Country store raided by French’s Confederate cavalry
The southeastern corner of Canal Road (foreground) and Bull Road (a.k.a “Motter’s Corners”) in northern York County, Pennsylvania, has been a site for a country store for more than 150 years. Heavily modified and expanded, the original frame building can be discerned within the newer structure. On June 29, 1863, Confederate raiders from the 17th Virginia Cavalry visited the store and cleaned it out. They took large quantities of coffee, sugar and some wearing apparel, and left worthless Confederate cash with the owner, Elias S. Quickel.
Youthful Eli Quickel opened the shop in extreme western Conewago Township in the early 1860s. Born November 3, 1837, in York, Quickel came from a large and old Pennsylvania German family. On December 1, 1859, he married Mary A. Bear in York and they established a household. They raised a daughter, Mary Magdalena Quickel, and were active in their community.
The Confederate raid on his shop did not deter Quickel, as he soon rebuilt his inventory and resumed business.
Quickel died on his wedding anniversary, December 1, 1914, at the age of 76 in York. He is buried in the city’s Greenmount Cemetery.
