A friend told me about a recent article by Lower Windsor Township resident Gene Schenck in the Columbia/Hellam/Wrightsville Merchandiser. It detailed how four local men, Jim Anspach of Columbia, Gene Smeltzer of Lower Windsor Township, Bill Dehoff of Windsor and Bruce Herbst of East Prospect have been working for some
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
The General Gates house is one of York County Heritage Trust’s historic restorations. It is so named because it is said to have been the residence of Horatio Gates when he served as president of the Board of War [forerunner of the Defense Department] during part of the time Continental
Happy 249th birthday to one of my favorites, English-American architect and engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe. His mother, Margaret Antes of Germantown, Pennsylvania, had been sent to England to further her education. There she met Moravian minister Benjamin Latrobe, and their son Benjamin Henry was born May 1, 1764 near Leeds,
Who would have thought that a few blocks on the eastern end of York would have had such a long and varied history? The bullfrogs are gone, as are the willow trees that supplied the material for the famous baskets. Descendants of the “gypsies,” some of whom became quite prosperous
Anyone who has passed through York has probably noticed the Colonial Court House on West Market Street by the Codorus Creek. It is a replica of York County’s first courthouse, which originally sat in the middle of York’s square. Now part of York County Heritage Trust, the impressive building is
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
I enjoyed an interesting talk this evening at the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area Zimmerman Center. Lancaster County journalist Jack Brubaker talked about his recent book Massacre of the Conestogas: On the Trail of the Paxton Boys in Lancaster County. I have done some reading on the massacre of the 20