Jacob Stover selling three tracts of land in the Valley to Ludwick Stone, who earlier had lived on the Conestoga Creek in Lancaster Township. The Augusta County records show Peter Ruffner selling 271 acres of land. Ruffner was a son-in-law of Joseph Stehman of Manor Township, Lancaster County. Michael

. Again on December 3rd, 1829, fourteen petitions from sundry inhabitants of Chester, Berks and Lancaster counties, praying for the erection of a new county out of parts of the said three coun- ties, to be called Conestoga, was presented to the Legislature and referred to the proper committee. On December

- ported by the families of the neighborhood, and this arrangement was in effect until the acceptance of the terms of the free school law by the township in 1837. Not unlike other portions of our county, Rapho Township had its many opponents of the state's free school system, but there were to be found

discussion among the settlers, which brought about the erection of a schoolhouse. The earliest record of a school building, in what is now Clay Township, is that of the ancient Durlach Schoolhouse. Unfortu- 1 See History of Lancaster County, Ellis & Evans, p. 908. 2 Ibid, pp. 702-3. �nately, all the old

ensuing, a meeting was called of the prominent citizens, of township and borough, in the little red schoolhouse on Jackson Street, Strasburg, Pa. From that gathering went the first petition to the Legisla- ture, urging the establishment of public schools. This resulted in the passage of the act of 1831

which there is a magnificent view of the beau- tiful and fertile Pequea valley on the south and a portion of the equally fine Conestoga valley northward, the name Hollow seems very inappropriate, and only by going back to the early history of our county can we learn how the old Hollow got that name

were not to be denied, however. On May 15th, 1824, "in pursuance of public notice, a number of the inhabitants of the city and county of Lancaster assembled at the court house," for the purpose of planning to make the Conestoga navigable. It was unanimously resolved "That Adam Reigart, George B. Porter