Submitted by Leona Baker, The Historical Society of Salisbury Township

At the bottom of Gap Hill, across from Phil's Barber Shop, is a home built at least 250 years ago. While the deed chain is broken, there is enough to establish that the house was built in the 1700s. There is speculation that it may have been yet another tavern in the valley. 

In the early 1700s, William Penn's agents were selling property rights in the lush Pequea Valley. Thomas Johnson may have been one of the buyers. Property lines involved wording such as "such-and-such feet from the property of Thomas McIlvaine" and "so many feet from the red oak tree." A 1731 deed abstract of Thomas Cowan mentions "so many feet from the property line of Thomas Johnson" and mentions the Philadelphia-Lancaster Pike as part of that section of the property.

The present owners have discovered that Samuel Johnson the elder inherited the farm upon the death of his father, Thomas Johnson, in 1757. Samuel Johnson the younger, in turn, inherited it from his father. The very word "farm" indicates there was, of necessity, a barn. Presumably, there was also a house, since three generations are mentioned. 

Perhaps the years of political unrest leading up to and including the Revolutionary War were what sank the younger Samuel and his family into debt. The next deed record is dated 1787, during the early days of the fledgling United States. It lists James (Samuel the younger's son) and Margaret Johnson transferring "168 acres to James Hopkins, esq. in payment of Samuel Johnson's estate debt for 1052 English pounds, to be paid in gold." Hopkins apparently did not trust the newly instituted United States monetary system, which had been partially funded by the French. 

The deed chain is lost until 70 years later, when the property is advertised in a sheriff's sale due to "failure to pay taxes." At that time, Nathaniel Ellmaker and Samuel Slocum, next-door neighbors, are the purchasers. A "large two-story house, Swisser barn," plus several outbuildings are listed, indicating a well-established farm, years in the making. 

Within two years, Ellmaker unburdened his share of the property to Slocum. That deed includes a sentence stating, "the same as the indenture" and mentioning "142 acres (more or less)" and listing it as "adjoining," mentioning by name many of the same neighbors listed in previous deeds. A search of those neighboring deed histories might reveal ownership during those missing 60 years. Slocum farmed there for 20 years, selling those 142 acres to Bernard Lechler of New York, N.Y., in 1880.

When Jennie Potts, wealthy Lancaster County business owner, acquired the acreage is unclear. But when she died in 1923, her will stated this Gap property, then called The Locusts, was to be used as a home for "indigent gentlemen." Whether this actually materialized is not certain; research was unsuccessful. 

The company managing the property took advantage of the housing market high in 1948 to sell the farm to the grandparents of the present owners, starting a three-generation family of dedicated farmers who have made this grand old property their much-loved home.   

Information gathered from deed abstracts in Lancaster County archives and deed search by historical society members as well as the memoir of Jenny Potts, who lived on the property in the early 1900s.