LANCASTER, a city of south-eastern Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Conestoga river, 65m. W. of Philadelphia; the county seat of Lancaster county. It is on the Lincoln highway and several other Federal and State roads, and is served by the Pennsylvania and the Reading railways, and by trolley lines radiating in every direction. The population was 53,150 in 1920 and 59,949 in 193o• The city has an area of 4 sq.m. and a general elevation of 375ft., and is set in beautiful country. Lancaster county is one of the most highly cultivated districts in the United States, and ranks first among all the counties in the value of its farm products per acre. In 1925 the aggregate value of the agricultural products was $20,767,147, and they included 51,951,9oolb. of tobacco, 6,978,17obu. of corn, 2,838,33obu. of wheat, 19,651,700 gal. of milk and 9,842,000 dozen eggs. The stock-yards, one of the largest cattle markets east of Chicago, handled in 1925 animals representing an estimated value of $15,000,000. Chief among the city's manufactures are linoleum, cork, watches, umbrellas, cigars, coffee, candy, cotton and silk goods, and metal products. The aggregate factory output in 1925 was valued at $44,215,434. Hydro-electric power is supplied from an immense plant on the Susquehanna river, at Holtwood, 25m. S. There are some 200 wholesale houses and over 1,200 retail establishments in the city, which have transactions amounting annually to about $17,000,000 and $31,000,000 respectively. Bank debits in 1926 totalled $351,068,000; the assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $106,662,850.
Lancaster is the seat of the Theological seminary of the Re formed Church, opened at Carlisle in 1825 and moved here in 1871 after some years in York and in Mercersburg; of Franklin and Marshall college (Reformed Church), formed in 1852 by the union of Franklin college, founded at Lancaster in 1787, and Marshall college, established at Mercersburg in 1836; and of the Thaddeus Stevens Trade school, established by bequest of Thad deus Stevens (who lived here after 1842) and now a State insti tution. At Millersville, 4m S.W., is a State normal school; at Lititz, 8m. N., is Linden Hall seminary, established by the early Moravian settlers, one of the oldest schools for girls in the coun try. There are many buildings and spots with historic associations
in and near the city, including: "Wheatland," the home of Presi dent Buchanan; Trinity Lutheran church, built in 1736 and re built in 1785; a stone bridge dating from the i8th century, over which passed the Conestoga wagon traffic westward; the Christian Herr house, built in 1719, the oldest house in the county; the tombs of Buchanan, Stevens, Thomas Mifflin (first governor of Pennsylvania), Gen. John F. Reynolds (who fell at Gettysburg), and of Rebecca Gratz, the Jewess who is said to have been the original of Sir Walter Scott's "Rebecca" in Ivanhoe; Ephrata cloisters (at Ephrata, 14m. N.E.), built by the Seventh Day Ad ventists in the i8th century, and used as a hospital during the Revolution ; the quaint town of Manheim (I om. N.), where Baron Steigel made his famous iron and glass, and the Cornwall mines (15m. farther on), from which he got ore for the cannon for Washington's army ; and (22m. S.) the birthplace of Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat.
Lancaster county was settled early in the i8th century, by Eng lish Quakers and Episcopalians, Scottish and Irish Presbyterians, Welsh Dissenters, German Lutherans, Brethren, Dunkards, Men nonites and Amish. Some of the sects still keep their distinctive customs and costumes, and on market days add a picturesque note to the city streets. Lancaster was settled about 1717, laid out in 1730, incorporated as a borough in 1742 and chartered as a city in 1818. During the colonial period it was the largest in land city on the continent. An important treaty with the Iroquois Indians was negotiated here in June, 1744; and here in i780 some of Gen. Burgoyne's troops were confined after the surrender at Saratoga. Lancaster was the national capital for one day, when the Continental Congress, driven from Philadelphia, sat here on Sept. 27, 1777; and it was one of the places seriously considered when the choice of a permanent seat for the Federal Government was made. From 1799 to 1812 it was the capital of Pennsylvania.