Arthur Briggs (A.B.) Farquhar is a familiar name in York County history, mostly because of his huge agricultural equipment manufacturing establishment. Son Francis stayed in York, an attorney and businessman. But have you heard of another son, Percival Farquhar (1865-1953)? He also gained enormous success in business, but not on
The Potato Association of America says Americans eat more than 41 billion pounds of potatoes a year. An article in the York Daily Record a few days ago indicated that new techniques and varieties of potatoes might help York County farmers again make the county the potato growing center it
These two photos of the York Fair were taken about 1898. They fairgoers look a little overdressed to us today. In those days the fair was held in October, so this looks like a nice day, perhaps not too hot or cold. The top photo seems to be a double
Windmills–we might think of the sleek white blades of giant windmills generating electricity or those with huge canvas sails that we associate with Holland. Some of you might remember the iron frame windmills once used on many farms to pump water. Those seem to have come into use about 1850.
Pennsylvania German poet Henry L. Fisher at his attic writing desk Some of my posts earlier this year on York County agriculture drew on the books written around 1880 by Henry Lee Fisher, York attorney and Pennsylvania German (Pennsylvania Dutch) dialect poet. Fisher fondly remembered the harvest times of his
1905 was one of the most turbulent years in Russian history. York manufacturers had evidently had quite a brisk trade going on with buyers in Russia before a tariff was enacted a few years before. The York companies were again hopeful when they heard that the tariff against United States
I suppose it’s human nature to look back to the “good old days.” They might not have been so great, but time makes them seem so. I was reminded of this when I stopped to take the above photo of freshly harvested straw bales in a field near my house.
I recently wrote about the blossoming of York County inventors in the mid- nineteenth century. Click here to read previous post on inventions. Read the 1843 ad below to find out just how George Anstine’s threshing machine worked.