Driver invades Jefferson’s quiet square
A York Daily Record story on an errant driver’s crash into Jefferson’s peaceful town square last week indicated that the main monument was untouched.
The square’s big monument, topped by a World War I soldier, celebrates the two Jefferson men who died in the war — Horatio Smith and Edward Swartzbaugh. It also observes the 22 other men who fought.
The grassy square also contains a World War I field piece, similar to the gun melted down in Spring Grove for scrap during World War II. It’s unusual to find a World War I memorial in York County, much less one in or near a town’s center.
But the damaged monument, now resting on its back in the square, had meaning, too… .
It was the dedicatory marker for the square, touting the settling of the southwest York County town in 1812, its incorporation in 1866 and dedication of the square in 1927.
Jefferson and Goldsboro can boast of having the only squares in York County in which traffic moves in a circle around a monument or park to reach its four corners. (Abbottstown and New Oxford, which boast similar squares, are in Adams County.) Spring Grove and the Route 74/851 intersection in Peach Bottom Township have roundabouts.
Jefferson’s park-like square is one of York County’s unsung treasures. For a previous list, search for “unsung” in York Town Square’s archives.
