Gettysburg

History

Gettysburg was founded by natives of Adams County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1820s. When the settlement was platted by John Hershey in 1842, the community was named for Gettysburg, the county seat of Adams County. The community's first church was a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, established in 1847 or 1848, while the first school was built in 1850. Around 1863 the Richmond and Covington Railroad (becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1921) constructed a rail line that ran through Gettysburg. Early in the morning of April 30, 1865, Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train passed through the village on its journey to his burial place in Springfield, IL. The railroad turned the town into a busy shipping point for agricultural products. For example, in 1907 one hundred and sixty-eight rail cars of tobacco valued at over one million dollars were shipped out. Also that year 398 carloads of grain valued at $300,000 were shipped from the town's grain elevators. In 1922 Ira Petersime, a local businessman and entrepreneur, invented the electric poultry incubator. In short time Petersime and his son, Ray, built a manufacturing plant in Gettysburg and began shipping their incubators and other hatchery equipment all over the country and abroad. Their business grew to be one of the largest manufacturers of poultry incubators in the world. In 1933 a local historian commented that “the Petersime Incubator Co. put Gettysburg on the map of the world”. The business closed in 2006.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Greenville Elementary School
  Elementary · Greenville · 823 students
• Greenville Senior High School
  High · Greenville · 808 students
• Greenville Middle School
  Middle · Greenville · 717 students
• Versailles Elementary School
  Elementary · Versailles · 471 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• Ansonia Elementary School
  Elementary · Ansonia · 471 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Arcanum Elementary School
  Elementary · Arcanum · 423 students · 18.4:1 ratio
• Versailles High School
  High · Versailles · 411 students · 14.7:1 ratio
• Versailles Middle School
  Middle · Versailles · 376 students · 22.1:1 ratio