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 This little brochure owes its existence to an almost life-long friendship 
 with an associate, and to a personal appreciation of deserving local literature. 
 Mr. Frank R. Diffenderffer's "Plea for the Conestoga River,'' read before 
 the Lancaster County Historical Society, was both timely and suggestive, 
 calling into activity the graceful pen of Lloyd Mifflin, Litt.D., a gentleman 
 of more than national fame, whose literary work has placed him in the front 
 rank of American poets, and whose noble sonnet on our beautiful Conestoga 
 will be found in these pages. 
 
 The illustrations are by local artists, and the various views of our historic 
 water-course will commend themselves to every lover of the beautiful in 
 nature and art. . ; 
 
 Andrew H. Her shey. 
 
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RANK RIED DIFFENDERFFER, Litt.D., was born April 
 30, 1833, of German ancestry, his great-great-grandfather 
 •^^■^^ having settled near New Holland in 1727; attended the 
 schools of that town; in 1849 entered the Academy of Mar- 
 shall College, Mercersburg. Later became a book-seller in Lancaster. 
 In 1857 took up the pursuit of merchandizing in Ciudad Juarez, Mex., 
 remaining there until 1871 when he returned to Lancaster. When The 
 New Era newspaper was established in 1877, he assumed the position of 
 Associate Editor which he has retained until the present time. In addi- 
 tion to his duties on The New Era, Dr. Diffenderffer has found time 
 to write a number of historical works. In 1876 he published "The 
 Three Earls," in 1897 "The German Exodus to England, 1709"; in 
 1900 "The German Immigration into Pennsylvania through the Port 
 of Philadelphia" and "The Redemptioners" in 1900: same year delivered 
 an address on " The Palatine and Quaker as Commonwealth Builders," 
 before the Historical Society of Penna.; in 19 10 he prepared an extended 
 "History of the Farmers National Bank." In addition he has con- 
 
tributed nearly two score of papers to the Proceedings of the Lancaster 
 County Historical Society, of which he was one of the founders and for 
 seven years the Secretary. Was Secretary of the Fremont Club of Lan- 
 caster in 1856. Was one of the founders of the Penna. German Society, 
 its Secretary for three years, and then its President. Is a member of the 
 Penna. Historical Society, member of the Penna. History Club, was 
 President of the Penna. Federation of Historical Societies in 19 10; is a *] 
 
 member of the American Historical Association and was appointed a 
 member of the Advisory Commission for the Preservation of the Public 
 Records by Governor Pennypacker in 1903, and continuously until the 
 present time. 
 
Ig Elavil jKittin 
 
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 ttljin tl^t Biiv^nm mljirly tJj^ foliage tIjromH 
 Slje Jjr0tttattt0 rattle bg tl|e matera J»ream ; 
 QIl|e mljtte arm0 of tlje treen abowe tlyee gleam ; 
 A«b oti tl|g slopes tlje ripetimg Ijameiat gloms. 
 3From mealiouia of tlje lyajj tlye fragranee bloms 
 
 ^meeter tlyatt all Arabta! Ulyat a tlyeme 
 
 3For renei^ tlyou art, (§ pastoral stream, 
 3f!iglltr \n tl^g beautg nnh repose. 
 

 
 
 
 
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 Suggested by a paper on the Conestoga "River," read before The Lancaster County 
 Historical Society, January 5, 191 2, by F. R. Diffenderffer, Litt.D. 
 
 L. M. 
 
"Pennsylvania is one of the best- watered 
 states on the American continent. There 
 are, perhaps, a thousand streams within 
 her borders which, in any European 
 country, would be called rivers, while not 
 even a baker's dozen of them are spoken 
 of as rivers here at home." 
 
 "I shall not make my appeal to senti- 
 ment only, but to what the verdict of the 
 past 5000 years has been. I shall show 
 you that some of the greatest events of 
 all time have occurred on the banks of 
 streams no larger, nor as large as the 
 Conestoga, and that their names have 
 come down to us in song and story, linked 
 with the heroic deeds of the ages." 
 
 "The number of its affluents, large and 
 small, is from two to four hundred. To 
 ask us to call such a stream a creek, is a 
 proposition that offends human intelli- 
 gence." 
 
 — From a " Plea 
 
 "One of the most beautiful streams in 
 the world flows quietly through the green 
 meadows and along the sunny braes of 
 Lancaster county for a distance of more 
 than sixty miles, draining a territory 315 
 square miles in area, affording endless 
 themes of beauty to the brush of the 
 painter and the fancy of the poet." 
 ********* 
 
 " It is the Conestoga 'Creek' to most of 
 our people 'and it is nothing more'; yet 
 it is a river in all that constitutes a river, 
 just as truly as are some of the most noted 
 streams of the world which have been 
 called rivers for thousands of years.' ' 
 
 "Our Conestoga has borne its present 
 misnomer long enough. Let no member of 
 this Society ever again speak or write 
 about it as a 'creek.' Call it what it 
 really is, and what it deserves to be called 
 — the Conestoga Rivpr." 
 for the Conestoga River," by F. R. Diffenderffer. 
 

(^fU» -C/ -*^ Most, — ^&»ffyruM,(rt^ ff>^1l^ 'Z^**^ 
 ^ stS&L Cm^jvu '^^^^^ ettt^^ud 
 
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Klogb ilHffltn. JItttO. 
 
 LOYD MIFFLIN, poet and painter, was born at the family 
 homestead, "Norwood," near Columbia, Lancaster County, 
 Pa., September 15, 1846; he still lives at his ancestral home. 
 His father, J. Houston Mifflin, was an artist of rare touch 
 and a poet of exquisite fancy. Lloyd Mifflin was educated in classic 
 schools and under private tutors. He became an art pupil of his father 
 and of Thomas Moran and pursued his studies in Germany and Italy. 
 After much work of high merit he turned his attention to literature, 
 adopting the sonnet as his special mode of poetic expression; he has 
 produced six hundred sonnets, many of them eliciting from learned 
 British and American critics the highest praise, and the great body of his 
 work entitling him to rank with the masters of English verse. Many of 
 these are gathered together in "Collected Sonnets," published by Henry 
 
Frowde, Oxford Press, London. Other publications of his verse are 
 The Hills, 1896; At thd Gates of Song, 1897-1901; Year Book, with 
 quotations, 1897; Memorial Day Ode, 1897; The Slopes of Helicon, 
 and Other Poems, 1898; Echoes of Greek Idyls, 1899; The Fields of 
 Dawn and Later Sonnets, 1900; Ode on the Semi-Centennial of Franklin 
 and Marshall College, 1903; Castalian Days, 1903; The Fleeing Nymph 
 and Other Verse, 1905; My Lady of Dream, 1906; Toward the Uplands, 
 1908; Flower and Thorn, 1909. 
 
 Mr. MifHin has a peculiar appreciation of the landscape beauties of 
 his native county, and is never more felicitous in expression than when 
 depicting them in song or on canvas. 
 
 W. U. Hensel. 
 
Life-like the Summer leaves, 
 
 Fade once forever ! 
 Life-like this gliding stream 
 Flows backward never ? 
 
 On to the silent sea, 
 On to eternity,' 
 Thus sing thy waves to me, 
 O Conestoga." 
 
Press of 
 
 The New Era Printing Company 
 
 Lancaster. Pa, 
 
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