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Columbia History in Brief
 Columbia was an Indian settlement named Shawanatown, located along the Shawnee Creek, when John Wright, a Quaker and one of the founders, visited the area in 1724 to preach to the Indians.
Wright returned in 1726 along with Robert Barber and Samuel Blunston and the three founders began developing the area.
Wright received a patent in 1730 to operate a ferry across the Susquehanna River and built a ferry house north of Locust Street, on Front Street. His son John Wright Jr. operated the ferry on the western shore of the river and there built a tavern and ferry house.
It was James Wright who built the Wright Ferry mansion, the oldest house in Columbia, for his family, about 1738.
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And it was because of the ferry that the area became known as Wright’s Ferry.
The ferry was a primitive affair composed of two dug-out canoes lashed together with the wheels of wagons and carriages placed in each canoe for the trip.
When large numbers of cattle were to be moved, a canoe was used and the canoist led one of the lead animals with a rope so that the others could follow. Unfortunately if the lead animal became confused and began swimming in circles the other animals followed until they became tired and drowned.
John Wright built his home a hundred yards or so from the river’s edge in the vicinity of South Second and Union Streets.
Robert Barber erected a saw mill in 1727 and built his home along the Washington Boro Pike. The home still stands opposite Columbia disposal plant and is the second oldest home in the borough.
Samuel Blunston built his mansion, called Bellmont, on top of the hill off North Second Street, just off Chestnut Street, once the the location of Rotary Park Playground. But it was torn down during the late 1920s to make way for construction of the Rt. 462 bridge.
When he died, Blunston willed the mansion to his friend, Susanna Wright, daughter of John Wright, and here she lived until her death in 1784 at the age of 87. It was here that Miss Wright raised silk worms to manufacture silk, she was an artist, had some knowledge about medicine and law, and counseled the Indians.
In 1788 Samuel Wright, grandson of the founder and a nephew of Susanna, laid out the town in building lots and disposed of them by lottery and named the town Columbia after Christopher Columbus.
Wright’s ferry was the only means of travel across the Susquehanna River until the first covered bridge was built just below the present day Rt. 30 bridge, in 1814. But in February, 1832 five spans of the bridge, built on 54 piers, were carried away by ice and eventually the entire structure was destroyed.
The second bridge, built on the piers just above the Rt. 462 bridge, was constructed in 1834 on 27 piers and carried railroad traffic, although locomotives were not allowed to pull cars across because of the fire danger created by sparks. The cars were towed across by horses or mules.
It also handled pedestrian traffic, vehicles and on the South side of the span were two tow paths, one above the other, for towing canal boats across the river from the Pennsylvania Canal on the Columbia side to the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal at Wrightsville.
But this bridge was destroyed by fire on June 28,1863 during the Civil War to prevent Confederate troops from crossing to Columbia and eventually making their way to Philadelphia or Harrisburg.
After the bridge was burned a tugboat, “Columbia,” was used to tow the canal boat across the river.
The Pennsylvania canal had its starting point at Columbia and stretched 40 miles upstream to the junction of the Juniata River and went into operation in 1833. Travelers at Columbia could use the canal system to go West to Pittsburgh, Lake Erie, Ohio and West Virginia, up into New York State and even East to Philadelphia.
On the West side of the river, at Wrightsville, was the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal which opened in 1840 and that was the means of getting the canal boats to Baltimore or to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
But canals could not be used during the Winter because of ice and in the Spring they were damaged by floods.
Weather conditions and an increase in railroad traffic led to the decline of the canals and Columbia Canal closed in 1901.
The first railroad to reach Columbia was the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. This was officially opened in October, 1834.
All this led to an increase in railroad traffic with the Pennsylvania Railroad beginning operations in the late 1800s, and the Reading Railroad began freight and passenger service about 1864.
Susanna Wright, daughter of John Wright, was born in England in 1697 and came to this country to join her parents in Chester in 1718. And when her mother died she took care of her brothers and sisters, all of whom lived in the vicinity of South Second and Union Streets in Columbia. Susanna also became a good friend of Samuel Blunston and he willed his estate, Bellmont, to her upon his death. She lived at Bellmont but would occasionally visit her brother, James, who built the Wright’s Ferry Mansion, to care for his children. She died in 1784 at the age of 87.
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