Episode Details

SARAH BROADHEAD: "To-day we heard that the Rebels were crossing the river in heavy force, and advancing on to this State."

In the 1730s and 40s, Scots-Irish and German settlers began laying roots in what was then known as the Marsh Creek settlement. Eventually, Samuel Gettys opened a tavern on the Marsh Creek Road, the major east-west road in the area. In 1761, he was fined for running a tavern without a license. In 1769, the Baltimore-Shippensburg road was laid out and an intersection was created at the tavern. Twenty five years later, in 1786, his son James would lay out 210 lots, including a town square, referred to as "The Diamond", around the tavern. This new town would be known as Gettysburg.

In 1800, Gettysburg became the county seat of the newly formed Adams county, named for then-president John Adams.

The 1860 census shows that Gettysburg's population numbered around 2400 and was primarily made up of German, Scots-Irish and free blacks.

Prior to the war, the people of Gettysburg engaged in a diverse economy, the primary industry in town being carriage making which attracted related tradesmen such as wheelwrights, trim and canvas shops and silversmiths. Many of Gettysburg's carriages were purchased by people south of the Mason-Dixon line, some ten miles south of Gettysburg. As the war loomed, the industry in Gettysburg began to tighten. But by 1863, the war had all but eliminated the carriage industry,. Gettysburg's port for goods and services was Baltimore, which was a city of divided loyalties and political unrest These two factors disrupted the town's economy.

The overwhelmingly Christian population of the town worshipped in eight congregations and seven churches.

As the center of Adams County's legal business, Gettysburg was home to several lawyers.

Education was well covered in Gettysburg. A number of primary and secondary schools, private schools including Carrie Sheads's on the Chambersburg Pike and Rebecca Eyster's on the corner of High Street and Washington, Pennsylvania College, established in 1832, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary educated the youth from near and far.

To support the large amount of farms in the surrounding townships, various merchants kept shop there. Some people, such as Mary McAllister, made money by reselling cured meats she had obtained from the farmers of the area to her fellow Gettysburgians. Others owned butcher shops, like James Pierce who lived on the southwest corner of Baltimore and Breckinridge Streets; a candy store, like Philip "Petey" Winter's on the first block of Chambersburg Street; a photography studio like Charles and Isaac Tyson had on York Street. Dry goods, general merchandise and grocers also made Gettysburg hum with activity. James Fahenstock and two of his brothers owned the largest General store in town on the corner of Baltimore Street and Middle Street. In 1860, the census listed dozens of people whose occupation was "shoemaker" or cobbler. Yet, contrary to legend, there was no shoe factory or warehouse full of shoes in Gettysburg in 1863. Tanneries, ironworks, brickyards, blacksmiths, hotels, inns and taverns rounded out the more common businesses found in town.

Local curmudgeon and former town constable, John Burns, had a few odd jobs. One of those jobs was as a cobbler at the boot and shoe shop of town council president David Kendlehart. Burns, a veteran of the War of 1812, was not known to be a friendly neighbor with a kind word to offer.

Among his other jobs, John Burns pumped water for the Gettysburg waterworks.

Gettysburg had the latest technological advances in communications, media, gas lighting and transportation. In 1858, the railroad had come to town and, by 1863, Joseph Broadhead was an Express Messenger, on the Hanover Junction, Hanover and Gettysburg