The first split of property tracts along the Conestoga Road [1] occurred around 1763. On the northeast side of the road an estate of 95 acres came into existence, which survived into the 1920s, called by the last owners Strafford. On the southwest side of the road was an estate of 74 acres, which was split up starting in 1803.

1798 Property Boundaries

Jeremiah Joint southwest tract

Jeremiah Joint (or Joynt) purchased a tract of 12 acres in 1813, part of the 74 acre tract. With building of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad through his property Joint saw an opportunity as shown by the following advertisement:

Mifflin Lewis purchased a number of the lots in 1835, and eventually purchased all of them. In 1835 and 1836 he built the Eagle Station and Hotel on the north side of the railroad, and in 1836 he received a liquor license for the Hotel. After his death around 1857, his family continued to run the station and hotel.

The business continued into the 1870s when the Pennsylvania Railroad re-engineered the tracks and replaced the private Eagle station with new stations at Devon and Strafford.

In 1891 the family sold a majority of the tract to Harry N. Childs.

The Strafford Estate

In the late 1850s Martha Wentworth inherited the 95 acre tract northwest of the Conestoga Road from her brother, George Emlen. A house in the southwest corner of the tract is first seen in the 1873 atlas and is seen in all subsequent atlases. This known as the Sponseller House after its present owner.

Re-engineering the Main Line

In the 1870s [2], the Pennsylvania Railroad initiated a project to upgrade the main line railroad. The major goals were to eliminate curves and climbs, the widen the track bed so that 4 tracks could be laid, and to replace private stations with the railroad’s own stations. In order to proceed the railroad purchased additional [3] land from the neighboring land owners. The following map shows the purchases in the Eagle area:

Section 1 is the Mifflin Lewis tract, section 2 is the northern tip of the Annie Linn tract, and section 3 is the Wentworth tract. Sections 2 & 3 were purchased through agreement with the landowners, while section 1 went through court proceedings.

As part of the purchase of section 3 it was agreed between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Wentworths to replace the dangerous grade crossing with an underpass. The Wentworths then sold the Railroad additional land to facilitate the underpass as shown in green on the following map:

The Twentieth Century[4]

Harry N. Childs sold the part of the old Mifflin tract north of railroad line to Felix Donato between 1920 and 1926. Donato sold it to D. J. Rosato between 1926 and 1933. The Rosato family still own the property at this time.

At some unknown time, probably in the 1920s, the Sponseller property became detached from the Wentworth estate. In 1933 the property consisted of 2 tracts which were sold in a Sheriff’s sale. The tract boundaries are shown in green on the following map:

Note that the southern part of the southwestern tract was actually owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. This tract was originally part of the Mifflin Lewis tract.

The purchaser of the 2 tracts was Louis Prudente. He initiated the sale by collecting the debt of Frank and Matilda Donatoni (likely a mortgage). The tax returns suggest that the Donatonis purchased the tracts in 1923 and 1930, but no deeds have been identified. After Prudente’s purchase the deed history is complete up to the present time.

In 1937, before Prudente sold the majority of the tract he sold a portion of the southwesterly tract, establishing a property between the Rosato and Sponseller properties. This property is shown in green on the following map:

Details of the deed histories can be found at:
Table K - Richard Hunt tract
and Table K2.3.1

Notes and References

1. The Conestoga Road only acquired that name during the standardization of addresses in the 1920s and 1930s. Prior to that it was commonly referred to as ‘the Old Lancaster Road’ and in the 1700s as ‘the Lancaster Road’.
2. The work on the track was started in 1875 but the legal deeds were not written until the 1880s and 1890s.
3. The 1870s purchase of land by the Railroad actually covered both the original land which was acquired when the railroad was first created plus the additional land needed for the re-engineering.
4. The 1920s and 1930s are a difficult time period for deed research. Although the deeds are available there is a lack of a good index covering the whole period.