The history of northeastern Pennsylvania : the last 100 years : proceedings of the twelfth annual Conference on the History of Northeastern Pennsylvania
It is late June 1863 in southern Pennsylvania. The Confederates are invading the North, and one of their toughest and most cantankerous generals has decided to capture the grand covered bridge that spans the Susquehanna from Wrightsville to Columbia. From there, General Jubal Early plans to capture Lancaster, and then seize the state's capital, Harrisburg. General Early had orders to destroy it, but intended to capture it on his way to siege the North. Fire on the River tells the story that is often described as a mere skirmish in most history books. What happened in the tiny village of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, on June 28, 1863, changes the course of the Civil War. Here is the story that for so long has been overlooked in the history books. It is an amazing story of courage, and perhaps not surprisingly, how the U.S. Congress never compensated the bridge's owner for the loss, yet the burning of the covered bridge probably saved the Union. [from Amazon.com]
Originally published: Lancaster, Pa. : Office of the Journal, 1883.
Includes index.
African American resources at Lancaster County Historical Society.
Summary
This book was written in 1883 by Robert Clemons Smedley, a Chester County Pennsylvania physician who interviewed participants in the underground railroad. He was not a historian and was not unbiased. But he is considered to have been conscientious in his efforts to record the stories he was told. He wrote about events as described to him by person who themselves were involved, both those fleeing slavery and those assisting them.Topics in chapters 1 & 2 include William Wright and Columbia, PA. Chapter 8 is about the "Christiana Tragedy".
History of Scottish dissentng Presbyterianism in Lancaster County, PA : an account of Associate, Associate Reformed, and United Presbyterian Church of North America clergy and congregations
"America’'s Dissenting Presbyterians have somewhat difficult histories to understand but basically they are unified in this fact, for some reason, they chose to separate from the Church of Scotland, and upon arriving in America they could not in good conscience join the mainline Presbyterian Church...There are today only two groups of dissenting Presbyterians left in the United States and they are the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. Both have different yet somewhat similar histories. The Reformed Presbyterians are known as “Covenanters†they are the Society people that at the time of Revolution Settlement could not in good conscience go back into the Church of Scotland. The Associate Reformed Presbyterians or ARP are a merger of two Presbyterian groups, the Associate Church and the Reformed Presbyterians, to form a uniquely Scottish and American Presbyterian Church in the United States. The things that set the Dissenting Presbyterians apart from their mainline counterparts were strict confessional adherence to the point of becoming in many ways countercultural, holding strictly to the Regulative Principle of Worship, and never assimilating as quickly into American Society as their mainline counterparts." [https://purelypresbyterian.com/2017/09/23/americas-dissenting-presbyterian-heritage/]
