for fertility and certainty of product to any in the county-estimated at 20,000 acres. It is composed of sand, mixed with clay and water-worn pebbles. The mountainous districts, on the eastern and western boundaries, contain about 110,000 acres. The staple agricultural products are wheat, rye, corn, and oats. Some attention has been paid to the cultivation of the mulberry.

Iron ore is found in a line along the base of the South mountain, near where the limestone joins the other strata. It is of the pipe and honeycomb kind, and is said, in appearance and in the quality of its iron, to resemble that from which the celebrated Juniata iron is made. There is also a stratum producing iron along the Path valley, perhaps in the same relative geological position as near the South mountain. On both these mountains are extensive forests, to supply fuel for the manufacture of iron. There is a tradition that the Indians used to get lead in the South mountain, but the whites have not found it.

White marble is found in various parts of the county. The manufactures of the county are generally those adapted to agricultural districts, flouring, fulling, and sawing; with several furnaces, forges, paper-mills, an axe factory, and one or two cotton and several woollen factories. Much has been done to facilitate the intercourse of the citizens with each other, and with those of other sections of the country. Besides the ordinary public roads, there are 63 miles of stone turnpike, and 23 large stone bridges; and 26 miles of railroad. A stone turnpike runs from Chambersburg to Pittsburg, another to Carlisle, another to Gettysburg; and one runs from Waynesburg to McConnellstown, through Mercersburg. The Cumberland Valley railroad, from Harrisburg, terminates at Chambersburg, whence the Franklin railroad continues the communication through Greencastle to Hagerstown, in Maryland. There are some 40 or 50 churches, in which religious instruction is regularly dispensed; and at Mercersburg, a college and theological seminary. A great proportion of the dwellings of the inhabitants are of stone or brick; and in the limestone districts nearly all the stables and barns are built of the same material.

The original population of the county was of the Scotch-Irish race, and many of their descendants still remain; but the German population, which has more recently come in, is fast gaining in numbers over the descendants of the original pioneers.

"It is a tradition well supported, that a great part of the best lands in the Conococheague valley were, at the first settlement of the country, what is now called in the western states prairie. The land was without timber, covered with a rich, luxuriant grass, with some scattered trees, hazel-bushes, wild plums, and crab-apples. It was then called generally 'the barrens.' The timber was to be found on or near the water-courses, and on the slate soil. This accounts for the preference given by the early Scotch-Irish settlers to the slate lands, before the limestone lands were surveyed or located. The slate had the attractions of wood, watercourses, and water-meadows, and was free from rock at the surface. Before the introduction of clover, artificial grasses, and the improved system of agriculture, the hilly limestone land had its soil washed off, was disfigured with great gullies, and was sold as unprofitable, for a trifle, by the proprietors, who sought other lands in Western Pennsylvania. It is

now, under German cultivation, the most beautiful and fertile section of the county."

CHAMBERSBURG, the seat of justice of Franklin county, is one of the most flourishing inland towns in the state. It is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Falling Spring and Conococheague creeks, 143 miles west of Philadelphia, 48 southwest of Harrisburg, and 77 northwest of Baltimore. The town was laid out in 1764, but remained a small village until after the peace of 1783, and the establishment of the county in 1784, since which it has enjoyed a progressive improvement. It contains at present about 600 houses, substantially, and many of them tastefully built; generally of brick or stone. The population within the borough limits in 1830, was 2,794, and in 1840, 3,239. Its public buildings are, a splendid new courthouse of brick, (erected in 1842,) with an Ionic colonnade in front, and surmounted by a beautiful cupola, a jail, eight churches, a spacious academy, a banking-house of a superior style of architecture, and a masonic hall of elegant structure. There are also several wellbuilt and well-kept hotels; and three weekly newspapers, two in English and one in German.

The water-power of the creeks which pass through the town drives two flour-mills, two fulling-mills, an immense straw-paper mill, a cotton and woollen manufactory, oil-mill, carding machines, and the machinery of Dunlap and Madeira's celebrated edge-tool factory. The water-power in, and within five miles of, Chambersburg is equal to the propelling 100 pair of stones, furnishing facilities for manufacturing purposes not surpassed by any in the state-except those at Beaver. The town is surrounded by a healthy country, of great fertility, and in a high state of cultivation and improvement. The Harrisburg and Pittsburg turnpike passes through the town, and is joined here by the turnpike from Gettysburg and York, and one from Baltimore. The Cumberland Valley railroad from Harrisburg terminates here; and the Franklin railroad, connecting with it, runs on through Greencastle to Hagerstown. The constant arrival of passengers by the railroad going west to Pittsburg by stage, or passing down by the same route, imparts animation to the place.

The annexed view shows the entrance to the diamond or public square, on approaching it from the north. The drug-store on the right is the first stone house erected in the place; beyond it are seen the stage-office, at Culbertson's hotel; and beyond that the bank, with a pleasant yard before it. On the left is another hotel. The tall steeple in the distance is that of the German Reformed church. The new courthouse is not seen, being to the left of the public square. The citizens of the town are noted for their intelligence and steady, industrious, moral, and religious habits, and are not deficient in enterprise.

"During the French war of 1755, the war of the revolution, and the intermediate Indian wars, Chambersburg was a small frontier village, almost the outpost of civilization. A considerable trade was carried on with the more remote settlements on the Pittsburg road, by means of pack-horses. In time of peace some traffic was carried on with the Indians. The vicinity of an Indian frontier is not the purest school of morals. The restraints of law and religion become relaxed. The laws of the provincial legislature were ill suited to the sudden and anomalous emergencies of frontier life, and the people were very apt to make a law

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unto themselves, and institute a code of morals that would not be tolerated in better organized communities. The rigid discipline of the Scotch Presbyterians was introduced at a very early period into the Conococheague settlements, but it surpassed its powers to curb the wild and lawless spirit of the Indian traders and frontier-men. As a consequence of this state of things, the Conococheague towns were infested during the revolution with a band of desperate marauders and counterfeiters, who bid defiance to all laws. They had an organized line from Bucks county through Chester and the Cumberland valley, into Virginia. The Doanes of Bucks county, Fritz of Chester county, and the men of Conococheague, (whose names might be mentioned if it were thought necessary,) together with other confederates in Virginia and Carolina, drove a brisk trade during the revolution by stealing horses and cattle, and disposing of them to the British. When the British retired, they carried on an extensive trade among themselves, by stealing horses at the south; passing them along the line to the north where they could not be recognised, and exchanging them for others stolen at the north; thus at that early day anticipating the golden dreams of our modern financiers, by equalizing the exchanges.' The long narrow valleys and secluded coves behind the Blue mountain afforded a convenient route, and secure hiding-places. These were no shabby villains: they wore the finest dresses, sported the best horses, and could display more guineas and jewelry than any others in the settlement; and though the source of their sudden wealth was suspected, no one dared to prove it against them. When not engaged in the more important department of the trade, they resorted to counterfeiting continental money, and sauntering around the towns, where they would amuse themselves by putting tricks upon travellers. Wo betide the unlucky Doctor Syntax who in those days hitched his horse in the diamond after night. If fortunate enough to find him at all, he would have great difficulty in recognising him, with his mane, tail, and ears cropped, and possibly a little paint added by way of ornament. And equally unfortunate was any man who resisted or threatened to bring them to justice. His barn or his crops would be destroyed by fire. They thus for a long time defied public sentiment by threats, or eluded justice by concealment. At last two of them near Chambersburg, meeting a man on the highway with a bottle which they presumed to be whiskey, demanded it of him; he gave it up without remark, and on tasting they found it to be yeast! They broke it over his head in a rage, and otherwise abused him. This led to their arrest, and the detection of other crimes; and they were hung at Carlisle. On being called out to execution, they refused to come; but a smoke of brimstone made in the cell brought them to speedy submission."

The following interesting details relating to the early history of Chambersburg, and the other Conococheague settlements, the compiler was kindly permitted to copy from a manuscript sketch, written in 1832, by the Hon. George Chambers.

James, Robert, Joseph, and Benjamin Chambers, four brothers, emigrated from the county of Antrim, in Ireland, to the province of Pennsylvania, between the years 1726 and 1730. They settled and built a mill shortly after, at the mouth of Fishing cr., now in Dauphin co., on the Susquehanna, and appropriated a tract of very fine land at that place, which was lately owned and occupied by Archibald McAlister; though the land-office of Pa. was not open for the sale of lands west of the Susquehanna, as they were not purchased of the Indians till Oct. 1736, yet