Editing Columbia, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:Downtown Columbia Pennsylvania.jpg|thumb|258 px|Downtown Columbia]]

=== Early history ===
{{Main|Susquehannock}}
The area around present-day Columbia was originally populated by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes, most notably the [[Susquehannock]]s, who migrated to the area between 1575 and 1600{{citation needed|reason=what explorer or missionary is driving these numbers?|date=August 2016}} after separating{{citation needed|reason=source?|date=August 2016}} from the [[Iroquois Confederacy]]. They established villages just south of Columbia, in what is now [[Washington Boro, Pennsylvania|Washington Boro]],{{citation needed|reason=source?|date=August 2016}} as well as claiming at least hunting lands as far south as [[Maryland]] and northern [[Virginia]].<ref name="AmHeritageBk">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1961 
 |title=The American Heritage Book of Indians
 |editor=Alvin M. Josephy, Jr
 |pages=188–219|publisher=American Heritage Publishing
 |lccn=61-14871
 }}</ref>
<!-- The following information, while interesting, doesn't mention Columbia anywhere:
[[Captain John Smith]] reported on the Susquehannock in glowing superlatives when a traveling group visited [[Jamestown, Virginia]];<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> Jones estimated their numbers to be about 2,000 in the early 1600s. The French ran across them in the area around [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], apparently visiting the [[Wenro]], and suggesting their numbers were far greater. The [[Province of Maryland]] fought a declared war for nearly a decade, signing a peace in 1632, against the Susquehannock Confederation, who were allied to [[New Sweden]], from whom they were receiving firearms in exchange for furs.<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> The ''American Heritage Book of Indians'' reports the tribe occupied the entire Susquehanna drainage basin<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> from the divide with the [[Mohawk River]] in the [[Province of New York]] and down the west side of [[Chesapeake Bay]] to the [[Colony of Virginia]], while noting the confederation numbered between 10-20,000 in the mid-1660s when they came close to wiping out two nations of the [[Iroquois]].<ref name="AmHeritageBk" />

A virulent epidemic struck the Susquehannock towns during 1668 or 1669 and is believed<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> to have lasted or recurred or morphed to plagues of other diseases, possibly killing up to 90% of the Amerindian nations people. By 1671-1672 they were beset on all sides<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> with attacks from colonial settlers, raids from the weakened Iroquois and the long-subjugated [[Lenape]] people occupying the [[Poconos]] and [[Lehigh River|Lehigh Valley]]. In that decade, Pennsylvania, [[Connecticut]] and New York all claimed the Susquehannock lands of the [[Wyoming Valley]], where the remnants of the nation were to recoil into a few scant underpopulated towns. In 1678, the governor of New York signed a treaty with the [[League of the Iroquois]] requiring them to take in the Susquehannocks. The Iroquoian cultures, universally supporting adoption, absorbed the people. Small bands moved west across the Susquehanna to new villages such as [[Conestoga Town]] and some are believed to have trekked through the [[gaps of the Allegheny]] to the virtually empty lands beyond the [[Alleghenies]], perhaps mingling there with other Iroquoian peoples such as the [[Seneca people|Seneca]], [[Wenro]] and [[Erie people]]s forming the new clans and towns as the (new) [[Mingo people]] whose small bands known to be present in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio in the early 1800s.<ref name="AmHeritageBk" /> ...end off-topic section-->

=== First Western settlements ===
In 1724, [[John Wright (businessman)|John Wright]], an English [[Quaker]], traveled to the Columbia area (then a part of [[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester County]]) to explore the land and proselytize to a Native American tribe, the [[Shawnee]], who had established a settlement along Shawnee Creek. Wright built a [[log cabin]] nearby on a tract of land first granted to George Beale by [[William Penn]] in 1699, and stayed for more than a year. The area was then known as "Shawanatown".

When Wright returned in 1726 with companions Robert Barber and Samuel Blunston, they began developing the area, Wright building a house about a hundred yards from the edge of the Susquehanna River in the area of today's South Second and Union streets. Susanna Wright later built Wright's Ferry Mansion, what is now the oldest existing house in Columbia, dating to 1738. She lived in this house with her brother James and his wife Rhoda, and possibly the first of their many children. The home is open for tours as a house museum and is located at Second and Cherry streets.

Robert Barber constructed a [[sawmill]] in 1727 and later built a home near the river on the Washington Boro Pike, along what is now [[Pennsylvania Route 441|Route 441]]. The home still stands, across from the Columbia [[sewage treatment|wastewater treatment plant]], and is the second oldest in the borough (after Wright's Ferry Mansion).

Samuel Blunston constructed a mansion called Bellmont atop the hill next to North Second Street, near Chestnut Street, at the location of the present-day Rotary Park playground. Upon his death, Blunston willed the mansion to Susanna Wright, who had become a close friend. She lived there, occasionally visiting brother James, ministering to the Native Americans, and raising [[silkworm]]s for the local silk industry, until her death in 1784 at the age of 87. The residence was demolished in the late 1920s to allow for construction of the [[Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge|Veterans Memorial Bridge]].

In 1729, after Wright had petitioned William Penn's son to create a new [[County (United States)|county]], the provincial government took land from Chester County to establish [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|Lancaster County]], the fourth county in Pennsylvania. County residents – Indians and colonists alike – regularly traveled to Wright's home to file papers and claims, seek government assistance and redress of issues, and register land [[deed]]s. The area was particularly attractive to [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] settlers. During this time, the town was called "Wright's Ferry".

=== Wright's Ferry ===
{{Main|Wright's Ferry}}
In 1730, John Wright was granted a patent to operate a ferry across the Susquehanna River, subsequently established (with Barber and Blunston) as [[Wright's Ferry]].  He also built a ferry house and a two-story log [[tavern]] on the eastern shore, north of Locust Street, on Front Street.

The ferry itself originally consisted of two [[dugout canoe]]s fastened together with carriage and [[wagon]] wheels and drawn by cattle. Crossings could be a dangerous enterprise. When several oxen were moved at once, the canoeist guided a lead animal with a rope so that the others would follow; if, however, the lead animal became confused and started swimming in circles, the other animals followed until they tired and eventually [[drowning|drowned]].

Typical fares in the 1700s were:
* [[Coach (carriage)|Coach]] with four passengers, drawn by five horses – nine [[shilling]]s;
* Four-horse wagon – three shillings and nine pence;
* Man and horse – six pence{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}
Fares were reduced in 1787 due to competition from Anderson's Ferry, located further upstream near [[Marietta, Pennsylvania|Marietta]]. Wright's Ferry was located immediately south of the present-day [[Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge|Veterans Memorial Bridge]] along [[Pennsylvania Route 462|Route 462]]. In later years, Wright rented the ferry to others before finally selling it.

Traffic heading west from [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]], [[Philadelphia]], and other nearby towns regularly traveled through Columbia, using the ferry to cross the Susquehanna. As traffic flow increased, the ferry grew, to the point of including [[canoe]]s, [[raft]]s, [[flatboat]]s, and eventually [[steamboat]]s; it became capable of handling [[Conestoga wagon]]s and other large vehicles. Due to the volume of traffic, however, wagons, freight, supplies and people often became backed up, creating a waiting period of several days to cross the river. With 150 to 200 vehicles lined up on the Columbia side, ferrymen used chalk to number the wagons.

=== Cresap's War ===
{{Main|Cresap's War}}
Wright's Ferry was the first convenient crossing of the Susquehanna River in the region. At the time, however, southern Pennsylvania above the [[40th parallel north|40th parallel]] was claimed by the [[Province of Maryland]], which took especial interest in the rural area around the ferry. Fearing an influx of Pennsylvanian settlers that could weaken Maryland's influence, Maryland colonist [[Thomas Cresap]], under the aegis of [[Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore|Lord Baltimore]], attempted to establish a competing ferry and a strong landholding presence around the Susquehanna. Pennsylvanians responded in kind; a violent attack on Cresap in October 1730 escalated the situation into a series of bitter (if not bloody) [[militia]] skirmishes and heated legal battles. The situation was not fully resolved until a London [[peace agreement]] in 1738, which cooled the colonies' [[territorial dispute]] and set the stage for the later codification of the [[Mason–Dixon line]].

=== Becoming Columbia ===
Samuel Wright, son of James and Rhoda Wright, was born on May 12, 1754. He eventually became the town proprietor and created a public grounds company to administer the land. Through his trusteeship, the town's first [[water distribution system]] (later the Columbia Water Company) was established, as well as the Washington Institute (the town's first school of higher learning) and Locust Street Park, located at what is now Locust Street and Route 462.

In the spring of 1788, Samuel Wright had the area [[surveying|surveyed]] and formally laid out the town into 160 [[land lot|building lots]], which were distributed by [[lottery]] at 15 shillings per ticket. "Adventurers", as purchasers were known, included speculators from many areas of the country. Wright and town citizens renamed the town "Columbia" in honor of [[Christopher Columbus]] in the hope of influencing the new [[United States Congress]] to select it as the nation's capital, a plan [[George Washington]] favored;<ref>Sheldon, 2006, p. 38.</ref> a formal proposal to do so was made in 1789. Unfortunately for the town, when Congress voted in 1790, the final tally was one vote short. Later, Columbia narrowly missed becoming the capital of [[Pennsylvania]]; [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]] was chosen instead, since it was closer to the state's [[Geographic centers of the United States|geographic center]].

===19th century===
====Expansion, construction, and transportation====
[[File:Columbia Market House.jpg|thumb|Columbia Market House in Columbia]]
English [[Anglicanism|Anglicans]], [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]], [[Free people of color|freed]] [[Slavery in the United States|African slaves]], [[German people|German]] [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]], and descendants of [[French people|French]] [[Huguenots]] came to outnumber the first Quaker settlers within a generation.

Columbia became an incorporated [[Borough (Pennsylvania)|borough]] in 1814, formed out of [[West Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania|Hempfield Township]]. The same year, the world's longest [[covered bridge]] was built across the Susquehanna to [[Wrightsville, Pennsylvania|Wrightsville]], facilitating traffic flow across the river and reducing the need for the ferry. The bridge was {{convert|5690|ft|m}} long and {{convert|30|ft|m}} wide, and had 54 stone [[pier]]s. After handling traffic across the Susquehanna for 18 years, it was destroyed by high water, ice, and severe weather in the winter of 1832. A replacement covered bridge, the [[Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge (Columbia, Pennsylvania)|Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge]], was built within two years.

=====Public works=====
In February 1826, the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly|Pennsylvania state legislature]] approved the package of legislation known as the [[Main Line of Public Works]] with the goal of connecting the width and breadth of Pennsylvania by the best and most reliable transportation known, water transport. The project started with the harder parts up the [[Juniata River]] and over the mountains being funded first. $300,000 in the funding was for the construction of a [[canal|navigation]] that would be called the [[Pennsylvania Canal]] along the Susquehanna's eastern shore to bypass [[rapids]] and shallows and make the river navigable anywhere along its route. Also, as conceived, another {{convert|82|mi|adj=on}} canal would be dug from the terminus in Columbia to connect towns to the east with a terminus on the [[Delaware River]] at [[Philadelphia]]. 
 
Across the [[Alleghenies]], another canal would connect the [[Allegheny Portage Railroad]] (crossing the mountains) to the [[Ohio River]] and the [[Mississippi River]], ensuring the Port of Philadelphia would dominate inland trade and manufacturing in the exploding trans-Appalachian territories. It was a brave, far-looking, ambitious vision. Like the [[Erie Canal]] which was completed in 1825, the very year the legislation package came to be filed, the overall scheme was envisioned when [[water transport]] was the fastest means of travel over any long distance, was the best way to ship heavy bulk goods or cumbersome loads&mdash;and was before railways came to the public eye and their technology had been refined enough to become working propositions. In 1836 there were probably fewer than six railways in the world.

The [[Canal|navigations]] began in 1832 after several delays, and the work proceeded quickly. The [[Pennsylvania Canal]] began operating in 1833, beginning in Columbia and then stretching {{convert|40|mi}} north to the junction of the [[Juniata River]] with the [[Susquehanna River]]. The intent was that goods and travelers could use the canal system to go west from Columbia to [[Pittsburgh]], [[Lake Erie]], [[Ohio]], and [present-day] [[West Virginia]] along the Juniata Division, or by taking the main Susquehanna north  to reach north-central Pennsylvania and [[Upstate New York]].

The plan encountered difficulties. Engineering studies found no reasonably feasible way to provide enough water to keep an 82-mile canal to [[Philadelphia]] wet, much less support lock operations. When that was reported, the Pennsylvania Canal Commission came up with a new plan, one using the right of way authorized to build one of these newfangled railways that were making news. Their solution was the [[Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad]], one of the first common carrier commercial railways to operate in the United States. Double-tracked, it utilized two [[inclined plane]] cable railways at steep rises near either end, and except for bypasses of that older technology unneeded with more powerful locomotives, the P&CR trackage is still in use today, as it passed to the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] in 1857, along with most of the Pennsylvania Canal.
 
Canal boats could often be seen at the Bruner coal wharf, operated by H.F. Bruner & Sons at North Front and Bridge streets. The canal was originally planned to extend south from Columbia on the east side of the river, but local property owners objected. Instead, a two-tiered [[towpath]] was constructed along the south side of the bridge to transport boats across the river using horse and [[mule]] teams. The boats then linked with the [[Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal]] along the western shore at Wrightsville. This part of the canal system, which afforded passage to [[Baltimore]] or the [[Chesapeake and Delaware Canal]], opened in 1840. Several years later, a small dam was constructed across the river to form a pool that allowed steamboats to tow the canal boats. Canals could not be used in winter due to ice and floods, which caused damage that had to be repaired in the spring. These limitations, combined with an increase in railroad traffic, led to the decline of the canals. The Columbia Canal closed in 1901, the same year that Wright's Ferry ceased to operate.

During this time, Columbia also became a stop on the [[Underground Railroad]]. [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|Slaves seeking freedom]] were transported across the Susquehanna, fed and given supplies on their way north to other states and [[Canada]]. To slave hunters from the South, the slaves seemed to simply disappear, leading one hunter to declare that there "must be an underground railroad here."<ref>Sheldon, 2006, p.53.</ref>

Any idealistic view of [[abolitionism]] in Columbia is surely tested, however, by the occurrence of a significant [[race riot]] in 1834. The riot erupted in August of that year<ref>Worner, W.F. (2007). ''The Columbia Race Riots'', p. 177 https://archive.org/stream/columbiaraceriot00wornrich/columbiaraceriot00wornrich_djvu.txt</ref> when white workers revolted against working alongside Black freedmen.  Citing a document drafted by the rioters themselves, historian [[David Roediger]] explains that typical of other race riots of the period, white rioters feared "a plot by employers and abolitionists to open new trades to Blacks and 'to break down the distinctive barrier between the colors that the poor whites may gradually sink into the degraded condition of the Negroes - that, like them, they may be slaves and tools'."<ref>Roediger, D. (2007). ''The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class''. London: Verso Books. p. 58</ref> The rioters' declaration called for "colored freeholders" to be "singled out for removal from the Borough".<ref>''ibid''</ref> The riot resulted in a large number of African American residents being forced from their homes and their property destroyed.<ref>Worner (2007), p. 181</ref>

In 1834, another bridge was built by James Moore and John Evans at a cost of $157,300 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=157300|start_year=1834}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). This bridge also enjoyed the distinction of being the world's longest covered bridge. The same year, construction began on the first railway line linking Columbia and Philadelphia, which subsequently became part of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]. Named the [[Main Line of Public Works#Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad|Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad]], it officially opened in October 1834.

By 1852, regular rail transportation from Columbia to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg made the town the commercial center for the area halfway between the [[county seat]]s of [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster]] and [[York, Pennsylvania|York]].

====Civil War====
In early 1863, as the [[American Civil War]] raged, a number of local [[African Americans|Black]] citizens enlisted in the [[54th Massachusetts Infantry]], a regiment composed of black soldiers serving under white officers. The unit achieved fame in an assault on [[Fort Wagner]] in [[South Carolina]]. [[Stephen Atkins Swails|Stephen Swails]], one of its members, may have been the first African-American officer commissioned during the Civil War. Other local citizens fought in various regiments of the [[United States Colored Troops]]. Some of these veterans are buried in a cemetery located near Fifth Street.

On June 28, 1863, during the [[Gettysburg campaign]], the replacement covered bridge was burned by Columbia residents and the Pennsylvania state [[militia]] to prevent [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] soldiers of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] from entering Lancaster County. General [[Robert E. Lee]] had hoped to invade Harrisburg from the rear and move eastward to Lancaster and Philadelphia, and in the process destroy railroad yards and other facilities. Under General [[Jubal A. Early]]'s command and following Lee's orders, General [[John B. Gordon]] was to place Lancaster and the surrounding farming area  "under contribution" for the Confederate Army's war supplies and to attack Harrisburg from the east side of the river, while another portion of Lee's army advanced from the west side. General Early was given orders to burn the [[Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge|bridge]] but hoped instead to capture it, while [[Union Army|Union]] forces under the command of Colonel [[Jacob G. Frick]] and Major [[Granville O. Haller]], hoping to save the bridge, were forced to burn it. Owners of the bridge petitioned Congress repeatedly for reimbursement well into the 1960s, but were denied payment.

With the Union [[Army of the Potomac]] hastening northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania, Robert E. Lee ordered his widely scattered forces to withdraw to [[Heidlersburg, Pennsylvania|Heidlersburg]] and [[Cashtown, Pennsylvania|Cashtown]] (not far from [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania|Gettysburg]]) to rendezvous with other contingents of the Confederate Army. The burning of the Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge thwarted one of Lee's goals for the invasion of Pennsylvania, and General Gordon later claimed the skirmish at Wrightsville reinforced the erroneous Confederate belief that the only defensive forces on hand were inefficient local militia, an attitude that carried over to the first day of the [[Battle of Gettysburg]].

====Postwar growth====
After the wartime bridge burning, a [[tugboat]], ''Columbia'', was used to tow canal boats across the river. In 1868, yet another replacement covered bridge was built, but was destroyed by a [[hurricane]] in 1896. The next bridge, the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, was a steel open bridge which carried the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a two-lane roadway for cars. It was dismantled for scrap by November 1964, but its stone piers, which supported the Civil War-era bridge, can still be seen today, running parallel to the Veterans Memorial Bridge on Route 462. The piers have become the site of present-day "Flames Across the Susquehanna" bridge-burning reenactments sponsored by Rivertownes PA USA.

In 1875, a new three-story grand [[town hall]] opened, featuring a second-floor [[auditorium]] that seated over 900 and was used as an [[opera house]]. The second floor's ceiling was higher than those of the first and third floors; each level contained 60 windows. The building also included office shops, [[town council|council]] chambers, storerooms and market stalls. A {{convert|140|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} [[bell tower]], holding the town clock, crowned the building. The clock was visible from all over the borough, and its bell was audible throughout the surrounding countryside. The building was destroyed by fire in February 1947, but was rebuilt as a one-story municipal building that exists today.

[[Tram|Trolley]] service for the borough and surrounding area was established in 1893, allowing Columbians to take advantage of economic opportunities in Lancaster and other nearby towns. Between 1830 and 1900, the borough's population increased from 2,046 to 12,316.

====Flourishing industry====
By the mid-19th century, Columbia had become a busy transportation hub with its ferry, bridge, canal, railroad and wharves. It was a major shipping transfer point for [[lumber]], coal, grain, [[pig iron]], and people. Important industries of the time included warehousing, tobacco processing, [[Iron#Main industrial route|iron production]], [[clockmaking]], and [[boat building]]. Prominent local companies included the [[Ashley and Bailey Silk Mill]], the Columbia Lace Mill, and H.F. Bruner & Sons.

From about 1854 to 1900, an industrial complex existed in and around Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville that included 11 [[anthracite iron]] furnaces and related structures, as well as canal and railroad facilities servicing them. By 1887, that number had grown to 13 [[blast furnace]]s, all operating within a {{convert|3|mi|adj=on|0}} radius of Columbia. The furnaces, which produced pig iron, exemplified the technology of the day through their use of anthracite coal and [[hot blast]] for [[smelting]] iron ore, a process that dominated the iron industry before the widespread use of [[Coke (fuel)|coke]] as a fuel. Since [[northeastern Pennsylvania]] was a rich source of [[anthracite]] coal, anthracite-fired furnaces using locally available iron ores were built throughout eastern Pennsylvania, helping to make the state a leader in iron production in the latter half of the 19th century. Lancaster County also became a leader in pig iron production during this time, with the river towns' complex of furnaces contributing significantly to its output.

===20th century===
[[File:PostcardColumbiaPABirdsEyeView1901to1907.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Columbia, about 1905]]

====Changes in the new century====
By 1900, the town's population had grown to over 12,000, with a 50% increase from 1880 to 1900. Some of the items produced by its industries were silk goods, lace, [[Pipe (fluid conveyance)|pipe]], laundry machinery, stoves, iron toys, flour, lumber, and wagons. By this time Wright's Ferry had ceased its operations, having been supplanted by rail and bridge traffic.

In 1930, yet another bridge, the [[Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge|Veterans Memorial Bridge]], was opened to improve traffic flow across the Susquehanna. It first opened as a [[toll bridge]]; to avoid the toll, in the coldest winter months some daring motorists would cross on the firmly frozen river.  Later that same decade, many of the city's brick [[sidewalk]]s were converted to concrete; the bronze plaques of the concrete installers are still visible today.

====Economic decline====
The start of the 20th century brought economic challenge to Columbia as local industries declined. The lumber industry eventually disappeared as surrounding woodlands became depleted. As Chestnut Hill iron ores became scarce as well, the iron furnaces shut down. Eventually, the [[steel mill|steel]] [[rolling (metalworking)|rolling mills]] also ceased operation. In 1906, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened a new facility in [[Enola, Pennsylvania|Enola]], across the river from Harrisburg, which decreased the significance of Columbia's railroad. By 1920, the population had dropped over 10% to 10,836.

The [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] accelerated Columbia's economic slide. The Pennsylvania Railroad's service to the north and the south was eliminated. [[World War II]] increased employment, but did not bring long-term prosperity to the borough.

By 1960, population had returned to its 1900 level. In 1965 a detailed study of Columbia's basic strengths and weaknesses was released, but its suggestions went mostly unheeded. The [[Wright's Ferry Bridge]], which opened in 1972, only served to divert traffic around Columbia. The growth and prosperity experienced in some Lancaster County towns bypassed Columbia for the remainder of the 20th century. Although the [[United States Census Bureau]] reported that as of the last year of the 20th century, the population of Columbia had been only 10,311 people, by 2010 this figure had grown to 10,400.