A Commons of Locomotives & Locomotion

A Commons of Locomotives and Locomotion. A Heart of Hanover Trail Stop. , Aided and empowered by the opening of railroad tracks and the Hanover depot in 1852, the Hanover Commons reached peak industrial activity from the late 19th century well into the 20th, when the following businesses hummed and ticked: Hanover Train Car Company, J.S. Young enterprises (a tree bark-to-fabric dye maker, feed mill, produce warehouse, and Hickory Town Distilling Company), Schmuck coal and lumber company, Fitz's foundry and waterwheel manufacturing, Conrad Moul iron foundry and saw mill, Brodbeck's tannery, Cordage hemp factory, a shirt manufacturer, a maker of matches, Hoke Bair cattle yard, Zehring's buggy and farm equipment store, Crouse's planing mill, a firehouse, and Hanover's market house (built in 1932-1933 and still open). , During this period, the Commons was an industrial park of sorts that helped build this town and fuel the Industrial Revolution in the United States. , Imagine the beehive of activity before you of sights, shouts, and smells. Imagine the pounding of steel and iron; the sawing of wood; the shoveling of coal; the screeches of rail wheels on curved tracks; the heaving of steam engines; the wailing of train whistles; the sizzle of water on burning coal; the splash of hemp into vats of cod liver oil; black clouds billowing from smokestacks; the smells of tannin, hot iron and burnt coal commingling in the air; and the clip-clopping and neighing of horses drawing carriages of lumber, coal, fabric dyes, and spirits. All were testaments to Hanover's creative pride and longstanding work ethic, whose hands-on, can-do, self-reliant spirit helped build a community and thrives to this day. , A Commons for the People: The Beginning in the 1790s , From where you are standing, you are looking into the heart of the 18-acre Hanover Commons. The donations of 100 citizens purchased this land from the estate of town founder Richard McAllister (1725-1795) for public use. Initially, the Commons provided pastureland for all and open space for the militia to train. , Over time, business interests began squatting there. That led to confusion and litigation as to who owned what. After the legal dust settled, it was determined that the Borough of Hanover owned the land. Afterwards, many businesses owned the buildings therein while paying land leases of varying durations. , Freedom Train from the Commons: 1855 , In 1855, three enslaved individuals from Maryland purchased tickets for passage from Hanover to York on the Hanover Branch Railroad and Northern Central Railway. Mr. Scholl of Maryland, the owner of one of the freedom seekers, sued the Northern Central Railway Company to recover the value of whom he deemed to be his "property," claiming the railway company knowingly assisted in the loss of his property. Citing the federal Fugitive Slave Act, a Maryland court ruled in favor of Scholl, granting him $813.40 in damages and costs. It is not known how far the escapees traveled on the railroad, as they were not seen again after boarding their train to freedom in Hanover.