primarily to the development of limestone quarries.
In 1858 over 600,000 bushels of lime were hauled from Quarryville. A dozen quarries were running and more than a hundred men worked in them. Every lime burner had at least one six-mule team and some had as many as three teams.
The business became almost extinct because commercial fertilizers claimed the market.
It was mainly the construction of the railroad, connecting Quarryville to Lancaster, that deserves credit for the village’s growth and increase in population.4
_____________________
1Everets & Stewart, Historical Atlas of Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania Illustrated, 1875, p. XVI.
2Ibid, p. IX.
3Ibid, p. XI.
4Solanco Heritage, History of Southern Lancaster County, 1990, pp. 22-23.
