Our Village’s 175th Anniversary

Last week our little village repeated what has become a treasured annual tradition on the first Sunday evening in December for more than a quarter century … the lighting of the Christmas tree on Children’s Lake.

Like much of the rest of the year, complicated by the highly contagious Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s annual event was ‘Covidifferent’. No crowds. No ceremonies. No brass band. No hot chocolate or caroling. No wide-eyed children peering anxiously into the night darkness over the lake to catch the first glimpse of Santa arriving in his boat.

As I reflected on this year’s many modified or canceled events, I was reminded that nearly lost in all the confusion and changes has been the 175^th anniversary of the birth of our historic Norman Rockwell-esque village.

In the Beginning …

It was the fall of 1845 when 27-year-old Daniel Kaufman hired a young surveyor who lived nearby to lay out several streets and building lots for a village on land he had purchased from his father two years earlier.

Daniel’s land was located on the southwest corner of an intersection of two well-traveled dirt roads and extended southward along the road leading to the Carlisle Iron Works. On the east side of that road laid a small lake created in 1762 to power the furnace and forge at the Iron Works. It was on that intersection at the north end of the lake that the village’s first lots and streets were surveyed and plotted by Adam Leidich. Sadly, no copy of the original survey plan is known to exist today.

In 1830 Frederick Brechbill built a stone farmhouse, wood barn and other outbuildings on the northwest corner of that intersection (where the “Lakeside Mart” and “Sugar Shack” are located today). Prior to that time the only building known to be near the spring was a small, brick church believed to have been built in 1794.

In 1832 Peter Brechbill, Frederick’s son, erected a building across the road from his father’s house and applied for a license to “keep a public house” and tavern. That building still stands today and is known as the “Boiling Springs Tavern”.

The one event that transpired in our village’s history in calendar year 1845 was the survey made by Adam Leidich. It was during the next 365 days that the first four lots were sold and the first building was erected in the village. That building is also still standing and is the home of Caffé 101.

The Best Laid Plans

Beginning with Richard Tritt, our village’s resident historian, several community members envisioned 2020 to be a year with events that would recognize and commemorate this 175^th milestone.

Township Supervisor Duff Manweiler noted the significance of the year in the township’s 2020 winter/spring newsletter when he highlighted the village’s many annual events and “hoped that the ‘Boiling Springs 175’ theme” would be adopted by the events’ organizers.

In anticipation of the occasion I began working on a series of short stories covering events and people that were part of our community’s early years. Then, just when you think you have it all figured out, the Universe throws a pandemic into the mix. Oh Lord, the best laid plans …

“But Mouse, you are not alone,
in proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go oft awry.”

– Robert Burns, 1785

Looking forward … 175⁺

The coming 2021 calendar year will be a challenging one for the Village of Boiling Springs as Children’s Lake is drained and the dam wall in front of the mill apartments is reconstructed. Changes in the traffic flow and improvements on First and Front streets are also in the plans.

On the positive side, there are encouraging signs that the pandemic will slowly become less of a threat, especially with the introduction of the first vaccine this week … and the second one on the immediate horizon.

It is my hope that our community will find a way to continue to honor the 175^th Anniversary of our village during the spring and summer months of 2021. After all, a year is a year is a year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days.

Happy Anniversary Boiling Springs.