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Lancaster (City and county-seat) (II)

a city and county-seat of Lancaster co., Pa., on the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia and Reading, and other railroads; 68 miles W. of Philadelphia. It is the manufacturing trade center for the county; is an important tobacco market; and is engaged in tobacco growing, cigar-making, cattleraising, and the manufacture of cotton goods, iron and steel goods, shoes, and combs. It is the seat of Franklin and Marshall College; contains the Lancaster, St. Joseph's, and the County Hospitals, Children's Home, Mechanics' and Y. M. C. A. libraries, and Conestoga Park, and has gas and electric light plants, electric street railroads, National and State banks and about 50 churches.

Lancaster was settled in 1729; was State capital in 1799-1812; and chartered a city in 1818. Congress sat in Lancaster for a few days in 1777. Pop. (1910) 47,227; (1920) 53,150.