Many of you might know that Adams County was created from the western part of York County in 1800. It was named for the sitting United States president at the time, John Adams. If some local state lawmakers would have had their way in the 1830s, then-president Andrew Jackson would
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
The first reported sighting of a flying saucer was in the state of Washington in late June 1947. In less than two weeks reports were pouring in, including from our area. I looked at a sampling of local newspapers on microfilm and at newspapers.com, both accessible at the York County
Our area has a high concentration of descendants of so called “Hessians.” This general term was applied to those soldiers from German-speaking regions whose rulers hired out their regiments to fight on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War. (Germany did not become a confederated nation until 1871,
The York County History Center has a treasure trove of newspapers going back over two centuries. Most have been microfilmed, making these outstanding historical sources easily accessible. I often use them as sources for blog posts and my York Sunday News columns. (Some, but not nearly all of the
You see the ubiquitous prints of York County sites at antique and collectible malls and shops, as well as on walls of homes. York County Heritage Trust has some examples in their collections. I vaguely remembered a connection with a York Bank promotion, but I was curious about how many
(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
When you think about it, cars are easier to control than horses; your Ford Mustang isn’t going to get spooked by a train. The December 4, 1877 York Gazette reported two accidents, one quite harrowing, near Smith’s Station in Heidelberg Township. Not being as familiar with the southwestern part of
Newspaper stories of the past often have references to things that were familiar to them, but not us. This leads to more research to find out what they are talking about. The item below, from the May 21, 1903 York Dispatch sent me scurrying to find out more about the
It has been while since I sampled local news of the past. You can find out so much about a community and the families that lived there by reading the old newspapers. Each small area had their own stringer who reported the very local news in detail. Here are few