If you are a member of the York County History Center, you have probably already received the 2017 edition of Journal of York County Heritage. As part of the YCHC publications committee and one of the editors of the journal, I am again proud of this issue, the eighth in
In honor of those brave patriots who put their life on the line signing the Declaration of Independence, my previous York Sunday News column on “our signer,” James Smith, is repeated below: Who Was James Smith? You might know that James Smith was York County’s signer of the Declaration of
(Illustrations from A Treatise on the Mulberry Tree and Silkworm and on the Manufacture and Production of Silk, 1839. Courtesy of York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives) Silk has been prized for as long as 5,000 years, since the fibers spun by silkworms were discovered in China and spun into luxurious
I have written before about the very talented clockmaker and artist, John Fisher (1736-1808) and his remarkable clocks. He was also an able sculptor in wood and painted with such accuracy that his dog Wasser, attacked his newly painted sign for the Black Bear Tavern. Local historian and artist Jim
I have shared stories of some of the well-known persons who attended or taught at the York County Academy. They include Thaddeus Stevens, abolitionist and congressman and Samuel Bacon, charged by President Monroe with the founding of Liberia. Fellow blogger Jim McClure has shared information on other noted YCA alumni,
I see York city is restoring its Keystone markers, those familiar keystone with a rectangle signs that tell you the town you are entering, where its name came from and how many miles down the road to another town. Good for the city–every bit helps in first impressions. There is
You may have read my recent York Sunday News column on the fifteen ferries that connected York County with Lancaster and Dauphin counties across the Susquehanna River. There were so many that I didn’t have room in my column to share details on each ferry, gleaned from the York County
I’ve been getting good responses on my recent York Sunday News column on the fifteen or more separate ferries that crossed the river between York County and Lancaster County or Dauphin County. Perhaps that should be too surprising, since the earliest of these ferries date back to the 1730s and
I have had several comments and questions already about my recent York Sunday News column on the 15 or more ferries that crossed the Susquehanna River at one time or another between York County and Lancaster County. Since there were so many, I could only fit in a couple of
Thanks to June Evans for sharing the history of the Horn Farm Center for Educational Agriculture with me, as well as these old photographs of the site. See the captions for more identification and attribution. A portion of the eastern part of the present farm goes back to Christian Crowl