Methodist Hall - (Monthly Programs)
50 East King Street
Littlestown, PA 17340
Museum and Welcome Center
2nd Floor - Borough Building

10 South QueenStreet

Littlestown, PA 17340


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Littlestown was layed out by
and named for Peter Klein (Little)
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KEAGY FARM HISTORY
(Researched by Gary Worley)

The Keagy Farm, just outside Littlestown on the Basehoar Road, was built in 1905 by landowner Abraham G. Keagy. The family delivered milk and eventually started a dairy in Littlestown. By 1929, son Samuel Keagy moved to East King Street in Littlestown and continued the dairy business. The farm was leased by the Paul C. Worley family who farmed it until the early 1950's, when Paul & wife Annie retired and moved to a house on the Littlestown-Hanover road near the Pine Grove Road. Paul's son George and family continued to live there, but the land was farmed by neighbor David Little. By the mid-1950's the 105-acre farm had been sold to the Kline family, Evan "Sonny" and brother Harvey, who occupied the farmhouse and farmed the land until the death of Harvey in the 1990's. Harvey's wife Marie remained in the farmhouse until her death around 2000. The dairy farming had ended with Harvey's death, and the land was being farmed by Vernon "Butch" Arentz and family, who purchased the farm about 2005 ...i.e., 100 years after it had been built.

 

The Littlestown Historical Society story by Kenneth Sell points out that the land for the Valley Grove School was purchased from A. G. Keagy in 1891, and that its location was a mile North of Christ Church on the Christ Church Road. The farm discussed above did NOT extend to the Christ Church Road and a mile North of Christ Church would put the school more in the vicinity of the Millard Basehoar (originally Andrew Shriver) farm, so A.G. Keagy apparently owned additional land at that time. The Keagy/Kagy family immigrant had arrived in America from Switzerland in 1715 and first-settled in Lancaster Co; by 1850, A.G.’s father Joseph and family were in Conewago Twp, near McSherrystown (there is a Keagy family cemetery on a farm just North of McSherrystown); and by the 1870 Census, A.G. was a landowner in Union Twp with neighbors Samuel Basehoar, Samuel Grove, and John Rebert.

Story by Gary Worley who grew up on the Keagy farm with parents George & Grace Worley, siblings Marian, Brenda and Jim, and with grandparents Paul & Annie Worley. Some of my scariest memories include catching pigeons in the barn, and painting the peak of the barn in about 1955. ggworley@frontier.com


 



Littlestown Area Historical Society's Programs
50 East King Street, Littlestown, PA 17340
Barts Centenary United Methodist Church's Historic Building