Maps, tunnels and Buzzards: 4 takeaways about Lancaster County history from a discussion with the experts

Lancaster County residents love their local history, if questions submitted to LNP | LancasterOnline’s “We the People” project are any judge.

The “We the People” series is a reader-powered journalism project through which readers suggest topics and then vote which one deserves investigation. In the months since the series began, readers have submitted dozens that touch on Lancaster County’s storied past.

Several have led to stories, from a look at the first settlers of Lancaster County to a mythical underground tunnel under the city and a mysterious head staring from a window in Peach Bottom.

To see more Lancaster history coverage, visit lancasteronline.com/lancasterhistory.

But with historical questions piling up, we decided to tackle a bunch of them at once. We invited experts from LancasterHistory.org — Marianne Heckles, a research assistant and photo coordinator, and Heather Tennies, director of archival services — answered several points of local history during a Facebook Live interview from LNP studios on March 1.

Watch the video below, and keep scrolling for several takeaways from the conversation.

Lancaster County has diverse place names

Fruitville was little village in the Blossom Hill area along Delp Road, where there once were a lot of orchards.

Akron, formerly New Berlin, changed its name after discovering another New Berlin when opening its first post office in 1864.

Oregon was originally called Catfish. The name was changed in 1846 because the name didn’t sound very appealing, although apparently catfish once thrived in the creeks there.

Lititz was named for a place near the birthplace of its founder, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

Lancaster County was once much larger, and it owes its current shape to natural boundaries

Lancaster County was carved out of Chester County in 1729. At the time, it included “a lot of what is north and west,” including much of what is now Lebanon, Dauphin, York, Adams and Cumberland counties and “parts west.”

Smaller counties were whittled out of Lancaster as time went on, starting with York County in 1749 and ending with Lebanon in 1813.

The shape of Lancaster County is largely defined by waterways — primarily the Susquehanna River to the west, as well as the Octoraro and Conewago creeks — and the Mason-Dixon Line to the south.

The Buzzard Gang’s crime spree wasn’t very successful

John, Martin, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph Buzzard — products of a broken Civil War-era family — were in and out of jail for petty crimes — mostly for stealing horses and chickens in the Welsh Mountain region near New Holland.

Although their descendants are law-abiding folk — one of whom even trains bloodhounds for police — members of the Buzzard Gang spent more time in jail than they did out in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Entertainment

A look back at the Buzzard Gang's lawless exploits

TOM KNAPP | Staff Writer

Those tunnels under the city don’t seem to exist

Although rumors abound about a network of ancient tunnels under Lancaster city, there’s no documentation to prove they exist.

The stories may stem from the beer vaults that dotted the city when there were numerous breweries here, as well as the Prohibition-era pipes that pumped illegal hooch to a thirsty public through the sewers.