York Town Square

Part of the USAToday Network

Longtime York families Archives

James Fritz is a researcher and writer of history. And he lives in a 1700s house near the square in Adams County’s Abbottstown. ‘My new two story log and stone home was located near the town square and the stone half of the dwelling had all the hallmarks of an early structure of Pennsylvania German/Swiss heritage,’ he writes.

Before S. Morgan Smith was an industrialist – perhaps the leading industrialist in York County, Pa.’s, history – he was a pastor. And early in his call as a minister, he served as a military chaplain. He was mustered out of the military 150 years ago, and his biographers have set up a presentation to tell about how this minister came to serve in the military.