Central York High School students dig into history
Central York High School students are researching this farmhouse that sits on the high school grounds. They plan to dig for artifacts to better understand life on the farm. They sent along this photo of the house with the high school in the background. Also of interest: Horn Farm: ‘A very special living history memorial to those hardy ancestors’ and Central York educator keeps list of achievers in arts & entertainment fields and Central York High School’s Laura Beveridge: ‘I certainly have not forgotten her’ and Archaeologist at Springettsbury’s Camp Security: ‘If we knew it was here, we wouldn’t have to do this’.
A couple of Central York High School students queried York Town Square about the many-decades-old farmhouse that sits near their less-than-a-decade-old high school and campus in Springettsbury Township.
Tasha Stevens and Alex Greene wrote that their class is conducting a historical analysis of the home, and they’ll submit their findings to the Central York school board. The results of their work will eventually appear on the district’s website. And the class, joined by Millersville University students, will conduct an archeological dig at various sites on and around the property.
This is a wonderful, intriguing project to further educate in the waning days of a school year. No textbooks are needed for this one.
According to Tasha, here, in excerpted form, is what the class knows about the house:
“We believe it was built in the mid 1800’s, and had a few owners in this span of time. We are still unsure as to who built the home.
“We do know that the property was owned by a Peter Lehman beginning in 1772, and his son Jacob built a house somewhere on the property in 1787, which we suspect would be too early a date for this farm house. Later this year, Jacob’s mother, Mary, sold the land to a Nicholas Blasser, and it remained in the Blasser family til 1847 when they sold it to Jacob Neff. In 1847 the land came under the ownership of Valentine Emig, then John Emig in 1864. In 1896 the Smyser family owned it, then the Bott family in 1922. The Shenberger’s bought the land in 1933, then the Snyder’s in 1997.”
Central York School District purchased the land in 2001 as a site for a new high school.
I referred the students to York County Heritage Trust archivist Lila Fourhman-Shaull and Historic York.
I did not include this resource, but the Horn Farm Center has information about York County farm life.
If you have any information on the farmhouse, please comment below.
