Shiremanstown: The Ironmaster's Town
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania carries the name of a German immigrant who made cannon iron for the American Revolution. An iron forge stood near a limestone spring here. In seventeen seventy-five, Daniel Shireman, a German immigrant, purchased that forge and turned it into Spring Forge, a small industrial operation on the western edge of Cumberland County.
When the Revolutionary War came, Shireman shipped iron east toward Philadelphia for military use during the war. The profits let him buy up much of the surrounding land. His name stayed attached to the community long after his death. The borough was formally incorporated in eighteen seventy-four, carved from Lower Allen and Hampden Townships. Today it sits just west of Harrisburg, a small residential borough whose street grid still echoes the ironmaster's old landholdings.
