Illustration from York Wood Choppers charter, 1898. I was recently asked about an 1899 York Press reference to Foresters and Wood Choppers. Sound like people connected to lumbering, right? Not when you consider the popularity of fraternal organizations in that era. Men really seemed to like to get out to
While I was helping to sort books for the annual York County Heritage Trust Book Blast, one of the other volunteers mentioned that she recently discovered that a best-selling author of horror novels lives in York County. (Plug for book sale: Many thousands of books of all kinds for extremely
Dr. William Bigler stars in one of my favorite examples of how easy it was to get just about anywhere from here with the public transportation of over a century ago. At 2:30 p.m. February 5, 1890, Dr. Bigler simply stepped on the train near his home in Springvale (Windsor
A recent newspaper article said there is a shortage of court stenographers. It reminded me of Henry Clay Demming, official York County court stenographer for nearly 45 years. Demming was born in Geneva, NY, but came to Harrisburg to learn printing at the Patriot and Union newspaper as a young
You can’t miss the news that the Hartman Building in the Square of York is going to get a drastic facelift. It has been reported in print, on TV and online. I also whipped out my camera when I walked by the other day, struck by the sight of the
1876 Pomeroy, Whitman map of York Township showing the paper mill/shinnerhannes site. It seems like I’ve been writing a lot about ailing or dead large animals in York County. When you think about it, there were a whole lot of large animals living amongst the people of York County 100
One hundred and ten years ago an article on the front page of the Gazette starts out: “A gang of burglars raided the post offices at Dallastown and Red Lion sometime Monday night and succeeded in making a fairly good haul.” The first robbery was in Red Lion. The article
One hundred and ten years ago, most folks, especially in rural areas didn’t have telephones. That wonderous invention was only 21 years old in 1897. As far as other media, Heinrich Hertz has only discovered radio waves ten years before and television was way in the future. The way to
We know York Countians have had a long love affair with the oyster. Start digging near the site of any old tavern, such as the Golden Plough, and you are likely to turn up remnants of long-ago oyster shells. Crushed oyster shells might be far under the streets you travel
One hundred and ten years ago this week, the Gazette noted the semi-annual visit of hermit Joel Strong of Hellam township to see his friend, Al Boll, of Ebner’s Cafe. It seems Mr. Strong walked the eight miles each way to stock up on his winter’s supply of tobacco. The