Take a look at the recently created Trailblazers online exhibit on the York County History Center website. It tells the story, through photographs and transcribed diary entries, of the 1938 cross country journey of four York County women from Brogue, Pennsylvania to California and back. They took the long way
We sometimes seem to have a love/hate relationship with old buildings. We act like we would love to save them for their historical ties or architectural significance. On the other hand we often seem to hate committing funds to preserve them. This isn’t a new problem. There have always been
My last month’s York Sunday News column condensed some of the eight-part Gazette and Daily series that ran in the spring of 1940 on the thriving amateur baseball leagues of York County. Besides an introductory article on the clubs that had come and gone before then, the first four columns
A couple of months ago I wrote a column on the basket makers of Bullfrog Alley. Many of them seem to be the same families that were known as York’s Gypsies. Just about all these people came to York from southwestern Germany around 1840 to 1860. They settled around East
Suppose you were ready to spread your toast and the margarine was white instead of yellow. It is not very appealing, is it? Some of you might remember when margarine came packaged with a capsule of yellow food coloring; it was mixed in at home to make the spread look
In my column a couple of months ago on the Weaver Organ and Piano Company, I asked readers to share their stories about with the company and its instruments. I have heard from several people about their Weaver encounters, as well as from some that would currently be happy to give
Even if you are not a die-hard fan of Civil War history, you might have heard of the Battle of Cold Harbor, fought in Hanover County, Virginia, not far northeast of Richmond. The conflict, fought June 1-3, 1864, resulted in extremely heavy causalities to Grant’s Union forces. Click here for
Who knows how many thousands of sturdy musical instruments emanated out of the growing complex of buildings that stood imposingly for 136 years at the intersection of Broad and Philadelphia streets in York? The York County History Center Library/Archives has 16 volumes of shipping records, up through 1944, and it
The historic stone home in Hellam Township which we know as the Mifflin House was occupied from about 1800 until 1856 by the Mifflins: Revolutionary War patriot Jonathan Mifflin, his wife Susanna Wright Mifflin and their son Samuel Mifflin. All three of the Mifflins are said to have participated quite
There are still a fair number of people around who attended the rural one-room (sometimes two-room) schools that dotted York County until the mid-twentieth century. Ask your parents or grandparents and you might get some interesting tales. (Including how they had to walk five miles through the snow, uphill both