The village was laid out in 1761 by Frederick Stump, who for years afterwards led a most unusual and exciting life. The town was then in Lancaster County, later in Dauphin, then after 1813 in Lebanon County. In the year 1826 a postoffice was established in the place, which with eminent propriety received the name Stumpstown. In 1843 the name of the postoffice became Fredericksburg. In 1828 two enterprising citizens, named Henry and Martin Meily, built a canal boat, as the Union Canal had recently been opened and the canal was the talk of the day. While Stumpstown was distant from the canal, the Meilys did not seem to care for this handicap, but using a vacant corner of the only graveyard in the village, they constructed their boat and when finished they loaded it on heavy wagons and conveyed it four miles overland to Jonestown, where they christened it “Columbus” and launched it on the raging canal. It carried freight to and from Philadelphia for many years. In 1767 the German Lutherans erected a church of logs, which served its purpose for sixty years. Like many places, Stumpstown had a big fire which destroyed nearly one-fourth of the village. That was in 1827, and was caused by a boy shooting at a crow perched on the thatched roof of a stable. His old flint-rock was wadded with tow, which being inflammable, set fire to the straw thatch, and soon the barn was in flames, and fanned by a strong northwest breeze, a total of twenty buildings including a tannery, sheds, dwelling of owner, blacksmith shop, the only school house, and other houses were consumed. Frederick Stump, the founder, was a notorious character. He was born in 1735 in the neighborhood of Stumpstown, and in 1768 was living near the mouth of Middle Creek in what is now Snyder County. On Sunday morning, January 10, 1768, six Indians went to the house of Frederick Stump. They were White Mingo, Cornelius, John Campbell, Jones and two squaws. They were in a drunken condition and behaved in a suspicious manner. Stump endeavored to get them to leave, but without success. Fearing injury to himself, he and his servant, John Ironcutter, killed them all, dragging their bodies to the creek, where they cut a hole in the ice and pushed their bodies into the stream. Fearing the news might be carried to the other Indians, Stump went the next day to their cabins, fourteen miles up the creek, where he found one squaw, two girls and one child. These he killed and threw their bodies in the cabin and burned it. The details of these murders were told by Stump to William Blythe, who found the charred remains of the four in the cabin ruins. Blythe testified to these acts before the Provincial authorities in Philadelphia, January 19, 1768. One of the bodies which Stump pushed through the hole in the ice floated down the Susquehanna until it finally lodged against the shore on the Cumberland County side, opposite Harrisburg, below the site of the present bridge at Market Street.