New Home Construction in Palmyra, PA

The land on which Palmyra rests was originally home to the Lenape and Susquehannock tribes. The first European explorers and traders came to the region around 1650. Settlers were drawn to the area because of its rich land and abundance of fish and game. Additionally, being part of William Penn’s colony, his charter providing civil rights and religious freedom also attracted settlers to the area.

In the beginning of its colonization, many of Pennsylvania’s settlers occupied the land not through acquiring the legal rights, but by building on any unclaimed land they found, or squatting. The squatters came to the Palmyra area between 1717 and 1740. Because the squatters had no official documents stating when they came to the land, it is difficult to precisely trace family migrations to and from the area. From looking at what records do exist, and by the people still living in the Palmyra area, it is clear that the first settlers to live near Palmyra came from two distinct nationalities, the Scotch-Irish and the German Palatinates.

The Scotch-Irish immigrants left their homelands due to a number of political, economic and religious reasons. As expected, they were clannish, and tended not to mix with the other ethnic groups settling the area at the same time. They were also politically minded, and became involved in local governments quickly after settling in the area. A majority of the Scotch-Irish were Presbyterian, and they established several churches as they moved westward across the state. Examples of the churches they built include Derry near Hershey, Donegal in Lancaster County, Paxtang near Harrisburg, and Silver Spring near Carlisle. As the years passed, many of the Scotch-Irish continued westward, leaving the Lebanon Valley.