York Town Square

Greg Moul Sr.’s eighth great grandfather was a security guard at Camp Security in the Revolutionary War. Here Greg Moul Sr. searches out the burial site of that ancestor, who worked at the Springettsbury Township British prisoner of war camp. Conrad Maul’s memorial is in Moulstown, outside Spring Grove. Also of interest: Camp Security memories tucked inside memoir and Story revives memories of oft-forgotten York County POW camp, Camp Stewartstown and German prisoners from two wars came to York County.
We read so much about attempts to recover Camp Security’s POW site, but stories about those who guarded British prisoners there – or from the prisoners themselves – are rare.
So it came as welcome news to read about Manchester Township’s Greg Moul Sr.’s interest in his eighth great-grandfather, a guard at the prison.
That story, excerpted here, came in the York Daily Record/Sunday News (7/3/11):

Don’t look for the monument to one of York County’s Revolutionary War heroes in the city square.
It’s a short stone pillar in an unnamed cemetery down Moulstown Road, a portion of Hanover still known to many residents as Moulstown, home to the Moul family.
The monument was added July 19, 1941, for Conradt Maul, who moved to the U.S. from Germany in 1748. Among other military endeavors, Maul helped guard about 1,200 British soldiers at Camp Security in Springettsbury Township.
Approximately 1,500 British prisoners, many from the Battle of Saratoga, were held prisoner there from 1781 to 1783.
Greg Moul Jr., a Manchester Township firefighter, still visits the Maul monument. Maul was his eighth great grandfather; another of his descendents changed the spelling to Moul.
Moul has heard Maul lore since he was a little boy. Relatives read to him from a diary Maul kept. It was written in German, and told stories of Maul’s long walks throughout York County and his experiences in the war. The diary was later misplaced by a relative who had taken it to California.
After Maul moved to the U.S. seeking religious freedom, he settled in York County. He married Anna Catherine Botts in 1749. A sheepskin deed for his 184-acre Moulstown estate was dated 1758.
Maul’s father, Bartholomew Maul, moved to York County in 1732. He was an early county commissioner, the first full-time minister in York and the first parochial school master.
During the Revolutionary War, Maul served in a militia company commanded by Captain Andrew Foreman. The company was called into active service in 1776 and 1777, before the British captured Philadelphia.
Maul’s stint at Camp Security was quiet, Moul said. The British were mostly cooperative.
After the war, Maul moved back to York County. Later, he traveled to the Cumberland Gap in Kentucky, where he planned to try his hand at farming again. Instead, he was killed by land pirates who left his body in a shallow grave there.
Other members of the Moul family continued to live and work the land in Moulstown. Some Mouls still live near the original plantation.
When Greg Moul was born in East York in 1955, he became the first of his family to be born outside its namesake community.
He grew up visiting the cemetery that holds his Conradt Maul’s monument. “It’s the old Moulstown cemetery,” he said, but there’s no name listed there. A date on a pillar indicates they stopped burying dead there in 1942.
Other Moul gravestones are there, many hewn from slate hand emblazoned with dates and decorations like distelfinks.
Some have fallen into disrepair or were knocked over by vandals.
Greg Moul says he’d like to do more to preserve the site.
“I’m proud of my family,” he said.

Also of interest:
– York County’s Camp Security questions abound: But one about POW camp’s ghosts is answered
– All American Revolution blog posts from the start.
Archives– All York Town Square posts from the start. Then use “find” function on browser to search for keywords.
– Of course, you can always search for York Town Square posts on Google. For example, when you search for yorktownsquare and Peach Bottom, you get this.
Photo courtesy York Daily Record/Sunday News.