James Lick
Bethel Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The California financier and philanthropist, donor of the Lick Observatory, was born in Fredericksburg, Aug. 21, 1796. The Lick family monuments may be seen in the local cemetery.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
James Lick was born in the Pennsylvania German community of Fredericksburg in 1796 and left to seek his fortune far to the west, eventually amassing one of the great California fortunes of the Gold Rush era. A piano-maker turned land speculator, he poured his wealth into public gifts, most famously endowing the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton—for a time home to the world's largest refracting telescope. The family monuments in the local cemetery mark the humble Lebanon County roots of a man remembered on the far coast.
Why it matters
Lick links a quiet Pennsylvania farming valley to the westward rush and the age of grand American scientific philanthropy.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Lick
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Conrad Richter
Pine Grove, PA · est. 1994
Born in Pine Grove, novelist Conrad Richter spent his career giving voice to the American frontier and the sweep of the country's settlement, in works such as "The Town" and "The Waters of Kronos." A winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, he returned to his native region and lived and worked in this house from 1950 to 1968. His fiction turned ordinary pioneers into enduring American characters.
Schaefferstown Water Company
Heidelberg Township, PA · est. 1995
In 1744 Alexander Schaeffer built a hotel on the square of this Lebanon County village, and soon after began piping spring water into what became one of North America's oldest documented public water systems. In 1763 he and his wife Anna Engle deeded the land—today's Fountain Park—for the benefit of Market Street's inhabitants, an unusually civic-minded act for a colonial-era settlement. The present company carried the tradition forward when it was chartered in 1845.
Derry Church
Derry Township, PA · est. 1948
Founded in 1729, Derry Church grew from the Scots-Irish Presbyterian settlement that spread across the Pennsylvania backcountry in the early 1700s. Its first pastor, William Bertram, was installed in 1732 by the Donegal Presbytery, and in 1741 the sons of William Penn patented its wooded grove to the congregation. The surrounding churchyard is remembered as the oldest pioneer graveyard in the region.
Pennsylvania State Police
Derry Township, PA · est. 2005
Created by an act signed by Governor Samuel Pennypacker on May 2, 1905, the Pennsylvania State Police was the first uniformed state police force of its kind in the nation. It grew out of alarm over labor and capital conflict — above all the great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 — and set a template other states would copy. In 1924 the force opened its first training academy at this site, where cadets drilled for 36 years before a new academy was built north of Hershey.