Thaddeus Stevens was Mr. Gettysburg
March 2022
By Ross Hetrick
During the 26 years he lived in Gettysburg, Thaddeus Stevens did more for the fledgling community than probably anyone before or since. He was Mr. Gettysburg.
When Stevens moved to Gettysburg in 1816, the borough was only 30 years old and was still very much a frontier town without municipal services, industries or cultural activities. By the time he left for Lancaster in 1842, all that had changed, largely due to him. He had a hand in establishing a water company, a library, a bank, a newspaper, railroads, iron mills and a college.
After becoming a prominent attorney, Stevens served on Gettysburg borough council off and on for six years between 1822 and 1832. In his first year he proposed building a water system using wooden pipes. Also in 1822 he was part of a group that started the Gettysburg Library Society that lent subscribers two books at a time for up to three weeks for the annual fee of $5.
The 1820s and 30s saw Stevens becoming a board member of the Bank of Gettysburg and starting a newspaper. In 1826, he became an employer of hundreds of people in the area by starting the Maria iron furnace in Fairfield. That operation continued until 1837 when it was moved over to the Caledonia iron mill between Gettysburg and Chambersburg. That furnace continued for another 30 years. It is now the Caledonia state park.
In the 1830s Stevens became a member of the state legislature and turned his attention to building a railroad through Gettysburg from the Susquehanna river to western Maryland using state and private funds. Those projects were not completed until decades after Stevens left Gettysburg.
And even though he was not much of a church goer, Stevens supported the Presbyterian Church and Christ Lutheran Church by paying hefty annual pew rents at both churches.
Stevens's greatest local achievement was the establishment and nurturing of a college that continues to be a major employer and cultural resource to this day. Gettysburg College, originally called Pennsylvania College, was started in 1832 and by 1833 it wanted to leave a High Street building and establish a campus with impressive structures. But its effort to get $18,000 from the state legislature was met with stiff opposition from Adams county residents and their state representatives.
But in 1834 Stevens, a strong education supporter, was elected to the Pennsylvania's House of Representatives and he pushed through the funding, but not without a fierce political backlash. He responded by saying: "Let demagogues note it for future use, and send it on the wings of the wind to the ears of every one of my constituents, in matters of this kind, I would rather hear the approving voice of one judicious, intelligent, and enlightened mind, than to be greeted by the loud huzzahs of the whole host of ignorance."
But his support did not stop there. When the college found no property owners willing to sell it land, Stevens provided the land, letting the board of trustees determine the price. He then served on the college board for the next 34 years. Then in 1854 when the college board was considering moving the school to another city, Stevens intervened, browbeating the trustees into agreeing to keep the college in Gettysburg permanently.
In addition to all these achievements, Stevens gained state and national fame by saving Pennsylvania public education in 1835, and then in the 1860s being instrumental in the legislative destruction of slavery, laying the Constitutional foundation for an equal society and trying to create a racially equal society in the south after the war.
While Gettysburg is often identified with presidents Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower, it was Thaddeus Stevens who actually built the town. Unfortunately, he had long been forgotten, but now he will get recognition with the dedication of a Stevens statue in front of the Adams county courthouse on April 2. It's been a long time coming.
Ross Hetrick is president of the Thaddeus Stevens Society, which is dedicated to promoting Stevens's important legacy. More information about the Great Commoner can be found at the society's website: https://www.thaddeusstevenssociety.com/
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