Frankford Township

While not one of the earliest municipal components of Cumberland County, Frankford Township dates back to the 18^th century. It was created from West Pennsboro Township in April of 1795, by the County Court. The court records tell us:

“Upon the petition of sundry inhabitants of that part of the Township of West Pennsborough lying between the Conodoguinnet sic Creek and the North mountain to the Court … that said District might be created into a Separate Township … Whereupon the Court do order and direct that the Township of West Pennsborough be divided agreeably to the prayer of the Petitioners, and that the part of the Township on the South side of the Conodoguinnet Creek retain the name of West Pennsborough, and the part on the North side of the Conodoguinnet Creek be called and known by the name of Frankford.”¹

In 1921, Frankford Township was divided into the present Upper and Lower Frankford Townships.² Lower Frankford has a total area of 15.1 square miles, and is bounded by Perry County to the north, North Middletown Township to east, Upper Frankford to the west, and West Pennsboro to the south. Upper Frankford has a total area of 19.5 square miles, and is bounded by Perry County to the north, Lower Frankford to the east, Lower Mifflin Township to the west, and West Pennsboro to the south.³

Frankford’s history is not an eventful one. One event that did attract attention occurred in August of 1779, when the township experienced a weather phenomenon that gained the notice of several notable Americans. Called the Carlisle Deluge, on August 19^th a “sudden, powerful gush of water from the mountainside carried all before it on its descent into Conodoguinet Creek, tearing large trees out by their roots, sending great rocks tumbling over one another, flooding fields and pastures, and leaving behind a … ravine whose traces are visible after more than two centuries.”⁴ Also known as the “pumpkin flood,” supposedly because the flow of water was filled with pumpkins from the fields, this phenomenon attracted the attention of astronomer David Rittenhouse, who described it to a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia in 1780. It also piqued the curiosity of Revolutionary War hero General Benjamin Lincoln, then Secretary of War, who visited the ravine in 1782 and later described it in a letter to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which was published in the Memoirs of the Academy in 1785.⁵ Modern day geologists have located the ravine, approximately ¾ of a mile east of Flat Rock, a well-known landmark accessible from a trail in Colonel Denning State Park. They describe the Deluge as a debris flow, which “occur when soil on a steep slope becomes so saturated with water that it loses strength, and a mass of soil, rocks, and water moves downhill. An extreme rainfall or snowmelt is usually required to supply the large amounts of water. The flowing material resembles wet concrete, and can move slowly or very rapidly.”⁶ Boulders up to 6 feet across can be found in the debris field, and its width varies from 20 to 80 feet across, testimony the power of this natural event.

Frankford Township has always been rural in character. Its first and only town, Bloserville did not form until the mid-nineteenth century. William Bloser bought land in Frankford Township in 1811, and in 1850 he laid out the village bearing his name.⁷ Other sources claim the first house in Bloserville was built in 1847; by 1879 there were 22 houses, 2 stores, and a post office.⁸

The township as a whole has always been lightly populated. According to the 1900 Federal Census, Frankford had 329 families living in 316 houses, for a total population of 1,404.⁹ According to the latest census in 2010, Lower Frankford has a population of 1,732, living in 678 housing units, while Upper Frankford has a population of 2,005, living in 786 housing units. In 2010 the median household income in Lower Frankford was $54,917, in Upper Frankford $52,317.¹⁰