Lancaster Roots 300 - Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society

2010 Event Series

Meeting of Cultures: The Roots of Lancaster County — 300th Anniversary Celebrations in 2010

Celebrating the arrival of the first permanent European settlers in Lancaster County in 1710

Celebrating the contributions of the Native Peoples who lived here before and after the 1710 settlement

Celebrating the rich diversity and the many peoples who make up Lancaster County today in 2010.

2010 was the 300th Anniversary of permanent European settlement by Swiss-German Mennonites in the Conestoga wilderness of what would become Lancaster County. (The 1719 Hans Herr House survives from this era.)

Complete 2010 Event Schedule

On January 20, 2010, the Board of Commissioners of Lancaster County issued a proclamation in recognition of Lancaster Roots 300. From left surrounding a cake marking the anniversary are Beth Graybill, director of Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society; Amanda Kimmich, Native-American representative from Circle Legacy; Craig Lehman, Scott Martin and Dennis Stuckey, commissioners; and Becky Gochnauer, director of Hans Herr House. (Jeremy Hess/Photographer)

300_Proclamation.pdf (28.5 KB)

Historical accounts suggest that Native Americans and Mennonites were on good terms with each other as the Europeans settled in the vicinity of the 1719 Hans Herr House. Nevertheless, white expansion contributed to Indian displacement, decline, and death.

Plans are to honor early Native Americans who offered assistance through recreating an Indian longhouse at the 1719 Herr House site.

Native American Initiatives

A local Unity group of whites and Native Americans in Lancaster met since 2008 to plan Indian initiatives and the Oct. 9 event for Lancaster Roots 300. They took as their mission statement:

"Bring forth a new beginning and healing to our First Nations Peoples by honoring their native cultures and by restoring William Penn's original vision of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be a place of peace and sanctuary for all."