Recently in Hellam Twp. Category

The 280 acres on which Camp Security was located is highlighted in yellow.

I am glad to see that there is going to be an archaeological dig this summer at the Schultz house, which was the original pre-Revolutionary house on the land that David Brubaker owned during the Revolutionary War. Camp Security was located on part of David Brubaker's 280 acres from 1781 to 1783. It is located in present-day Springettsbury Township, but it would have been part of Hellam Township at that time.

Historic York, Inc. presently owns the house and the four+ acres on which it stands. True, four+ acres is a fraction of the property in Brubaker's time, but it is a start, or restart, into exploring the only undeveloped site of an American Revolutionary War prison camp. (There were previously two limited digs done on another part of the original acreage.)

Order to register prisoners paroled to Yorkers

I gave a brief overview in my recent York Sunday News column of Camp Security, the 1781-1783 Revolutionary War prisoner of war camp just east of York. The whole column is at the end of this post.

Camp Security is the last remaining prisoner of war camp in the United States that has not been swallowed up by development. The site is considered to be at the highest priority risk by the National Trust of Historic Preservation and the National Park Service. Only a few of the approximately 40 acres of the camp have been subject to full archaeological exploration.

Estimates of the number of British Prisoners interned at Camp Security vary. Records are rather sketchy in comparison with statistics we keep today, and the existing records can be interpreted differently. Some sources say many died or deserted before and after they arrived in York. Other sources say deaths and desertions have been exaggerated. As more catalogs of document collections and documents themselves become accessible online, more statistics may surface.

One hundred and ten years ago this week, the Gazette noted the semi-annual visit of hermit Joel Strong of Hellam township to see his friend, Al Boll, of Ebner's Cafe. It seems Mr. Strong walked the eight miles each way to stock up on his winter's supply of tobacco. The article notes that the "little hermit is away up in years, but his kindly blue eyes are as clear looking as the eyes of a boy."

Records at York County Heritage Trust indicate that Mr. Strong was born on