Fig orchard on East King Street I came across the striking photo above while looking for something else on the database at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. Volunteers are loading images from the vast photo collection into the database so that they can be easily viewed without handling the
Subscribers for a cemetery fence in Spring Garden Township Blake Stough recently shared the above image of a document he had purchased on eBay some time ago. It lists subscribers for a fence to be built around “the old burial ground on the premises of Vincent Keesey, Esq.” in Spring
Over the years quite a few cemeteries in York County have been built over, paved over or plowed over. Sometimes the inhabitants have been moved to another cemetery, sometimes not. There have been various laws passed over the years in Pennsylvania regarding burial grounds, but, unfortunately, in my opinion, if
The Prince family, that is. A few days ago I wrote and that I thought there were two contemporary David Princes in York. I based that assumption on that two different women married David Prince, and that one David Prince moved to Baltimore and another taught at the York County
Among the marriages announced in an April 1837 York newspaper was that of David B. Prince and Elizabeth Sandoe, on April 6th. The editors remarked that “accompanying this notice was a liberal slice of the most delicious pound cake for the printer. It was the sweetest communication that we have
I was asked, in response to my recent post about the Barnitz brewers of York, if they were related to brewer J. C. Barnitz of Harrisburg. Click here to read about the York brewers. Good question, and the answer is Yes. It turns out that brewing was a traditional occupation
We tend to think of our ancestors and their contemporaries as very strait-laced. Sometimes nothing can be farther from the truth. That’s what is so fascinating about using original documents as historical sources. Those letters, diaries, and newspapers they left behind sometime fairly sizzle with crime, intrigue, and scandal. For
You know my theory that all roads lead back to York? Here is another example. The small city of Galion, with about 11,500 people, sits in the northern part of Ohio, about half way across the state. They are on U.S. Route 30, like York. They have an industrial past,
York County is part of what is known as a “cultural hearth,” an area from which ideas and culture spread throughout much of the country as settlers moved on. In a recent post, I showed how the Great Wagon road, shown on the 1751 Fry-Jefferson map, carried pioneers to the
Click here for the Library of Congress zoomable 1751 Fry-Jefferson map. I recently wrote about York County residents being recruited to move to Virginia in the 1870s. Click here to read that post. There were several paths, following very early roads, from South Central Pennsylvania to less populated lands.