Littlestown

Littlestown grew at the crossroads of the Old Monocacy Road, opened in 1736 between Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and Frederick, Maryland, and the Baltimore to Pittsburgh Road, established by 1770 and later known as the Gettysburg and Petersburg Turnpike. The area formed part of the early Conewago Settlement of mostly German settlers from Lancaster, and the land was long caught in the disputed tract called Digges Choice, where grants were issued both by William Penn for Pennsylvania and by the Calverts for Maryland until the Mason-Dixon Line clarified the border. Peter Klein, whose name was later anglicized to Little, received a patent for 311 acres in 1760 and by 1765 had laid out 48 town lots along what is now East and West King Street, fifteen years before Gettysburg was laid out. The village was first called Kleina Stedtle, then Petersburg, and finally Littlestown in 1795. Klein died in 1773 and was buried in Christ Church cemetery outside town. Accounts hold that George Washington used the pump in the town square while traveling from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia in 1791, and General "Mad" Anthony Wayne is believed to have stayed overnight there in 1781 while moving toward Yorktown during the Revolution. By 1797 Littlestown had 80 houses, by 1800 a population of 250, and by 1820 a population of 305. Completion of the Gettysburg and Petersburg Turnpike in 1814 brought Pitt Wagons, mail, and stagecoaches west through town and helped put Littlestown on the map. Surviving early landmarks include the 1772 Jacob Sell House at 48 West King Street, associated with a well-known rifle manufacturer, while the Sell family was renowned for gunsmithing and for carving and engraving Kentucky rifles; other early sites included Saint Aloysius Church, founded about 1791, early log school buildings, and churches such as Saint John's Lutheran and United Brethren.

Littlestown, Pennsylvania · United States